Seeking Professional Bliss

• 18Feb

  How to Make Your Resume Stand Out

  Networking No Comments

  The company I work at, Nexternal Ecommerce Platform, recently had a rare job opening. The resumes that started flooding in had a surprisingly high percentage of bad first impressions. Job hunting is a job in itself, and when a person doesn’t take the time to perfect an application, it shows.

  Proofread

  Seriously, this is common sense, right? And yet the number of spelling and grammatical errors is astounding. When you change a few words in a paragraph, read the entire paragraph over again and make sure it still makes sense. When you’re finished, have someone else give it a once-over. When you’ve been reading the same words over and over again, it’s easy to miss these kinds of mistakes.

  Tailor to the Job Opening

  An efficient way of applying to multiple jobs is the send the exact same resume and cover letter to all of them. This may be efficient, but it is not effective. Employers are looking for people with the skills most applicable to the position. Help them cut through the clutter by going into more detail about your relevant talents and maybe remove some of the items that won’t help you on the job in question. More is not always better.

  Stand Out

  Your resume is going to be a needle in a haystack of other resumes. It’s your job to make your needle glow in the dark. Own your resume. Here are a few tips on how you can make yours stand out:

  • Use humor – If your application makes someone smile, they’re more likely to remember you.
    Example: My boss says he still remembers my resume, particularly the part that said, “Built Yahoo.com from the ground up. Just kidding – a sense of humor is important, right?”
  • List accomplishments – Many people have the same skills you do, but what you have achieved is more unique.
    Example: “Redesigned company website” or “Reorganized the office inventory system.”
  • Get personal – Add a section for personal interests at the bottom. Employers who don’t care can skip it, but those who are looking for a certain kind of person will be very interested in what motivates you. (In my opinion, these are the employers you want.)
  • Use non-standard paper – You can try using linen paper or maybe something with a bit of color, but nothing obnoxious.
• 02Feb

  Avoid these service scams while setting up your online presence

  Marketing No Comments

  It’s unfortunate how many scammers there are in the world, preying on those who need help or don’t know any better. A lot of them pass themselves off as legitimate businesses. Maybe they are legitimate businesses, but some of their business practices lead me to lump them in with those who send fictitious emails about your fake inheritance.

  It’s a courageous thing to start your own business, and it’s hard. And expensive. You want to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to setting up your online presence, and these predatory businesses know it. Struggling entrepreneurs are easy targets for the following reasons: Read more…

• 10Sep

  Be interested, and you become interesting

  Networking No Comments

  Although you do need to know what you’re doing to succeed in business, all too often it’s more about who you know, not what you know. Most people need help when trying to launch a new venture or career. How do you find this help? I’ve talked about networking by helping others, but what if you’re unable to assist in a way that is helpful to your prospective contact?

  Connecting with people is a talent that a lot of outgoing people are able to do without thinking. They are naturally gregarious and people tend to feel at ease around them. For people like me who are more introverted and connect more readily with computers than with people, it takes conscious effort. But it’s definitely doable.

  If you’re like me, most people talk more in conversation than you do. You know what this makes you? A great Read more…

• 05Aug

  How to Fix Firefox Pausing, Temporary Freezing and Jerky Video Playback

  Technical Stuff 1 Comment

  Ever since my Firefox browser updated itself to 3.6.6, I’ve noticed some really irritating things. About every 1-5 minutes or so, it would freeze for several seconds. I couldn’t change tabs, I couldn’t scroll, I couldn’t do anything, it was just frozen. I could switch to other windows, but until Firefox finished whatever the heck it was doing, I couldn’t even close the darn thing. The other thing I noticed was video playback was horrible. Almost unusable! It would play for a bit, then pause for awhile before resuming. The audio would keep on playing, but the video portion of it seemed to have trouble keeping up. It did this every few seconds. It was infuriating!

  I finally did some research on the problem and learned that Firefox implemented something called a “plugin container” to keep the browser running smoothly if plugins crashed. Ironic that the thing that’s supposed to keep Firefox running trouble-free is the thing causing the problem! So how do you fix this? If you’ve edited the Windows Registry before, then this should be a breeze. But if you haven’t don’t worry, we won’t be touching the Windows Registry. It’s just tweaking a few of Firefox’s configuration settings, which we would never see just using the browser menus.

  Rather than re-posting all the steps to the fix, I’ll just link to the article that spells out exactly what to do: http://www.technogadge.com/how-to-stop-firefox-plugin-container-exe-process/

  My purpose in posting this article is more to help make it easier for others in the same boat to find this information. It took me about an hour of slogging through articles and forum posts before I found this fix. If after trying this you are still having problems, I say drop Firefox and switch to Chrome. It’s lean the way Firefox used to be.

  - UPDATE 9/13/2010 -
  Since implementing this fix, I’ve found that the jerky video playback problem still occurs in functionally “busy” sites like Facebook. YouTube.com is improved, but videos embedded in Facebook are still problematic more often than not. Very disappointing.

  - UPDATE 5/05/2011 -
  After upgrading to Firefox 4, the video problem came back. Fortunately, the fix is even simpler. Go to Mozilla’s plugin checker and wait for the list to populate as it scans the status of your existing plugins. Look for “Shockwave Flash” – most likely it will have a red “Update Now” button next to it. Click on that and follow the instructions to update Flash. I did this and afterwards my video playback was much improved.

• 04Aug

  Empowerment Leads to Proactivity

  Management No Comments

  Most employers want their employees to be proactive, to do things without having to be told, and to actively find ways to advance the success of the company. However what often happens is such expectations are not accompanied by granting their employees the means to do so. Limited resources are understandable, but limited power is just… limiting.

  A lot of managers, especially the ones that like to micro-manage, are unable to relinquish control. Everything needs to go through this person before anything can happen. This results in a bottleneck. Not only that, it limits the employee’s ability to do more, because what’s the point? Nothing’s going to come of it anyway.

  But try making that employee responsible for something. I don’t mean responsible for doing what they always do, but for some kind of improvement project a bit outside their daily routine. Give them the leeway to make decisions on how such an improvement might be achieved, and then give them the ability (and a bit of time) to actually do it. When people feel empowered, they start to feel committed to the task. A sense of ownership comes about, they start to care about these results. And don’t forget about pride. People always want to look good and have an achievement they can point to and proudly say, “I did that.”

  These feelings of accomplishment and recognition make you feel good, and it’s human nature to want more of that. This is how empowerment breeds proactivity. Pretty soon they will be coming up with ideas on their own for projects to improve the company. When employees feel like they can make a visible difference and be recognized for it, you’ll soon have a team of dedicated individuals always on the lookout for that extra mile.

• 03May

  Test Drive #5: MINI Cooper Clubman / Clubman S

  Personal Stuff 1 Comment

  I’ve loved the MINI Cooper since I first laid eyes on it. It’s not just cutesy cute like the VW Bug, it’s a cuteness married with road rally aggression and beach-loafing fun. How can one car embody so much style? I just love it.

  Most people recognize the unmistakable MINI Cooper, but not so many are aware of its sibling, the Clubman. They’ve taken the Cooper, made it slightly longer, and gave it some extra doors. It’s a lot more practicality built into the same fun car. Instead of a standard hatch, the rear has two “barn doors” that open like a van, and on the right side there’s a “club door”. The rear seats also fold flat. It makes for pretty roomy storage when you need to haul stuff.

  The MINIs come in standard and sport models. I first tested the standard, to see if it was enough zip for me. I was hoping it would be, because it gets the best mileage — 25 city / 33 hwy — beaten only by the A3 TDI. The standard MINI Cooper almost did it for me, but Read more…

• 30Apr

  Test Drive #4: Audi A3 TDI

  Personal Stuff No Comments

  I was pretty pleased when the sales rep who took me on my last Audi test drive emailed me to let me know they finally got an A3 TDI in stock. I went over there right away, because it’s not likely to be there for long, considering the demand for them.

  Pretty much everything about the TDI version of the A3 is the same as the standard A3, so for all the cosmetic stuff, refer back to my original review of the A3. What I was most eager to find out was if the drive was any better than the disappointingly hesitating transmission of the gas-powered A3. And I’m happy to report… it was!

  I found the time between gas pedal press and engine boost was noticeably reduced. For me this made all the difference. The A3 actually became fun to drive! It aggressively Read more…

• 29Apr

  Avoiding Tendonitis and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

  Health No Comments

  If you spend even half as much time on the computer as I do, then wrist pain is a daily concern. Most people are familiar with carpal tunnel syndrome or tendonitis (learn the differences between the two conditions in this article.). Your wrist is a collective of small bones with a narrow tunnel in the center where all the tendons and nerves go through. When the tendons get inflamed, that tunnel narrows, and that big nerve in the center starts to get pinched. That’s when you get pain or numbness.

  The key is to prevent those tendons from swelling in the first place. Remember how it’s a cramped tunnel where Read more…

• 26Apr

  Test Drive #3: Mazda 3 Hatchback

  Personal Stuff No Comments

  I see these cars all over the road and I rather like them. My eyes are drawn to these little guys every time one drives by. It’s not a luxury brand by any means, but I still wanted to satisfy my curiosity. Are they as fun as they look?

  My test drive of the Mazda 3 hatchback went better than expected. Like Audi, they choose to call it a “sport-back”. Do hatchbacks have an econo-car stigma they want to shed? I don’t consider that a bad thing. Anyway, storage space was pretty ample Read more…

• 23Apr

  Our Choices Make Us Who We Are

  Happiness & Success, The Future No Comments

  I read an article recently that compared Twitter to a piece of paper. Each Tweet was like a dot on that paper. By itself, that dot was rather insignificant and meaningless, but as you write more and more Tweets, a pattern starts to emerge. Over time, and with enough dots, people start to get a sense of what you stand for.

  The choices we make are a lot like Tweets. Individually, a choice may seem like nothing. Or depending on your situation, perhaps it seems like everything. It’s a matter of perspective. Some people don’t put much thought into their choices, while others place too much emphasis on them. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to remember that your choices, big or small, are part of Read more…

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