Tuesday, April 21, 2020

What It Wants When You Are Asked For a Resume and a Writing Sample

What It Wants When You Are Asked For a Resume and a Writing SampleThere is a lot of controversy over what it wants when you are asked for a resume and a writing sample. Is it important? How do you go about getting your career done in the quickest way possible? These are very good questions that need to be answered by all people involved in job search.The answer is this: When you are asked for a resume and a writing sample, you get what you get. This is because if you have been invited to a company for an interview and then the company asks you to submit samples, you get what you get. It doesn't matter how great or wonderful or amazing the job opportunity sounds - if you don't give them what they want in order to have you appear credible, you will get no points at all. This is why it is important to keep your profile open, if you are going to get a job. The only thing that matters at the end of the day is whether you have what the employer needs in order to hire you.When you are asked for a resume and a writing sample, you get what you get. Whether you like it or not, your profile is going to be up on the Internet and that means you will be be searched from all over the world by all types of people who are trying to do business with you.A nice twist is that once your resume and a writing sample gets posted on the Internet, it's there forever. As a result, it might seem to some people that the information is floating around for everyone to see. This is something you should never let happen. If the company asks you to post a resume and a writing sample, you want to be sure that this is exactly what they want. It is as simple as that.There is one more point to make, however. You can get your resume and a writing sample any time you need it. If you are invited to a job interview and you do not have a resume and a writing sample, you do not have to worry. You can get them on your own. What you can do is apply for a job before you actually submit your resume and a wri ting sample.What it wants when you are asked for a resume and a writing sample is what it wants. This is the exact same thing that any employer wants. All they want is to make sure that you have all the skills that they are looking for. They are looking for someone who has shown up on their doorstep, proven themselves to be reliable and trustworthy and who has also demonstrated an ability to work in a team environment. You need to show them these things. Remember, that is what they want and they will hire you no matter what you have to say.So, as long as you do not provide the employer with something that you did not put in a resume and a writing sample, you should be okay. In fact, this is just one more weapon in your arsenal. It is up to you to use it well. If you get yourself some good friends to help you, you may even have something left over that you could get for yourself. That is how job searching should be done, so there is really no reason not to take advantage of the oppor tunities that are there.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Muhammad Ali How to Stage a Career Comeback Like the Champ

Muhammad Ali How to Stage a Career Comeback Like the Champ Former boxer Muhammad Ali has died at the age of 74. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. and named the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, he was the first three-time heavyweight champion, with 37 knockouts to his credit. But Ali was a lot more than just a guy who could punchâ€"among other things, he was also master of re-invention. Ali’s celebrity and persona were so imposing that it’s easy to forget his professional struggles, many of which were daunting. But it’s important to give as much attention to his losses as his victories, because the way he got back up after every knockout sets a good example for those of us who have found ourselves at a mid-career impasse, with few options. His professional boxing career began in 1960, and in 1964 he made international headlines by beating the unbeatable Sonny Liston in a major upset. While the heavyweight champion of the world, he converted to Islam and took the name Muhammad Ali, embarking on a career in which he successfully defended his title over and over again. But it all came to a screeching halt in 1967, when he was drafted into the armed forces. Unlike Elvis Presley, he refused to go. “I ain’t got nothing against no Viet Cong,” he said at the time. “No Viet Cong never called me ni**er.” It was a brave, principled stand, and it resulted in him being stripped of his title in every state in America. He also had his passport revoked, effectively ending his career at its peak. He was 25. Ali appealed his draft evasion conviction, taking it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was finally overturned in 1971, but by then Ali was 29 years old and had missed what should have been his peak years as an athlete. Could he still deliver the way he had in his prime? Could he deliver at all? Close Modal DialogThis is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. At first, the answer was no. In March 1971, he challenged then-heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in what was dubbed “The Fight of the Century.” Ali lost the bout, his first professional defeat. But he had gone all 15 rounds, and his comments to reporters after the fight that Frazier “would have licked me quicker because I wasn’t as strong as I am now” showed a man who had decided that losing had not ended his career. It just meant his resurgence would take a little longer. Over the next two years, Ali fought again several times, finally facing Frazier again in a 1974 rematch. Frazier had lost his heavyweight title to George Foreman, and this time, Ali won the bout by unanimous decision. He was now poised to face Foreman and reclaim the title that was taken away from him seven years earlier. Foreman and Ali faced off in Zaire in a fight nicknamed “The Rumble in the Jungle.” Foreman was heavily favored to win â€" he had one of the hardest punches in heavyweight history, and that punch had taken away Frazier’s title. Furthermore, Ali was now 32 years old, and simply didn’t float like a butterfly or sting like a bee any more. The younger, scrappier fighter was long gone. For much of the fight, Ali leaned against the boxing ring’s ropes and let his opponent thrash him mercilessly. Ali, who had been conserving his strength until Foreman depleted his, eventually began punching back, and hard. By the eighth round, an utterly spent Foreman was on his back, knocked out by a man who had been thought too old to win. Ali had regained his title by knockout, and had done it by relying on strategy, as only an older, more experienced fighter could. “I’ll admit it,” Foreman would later say. “Muhammad outthought me and outfought me.” READ NEXT: The 21 Most Valuable Career Skills Now Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1984. Even so, he refused to fade away into a life of falling asleep in his recliner in front of the Golf Channel. Instead, he re-invented himself as an elder statesman, doing everything from acting as a guest official for WrestleMania to visiting Iraq in 1990 to meet with Saddam Hussein and successfully negotiate the release of 15 American hostages. He may not have been able to box any more, but he could still find an opening, still outthink his opponent, and still wouldn’t stay down. To anyone who saw him fight or verbally spar with reporters, Ali was a larger-than-life figure. Even after years of illness and physical decline, he somehow seemed impervious to death. Nevertheless, this overlooks an important point. Muhammad Ali’s strength wasn’t invincibility. It was his refusal to stay down. Few athletes have had their careers pronounced dead the way his was, only to see the doubters silenced and proven wrong. There’s an important lesson in that for the rest of us: We’re only down when we tell ourselves to stay down. Even if we find ourselves running into professional brick walls due to age, changing technology, or a changing workplace culture, there’s always an opportunity for someone who refuses to be defined by defeat. Daniel Bukszpan is a New York-based freelance writer.

Saturday, April 11, 2020

Why Changing Your Career Path Might Be Worth It - Work It Daily

Why Changing Your Career Path Might Be Worth It - Work It Daily This is a true story as told to LatPro.com where you can find helpful career interviews and job search advice in your desired industry. Visit to find a career interview in your field today. Is changing your career path worth it? When I was mid-way through high school I decided my career path was going to be in medicine. I was going to be a doctor and medical school was the natural destination. In my mind at the time it made perfect sense; I was great at science, I loved performing the dissections and biology lab experiments, and it was professional career path. By the time I got to college, however, my track got waylaid. My attention and interest in science didn’t extend over to the first level college classes for the science track, and I was soon fuddled up with calculus and inorganic chemistry. I barely passed the chemistry tests, and I ended up having to drop out of the calculus class. This was the first time in my life I had to re-assess my personal direction. I ended my first semester with a 1.9 GPA, so I had to fix my path quickly if I wanted to succeed. Fortunately, I was able to switch to my other skillset which was writing. I opted for the most likely professional career that used writing, in my eyes: a lawyer. So I spent my college career in government and English/composition, figuring that was the best preparation I could give myself for the legal field. Once I found my groove, my success became predictable. A typical day involved going to my requirement classes in the morning or those for my minor, government, and then I would take on my major classes in the afternoon. By 4pm the class day was over. I would spend the next few hours having dinner and relaxing. The evening was either working on a paper or hanging out in the library working on research. Unfortunately, after graduation the job market was far from expected. Unlike generations before who would come out of school with a degree and could expect a good job to be waiting, our generation had to deal with the 1990’s Recession. After the great ceremony, most of us would cross paths repeatedly at interviews and walking the street filling out job applications. Our competition was also thousands of mid-career folks who had just been laid off. More than once I would find one of my classmates being the office assistant managing the entrance door to a firm. Those were the lucky ones among us; they had a paycheck. Finding no results quickly in the office world, I had to fall back on my old skill and work talent in high school, being a cook. I spent two years in a kitchen after college until I was accepted into law school. This was a hard transition because, as I mentioned earlier, every generation before had their career handed to them after earning a degree. My graduating class was among the first to come out of school in the “new economy” that essentially said it was every man for himself. Having no preparation for this kind of competition for a basic starting job, it was hard. Many of my peers scrounged around in part-time jobs. Fast forward another five years I went through law school and then switched to a business master’s degree program. I started out with the goal to be a marketing analyst, and I finished the program with a job as a government financial analyst. I never saw myself in high school ending up as a number-cruncher, but it did happen. I even managed to pass calculus with an A grade when finishing my business master’s degree! Today my career is an extension of that initial financial analyst job. I’m a chief financial officer of an agency that manages 7,000 employees with a statewide presence. I manage a budget that is close to $1 billion, and I have 100 staff that report to my area directly. I’m halfway through my career course, and I expect to be an agency director by the time I’m ready to retire. Looking back at what I needed when I came out of school, I would definitely recommend for today’s graduates to be ready to work for themselves. This may mean freelancing, working two or three jobs at a time, or leaving the country to find better job markets overseas. If I could do it again, I definitely would have come out with a business degree as well as a writing degree from college. This combination provides the best flexible package to fit multiple career paths. The toughest part of starting out, more so today in 2012 than it was in the 1990s, is managing the frustration and depression while looking for a job. The job world is harder than ever. Folks need to rely on their wits, be willing to work independently, and be flexible enough to move where the work is at a moment’s notice. The “new economy” wants commandos that hit the ground running; the days’ of respectable, stable careers are long gone and it’s up to you to make it in today’s economy. Changing career path image from Bigstock Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!