Ive Got No Idea What Im Good At So How Can I Change Career

“Ive Got No Idea What Im Good At â€" So How Can I Change Career” Help from our Community “Ive Got No Idea What Im Good At â€" So How Can I Change Career?” * Manali has always known she was in the wrong line of work. But when she thinks of exploring her options elsewhere, paralysis sets in. How do you get started on a shift when you can't be sure where your talents lie? What's your career history and current job? I've got bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science, and I've been working in IT for several years now, ever since I graduated from university. Currently I'm a software engineer, in a role I've been doing for the past six months. How do you feel about your work? As soon as I began my career in IT, I thought, “Why have I done this?” Ever since day one, I've felt as though I've been heading in completely the wrong direction. At first, I thought I just needed to give myself some time to focus and settle into my technical career. I'm doing software testing now, but previously I've tried working in support and development for a few different companies. I wanted to see if I could find an aspect of IT that I enjoyed. But unfortunately, nothing about my work interests me, and though my colleagues are nice, I find the lack of interaction with others can be really isolating at times. I really want to learn and progress, just not in this career. Every day I'm at work, I have to fight the temptation to grab my coat and leave. What would you like to be doing instead? There are a lot of different options I'd like to explore. I speak five languages, and I really enjoy learning new ways to communicate. I also love reading and writing, and the idea of starting a blog really appeals to me. Because I've been feeling so unhappy at work, I've completed almost every career and personality test it's possible to take! Some of those have recommended that I should be working in coaching or counselling. While I'm not sure about those options, it could be that they are the most suited to my natural skill set. What's the biggest obstacle in your way? I've got no idea what I'm actually good at. As a result I feel completely stuck, with no idea how to move forward. I know I've got some useful transferable skills, but the million-dollar question is, “Where should I take them?” I haven't got the freedom to explore lots of different career options, as I can't afford not to work. Also, because I haven't got a clear passion or a stand-out skill I could instantly use, it's hard to know how I would begin a career change. For example, what if I do start a blog, but it turns out I'm not very good at writing? What if I decide I'd like to be a coach or a counsellor â€" how do I know if I've got the skills to succeed in such a vastly different career? It all feels like I'm shooting into the dark, with no idea where my target is. Meanwhile, I feel as though I won't be able to survive for much longer in my current career. How do I discover what I'm really good at, so I can take my first step towards planning a shift? Can you help Manali? Have you been in a similar situation, or are you in the same boat right now? How do you think Manali could move her shift forwards? Do you know anyone she could talk to? Share your thoughts in the comments below and click the thumbs-up button to show your support.

Hate your job Heres how to fix it.

Hate your job Heres how to fix it. When were in a terrible job we think were the only person who is in a terrible job, and everyone else loves their job, and everyones life is great, and our life is terrible. But, in fact, every single person, no matter where they are in their life now,  has had a job that they hated. The only people who dont have jobs they hate are  people who dont take any risks and end up having terrible careers, because part of a good career path is having moved through a job that you hate. Here are three steps to make a horrible job good. 1.  Befriend the best-networked person in the company. The problem with a really terrible job is that it doesnt have the three things that are most important in a job, which are  engaging work, manageable goals, and control over your results. So what you need to do is create your own engaging work with manageable goals. So do that by deciding that youre going to be friends with the person who is most able to help you get this job. Look around the company and decide  whos got the most potential. The worse the company is, the quicker it will be to find this person, because  people with huge potential dont stay at terrible companies, so odds are, there’s only one to find. Find your one person, and then each day do one thing to get closer to that person. There is a wide range of steps you can take that, usually in the how-to-get-a-mentor category. Even if you dont want this person as a mentor, the best way to get someone to pay attention to you is to let her know that you admire her and want help from her. So act like you want a mentor  and your job will suddenly become meaningful because you might actually get a mentor. 2.   Look for the most terribly managed areas of the company and fix them. A tell-tale sign of a horrible job is that its a horrible company, and  a tell-tale sign of a horrible company  is that almost every single thing is managed terribly. Usually what has happened when things are so terrible is that someone ruined a project and then dumped it. So in the terrible company there are dumped projects everywhere. You should  pick one up and start fixing it. Even if you can only fix it a tiny little bit, on your resume its going to look really good. It will say increased efficiency 20 percent, increased revenue 21 percent, decreased staffing costs 30 percent, because its really easy to have this type of achievement when youre dealing with complete stupidity at the onset. Melissa is great at this. Before I knew her well, she saw that pictures on my blog were terrible. I dont have any terrible photos to link to to as examples because she volunteered to replace them with photos she liked. Now I pay her to edit photos I take and also photos that other photographers take, like the one up top, by Tamara Bell. Melissa turned photo editing into a business, and it all started because she figured out a job for herself that no one else was doing. 3.   Start rewriting your resume. At a horrible company theres no accountability, and when theres no accountability you can do nothing all day which opens up your schedule. The first thing you should do with your open schedule is to  start job hunting, but do it in a systematic way. Go find the job that you want and make lists of all the bullets they say that they want from somebody whos qualified. Move all of those bullets onto your resume and say to yourself, “How can I make these bullets true on my resume?” So each day is a game to try to make one of those bullets true by doing things that nobody cares

Six Ways Sales Professionals Should Use Social Media - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Six Ways Sales Professionals Should Use Social Media - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Most sales professionals Ive encountered are using LinkedIn for business. However, few truly understand how to fully leverage sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Social media is not only great for building relationships, but it is also wonderful for prospecting and attracting clients through a strong brand. I just finished conducting a workshop for a large national sales organization in Chicago. Below are a small handful of the tips that I shared with attendees. Five sales tips for social networks LinkedIn   Use LinkedIn’s advanced search feature to build a prospecting list. Do you need to build relationships with all of the spinal surgeons located within a fifty mile radius of zip code 77002? Perhaps you need to connect with all of the directors of human resources within a 30 mile radius of your city. LinkedIn Advanced search will help you. Facebook Use Facebook’s Graph Search to build a prospecting list. Discover “friends of friends who work for Shell” or “Communication Directors who work for Company XYZ.” Have a bowtie business? Look up “People like bowties and live in Houston.” Facebook will create a list for you that you can further refine. Twitter Use Twitter search or Advanced Search for client discovery. Are you a Realtor? Type “looking for home in Miami” to see all of the Twitter users who recently tweeted with those words. Twitter users will often solicit the help of their followers when they need recommendations. Google+ As a social network, Google+ is one of the top two that can influence search engine results. If you want to increase the likelihood of your brands website, articles, etc. being seen by potential clients, friend them on Google+ and post links to your web items on your profile. Pinterest Do you have a visual, B to C brand that targets women? If so, Pinterest, with over 86% female users, is where you should post pictures of your products with links to purchase through your website. Bonus Tip When building prospecting lists in #1 and #2 above, you’ll get the person’s name and, depending on the search, company name. However, you will not have their email address. To find this information, you can perform a Google wildcard search. In the Google search box type the following, including both sets of quotations “first name last name” “*@companywebsite” An example would be “Crystal Washington” “*@crystalwashington.com” Author: Crystal Washington  is a social media marketing strategist, speaker, co-founder of Socialtunitiesâ€"a social media instruction brand that trains Gen Ys-Boomers on the strategic use of social media, and the author ofThe Social Media WHY: A Busy Professional’s Practical Guide to Using Social Media Including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+ and Blogs for Business. She is hired by corporations and associations around the globe to provide keynotes, workshops, and webinars.

The Bay Areas Workforce in 2020

The Bay Areas Workforce in 2020 The Bay Area is a funny microcosm-Its the home to Facebook, LinkedIn, and more importantly, 7 and a half million other people. Its the hub of tech in a world where everywhere seems to have more tech than they did yesterday. But the most popular  occupations and industries of the San Francisco Bay Area extend far beyond tech. Take a look below at the infographic by SmartRecruiters into the projections of industries within the Bay Area over the next 6 years, with some useful advice for both employers and candidates. Takeaways: Employers- remember that a candidate without industry experience could still culturally fit within your company! Sometimes its about attitude, not aptitude. Candidates- Build a strong  personal  brand to help you stand out from the crowd and get noticed. Hiring the best candidate is a two way street- Great candidates will have many options for recruitment- so employers, remember youre technically a candidate for them too. Make sure you make an impression! RELATED:  13 Surprising Social Media and Recruitment Facts

6 weird university societies that actually make you employable - Debut

6 weird university societies that actually make you employable - Debut It’s not unusual to find students scrambling to find experience to fill up their CV. By the time you’re a finalist, you’ve analysed every extracurricular you ever got involved in, hoping you can squeeze something out of it which screams “I’m employable!” It’s also not uncommon to find students engaged in weird and wacky activities, often as part of one of their university’s less conventional societies. These societies might be a forgotten gem if you’re worrying you didn’t do enough outside the seminar room during your degree. That includes those which don’t immediately stand out as mines of productivity and career possibilities. If you’re in the Law or Debating societies you’ve likely already whacked that on your LinkedIn profile. But even those groups which appear frivolous have equipped you with all-important transferable skills. Of course, anyone on a society committee can prove they’re accustomed to leadership/events planning/communications/choosing the most enticing freebies for freshers fair, but potentially the society’s activities itself are also a source of experience. So, to prove that even the obscurest of societies could help you out on the way to a job, here are six wacky university societies and some suggestions for how they might make you that bit more employable. Louis Theroux Society (Sussex, UCL, York) Everyone loves a Louis Theroux documentary. They offer us all the chance to pretend we’re really informed about the world of meth addicts or the Westboro Baptist Church. Don’t we all wish we had Theroux’s knack for asking probing questions in quite such an innocent yet effective manner? Employable because… Demonstrates an interest in current affairs, and shows you can engage with and critique a range of social issues. Plus it proves you have great taste in Netflix, presumably a crucial asset in a potential employee. 20 Minute Society (Kent, Newcastle, Liverpool Hope) A society for the spontaneous. 20 Minute members are sent the details of an event or social, then given just twenty minutes to get there. Not a society for the indecisive, perhaps. But this appeals to the wannabee action hero in us all, always ready for a madcap dash across town. Employable because… This certainly shows that you’re dynamic and energised, thinking on your feet quite literally. You’re also a natural problem solver, accustomed to working out if it’s better to hop on a bus to get to your mysterious location, or if you should just dash there on foot. Bee Soc (Newcastle, Sheffield, UCL, LSE and probably many more) Before researching this article, I had no idea quite how enamoured the UK’s students were with beekeeping. However, with Bee Socs at a variety of unis it seems there’s a bee craze going on. Maybe our generation really will save the bees! And on the way there’ll be lots of graduates with a genuinely interesting hobby to bring up if asked at interview. Employable because… I imagine beekeeping involves teamwork and creative problem solving. Also, bees can be a tad scary, so you’ve shown you’re not afraid of a challenge or facing your fears. K-Pop Dance Soc (Coventry, Sheffield) K-Pop is the music sensation that’s sweeping through youth culture with a veracity that can only be matched by Jeremy Corbyn. Now you can join a society to perfect your K-Pop dance moves; perfect for spicing up a night out, as well as your CV. Employable because… It suggests you’ve engaged meaningfully with another culture. And, as a dance society, it implies that you’re active and dedicated to practise, skills you can bring along to your new job. Bad Film Soc (UEA) While there’s certainly some charm â€" or just outright hilarity â€" in an awful film, not everyone would commit their time to a society dedicated to them. But a devoted bunch at the UEA have decided that it’s just their cup of tea. I applaud their perseverance if nothing else. Employable because… Watching all these awful films will have honed your critical judgement, you’ll have learned how to identify mistakes. Perhaps you’ll even be good at suggesting ways those mistakes can be avoided in the future. Beard Appreciation (Queen Mary) This is the society for you, whether you’re a hipster whose facial hair is cultivated to compliment their favourite craft beer, or just a person who can’t be bothered to shave. Employable because… Okay, I admit it, this one has stumped me. But I suppose an employer could never say you were boring, right?   Connect with Debut on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more careers insights.