6 Steps to Achieve your Definition of Success

6 Steps to Achieve your Definition of Success 6 Steps to Achieve your Definition of Success You see, success means different things to different people. I recently had a discussion with a close friend about money-making careers.Nothing I desire to do makes money, shed said. Science doesnt interest me math is a no I could care less about law, and I loathe medicine. My friend went on to say how she couldnt imagine sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day as an engineer, or doing any kind of IT work, for that matter. All those fields offer their workers great salaries (especially the higher up you go), yet they meant leidhing to my friend. Making good money in a field you despise didnt equate success to her. As a writer (who freelances for multiple sites for free), I can certainly understand this. My passions may not equate a life of riches either, but the mere fact of being able to call your job your passion is success in my eyes.Again, success is subjective, but one thin g that is true for most people is that we hope to obtain it. Here are some tips for helping you achieve great success in your careerDont Plan, Just DoPlanning your career is one of the fastest ways to put yourself on the wrong track in your career. You should have a clear idea of what you want to do in your life, but not necessarily a set-in-stone path that you want to take. It is crucial to stay flexible and remain completely open to all of the possibilities that may present themselves to you because they may be far better than anything else that you could have planned.Climb the Rock WallMany people tell professionals to climb the ladder to success. If you truly want to be successful, however, you wont just limit yourself to going straight up. The world is changing at a speed that is difficult for us to comprehend, which is why it is important that you be ready to look all around you take in the opportunities and be ready to scramble toward them. Look at your career like a rock wal l you may be climbing from side to side at times, but you are still heading upwards.Focus on NowIt is important to have goals and hopes for advancement, but its even more important that you keep yourself focused on the job that you have now. If you dont focus on being the best in your current position, you will never get the opportunity to progress on to the next one.Ignore the Clock, Watch the TimelineEverybody has goals of where they want to be when they reach a certain age. For most people, these goals will not be accomplished. What sets the failures apart from those that will be successful is the ability to look beyond these specific goals and not let them bog you down. Dont let the fact that you didnt reach a certain level by the time you were a certain age or by the time you had been in the company for a certain length of time discourage you from continuing to work toward the next goal listed on your timeline.Be a Risk TakerIt can be scary to dive into something unknown and ta ke on challenges that you dont necessarily feel prepared to fulfill. This is what will push you and open up the world of opportunity. Plus, taking risks can not only benefit your professional life, but your personal life. After drumming up the courage to step out and take a risk concerning your career, you will see that courage drift over into personal areas as well.Be YourselfIt may be a clich, but the most important person that you could ever be is you. You arent going to convince people to like, trust or advance you because youre pretending to be someone that youre not (or need to even be). Instead, be yourself and trust that you can get where you need to be based purely on that.Besides, companies look for certain qualities when it comes to cultural fit, and these qualities run across a spectrum. Theyre varied and diverse, which makes for a better organization. Can you imagine working for a company where every single person looked, dressed, talked and acted the same? Being yourse lf helps bring those unique qualities to a company that only you can offer.

How to Write an Effective Resume

How to Write an Effective ResumeHow to Write an Effective ResumeWhat is a resume, and why do you need one when you are job searching? A resume is a written compilation of your education, work experience, credentials, and accomplishments. Most professional stttes require applicants to submit a resume and cover letter as part of the application process.In many cases, your resume is the first document a hiring manager will look at when reviewing your application, and therefore is a true first impression. Accordingly, its important to put time and effort into developing and maintaining an updated, accurate resume.Whether you are writing your first resume, or you havent updated yours in a while and it needs refreshing, here is a step-by-step guide to writing a resume that will help you get the job you want.Review the Purpose of a ResumeThink of a resume as self-advertisement that sums up your experience on one page. Your resume is one of the most important pieces of your job application. It gives the hiring manager an overview of the qualifications you have for the job for which youre applying.You should also familiarize yourself with the difference between a resume and a cover letterA resume is typically sent with a cover letter, which is a document that provides additional information on your skills and experience in letter form.A resume is a concise, often bulleted summary, while a cover letter highlights and expands on certain traits or accomplishments that would be unique or ideal assets for the particular job.Start by Doing a Brain Dump of Your ExperienceAn effective resume lays out a summary of qualifications that will push the hiring manager or employer to move forward and invite you to vorstellungsgesprch for the position. As well as details on skills, education, and work history, resumes can also have optional sections, such as an objective, summary statement, skills, or career highlights. Those sections can be added after youve compiled all the factual in formation you need to list on your resume.For many people, it can be helpful to sit down with a pen and paper, or a blank Word document, and jot down their work history from start to finish. Of course, if you have been in the workforce for many years, this is not going to be time-efficient, so you may choose to focus on your most namhaft and relevant positions.Make a List of Your Work ExperienceNo matter your approach, your goal will be to produce a chronological list of experience that is relevant to the jobs youre applying to. Although this should focus on professional work experience, you can also include awards or accolades, volunteer or community experience, post-grad coursework, and skills, as well as your college education, which can move to the bottom of your resume once you get your first job after college.When youre working on your brain dump, make sure to include the name of the company, its location, dates of employment, and several bullet points describing your role and responsibilities for each position you list. Although you may need to expand on the bullet points later on, youll need this information at the minimum.Focus on Your AchievementsWhen writing the descriptions for the jobs youve held, focus on what you accomplished in each position rather than what you did. Listing quantifiable achievements in a numerical manner (increased sales 20%, reduced expenses by 10%, for example) will help your resume stand out. Be sure to match those accomplishments to the criteria the employer is seeking in the job posting.If its challenging (and it can be) to write resume descriptions that will catch the attention of the hiring manager, review these tips for how to make your resume employment history sound better and get you picked for an interview.What to Leave Off Your ResumeThere are some things that dont belong on a resume for a job. What you exclude is just as important as what you include. Ideally, your resume should reflect experience that is releva nt to the job you are applying to, and typically no more than ten to fifteen years in the past. Since your resume should, if possible, be no longer than one or two pages, you may need to nix certain items.For example, if you took a job and only stayed there for a month or so, you wouldnt want to include that position. If youve been out of college for more than five years, its generally best to remove any internships youve had, assuming you have other professional work experience to fill the gap.However, this is a case where youll want to use your common sense. If you went to college for absatzwirtschaft and had a marketing internship your senior year, then worked as a server for the next several years, you would want to include your marketing internship.Ultimately, you want to try to strike a balance between including experience that is both timely and relevant.Choose a Resume StyleThere are several basic types of resumes used to apply for job openings. Before you spend time writing up all the details around each position youve had, you should decide what style of resume to use, as that can affect how you describe, organize, and list your experience, education, skills, qualifications, and other credentials for employment.Your options includeChronological - The most common resume type, in which you list your work experience in reverse chronological order, from the most to the least recent.Functional A functional resume focuses on your skills and abilities rather than your work history.Combination This type of resume lists your skills and experience before your employment history.Which Resume Type is Right for You?Which resume type should you use for your job search? That depends on what youre trying to accomplish. The goal of any resume is to show a hiring manager the applicants strengths, skills, and experience in as short a time as possible. According to one study, recruiters spend as little as six seconds reviewing a resume before moving on to the next, so its in your best interests to put your finest qualities and accomplishments in a prominent position on the page.In addition, functional or combination resumes may also be useful if youre trying to draw the readers attention away from something namely, large gaps in your work history or detours into unrelated fields.Start Compiling Your ResumeOnce youve decided on a resume type, its time to start writing your resume. You dont have to start from scratch. First, review examples of the resume type youve selected. Then, choose a template which you can copy and paste into a document, and then fill in with your own work history.Regardless of the type of resume you choose, aim to tailor your resume to the job you are applying to. While its perfectly acceptable to use a resume template, which you adapt to fit each job description, its a bad idea to send the same exact resume to multiple openings, even within the same field.Your goal should be to write your resume with both robots and human s in mind. Many organizations use Applicant Tracking Systems to sort and vet resumes, before hiring managers ever take a look at them. This means that you could have the best experience and qualifications in a whole field of candidates, and a pretty decent resume besides, but your information will fall through the cracks if your resume doesnt contain the right keywords. Good keywords will refer not only to your experience but to the job description in the posting as well.Format Your ResumeOnce you have written and organized your information according to the type of resume you have chosen, be sure to format it according to typical professional standards. You should use consistent spacing throughout, and evenly sized margins on all sides if possible. Its generally best to stick to your word processors default settings, but in some cases, if you shrink the margins on the left, right, top and bottom, this can help buy more space to fit your resume on one page.Although visual or infograp hic resumes have become trendy in some industries, it is always a safe bet to stick with traditional formatting white page, black text, readable font. Choose a basic font such as Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, Helvetica, or Georgia. Ideally, your font size should be no larger than 12 and no smaller than 10.5.Even if you are only sending in copies digitally, it is a good idea to print your resume (as its possible that hiring managers may be doing so) to be sure it prints on a single page, and is easy to read in printed form. Reading over a printed copy of your resume will also help you ensure that there is plenty of white space on the page and it looks professional.Proofread, Proofread, and Proofread AgainNot even professional proofreaders can easily proofread their own work. Once youve made a typo, its hard to catch it yourself. For that reason, its a good idea to have one or two trusted friends take a look at your resume before you send it in for consideration. Use this resume pr oofreading checklist first, then ask someone else to give it a final review to be sure its perfect before you click send or upload to apply for a job.Think of Your Resume as a Living DocumentIn the short term, you should tweak your resume based on each job you apply to. For example, if one position youre applying to seems to weigh a certain responsibility or focus over another, you should be sure your resume conveys your expertise in this area.At the same time, you should be updating your resume with your experience as it develops, adding any new skills youve learned, courses youve taken or awards you won.It is much easier to update your resume periodically than all at once, so even when youre employed, set a reminder to refresh your resume every three months, while the information is still fresh in your head. This will make your next job search much easier, should you decide to switch companies or careers in the future.Use these seven simple steps to build a resume to keep yours cu rrent and ready to send if you get a call from a recruiter, or find a job that youd love to be hired for and want to apply for it right away.

How much you must earn to afford a house in the largest cities

How much you must earn to afford a house in the largest citiesHow much you must earn to afford a house in the largest citiesBuying a home used to be part of the American dream. It lets you build equity over the years, gives you a significant financial asset, and provides a pride of ownership or investment in the surrounding community. The problem is that in some cities, workers must earn hundreds of thousands of dollars to afford an average-sized home.We found the numbers behind ur latest map from HSH.com, one of the largest publishers of consumer and mortgage information in the country. HSH focused on the 50 most populous metro areas in the country, and figured out the price of the zentralwert home for sale. They then calculated monthly principal, interest, property tax and insurance payments buyers have to pay for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. To keep things simple, they determined what salary would be needed to afford each home using the 28 percent front-end debt ratio, meaning t he total housing payment could leid make up more than 28% of gross income. They also assumed a 20% down payment. We mapped the resulting needed annual salary as a spike on a geographic outline for the metro area.Top 10 cities where you need to earn the most to afford a median-priced house1. San Jose, CA $274,6232. San Francisco, CA $213,7273. San Diego, CA $130,9864. Los Angeles, CA $114,9085. Boston, MA $109,4116. Seattle, WA $109,2757. New York City, NY $103,2358. Washington, DC $96,1449. Denver, CO $93,26310. Portland, OR $85,369Our map reveals three tiers in annual income workers need to earn to afford a median home. First, the West Coast stands out as by far the most expensive market in the country, with the top 4 markets in California alone. San Jose, CA is easily the most expensive workers need to make well over a quarter million dollars to afford a median-priced home. San Francisco is not far behind at $213,727, followed by Sa Diego much further down at $130,986. These numbe rs indicate the extent to which Silicon Valley has created a massive increase in property values.The second tier of expensive locales is along the East Coast, led by the familiar hotspots of unaffordable housing like Boston, MA ($109,411), New York City, NY ($103,235) and Washington, DC ($96,144). But there are also other expensive metro areas located along the Atlantic Coast as well, such as Miami, FL ($78,337) and Providence, RI ($75,808). Its clearly expensive to live somewhere close to an ocean.The third and final tier of cities where workers dont need to earn 6-figure salaries stretches across the countrys midsection. Ranging from Minneapolis, MN ($63,962) down to New Orleans, LA ($49,249), there are several metro areas with plenty of relatively cheap housing. A couple of old Rust Belt cities round out the bottom of the list in Cleveland, OH ($39,730) and Pittsburgh, PA ($38,253).There is one more interesting and overarching trend worth noting on our map. Median household incom e across the US recently reached a record high of $61,400, which is great news for workers. The bad news is that isnt enough to afford a typical house in 25 out of the 50 cities on our map. Granted, workers in metro areas tend to make more than their rural counterparts, but there is no doubt a real concern about affordable housing in certain urban areas.Want to find out more about the true cost of living in the US? Check out this interactive tool.Data Table 1.1This article first appeared on How Much.