Five qualities every intern should have

Five qualities every intern should have by Michael Cheary Landing the right internship can sometimes seem like an impossible task…  Even with the right set of skills and qualifications, it isn’t always easy to know what your potential employer places precedence on â€" not to mention know how to set yourself apart from the competition.To help identify the most in-demand attributes all employers look for, we spoke to Inspiring Interns to find out five qualities every intern should have:Good phone and email mannerOne of the great stereotypes made about millennials is that we’re afraid to be proactive and pick up the phone â€" and there’s certainly an element of truth in that.But being so worried about speaking to someone new that you shy away from doing so is not only making a mountain out of a molehill, it’s also costing you an opportunity to build trust and a good relationship with a client or collaborator.It’s also worth brushing up on your email etiquette. Pay attention to how other people in the offi ce write, and match your style to theirs. Just make sure you’re mindful of tone. Senior staff might be able to get away with being overfamiliar but, as an intern, you should stick to a more formal tone unless advised otherwise.Above all, always remain professional â€" check your spelling and grammar, and avoid slang or bad language.How to: Turn your internship into a full-time jobResilience‘Can you tell me about a time you overcame a challenge?’.There’s a reason so many interviews include this question. Employers want to know how you deal with things when they don’t go smoothly: do you stand or do you fold?There will no doubt be difficult moments during your internship, and you’ll need to be able to bounce back from them. Try and put any mistakes you make in perspective, maintain a healthy work-life balance, and break down big problems into smaller chunks that you can deal with.Five key competency questions: revealed  Time managementIf you think this is the most obvious quality any intern could have, you’d probably be amazed at the number of people who show up late to work or meetings.Of course, disasters happen â€" leaves fall onto train lines and buses take mysterious detours to the edge of the known world. But if you are going to be late, make sure you let your manager know immediately.Being able to structure your own day is also a vital skill you’ll need in order to impress your employer. So, establish what your tasks are in line with the timeframe you have, and then plan out your time accordingly so you can be sure you’re staying on top of things.Emotional intelligenceEmotional intelligence refers to the ability to understand and control your own emotions, as well as assess and respond to those of the people around you â€" a quality that some employers rate far above IQ.This is because people with high emotional intelligence tend to display several key soft skills. They work well with others, both contributing to and leading teams, are good at maintaining their composure, and have strong self-awareness.So listen carefully to those around you, and try to respond to their emotional cues. And if you’re feeling flustered or upset, give yourself time to absorb and assess your emotions.If you take time to calm down before taking any action, you’ll end up making better decisions.  VersatilityThe range of work you’re asked to do during an internship can vary hugely.In marketing, for example, you might some days working on client briefs or creating content, and others stuffing envelopes for ongoing campaigns. This may not be as satisfying, but showing willing is always important.Being flexible in the work you take on is especially vital when in a junior role, and it’s not just about getting stuck into tasks you might not enjoy. You should also seize any opportunity â€" keeping in mind your own workload â€" to offer to help out your colleagues or to contribute to other projects.The more effort you put in, the more v alued you will be as a member of the team.Seven ways to make your internship countInspiring Interns are the UK’s leading graduate recruitment agency, having placed more that 5,000 university leavers in their first role. If you’re interested in starting your career journey, take a look at their graduate jobs and internships today. Ready to find your ideal internship? View all available internships now.  Find a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the

Find the Best Travel Partners for the Perfect Vacation

Find the Best Travel Partners for the Perfect Vacation Do you like to travel far and wide? Travelling can be great fun, especially if you have friends or family accompanying you. Nowadays, holiday packages to visit any part of the world are available. Companies also book caravans, yachts, mini-flights, train bogies, etc. for entire groups of travelers. However, at times you find yourself quite alone, yet yearning to go on a vacation. Travelling alone can be tedious, and unsafe too â€" especially if you are going to visit an unknown country or region. Therefore, you should approach travel dating companies, which allow travelers to meet on a common social networking platform. Using this platform, you can find someone who wishes to travel to the place you want to and plan a trip. We have put together these tips to help  everyone who wants to have a great vacation with   good travel partners. Travel Partners Destinations There are many destinations you can visit.   Finding a travel companion for traveling to any of these places is easy. All you have to do is sign up on the website of a travel dating company, and fill in your partner preferences. Initially, you may want to   indicate only gender preference and travel location preference. The travel dating website works precisely like a social networking website. Once you enter a member search based on the location you are looking to visit, you will see a list of members who wish to visit the same area. You can also do an advanced search, wherein you specify the age range of the person you are looking for,   their ethnicity and values, their lifestyle, the budget they can allocate to such travel, the mode of travel they prefer, and the probable dates of travel. The website allows you to find people interested in travel companions for ship, air and rail travel. There is usually an option to send a private message to the users you are interested in. There are other tools too,   which you can let others know of your interest immediately. These devices are similar to the Wink and Poke tools on other social networking websites. Once you connect with the singles you are interested in, it is entirely up to you to take the conversation forward. Use Common Sense and Caution in Choosing Travel Partners It is recommended that you exercise some degree of caution. You should meet only those people who seem genuine to you.   While the websites attempt to be sure members are honest and sincere, theres always the chance that someone with less than honorable intentions slips through.   So the final responsibility is yours.

On the Job by Anita Bruzzese RedHat CEO Forget What You Know About Traditional Management

On the Job by Anita Bruzzese RedHat CEO Forget What You Know About Traditional Management Jim Whitehurst, CEO of RedHat, says that if he could give himself advice when he left Delta Air Lines 10 years ago to head up the largest open source software company in the world, it would be this: When youre leading high-energy, very capable people, leaders need to think of their role as creating context for others to be successful, rather than directly driving performance. In other words, butt out and let people do what they do best but help them understand why the jobs they do matter. You have to work hard to connect the meaning of what people do every day to the mission of the company, he says. For example, when Whitehurst was COO with Delta, he was charged with leading the company out of bankruptcy and restoring confidence. He began immediately by ensuring workers understood what they could do to help them save the company and their jobs: Going from last place to first place in on-time arrivals. That was something they understood, something they could control, he says. Whitehurst, who is known for his transparent leadership, says that he believes one of the biggest issues when companies are trying to keep employees engaged when growing the business is believing thatengagementis about happiness. Being happy has nothing to do with it. You must make sure people understand how their work fits into the strategy. Then, of course, theyre more likely to be happy, he says. At the same time, as companies grow and hire more workers, they still have to focus on ensuring every employee understands how his or her job has an impact on quality, cost and even customer satisfaction. Without that constant connection from leadership, employees wont have the willingness or confidenceto be innovativeor collaborative. Of course, some may argue that an open source software company has a unique environment with its focus on transparency and collaboration from inside and out. Trusting outsiders to add value? Believing that employees wont share secrets with competitors? What about non-compete agreements? Will valuable employees be poached by competitors and take valuable information with them? Whitehurst has heard those concerns before, but argues that its better to manage to 90% of those who are doing the right thing, rather than spending time trying to deal with a few bad actors. I think managers often feel like theyre police, he says. But the bad apples generally rise to the top and they leave one way or the other. What is left when those bad apples depart are loyal workers who feel passionate about what theyre doing, and there is no greater (read more here)

Five common interview problems and how to deal with them

Five common interview problems and how to deal with them There’s lots of advice about interviews on this blog already, from what you should wear  to what questions to  ask  at the end. But students still ask us for  help and interviews continue  to surprise and  unnerve, so here are my top five tips on how to deal with different situations which might confront you on the day. 1. You don’t know the answer to a question. This might be when you simply can’t think of an answer to a competency question. Perhaps you genuinely haven’t had a relevant experience? One way to buy a few moments is to repeat the question while you muse. Another option is to say “That’s a good question”. But beware, I have known the interviewer come right back with “Yes, I know, so could you answer it then!” Don’t be afraid to ask for a moment, but if inspiration isn’t coming you can also ask to come back to the question further on in the interview. You might just find that the perfect answer comes to you. So what about the question that’s so difficult you can’t answer it? One option is to admit defeat and sometimes if it’s a technical question within your field you might have to do this. But generally you’d be much better off starting to work through the logic of what the answer might be. It could  be that there isn’t a clear answer and it’s the logic that the interviewer is after. A great example of this kind of question is “How many bricks are there in Birmingham?” There’s not going to be a right answer to this but you can show a clear and logical thought process. 2. You get a really long complicated and multi layered question. This can be very hard when you are panicking and here repeating the question may help you to remember it. Be really clear as you start to speak about which section you are addressing. Once you have finished the first part you might want to check you still know what else was being asked. Don’t be afraid to do this. It’s bad interview technique to ask convoluted questions and the interviewer has an obligation to remind you of the rest of the question. When you think you have covered everything you can always reconfirm that with the interviewer. 3. You’ve already answered a question before it has been asked. This is also tricky to deal with  and occurs in very structured interviews where all candidates are asked exactly the same questions. I once went through a whole interview which felt like a comedy sketch. I opened with a presentation (as requested) and found that it had answered the first question really fully. Faced with the question I referred to my presentation but tried to add a bit of value by covering something which was only tenuously relevant. To my horror my additional bit of answer had covered the whole of the second question and the entire interview proceeded like this. I should have had the confidence simply to say “I’ve answered that already, do you have the notes of what I’ve said? Do you need me to add anything?” Hindsight is a wonderful thing, even when you’re a careers consultant! 4. Your interviewer is rude. Perhaps the  interviewer is in a hurry, It could be that  its a busy day and interviewing was not what he/she had in mind as a preferred activity. You might find that questions get barked at you and it looks like a pretty instant response is needed. Before you resort to defence mode and start firing back answers, think what are the key skills for this post? If youre being interviewed for an empathetic helping role you need to hang onto your softer side. If, on the other hand this post is about commodity trading youre probably being tested and barking right back might be the thing to do! An alternative (and equally unsettling) way in which the interviewer may be rude is if he/she appears completely uninterested. This is going to affect your own performance. You have a few options: Ignore it and try to plough on, try to engage with a humorous comment  or by injecting a bit of energy,  or confront the situation and comment on the attitude you face. Your reaction might depend on the type of job you’re going for and how much you want it. There are stories though of the direct challenge paying dividends and resulting in a job offer. At least you’ll have made your mark! 5. You realise youve got the answer wrong. Sometimes there really is a right answer and you might realise that youve got it wrong when an employer starts to cross question you. This is not the moment to stick to your guns. Best to accept your error. Remember we all make mistakes and an employer will respect the worker who can put his or her hand up to an error. I hope that in the event you dont meet any of these problems, but if you do, dont panic!

Improve Your HR Skills Fast - CareerMetis.com

Improve Your HR Skills Fast Photo Credit â€" Pexels.comHuman resources can be one of the most exciting and rewarding areas of a business to work in. If you have a role of this kind, then you are probably keen to improve your skills as much as you can. After all, in HR, there tends to be a lot of room and opportunity for progression, and this means that you probably want to do everything in your power to increase your chances at all times.The good news is that that is relatively easy to do. In this post, we are going to go through some of the essential ways that you can improve your human resources skills, so that you can take your career to the next level as soon as possible.1. Developing ConfidenceevalWith certain job types, confidence goes a long way to getting you what you want. In HR, this seems to be particularly true. Ultimately, if you want to make it big in HR, then you need to work on your confidence as much as possible. This is a job type where you are working with people more intimately than most oth er roles, so you need to have a good way with people.evalAs long as you are doing everything you can to develop confidence, you should find that you are able to progress in your job much faster. If you are struggling with this, there are plenty of evening and online courses you might consider taking. These will help you become more confident, and so excel at your job much easier.2. ConsultancyIf you need specific advice or training on improving your HR skills â€" and everyone does need it at some point or another â€" then you could use a consultancy firm like HR professionals Ellis Whittam.They could be able to help you develop your understanding and deepen your skills in any relevant HR areas which you feel you need help in. If you are fortunate, your company will be able to pay for this training or consultancy for you.If so, you should do everything you can to make the most of the experience. What you take away from these sessions will probably help you massively in the long run, so it is worth taking it on board as much as possible, especially in any areas where you feel you really need help or advice.3. Varied RolesOne of the best ways to develop your skills is to take on various roles over a period of time. This gives you the opportunity to practice a wide variety of HR skills, and that will put you in good stead to further your career whenever you should see fit.Taking on more roles is always a good idea if you are keen to improve your career. Just make sure that you don’t overwork yourself, and that you can continue to put in the same level of hard work at whatever job you do take on. With a little time and practice, your HR skills should massively improve.

Help me choose a cover - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Help me choose a cover - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog My first book Happy Hour is 9 to 5 is coming out in Portuguese soon and I need your help to pick the cover. Here are the three suggestions that theyve cooked up: 1: 2: 3: Whats your favorite and why? Please write a comment. You can read more about the book here. Its already out in English, Spanish, Chinese, Dutch and Danish. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Tips For Starting an Online Resume Writing Service

Tips For Starting an Online Resume Writing ServiceIf you're wondering if starting an online resume writing service will work for you, it can be easy to get stuck in the process and never find out. In a sense, it's like working in the phone book; there are endless numbers of companies to do everything from service your mailings to write your letters of introduction. You might be tempted to throw up your hands and start looking around for some sort of local staffing agency that specializes in this kind of thing.Unfortunately, while there are plenty of local companies that offer to do your mailings or mail them on your behalf, many of them also specialize in specific niches. Whether you need something more 'office'mobile', they don't usually have much experience in your specific niche.They could use the work you could do themselves, but many of them would have to hire someone to do the job for them, making the total cost of doing this work higher than what you'd pay in the local service . Therefore, by starting your own online resume writing service, you'll cut out the middleman.Since you're the one doing the work, you'll have the ability to handle your local resume writing business without having to pay any money to anyone. The only things you'll need to start with are the computer and internet connection, plus some writing software or templates that are free.To start, you'll need to research the different types of local resume writing services out there. Some are true companies and have years of experience in this field, while others are simply a few moles, out to make a quick buck. Some may even be fraudulent companies who will try to get you to sign up for their 'exclusive' service.Before signing up with any company, make sure to know exactly what it is you need from your local resume writing service, as well as your specifications in a nutshell. Once you know all that, the next step is to find a reputable service to offer.You can find several of these, but it' s important to realize that the one that best suits your needs won't necessarily be the one that offers the most for the least amount of money. It's important to ask around to make sure you find a reputable company that offers a low-cost option.It's a good idea to start small to get a feel for the industry before moving up to larger, more profitable jobs. When you're satisfied with the services you've received, move on to the next step, which is hiring someone to work from home.