Tag: career

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Career Career & Education

6 Ways To Get More Freelance Work

6 Ways To Get More Freelance Work

Whether you’re a freelance writer, photographer, or teacher, freelancing can become demotivating when you fail to manage a schedule and prepare a strategy. Freelancing jobs have become more popular than before in today’s age, and it is one of the best ways to put your talents to use. If you’re trying to start freelancing or engage with more clients, you’re in the right place. Freelancing may sound easy, but it’s not. This article will guide you on how you can gain more freelance work.

1. Take referrals from your current clients

If you’ve already started freelancing and have been able to secure at least two clients, you must ask them to refer you to more people. They can get you in touch with other clients from different industries, depending on the work you’re providing.

2. Increase your network

One of the best ways to broaden your network is by making contacts, and the best way to do that is with the help of social media. You’ll find plenty of freelancing groups on Facebook, as well as other networking platforms. Here, you can find many potential clients seeking the services you provide. Of course, this will involve getting out of your comfort zone, and having to talk to random people online. But, it’s worth it in the end as you’ll definitely get more freelance work.

3. Market your work services

Whether you’ve started a small business or are freelancing as a writer, one of the best ways to get more clients is by advertising your work. You can create a post that lists all your services and price range, and post it on all social media platforms. Ask your friends and family members to share and engage with your posts so your chances of getting clients are higher. You can also create a website to lure in potential clients.

4. Be straightforward in what services you’re providing

You must give a detailed explanation about the services you provide, whether it’s in person or on your website. You can start off with your experience in the freelancing industry, and the types of clients you’ve worked with before. Be as detailed as possible, and you can include details that provide more insight as to your freelance work.

5. Engage in competitive pricing

It seems realistic to set prices low once you begin with freelancing work, but remember that price can play an important role when clients choose you. If the price is set too low, your clients may think your services aren’t up to par. Set the bar high by keeping your prices moderately high. Make sure to take a look at your competitors’ pricing and how they change it based on projects and client requirements.

6. Make clear contracts

Remember to provide contracts with clear details as communication is essential for making a good impression. In the long run, it’s beneficial to help you get more freelancing work. Make sure your needs are addressed the same way you’ve addressed the services you will provide. It helps clients understand the agreement they’re getting into.

Freelance Work Conclusion

Hopefully, with the help of this article, you can now apply all these tips to get more freelance work. Remember to take referrals, prepare a marketing plan, build a network, set great prices, and write comprehensive contracts.

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Career Career & Education

Want to Quit Your Job? Here’s How to Do it Like a Pro

Want to Quit Your Job?Here’s How to Do it Like a Pro

Do you want to quit your job? But how?

Let’s read the article to get an idea about the best ways to leave a job like a pro.

Consider Switching Departments

If you are planning to switch from one company to another, you need some time to search for the right job. Of course, it will take months, if not a year. You will have more leverage if you accept a new job when you are already working.

However, if your reason to leave the job is your fussy department manager, then first consider moving to another department within your company. Your employer would not want you to go, and they may allow you to change your department. They can take advantage of their investment in your professional growth.  You may want to quit your job before you find an offer, but it can be a costly mistake for you. It’s better to keep it as the last option.

Check Important Details of Your Departure               

Before leaving, do your complete research. Check what salary and employee benefits you will receive upon quitting the job. Make sure to find out about the unused sick and vacation pays. Also, ask the authority about what will happen with your 401 (K) or other pension plans.

Some employers also arrange an exit interview before the departure of the employee. Review some samples of the interview questions from the internet so you can answer more confidentially and professionally.

Give Advance Notice

Although two weeks advance notice is standard in most companies, it can take a longer time to replace some type of professionals. If you have a good position that involves certain types of complex responsibilities, you may need to give advance notice a month before quitting.

Besides this, if you are a member of a labor union or have an employment contract, then the agreement you have signed may have certain requirements that you have to fulfill. Before leaving the company, make sure you have checked the notice period in this agreement. Do remember that when you give notice to the employer, they have the right to dismiss it and terminate you immediately if you don’t follow the agreement.

Always Resign In-Person

You might don’t have great relations with your boss, but it doesn’t matter. The way you quit your job will reflect your professionalism and approach towards responsibilities.

So, don’t worry about the awkwardness, and talk to your employer in person. Sending an impersonal resignation on email will only make you look rude and dismissive. Yes, a one-to-one meeting will not be simple and easy, but that’s how professionals deal with it.

Bottom Line

So, these are some ways to quit your job like a pro.  You can also give feedback to your company on why you are leaving. Plus, don’t forget to inform your colleagues about your resignation.

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Career Career & Education

Asked to Take a Pay Cut? What Do You Do Next

Asked to Take a Pay Cut? What Do You Do Next

Pay cuts are an issue that no one likes to talk about or face. This may come at the back of company-driven policies or an overall financial crunch in the market. If you were asked to accept a pay cut in the past, and you could not deal with it well, then don’t worry, as now we can offer you a comprehensive guide on how to deal with this, professionally.

Understanding Pay Cut

First off, you must understand the issue, what’s a pay cut? A pay cut is a reduction in your salary. They often help minimize layoffs or save revenues for the company during tough financial times.

A salary cut can be short term or permanent, it all depends on the company’s financial situation. They tend to badly hamper salary appraisals, bonuses, pensions, etc.

Conditions for Pay Cuts

If you are working with a company without a contract, then your employer can offer you a salary cut without reason. Your employer can reduce the number of hours or your working days in a month.

Know your rights

If you have an agreement, your employer cannot reduce your hours or working days for issues like race, gender or religion, etc. So know your rights to avoid such an unpleasant situation for dealing with a pay cut.

What if your employer asked for a pay cut?

Duration for a cut?

In a pay cut situation, companies generally have no definite answer about how long a salary cut will last? Remember, that a cut cannot go on and on, it must end. Companies may know certain financial projects will complete in a few months from now and they can regain financial strength.

You should have this conversation with the company but don’t expect a conclusive response.

Bargain for something in exchange

The discussion should be gentle, for inquiring about working fewer hours for losing part of revenue through a pay cut.

 If the salary cut is imminent, then you should ask the company for something in a bargain for a lower salary. You may ask them for more work-from-home days, or short work hours, etc.

Right Questions

Asking is something you should never be afraid about. You have the right to know about the situation for a salary cut. You can ask them.

  • My job and role will remain the same?
  • Who else is getting this cut?
  • When will it take effect?
  • Is there any health care costs rise?
  • Any change in benefits?
  • If at all, will more cuts will follow?
  • How company will come out of this financial crunch?

What are your plans in a post Pay cut?

Pay cuts and firing have become more of an option ever since Covid-19 hit everyone. So, the companies who are offering pay cuts are also keeping most of the staff, workers, and managers in the best imaginable situation they can. This is just an attempt to avoid losing very loyal members of their staff.

The worst side effect a cut can give, is the hunt for a new job? In the wake of a pay cut, start looking for a job in order to generate revenues to compensate losses.

Conclusion

Just imagine, your company asking for a pay cut. If this is the situation, where you can turn down a cut, take a break from the discussion. You don’t have to reply to your boss immediately. Instead, you should discuss the situation with your family and friends. This will give you sufficient time to prepare an appropriate reply for the company on next day. And then, you can devise a plan for the next job hunt.

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Career Career & Education

Interview Mistakes & What to Say Instead

6 Phone Interview Mistakes & What to Say Instead

Phone interviews can be stressful. They can feel like do-or-die moments that decide whether you get your dream job or live in poverty. In short, it is important you get them right.

So here are a few ways to develop your interviewing skills, from someone who does interviews all the time.

1.  Be More Specific Than Honest

You probably want to know up front: Do you have to be honest during an interview? The answer isn’t easy to swallow, but the truth is no. As long as you can’t get caught, enhance the truth.

But that does not mean lie. It’s illegal to lie during an interview. What you should do instead is take your normal answers and spice them up with details that will make you stand out.

2.  Never Show Fear To The Recruiter

Interviewers are fully aware of how scary interviews are. This makes them perfectly environments in which to evaluate a candidate’s ability to act under pressure.

Hesitation is fine. It can make you seem thoughtful, measured, and patient. But fear is unacceptable. If the recruiter gets the impression you are rushing through an answer, babbling nervously, or cracking under the pressure of having to answer a question, they will notice.

3.  Still, Take Your Time

Many people imagine fear to only manifest as reluctance or the petrification of panic. But more often people who are afraid express this by being jittery, hurried, or over-eager.

If you are asked a question and you draw a blank on the answer, do not panic. Don’t stall for time, ask for it. It takes a lot of courage to ask for time to think of an answer, and your recruiter will appreciate that you are communicating a need to them in a calm, collected manner.

4.  Respond to Red Flags

This is one of the hardest pieces of advice to follow if you have been out of a job for a long time. As much as it sucks to hear, there are some jobs you are better off not getting.

Don’t be afraid to walk out or hang up on an interview if you get the impression a workplace is abusive or incompetently run. Places like that will leave you out to dry without a reference eventually, so it’s better to distance yourself sooner than later.

5.  Remember The Recruiter’s Name

This is an uncommon bit of humanity to exhibit in an interview, but if you remember your recruiter’s name and show that you remember their name, they are far more likely to remember you than if you didn’t.

6.  Don’t be Right, be Human

It’s natural to go into an interview thinking of the recruiter as an emotionless robot who is looking for a candidate that is ideal on paper.

That is the job of the robot that scans resumes for keywords. Indeed, every step of the job process up until the interview lacks humanity. But once you’re at the interview it behooves you to represent yourself not as the best employee, but the best person you can be.

Good luck in the job market. Now more than ever, you’ll need it.

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Career Career & Education

How To Negotiate A Really Lowball Job Offer

It happens to the best of us every now and again. You get an offer that just seems designed to insult you. You probably feel frustrated, upset, and significantly unheard and undervalued. The first step is to not jump to conclusions and to react in as neutral a way as possible initially. Then, here are some techniques to cope and negotiate.

1.   Ask For Some Time To Consider

This is a great passive tactic to implement immediately. Ask them for a couple of days to consider the offer, and give them a definite time frame in which they can expect a response. A good general idea is about 2-3 business days. This gives you time to mull and doesn’t waste their time, but also lets them know in a passive way that the offer wasn’t immediately acceptable.

2.   Decide On Your Strategy

This is where you will decide if you’re going to express your disappointment outright or counter with a more reasonable offer. Many people will choose to negotiate first, in the hopes of getting a position that they really want, while making some compromises. Others will count it as a loss, but send a message expressing that disappointment and offering to consider if the conditions were improved.

3.   Determine If The Job Is Worth It

There may be cases where it just isn’t worth the hassle of going back and forth. There are some signals that your negotiations would be unsuccessful. Some of these factors include the employer insisting that the offer is the best they can do, further research indicating that the offer was fair, when you won’t be able to negotiate with a level head, or if the position simply isn’t worth the emotional strain.

4.   Counter & Know What’s Important To You

When you counter, make sure you go in with a plan that you can use for some framework. Know what’s important to you at a job, if they can’t offer more money, can they offer additional vacation time? If they can’t offer that, what can they do to make the offer more appealing? Sometimes you will be surprised at the perks they will offer that won’t end up on your paycheck.

5.   Know Your Job Market

You can’t decide what is and isn’t a fair offer if you don’t have a thorough knowledge of the salary range for the position nationwide as well as regionally and locally. Be sure you aren’t just throwing numbers at them in the hopes that they’ll bite. You may even be in the market for things like stock options or other equity in the company.

6.   Know Your Value

This is another area where research is incredibly valuable. Knowing how much you, your skills, background, experience, and so on are worth, can help you squeeze every bit of value out of a prospective offer. Even take into account how badly the company needs you, or needs to fill the position. A position with high turnover may be worth a higher bid.

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Career Career & Education

How to Diversify Your Income With a 9-5 Job

9-5 job opportunities outside side-gig

Many people dream of making more money than what their 9-5 job makes them. Whether it’s to get to a goal faster or as a way to move away from making money on the 9-5 schedule entirely, there are several ways to make money on the side that won’t take away from your regular work schedule.

The gig economy and side hustles have exploded in recent years. All you need is the drive to extend your money-making efforts outside of normal working hours. Some jobs require creativity but others just require your time. Here are some ways to diversify your income, regardless of your extra abilities.

Take Surveys

There are several places where you can get paid to take surveys. Marketing companies want to ensure that their campaigns are effective. Many survey places give out points that you can convert to money. All you have to do is watch a video and take a survey to get the points.

The money taking surveys doesn’t net a huge amount, typically you can make about $100 a month, but that can go a long way to meeting a financial goal. It also only requires your time and ability to be honest about your opinions on what you just watched.

Driving Services

With ride services like Uber and Lyft, it’s very easy to make extra money as long as you know how to drive and have your own car. You can drive as often as you want for as long as you want. Everything is done through the mobile app so you don’t need anything extra.

The amount that you make depends on how often you’re willing to drive. You can work whenever though, driving people to and from the airport or home after a night out. This way of making money offers a lot of flexibility.

Get Creative

If you have a creative streak, you can use that to make extra money. Whether you are a photographer, drawer, painter, or jeweler, you can put those skills to good use and make money. You can sell your creations online through Etsy and operate a business.

The money you make here depends heavily on how much people are willing to pay for your art. It will also depend on how much time you devote to new creations. If you create a lot of unique pieces that people are willing to pay for, you can have a successful side business quickly.

Conclusion

Making more money through side businesses can be a great way to work towards a specific goal or to have more money to budget with regularly. No matter what additional skills you have, as long as you have time you can make extra money outside of your regular 9-5 work schedule.

These side-hustles can lead to something bigger or simply contribute to some extra household income for a bit. Either way, you can work on additional skills and money without t    

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Career Career & Education

Want to Reinvent Your Career? Here’s How

reinvent your career in 2021

1.   Start Now

Are you still stuck at home, or maybe still on lockdown or stay-at-home orders? Well, there is no better time to start thinking of how you want to develop yourself with your career. You have plenty of time where the social gatherings will still be relatively restricted. So you can use some of that to position yourself to potentially jump at an opportunity and reinvent your career.

So, knock the dust off your resume, and make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date (when have you logged into that thing yet this year?). Add any new job details, purge any old info, and be sure to update your accomplishments. Remember to keep it to about a single sheet for maximum effectiveness.

Take a look at LinkedIn, and find some people doing what you envision yourself doing, and browse their journey. See how they got there from where they started, how did they handle crucial steps. Even if you can’t find examples of those positions, particularly if you’re pivoting to something pandemic-influenced, you can still get value from it.

You’ll get ideas. You’ll see trends of how important, influential, or otherwise successful people describe and market themselves. This can lead to a lot of scrolling. However, if you see someone that is doing exactly what you want to do, don’t be afraid to reach out.

3.   Think Outside The Box

Step back and look at your personal, job, and educational experiences. How can those things benefit you in various roles and capacities either within or outside of, your current organization?

Many people don’t take this vital step in figuring out how they can add value. They only take into consideration their immediate day-to-day job. You may be able to find a version of your current job at higher value. For example, getting paid more for doing essentially the same work.

4.   Make A Plan For Your Career

Now that you’ve taken a look at people on similar paths, as well as taken an objective look at your own experience, you should try to map out your next steps. With bigger changes, this may be a multi-phase plan, while shifting from one industry to another doing the same work may only need a few steps.

5.   Profit From Your Pivot

With the huge shift in business operations from everything that does not require a presence in a “brick and mortar” building, there are a lot of new positions to fill. These are going to be positions that end up being created or staffed for the sole purpose of saving money or refining operations from remote working.

If you have an idea of how something can be done better now that business is largely virtual and remote, now is the time to pitch it! The old systems are out the window with the pandemic, and organizations (read: older generations that can benefit from your tech-savvy skills) are in need of help and ideas everywhere.

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Career Career & Education

8 Virtual Interview Tips to Help You Land the Job

Virtual Interview

The interview landscape has changed significantly in the past year, let’s take a look at the best tips for remote interviews.

1.   Location, Location, Location

Sure, you’re stuck at home, maybe even on another lockdown, that doesn’t mean your interview backdrop has to look like it. Make a conscious effort to place your computer where you will have a blank background, or perhaps a bookshelf or houseplant behind you. Keep it professional, or at the very least, neutral.

2.   Be Ready

Not on time, but technically ready. Have your appropriate plug-ins and updates installed and ready. Test your camera and mic, so that you aren’t showing up to your interview with no video, or a critical system update that won’t let you snooze it.

3.   Dress For The Job You Want

Wardrobe selection is just as important here as it is for a traditional interview. Make sure your selection fits the situation, and if unclear, your HR contact point should be able to provide clear guidance. Generally, you want to avoid chunky or distracting jewelry and excessively bright colors.

4.   Personal Space

Make sure you are positioned effectively for your interview. Check your setup and distance from the camera with a friend if needed. Make sure you aren’t hunched over in front of your computer, but make sure you aren’t 8 feet away. Place your camera a comfortable distance away, sit up straight, and don’t fidget with things on your desk during the interview.

5.   Practice Makes Perfect

Go over and practice your answers to potential questions, so that they are clear and concise. Give yourself an honest chance to purge all of your “um”, “uh”, and “well…” fillers from your repertoire. Make sure you iron out all of your grammar and double-check any typed responses for accuracy.

6.   Do A Dry Run

With the help of an honest friend or family member, run an entire mock interview. Not only will it give you a chance to go through the process front to back, but it will let you test your tech again to make sure the interview connection will be perfect.

7.   Be Your Own Best Cheerleader

With virtual interviews, it can be challenging from an employer’s perspective, to get a real feel of the person being interviewed in a virtual environment. That initial “vibe” can be crucial, so make sure you tell them why you feel you’re a good fit so that they can feel it. Highlight your qualifications, achievements, and so on, and be enthusiastic about them.

8.   Be Your Best You

You aren’t going to be interviewed extensively at first, your potential employer is looking to see in a more general sense if you seem like a good fit for the company. The best way to lower your stress is to just be yourself. Don’t worry about what you think they want to hear, just tell them who you are. This will always give you the best shot at finding the best fit for you too.

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Career Career & Education

7 Things You Can Do for Your Career

Career Work From Home

With the recent pandemic, millions of people have now found themselves home much more than they have in the recent past. Many of us don’t mind the additional comfort and decreased anxiety of pursuing our career from home, particularly when you get to see your spouse, child, or even your dog much more than before.

But to many people, the extended lockdowns and remote work have also felt like they were delaying or stagnating their career. Others were in constant fear or anxiety of the possibility of being laid off entirely. The numbers of those in fear grow each day that the economy becomes more volatile.

Even if you aren’t worried about job security, you probably still have pressures from remote working challenges, lack of networking opportunities, and the cancellation of many industry events like conferences and expos.

It can be frustrating in different ways for all of us. But we’ve also redefined how we work and collaborate using technology, so this also brings us opportunities. Here are some great ideas on preventing stagnation and malaise in your career while you’re stuck at home.

1.   Update And Stay Current

Have you even logged into your LinkedIn account this year? Take a day to update your resume and LinkedIn profile, making sure you pull old info and update with new. Don’t forget to highlight new career accomplishments!

2.   Continue Your Education

Learn something new. Another language, programming, an art skill, or any number of random things. There are a number of websites that offer micro-degrees or other structured courses that you can use to break up the time. Some may even add value to your skillset that you can leverage for more pay at work.

3.   Maintain Networking Connections And Bonds For Your Career

Just because you can’t hit happy hour and shake some hands, or attend the yearly industry events doesn’t mean you can’t keep networking. Communicate with your work contacts, especially ones you may have neglected recently, and see how they’re doing. Maybe set up a zoom coffee so you can chat.

4.   Start A New Project Outside of Work

Kick-off a new side-hustle outside of work, tweak your personal brand or even start a new blog, book, or website. Original content is valuable, particularly with the rise of NFTs.

5.   Get A Jump On Busywork

We spend an average of one day out of every five to six, simply researching our information and setting up documents. Take some time to cook up a few templates, references, or cheat sheet resources to help you save time down the road when you are at work.

6.   Volunteer For A Project That Scares You At Work

It doesn’t literally have to scare you but step out of your comfort zone, that’s not where growth happens. You’ll not only help your team and organization, but you may even inspire some enthusiasm.

7.   Crack A Book

We’ve got a lot of free time lately, which many of us are using to get some great information from experts. Many experts have written books about subjects that are incredibly important to your field or industry. Find one or two, and make it a point to read them over a month or so.

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Career Career & Education

Want A Promotion? What You Should Be Doing

career promotion

The current employment landscape can be a challenge to navigate, particularly when normal office politics are not playing their normal role in water-cooler chats and the like. But even with lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, many people are still trying to get a promotion. In the best of times, this requires determination, hard work, and often, persistence.

What is the best way to ensure you have the best shot at that promotion? We’re going to take a look. Not only at the #1 thing that will put you ahead of your coworkers, but at additional factors that can also give you a performance edge.

1.   Strong Leadership Skills

The #1 thing you should be doing to get a promotion is to demonstrate leadership abilities. When you are evaluated as a potential candidate for a promotion, you are seen as having the potential to be groomed for management, or even higher. This means you need to be able to lead and motivate effectively.

2.   Add Value

If your organization is going to invest not only time but more money in you, they must see the value that you bring to the table. This isn’t about coming in early and staying late to the point of burnout, that’s boomer value.

Nobody needs seat warmers. You need to bring value to the organization because when your employer invests in you, they are hoping to multiply that value and gain a healthy return on their investment.

3.   Attitude is (Almost) Everything

Attitude in the workplace is crucial. Every office has a person or two that people simply don’t want to work with because they just don’t have a good attitude for whatever reason.

Rest assured that you will be constantly weighed and measured. People seriously considered are going to be people that are respected contributors and morale-builders. Future leaders almost always stand out to current leadership.

4.   Skills To Pay The Bills

Anytime you are being considered for a promotion, your higher-ups will be evaluating your skill set in comparison to other candidates. You should be prepared to show that not only do you engage in personal or professional development but that you plan to continue such.

The habits of older generations were to become skilled in something, and then stagnate at that level. This paradigm is completely dead, and few things are more attractive to employers nowadays than individuals who invest in themselves and commit to growth.

5.   Be Bold

When opportunities come up, jump on them. Be ready to trust a feeling that says “volunteer for that project” when it scares the hell out of you. Growth doesn’t happen in your comfort zone.

When you were hired initially, leadership saw qualities in you that they were confident would bring value to the team. In most cases, that will not have changed, and you will only have honed your skills further. You have the ability to be great, you just need to use it.