How to make your home office setup work better for you

How to make your home office setup work better for you by Amber Rolfe Need a better home office? Pull up a chair…  With many of us having to work from home for a while, you might find that makeshift office setup in the form of your dining room table, sofa, or bed just isn’t cutting it. Where you work has a serious effect on your productivity and wellbeing, so it’s vital to create an area that makes you feel calm, comfortable, and able to carry out your work effectively.  To make sure your home workspace has everything you need, here are our top tips on how to make your home office setup work better for you:  Put practicality above aesthetics  OK, we get it. You want to make your home office look great.  And when it comes to appearance alone, those picturesque home office designs you see on Pinterest are practically a must-have. But whilst they might look good on your Instagram feed, they might not be the most practical of solutions.  So before you paint your walls bright red, start a search for a dining room chair made out of distressed wood, and buy an original vintage desk, ask yourself if these things will actually make you comfortable.  Is that desk going to fit anything more than a laptop and one single pen? Could you actually sit in that chair for eight hours a day?  Remember: this area needs to spark productivity, not a bad back. So think ergonomically; sit up straight, don’t arch your back, and make sure your screen is in clear view. Your body will thank you.  How to: Ask for flexible working hoursFocus on placement    When it comes to creating the perfect home office setup placement is key.  If possible, choose an area that has lots of natural light. By placing your desk in front of or adjacent to a window, you’ll not only have something to look at when you’ve hit a brick wall, but you’ll also be able to give your eyes regular breaks from screen-time.  If you don’t have access to much natural light, introducing standing or table lamps into your workspace could also make it much eas ier to concentrate. Not to mention make your workspace feel instantly cosier.In addition to good lighting, it’s equally important to choose somewhere quiet where you’re not likely to get interrupted.  Because chatty housemates, a loud washing machine, or a blaring TV aren’t the kinds of things thatll make you look good on a conference call.  Five benefits of flexi time workingStock up on supplies  So you’ve created what seems like the perfect workspace. The only problem is, you keep having to get up to find a pen.  To reduce the urge to wander off whether it’s around the house, or online make sure you have everything you need within close proximity of your desk.  Think pens. Think post-it notes. Think paper. Think headsets. Think snacks. Because nobody wants to be that one person who’s late for a call because they were busy searching for working headphones.This might also mean looking into creative storage solutions.  Bookcases, drawers, wire organisers, and filing cab inets are a great place to store your essentials, and will stop you from tripping over when you enter the room (not to mention create a stylish backdrop for video conferences).  Work from home jobsDeclutter often  It’s week two of work from home, and you seem to have acquired a whole lot of clutter. Do you need it all? Probably not. Have you kept it there just in case it comes in handy? Yes.  Whilst there will always be some essentials you’ll have to keep nearby, it’s likely that your desk will only fuller as time goes on which makes regular decluttering an important task.  Set some time aside at the end of each week to sort through your things, and figure out what you need to keep, what you need to put away, what you need to dispose of, and what you need to move.  Whether it’s old notes you no longer have a use for, printouts you used for past meetings, or one of your kid’s toys (for some reason), there’s probably a better place for it than your desk.    So unleash you r inner Marie Condo. If it doesn’t spark joy, get it outta there.  Create a cosy space    Your desk is for work and work alone.  But what about those times where you have to be creative, read, or think of new ideas? If you try doing that at the same place you interact with your colleagues and carry out tasks, you might find yourself struggling to get into the right headspace.  So if you’re able to, it’s a good idea to create a separate area even if it’s just in the form of an armchair or a beanbag a couple of metres away from your desk to give yourself a change of scenery if you get a mental block.  Even if you can’t find space for this, it’s still important to get up and move around whether it’s just walking around the room, to another area of the house, or to the garden.    This will ensure you’re always refreshing your thoughts and getting out of your own head which you might find is commonplace while you’re working at home alone.  How to work from homeHow t o manage workers remotelyStill searching for your perfect position? View all available jobs 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 terms and conditions applicable to our service and acknowledge that your personal data will be used in accordance with our privacy policy and you will receive emails and communications about jobs and career related topics. COVID-19 and work Flexible working Work from home jobs

Optician Job Description Sample - Algrim.co

Optician Job Description Sample - Algrim.co Optician Job Description Template Download our job description template in Word or PDF format. Instant download. No email required. Download Template Using Your Template Follow these instructions to use your new job description template Step one: Fill out all details in your job description template using the provided sample on this page. Step two: Customize your requirements or duties to anything special to your workplace. Be sure to speak with team members and managers to gauge what's required of the position. Step three: When the census of the team has agreed on the description of the work, add in a Equal Employment Opportunity statement to the bottom of your job description. Step four: Check with your legal department, management team, and other team members to ensure the job description looks correct before creating a job advertisement. Choose a job board that's specific to your needs.

Want a Job in Recruitment 6 Must Have Skills

Want a Job in Recruitment 6 Must Have Skills Very few kids dream of one day being on the phone all day pitching jobs to strangers. Yet a great deal of people have tried their hand at recruitment at some stage in their career. Most people actually stumbled upon recruitment by accident and were tempted by the gold and glory. The good news is that it’s relatively easy to be given a chance in recruitment, firms experience a big churn of recruitment hopefuls every year and most rookies do not make it beyond the first year. This is one of the reasons recruiters sometimes have a less than great reputation, a lot of juniors fighting for the same business will inevitably lead to dodgy tactics. Don’t let this scare you off though, if you have decent sales skills and willing to put the hard work in you could be handsomely remunerated. As for salary, the rule is that working for a small company means a low basic, high commission and no benefits to write home about. The reverse ratios, high basic salary and low commission, apply for large companies and the benefits tend to be generous. The lower basic salary means the smaller firms tend to be more aggressive in taking gambles on juniors, the risk is only as high as the basic is low. 6 skills required to make it in recruitment: 1. Salesy nature Can you sell sand in the Sahara? There are no fewer than three sales cycles in one recruitment process; getting the vacancy from the client, getting the interest from the candidate and finally bringing them together and making a placement. The ability to present opportunities and candidates in the best light is critical to success; placements do not happen by themselves and sales skills are the most important key to success. 2. Match maker Ever set up blind dates for friends? To be successful at recruitment you have to be a good matchmaker. You have to be solution oriented and understand your marketplace. You should have the ability to spot opportunities for making placements before the client, candidate and competitors have realised it. 3. Communication skills Can you talk the hind legs off a donkey? You have to have great  communication skills and speak with conviction when selling your services to clients and jobs to candidates. To be the tenth recruiter calling a client in one week is not a fantastic gig. It really requires you to stand out so that they take the time to hear you out. Your ability to create relationships with everyone in the market is crucial, just like in any service sales job. 4. Positivity Are you a constant happy camper? A positive attitude is required to get you through those dark days when neither client nor candidate seem to be biting your hooks. Do not be afraid of rejection, you will notice that for every Yes you will get five No. This is a numbers game and the pay offs will come through sheer hard work. 5. IT literate Know how to use the format painter? A good recruiter is always tech savvy. The world of recruitment is run on computer software, the Interwebs is the main source of information. The successful recruiter has to be comfortable with candidate tracking systems, job boards, online networking platforms and other technology. Clients have very sophisticated search and portal systems nowadays; candidates are all over LinkedIn so it’s about being one step ahead. 6. A bit bonkers Chasing people that don’t want to speak with you day out and day in does require some degree of madness, no matter how positive you stay. There might be lots of cash to be made in recruitment but be under no illusions that its easy money, as my old boss used to say. As long as you know it’s a ‘special’ job and accept it for what it is, you will be fine. Do you think you have what it takes? Next time you speak to a recruiter, ask them about their job and see if they have any vacancies. Even if recruitment is not your calling, a spell in this weird and wonderful world can do your career a world of good as it is so multifaceted and challenging. Have a go and see what you think. In case you don’t like it you can always use your new recruiting skills to land yourself a new job or start a blog about it like some folks do… What skills you would like to add? Related:  How To Spot a Good Recruiter From a Bad Recruiter

The Promote Yourself Podcast Episode 2 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

The Promote Yourself Podcast Episode 2 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Welcome to the second episode of the  Promote Yourself Podcast  (Subscribe on iTunes). It is a weekly show airing every Monday, giving you the best career advice, the latest workplace trends and access to today’s brightest stars in business. Sponsor:  Moo.com is an online printer offering premium business cards, MiniCards. stickers and more. For listeners of this podcast, if you go to  Moo.com/podcast  you will save 10% on your next order! Now it’s time for the show. This weeks show Segment #1: My top 3 workplace trends of the week Colleges are losing pricing power. Social networking time consumption. Companies aren’t focusing on Gen Y leadership development. Segment #2: QA This week’s question comes from Moussa Hassoun on  Twitter. He asks: “I wonder how my blogging on political/social issues will affect my candidacy for jobs/law school. Thoughts?” Segment #3: Guest interview This week I speak to  Gary Vaynerchuk, who is the New York Times bestselling author of both  Crush It!  and  The Thank You Economy. Gary has a multi-million dollar social media agency called Vaynermedia, which he co-founded with his brother AJ. They currently consult for brands like PepsiCo and the NY Jets (which he wants to own someday). He’s made TV appearances on Ellen, Conan and The Today Show. In our interview, he talks about the biggest tech trends of 2013, the latest projects he’s been working on and his predictions for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Author: Dan Schawbel  is the Founder of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm. He recently made the  Forbes Magazine  30 Under 30 list and his second book called Promote Yourself: The New Art of  Getting Ahead  is due out in the Fall of 2013 by St. Martin’s Press. He is offering an online course called “Build Your Personal Brand in 4 Easy Steps.”

Do Executive Job Seekers Need LinkedIn Premium - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

Do Executive Job Seekers Need Premium

12 Ways to Measure Your Job Search Progress - Hire Imaging

12 Ways to Measure Your Job Search Progress - Hire Imaging My client, Mary, was a very smart lady. She was in an active job search, and said she was following all my coaching advice. “Great,” I said. “How many face-to-face meetings did you have this week, and how many applications do you have active right now?” “Face-to-face meetings?” she asked. “Active applications?” “Yes,” I answered. “How many people did you look in the eye and shake hands with this week, and how many recent applications do you have where you’ve applied and they have not yet dinged you â€" that letter that lets you know you are not under consideration?” “I didn’t meet anyone this week, she offered. No one’s called me for an interview yet. But I’ve applied to five jobs to date.” “Then you’re not following my coaching advice,” I said. “With all respect, could you have done that the first day of your search? Couldn’t you apply to five jobs in two or so hours?” Mary agreed and wanted to know more about what that looked like. So, how do you know you’re doing a good job in your job search? You can be truly busy without anything really happening. Your computer talking to some company’s computer does not count. The most important thing to measure is actual interviews for jobs. Everything else is secondary. You need face time to get a job. And if you get interviews, you’ll get a job. If you don’t, you won’t. Every Sunday, evaluate the prior week and plan the coming week. Here’s what to measure: People you’ve met in person. That’s the number of people each week you look eye to eye and ask for help in your search. Make your goal a minimum of 3. You must leave the house. Have coffee with folks. Many of these meetings will not go anywhere. But they keep you sharp on articulating what you are looking for and what you offer. New postings you’ve applied for. Yes, this method has a statistically low ROI, but you still should apply for posted openings that you find match your interests and that you feel qualified for. Make it 10 brand-new applications a week as minimum. New people you’ve met online. Make it a minimum of 5. If you can’t meet 5 people online in a week, you should question your efforts. People you know will introduce you to people you don’t know! “Linking” and “Friending” don’t count, but exchanging emails with a responsive human being does. If you write to someone and he generates a thought-out reply just for you, that counts as “meeting someone” online. New organizations you’ve found that “might” have a job you want. Shoot for finding 10 new companies every week that might be able to hire you. Research on an ongoing basis to keep this number up. Once you decide on the type of job you’re after, you’ll be building lists of organizations that hire people to do that type of job. Ten might not seem enough. But once a company is on your list, you’ll address it over and over in many ways, so the work will have a domino effect  over time for each company on your active lists. Informational interviews you’ve had. That is a key hidden-job-market search technique. You want 2 informational interviews a week to run an effective campaign. Screening interviews with a real potential employer. A screening interview is a 5- to 10- minute interview by phone or in person to see if you’re a viable candidate for a position. That employer responded to your application for a posted position, or agreed to speak with you through networking. Though there’s no minimum, try to identify and count screening interviews, so you can calculate conversion rates (to follow). First interviews for a potential job. This includes interviews for posted openings and interviews with an organization that doesn’t have a posted opening but has agreed to meet with you about employing you. This is what counts! All your effort is designed to create more first interviews. Interviews get you jobs. This is the most important metric! Though there are variables with the type and level of job, if you have a robust search, you should be able to get 2 first interviews a week. Conversions. You should convert about half of your screening interviews spread to interview next steps. Likewise, you should be able to convert about half of your first interviews into steady interviews. Keep track of it! If you have lots of interviews for real possible jobs but you never get any callbacks or offers, you may have an interviewing issue to address. Follow-up interviews. It’s rare to be hired on first interviews. You may have two â€" or six, to land that offer. Success in staying alert and interested while getting callbacks is a crucial part of job search. Employers can take months to hire, and different people want to meet you. The search process itself may evolve, so lots of introductions and meetings are common. Count all your follow-up interviews for a possible job; it will help you keep track of which employers you need to note as time goes on. Open items. This is everyone you agreed to “check back with” by a certain date, every job you’ve applied to where they have not yet sent you a ding letter, everyone who said, “Why don’t you give us a call at the first of the month,” everyone who said, “We’ll let you know when we start interviewing,” and on. In any active job search, you should have dozens of these. Count them. Dings. Those are “possible jobs” for which you are rejected, plus active items that you now realize are dead. You should count your dings so you can see progress. Every time you get interviewed for a real potential job is a search success â€" whether you get a job offer or a ding letter â€" count them and celebrate them! Paradoxically, they demonstrate that you are doing many things right! Offers. And speaking of doing things right; if you are, you’ll start to get job offers. Some of them won’t be right for you, and you’ll decline them. Even those you decline are gratifying, so count them. Since most employers look at three finalists for every hire, average applicants should get an offer about one-third of the time they’re interviewed for a possible job. In my next post, I’ll lay out what this measurement looks like; and share more on assessing things! I always welcome your thoughts! Please comment below.

Questions to Ask About Resume Writing Service Hires

Questions to Ask About Resume Writing Service HiresMany people these days are opting to use a resume writing service. A resume writing service hire can get your resume polished and ready for printing. If you need assistance with an appropriate resume writing service, here are some questions you should ask.How much does the resume service cost? A good resume writing service will offer several packages ranging from a low cost basic service to more expensive packages with additional services like full service editing and the like. The package price should reflect the service that is provided and the time required to complete the job.What does the company need to provide to the companies need to hire them? There are a number of things that may be required when a company is hiring a resume writing service. These include the resume template, a sample cover letter, resumes and cover letters and samples of previous resumes they have done. You should also be able to get a copy of the contract or the agreement between the client and the writing service.How long will it take to complete the basic service? This will depend on the complexity of the project that you require and what the pace of the writing service is. But you should expect to wait a few weeks to receive a finished product.Who else is the company going to hire to write their resumes? When a company needs to hire a resume writing service here, they want someone who is familiar with their company and the products and services they offer. If you are seeking resume help, find someone who has been trained to handle this work.How long does the company have to pay to hire the writer? The company that you are looking at hiring should offer a deadline by which you must agree to have your resume completed. The deadline should be strict so as not to pay for any late work. If you do not meet the deadline, your resume will be put in limbo and you will have to begin your search all over again.How can I find a good resume w riter? The first place to start is by talking to former clients of the writer and making sure that they are happy with the service. If they feel that they got what they paid for, you should be able to call the company that they are doing work for and see if they would recommend them.You can even ask for samples of the type of resumes they have done for other clients, to see if they match the requirements of the job that you are trying to fill. By finding a good resume writing service hire you can be well on your way to landing that job you have been looking for.