Some new sites to check out

Great place to learn new stuff for those life- long learners out there- Independent Learning Centre-- www.ILC.org

Defend your reputation at this site-- reputation.com

For career resources and educational resources, go to iTunes and Youtube educational libraries

New sites for job and career planning

Here below are some new sites to check out for your career plan and job search:


1-Frasers.com- is an interesting site because it is a directory of Canadian manufacturing companies- a good one for research.


2- You can also take an inside look at companies and jobs through glassdoor.com. This site has tips for interviews and other great material for job search and the like.

3-Branchout.com is a different kind of site for career networking.

Good luck!

'Social Media now drives recruitment strategies for companies

More and more companies are using social media to win the war for recruiting the best talent.


The big four are: LinkedIn, Facebook ( career page), Twitter, and YouTube.

Google + though will eventually eclipse LinkedIn for finding the best talent.

Remember when you post anything on these sites that it can be viewed by current and future employers so always practice due diligence.

Reality check about who you are.....

Kelly Culrone in her book Normal Gets You Nowhere comments that you are unique as your fingerprint as deemed by our Creator.

We need to capitalize on this fact.

She advocates that you figure out who you are- your unique selling points and features, and get down to it; but bring conciseness and awareness along for the ride.

She also recommends that you be realistic about yourself and others, and not play the fool.

In other words, take off those rose -coloured glasses and get to work on your self- assessment, and your career and life plan that outlines your goals.

Canadian Discovery Portal-- for your research

www.canadiana.org is great new search engine that searches 60 million pages of info from library, museum, and archives collections from Canada.

Use it to get data for your career and employment research.

Business and Customer Trends Research

Here are two sites you might like to check out:



1. To do some serious customer trendwatching-- you can go to www.trendwatching.com & click on briefing


2.www.trendhunter.com is also a great site to some research as well.

Good luck..

Focus—An Acronym for Success

F-Forge on despite the obstacles you are facing. Believe that you are the power within yourself and keep on going. Do not give up.

O-Opportunize—look for opportunities in all situations you encounter.

C- Apply courage and go for your targeted, well -researched goals.

U Use your talent to the utmost best of your ability in well- researched targeted areas . Similarly, as in the movie Flash Dance—take your passion and make it happen.

S—Strategize with your mentors, mastermind group and network with a well- formulated plan. Realistically, go through your SWOT s- Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats with your mentors and mastermind group to develop this plan.

Online branding

Branding is about identifying your rainbow of talent and applying it with a plethora of passion in your well -researched target areas.

Your online brand should have the WOW factor but this needs to be accompanied by authenticity.

Your brand—your tag line for your online portfolio—has to be a ladle dropper. Like listening to Ted Koppul s great new stories, this tag line makes you drop your ladle as you are cooking in the kitchen and run to the TV set.

Book on Online Networkingt

Take the time to check out this book and its tips- Seven Days to Online Networking. 2008. Leverage the power of Social Media to achieve your goals.

Tips on maintaining your professional profile

To maintain your professional profile, remember to continually update your status on LinkedIn, your business profile on Facebook and Plaxo. Answer questions when you can and try to connect with those you can mentor or can mentor you.

Also, develop and maintain a professional blog at blogspot.com and wordpress.com

Good luck..

International Women s Day March 8 th

International Women s Day - March 8 th,which is celebrating its one hundred- year anniversary, is dedicated to all women , warriors in pink, who fight discrimination based on skin colour, gender, culture , age, religion, educational and socio-economic status, or simply their weight, or the colour of their hair.



Instead of being divided, we have to be united in our battle for equal status in the workplace, and in the world.



As we honour this significant day and remember all those who fought so hard so we may observe it, let us make a promise to ourselves that we may never turn away from another woman in need- no matter the circumstances involved.

Employment Law Sites

Here are some sites you might find helpful for your case--layoff or not-- it pays to investigate and make sure you get what you are entitled to by law.

1- Martin Gorodensky--www.dismissed.ca-- he has a free half-hour consultation

2- www.toronto-employment.com Daniel A. Lublin- Employment lawyer

3-Lawyer Referral Service- you can call them for a free half- hour to one hour appointment with an employment lawyer. Just specifically mention when you call them that you need to speak to an employment lawyer and the specific issue involved.

How to use LinkedIn strategically for your career

Here below is a great article on how to leverage LinkedIn for career purposes.


http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/career/how-to-use-linkedin-strategically/2734?tag=nl.e124

Good Luck.

Sites for business research and trends

A new year means new beginnings and that also means new research re: career and business trends.

Here are some great sites for business research and trends. You can also subscribe to ezines from them, when they are avaiable and timely updates.. Good luck

www.forbes.com

www.economist.com

www.canadianbusiness.com

www.businessweek.com

www.canada.com

Promote your career with online article writing

With the new year, it is also time again to promote your talents and competencies online. One way to do this is to write an article and submit it to a reputable site.

Here below are some sites to submit articles on various topics related to many types of fields, such as business and career sectors. Good luck.

http://www.ezinearticles.com

http://www.goarticles.com

http://www.ideamarketers.com

http://www.selfgrowth.com

http://www.submityourarticle.com

http://www.zeromillion.com

What is the colour of your grass

As we begin 2011, a lot of us make resolutions for change in our lives and yes, change is good, yet at the same time- to play the devil s advocate here- we have to reflect on what things we really genuinely should change in our lives.

To elaborate here,do you seriously believe that all the grass in your life is yellow. Something we sometimes simply have to come to terms with is that there is no perfect life, job, spouse, relationship, child or parent.

In other words, there is always going to be yellow and brown spots in our grass. This is something that we must take into account when making a major decision in our lives.

Yes, we all have heard of people who have made a drastic change in their lives—thinking that the grass is green over there only to find out that the grass was just as yellow over there. We often have used filters that coloured our experiences making the grass brown or yellow and so much more delectable on the other side... these filters often make us colour blind to the fact that our current grass is actually quite green exactly where we are. The filters have distorted the true picture for us thereby making us sometimes foolishly ponder a drastic and unwarranted change in our lives.

An epiphany is experienced when you realize that the grass is greener where you water it—in other words-- that only you and you alone are responsible for your life satisfaction and happiness. So sometimes you have to take out that hypothetical watering hose (vessel) and pour more efforts into your life to make that part of it green again.

We can look to others for inspiration and motivation in our watering efforts and how our water vessel is created. We also can journal to explore some of the issues that may be responsible for our yellow and brown spots. Depending on the situation, we can have conversations with loved ones, colleagues, coworkers, our life and work managers to get a deeper perspective on some of these issues.

With a more mature, seasoned perspective with the help of mentors, or life and career coaches, we can now look at our grass with as few of these filters as realistically possible.

Along with these efforts , we can with a little more initiative and patience ,slowly and purposefully, turn the grass green under our feet once again.

If we go through this contemplative and reflective process, better career and life decisions can made if we embrace and accept the reality that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Journalling and the year 2011

As we begin a new year, I thought it might be nice to revisit the benefits of journalling in my life and in others.. Journalling is a wonderful way of seeing your life- both professionally and personally in a different light.

So here again are the main benefits of journalling:

-getting clarity re: what you want in your life.

-Creating and setting boundaries.

-Ferreting out life goals.

-Beginning a journey to walking your own pathway.

-Tapping into your intrapersonal/ retrospective side by means of reflection.

-Helping you take yourself and others through the experiential learning cycle.


-Finding hidden talents and abilities within your authentic self

-Finding the positive strengths in yourself and others, and building on them

For a great guidebook on journalling, you can check out my journalling workbook at " A Year in Serendipity: A Journalling
Workbook"http://tinyurl.com/serendipityjournal .

All the best for 2011