Olympic Fever

The Olympics begin on the 27th... this Friday... We, the world, can see first hand the truth of the statement--- you are the power of your dreams-- by all those who are participating and who have worked so hard to get there. Let us experience the Olympic spirt they will personify and exercise it in our daily personal and professional lives. Let the Games begin!

Your own Arab Spring...

Today is the one- year anniversary of the beginning of the Arab Spring movement in Egypt and the Middle East. Is it time for you to begin your own Arab Spring in your professional life?

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

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..

Joining the Digital Revolution

The 21st century is ushering in the Digital World—gradually shifting from the analog world.. Even Canada is getting onboard building its national Digital Media Action Plan across the spectrum. One example is the Canadian Digital Media Network.

Universities are also now exploring Digital Media opportunities by blending together liberal arts, computer science and business marketing.

Likewise we need to have a Digital Media Plan for our career. Most positions are now found through such social networking sites as LinkedIn and Facebook. As such, it is crucial that we map out a strategy for our Digital Media Action Plan and consciously implement it with all our actions and updates on these sites, along with the other business and career apps that these sites offer.

Furthermore, in our current knowledge economy, we need to focus on sensitivity,intuition and willingness to collaborate. These factors have to be an integral part of our digital media strategy and part of our personal brand.
.Workopolis is also leveraging the power of the net & digital social media to help companies find new talent . In fact, Workopolis has redesigned its site offering a new service called Employer Brand Optimizer .

Workopolis audience numbers is about 15 million potential employees with the help of Facebook and Twitter—once again showing the power of Digital Social Media in action.



Moreover, Facebook has recently developed a career app that is making strides in developing and promoting your professional portfolio. LinkedIn also has updated its professional follow of companies apps.

Those persons who fail to join the Digital Generation – Revolution will fall behind in the competitive workplace and professional world of the 21st century.

Radio Canada on the Internet-- a great research resource

Radio Canada is a leader in Internet TV --Tou.TV--get full programming, catchup viewing and simultaneously webcasting.

Use this resource to keep up with the news for your career research and planning.

Sites for Research

Here are some sites for research in your career planning:


www.fumsi.com and www.freeprint.com.. Both of these sites provide practical help with info skills, and with company and trends research.

You can also check out Moreover Newsdesk-- it has the most news content from the Web.

These are definitely some sites you should bookmark.

Invest in Technology and Social Media

The world is flat, especially when looking at it with the perspective of using Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 for building and maintaining online communities and fostering valuable business relationships within any industry.

Recognize this fact and the world will be your oyster.

It is crucial to invest in technology, in particular specialized software that enables us to be more efficient in our competitive and ever-changing industries.

Tips and sites for doing R & D for your personal brand and career plan

To find a professional association for your career planning and research and development: type in Google or another search engine— but make sure the setting is programmed for Canadian content ,
Example: “ professional association + writer”..

Then, you will get a list of professional writers associations, from which you can explore job opportunities; professional development and events, trade shows, etc..

Other sites to peruse for research and development:

You can try goldbook.ca—biz search .. It is like the yellow pages…

Whois.com –enter web address.. whois.com for a “who is” search

Research workplace and business trends sites: thecareerclinic.com, working.com/resources, sbtv.com ,
o

Break out of the mold of mediocrity

Break out of the mold of mediocrity and develop your peripheral vision for job searching and career planning.

One way to do this is by transforming your attitude into action.
There is an old adage that says” Your attitude determines your altitude”.

Become a non-conformist by not using the traditional ways of getting a job. Mass emailing of your resume to companies on Workopolis.ca and Monster.ca is the pathway pursued by most people; and therefore you end up behaving like “ all the other job seekers”.

Prove yourself resourceful by abandoning the so-called“ the right way” approach to job hunting by substituting creative individualized behaviour that brings results!

Don’t pigeon hole yourself with rules.. Take off those tunnel vision glasses you are wearing and throw away “ the only right way” manual of rules!

Be proactive by :
1. Getting rid of your stereotypical thinking and list some alternatives
2. Accessing the risk factors
3. Picking the best bet of these and doing it.

Don’t focus on the words “ what if”, ‘maybe” or “ I’m not sure” .

If your attitude is that you believe you cannot do it, then you become paralyzed by this self-limiting belief; and this belief will be transformed into a sad reality.

Learn to become your own marketing expert. Success in your job searching and career planning is not spotting the latest trends, but is starting them!

You can package an idea and sell it to anyone by believing in yourself and if you can demonstrate that it will work by designing a logical and easy- to- implement plan of action.

Dr. Wayne Dyer refers to this theme in his book “Pulling Your Own Strings” as the creatively alive approach to overcoming adversity. I like to refer to it as cultivating your “Serendipity Quotient” by using adverse circumstances to nurture out-of-the-box thinking.

Dr. Dyer comments ‘Don’t say to yourself that imaginative approaches may be fine for others, but they could never work for you”.

In your unique value proposition, you are succeeding by doing it “ your way” with your unique talents and competencies that can specifically benefit the company/ organization. This is all in part of cultivating your Serendipity Quotient.

Put some effort into having fun by seeing how effective you can truly be!