You are going to have an interview. Great. Consider Researching the company

You are going to have an interview. Great. You have been successful in moving closer to getting a job position.

Research the company

While you are waiting for the interview, you could consider researching the company. The research may help you in the interview. You can also evaluate this potential employer to see if you want to be an employee at that potential employer.
Here are some places you could consider researching on the Internet to find more information about the company.

Web Site of Company

Web Site–many companies nowadays will have a website of their company on the Internet. The company website can be a valuable source of information. You could evaluate questions like:

• What does the company do? (Who are the customers of the company’s services? What types of problems is the company trying to solve?)
• The company history (when was the company established? Why was the company created?)
• How well is the website web constructed? Does the structure make sense?
• Is the content on the website high quality? Does the content on the website make sense?
• Are the links on the website accurate?
• Does it appear that the website is current and up to date?

The website is often the front entrance to a business; how the business creates its website can give an impression on how the company presents itself to the public.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn–LinkedIn is a professional career social media website. People can sometimes find connections with other people in their profession and find opportunities. Companies will sometimes create their LinkedIn page where they describe themselves. You may find more about the company by reading a company’s LinkedIn page.
(The company may give you the ability to “follow” them–if you are interested in the company, “follow” the company so you can get more information about the company).

Reviews

Reviews–you may find out reviews on a potential company. Reviews can come from two sources: employees of the company (both past and current) and customers.

Employees of the company (both past and current)
Employees of a company may give reviews on the working conditions of working at that potential employer. You may gain ideas about what the working environment of that company may be. To find employee reviews, you can look at:

Indeed.com (www.indeed.com)
You can go to a website called indeed.com. Indeed.com, a job website where people can find job openings. Indeed.com will also provide reviews to learn more about a company. You can type on www. Indeed.com and then click the link called “Company reviews.”

Glassdoor.com (www.glassdoor.com)
You can go to a website called Glassdoor.com. Glassdoor.com is a job website where people can find job openings. Glassdoor.com will also provide reviews that people can use to learn more about a company. You can search for the company you are interested in and type in the word “Reviews.”

(You may have to create an account and give your reviews on companies you have worked at gaining access to the information–to create an account and leave your reviews are free).

Customers Reviews

Customers can use the Internet to leave reviews.
You can see how well the companies relate to their customers.
You can do a Google search and type in the potential company along with the word “reviews.”
You may get information on different links that may provide review information.
Some potential employers will have a description that will appear on the right side of the screen.
The description will often have a feature called “Google Reviews”–you can click on this link to gain more information on what customers have said about the potential business.

YouTube

YouTube is a website that allows people to post videos that the public can see. Companies may create their own YouTube channel that will have videos that will give information about the company. You may gain insights into a business by looking up videos on YouTube about that company.

News Media

You may also learn more about a company by seeing if that potential company is in the news. And if so, what is the news coverage? You can do a Google search and type in the name of the potential company and then type in words that relate to news. Words could include “news coverage, TV coverage, radio coverage, or media coverage.” You may find articles that give information about that potential employer.

Evaluate the information you read

Like all information that you read on the Internet, be sure to evaluate the information to see if that information may be helpful for your needs. Since any organization can produce anything on the Internet, you will want to assess the information that you read.

You are going to have an interview. Great. You may find it helpful to learn more about that potential employer through research.

Live Your Life Learning Blog

Happy Thanksgiving (for those in the United States)

Thanksgiving here in the United States; so, I will do a blog post next week.

Thanks to everyone reading, listening and watching.  Your support is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Enjoy your time this week – and have a good week.

See you next week with another post.

Live Your Life Learning Blog

Remote work is here, and it is growing

Different Trends

There can be different trends or patterns in society; one trend or pattern has been the growth of working remotely; the work can be completely remote that is works entirely at a person home or a hybrid situation where a person sometimes works at home some of the time and then goes to the office the other part of the time.

Statistics on the Remote Industry for work at home

The following article explains some statistics that describe the remote work industry:

Article Title: The Ultimate List of Remote Work Statistics for 2021
Author: Jack Steward
Updated: Oct 27, 2021
https://findstack.com/remote-work-statistics/
          (One statistic describes that since 2009, the number of people who work remotely has grown 159%).

YouTube Video on Work at Home Real Time with Bill Maher

Remote work is here to stay and growing; a video that describes how the work area has changed can be found in the following video:

YouTube Title: Kevin O’Leary: They’re Never Coming Back | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
YouTube Publisher: Real Time with Bill Maher
Published: Nov 12, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5nQwF4EJA
          (Talked about how people want to have arrangements where people can work remotely or at least sometimes).

Remote work appears to be growing and will be a factor in career decisions for the future. For those who want to know more about the industry of remote work, here are some written materials that describe the remote work industry.

Industry Reports/Annual Reports

Article Title: State of Remote Work
Published: Owl Labs
Collection of Annual Reports on Remote work from 2020 to 2017
https://resources.owllabs.com/state-of-remote-work

Article Title: The 2021 State of Remote Work:
Top insights and data from one of the largest remote work reports.
Published: Buffer.com
https://buffer.com/2021-state-of-remote-work

Article Title: What next for remote work: An analysis of 2,000 tasks, 800 jobs and nine countries
Published: McKinsey & Company
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/whats-next-for-remote-work-an-analysis-of-2000-tasks-800-jobs-and-nine-countries

Article Title: PwC’s US Remote Work Survey:
It’s time to reimagine where and how work will get done
Published: PWC
https://www.pwc.com/us/en/library/covid-19/us-remote-work-survey.html

Article Title: Remote Work Guide
A comprehensive guide to the world of remote work.
Published: Wrike
https://www.wrike.com/remote-work-guide/

Remote work is here to stay; and will probably continue to grow with time.

I plan to focus on future articles on remote work and ways people can earn an income from home. If people want to give their thoughts about remote work or making an income from home, you can e-mail me at helpfulfeedback@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading. Thank you.

Live Your Life Learning Blog

How do you stay motivated? Here are eight ways to help reduce burnout

You may have some goals that you may want to accomplish. For example, a person may have the goal for a successful remote career or a successful home business.

You may sometimes feel burnout related to a goal.

Here are eight ways to help reduce burnout.

• Visualize the goal of success–visualize what success will be. What image do you have in your head that would be a success for you? You can have that vision lead you towards your goal.
• Take Breaks–work towards your goals but take breaks away at specific periods to regain your energy.
• Try not to have only one exclusive goal–but try to have a few goals you are trying to achieve. You can increase the odds of success by having a group of goals to go after rather than just one goal. You can avoid putting all your eggs in one basket. With having a group of goals to go after, you can increase the likelihood of success. An idea related to this–be careful not to have so many goals that you spread yourself out thin in attempting to accomplish them all.
• Do goals you enjoy–try to have some goals you are trying to achieve by those you enjoy doing.
• Social Support System–have social supports from other people that can support your goals. You may find people who will listen to your goals and give you support. Be careful not to dominate conversations where you only talk and care about your goals and not listen to the goals of others. You may find your social network relatively small as a result if you do this.
• Celebrate the success–take time to celebrate your accomplishments. You may find it helpful to divide a large goal into smaller goals that lead to the success of the larger goal. For example, you may have the goal of a large income for your home business.

You can create smaller goals like:

• Celebrate your first sale
• Celebrate your first return customer
• Celebrate your first website
• Celebrate your first social media post
• Celebrate your business revenue goals
• Celebrate the business anniversaries

Celebrate the time when you achieve success with your goals.

• Get exercise–You may find exercises that can help you stay in shape and reduce stress.
• Define goals as activates you can control rather than desired end results – you may find it helpful to define success on activities you can control rather than the desired result of a goal. For example, when job searching for a remote job, you may have the goal of results like:
• I will have these many interviews at a specific time
• I will have these many job offers at a particular time.

Redefine the goal to be activities you can control to help you achieve the desired results.  For example, if you are searching for a remote job position. You can define the activities like:

• I will send out so many cover letters at a specific time
• I will call so many potential employers over the phone at a particular time.
• I will spend so many hours in the job search at a specific time.

By defining the activities as your goal, you help reduce the feeling of failure if you cannot achieve the result you want by a particular time period.  The success of doing the activity may help you achieve the desired goal in the long run.

You may have many goals; you may sometimes have burnout when going after a particular goal.  Here are eight ways to help reduce burnout.

Live Your Life Learning Blog

Salary Information: Do you know how much they should pay you?

Many people will work in a variety of different careers as they pursue a remote job. Salaries will be different for different remote careers.

Many people will work in a variety of different careers as they pursue a remote job. Salaries will be different for different remote careers.

You may find it valuable to know the salary range for a particular remote career; you may find the salary information helpful in deciding upon a specific job and helping you negotiate a salary with a potential employer.

Here are some places on the Internet that you can find salary information.

Indeed.com
          Indeed.com is a website that provides job positions people can explore; Indeed.com also includes salary information. You can find out salary information on Indeed.com.
          Here where you can find salary information on Indeed.com
          Go to Indeed.com
          Then you will see a link on the top part of the screen called “Find Salaries.”
          Click the “Find Salaries” link.
          Then you can type in the career field and location to find the average salary for that occupation. You can type in the job title you want to explore and then type in the word “Remote” or “United States” (type in the word “remote” will translate the location as “United States”).

Glassdoor.com
          Glassdoor is a website that provides job openings and employee reviews on potential employers. Glassdoor will also provide salary information. Here is where you can access salary information.
          Go to Glassdoor: www.glassdoor.com.
          You may have to create an account or log in to access the information
You will then have different links on top of the screen, including the “Salaries” link.
          Click the “Salaries” link.
          Then you will have three choices.
Discover salaries–tell you the information about salaries in occupations
Salary Calculator–let you know the salary rate information for specific employers
Add a Salary–you can add salary rate information into the Indeed.com database using information from your present (or past) employers.

For this example, let use the “Discover Salaries” option
Click the “Discover Salaries” option
Then you can type in the career that interests you and then type in the word “remote” for the location.
You will get a choice of whether you want Remote (work from home) or Remote, OR choices. Select the “Remote (work from Home)” option.
You will then get information on the salary rate of a particular occupation.

Occupational Outlook Handbook
          The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a two-year federal government publication that gives information on the major career fields of the United States. 
          Go to Occupational Outlook Handbook (https://www.bls.gov/ooh/)
          You can read career information on particular careers.
          You access a particular career either by typing in a word search or browsing by category.
          For this example, let do a browse by category.
          You will see different categories on your left
          For this example, select the category “Business and Financial Occupations.”
          Then you will see some specific occupations in the Business and Financial Occupations category.
          Then select the choice “Training and Development Specialists.”
          You will then get more information on the Training and Development Specialist profession.
          You will have a series of box links on the top part of the screen to give specific information on the Training and Development Specialist career.
          For this example, select the “Pay” box link.
          You will then have a screen that will give information on the Training and Development Specialist profession salary information.

Salary rate information may be valuable to you. You can use the information to help choose a career. You may also use the information to negotiate a salary with a potential employer.

The purpose of the content is to provide insight, research, and opinion, not to provide professional, legal, or tax advice. Please see an individual expert for individual guidance

Thanks for listening.

Live Your Life Learning Blog

Corporate Culture: Are you a good “fit”?

Companies will have different cultures. You can find many definitions of corporate culture. Your search for “corporate culture” on search tools like Google or YouTube, and you will find a variety of different responses. I like the definition given from the website called Investopedia (https://www.investopedia.com/). Investopedia defined Corporate Culture as:

“Corporate culture refers to the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’s employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. Often, corporate culture is implied, not expressly defined, and develops organically over time from the cumulative traits of the people the company hires.” (from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corporate-culture.asp)
(By Evan Tarver published on September 02, 2021)

Companies will have a corporate culture that will serve as an internal system of how people act and work towards others outside the company.

People want to be a part of a company that positively corporate culture. A company that does not treat people as a (Bleep) (Bleep).

But beyond the basic idea that a company treats its people well, is the company you consider a good fit for you?

Well, maybe–each company will have its own unique culture; each company will have its united traits and characteristics that make it operate. People will also vary in what features and attributes they will value in a particular company. So, each person will be different in what particular company culture they value. You can take the same company–and one person may enjoy the company culture, and another person may not like the company culture. Company culture can vary in ways like:

• Education opportunities–some companies may offer people more educational/training opportunities more than others.
• Flexible schedules–some companies may offer more flexible schedules more than others.
• Practical jokes (doing pranks) – Some companies may value practice jokes (doing pranks) while other companies do not allow practical jokes (or pranks).
• Competitive from within – Some companies may value a highly competitive environment; where employees directly compete against each other.
• Cooperation from within–some companies may value collaboration with each other.

Evaluate a company culture

So, you want to evaluate the company culture to determine if the company may be a good “fit” for you.

Ok, you may ask, how do you determine that?

One way is to find out information from the company, try to find out how the company operates, and learn more about the company’s corporate culture. You can try the following methods to learn more about a company’s culture using the following tools.

You can look at a company’s

• Look at what materials that company has produced for itself on the Internet–can look at a company’s website, YouTube Channel, LinkedIn page, and other bits of information that may be out there on the Internet universe the company has already produced.
• News media–look at what news coverage there is on the company
• Interview–when you interview for a potential employer’s job position, the potential employer is evaluating you, but you also assess that potential employer. You may get an insight into how the company operates.
• Reviews–you may look at both employee reviews (both past and present) and customer reviews on the company. You may use tools like Glassdoor.com and indeed.com to look at how employees review a company. You may use Google search to find out customer reviews for a company.
• You can do a Google search and type in the company name and the word “culture” to see what information you can find.

You may use these techniques to determine more information about a company and determine if your potential employer’s corporate culture is the correct “fit” for you.

Live Your Life Learning Blog

Reviews – May help to avoid working for a company that is a (Bleep) (Bleep)

Movies. Do you enjoy movies?

I know I do. Or more specifically, I enjoy some movies and some movies I do not want.

Question: How do you know what movies to see and what movies not to see?
Answer: Use Movie reviews

Reviews
I find reviews can be a tool that can help people. Reviews can give you more information about the movie. Movie reviews can provide more information about a film to help you determine if you wish to see the film or not.

The same for a potential employer
Reviews on companies from current and past employees can give a person additional information on a potential employer. The review may provide more details about the inner culture of that company.

Evaluate the information
You need to evaluate the reviews you read – you have to assess the information, like all information you may read.

Places you can find employee company reviews
Here are some places that you can find reviews about working for a potential company.

Indeed.com

Indeed.com is a website that lists job positions. A person can access Indeed.com to find job openings that may work for them. Indeed.com gives access to reviews on companies.

Here are some different ways to access company reviews.

Go to indeed.com
Indeed.com gives you different ways to access reviews.

Browse Companies (towards the bottom of the screen)
You can scroll down to the bottom of the page.
You will then see the link that says “Browse Companies.”
You will then get a “Browse companies by name” screen.
You use the company name and the alphabet to find the company information.
You then may find company reviews once you find the company.

“Company Reviews” link (towards the top of the screen)
On top of the Indeed.com home screen, you will see a link that says “Company Reviews.”
Click the link “Company Reviews.”
You then will get a screen that says, “Find great places to work: Get access to millions of company reviews” you can search for a company in the search box name “Company name or job title.”
Type in the company name, and you may find review information.

Job Positions
You may access review information directly from a job position
When you see a particular job position, you can see the company name under the job title.
Next to the company’s name, you can see
a number (for the job position on the left part of the screen) or
the words “reviews” (for the job position on the right part of the screen)
You can click the number or the word “reviews” to find review information about the company.

Glassdoor (www.glassdoor.com)

Glassdoor is a website that gives information about jobs; people can access Glassdoor to find job positions.
Glassdoor will also allow you to access reviews about the company.
Go to www.glassdoor.com.
You then will need to create an account to access the information (accounts are free).
You then will have a screen giving a search box on top of the screen
Type in the company you want more information on.
You will then get a short menu under the search box.
One choice will be “Reviews.”
Select that choice, and you may find review information.

Google

You can type in Google for company review information.

Employee review
To find employee review information, type the company’s name you want to find information on along with the phrase “Employee review.” You may then get choices of employee review information on that company.

Customer reviews
You may also find it helpful to find customer review information on that company; what do customers think about the company.
You can type in the company you want to find information on and then type in the word “review.” You may find customer review information on a company.

Reviews from employees (past and current) may give you information about a company. Reviews may help you from working for an employer who is a (Bleep) (Bleep).

Live Your Life Learning Blog

Calendly and Job-Hunting: Perfect Partners. Used in sales, so why not job-hunting?

Calendly is a tool used in sales to have prospects make appointments with salespeople. Salespeople use Calendly to increase the odds the prospect will make an appointment. If Calendly works in sales, why not job hunting?

Problem with phone messages

Have you ever had the following occur?

• Your phone rings, but you cannot pick it up. You check your voice mail later to hear a message from someone asking you to call them.
• You call the person from the voice mail, except the person not available, so you leave a voice-mail message on their phone asking that the other person call you back.
• The other person calls you back, but you are unavailable, so the other person leaves a voice mail message asking you to call them.
• You call them, and they are not available, so you leave a voice mail message on their phone.

And so, the pattern continues, you and the other person play a game of phone tag where each person cannot reach the other person.

Is there are a way to reduce the odds of playing phone tag?

Well, yes, you may solve the phone tag with the following solution.
The solution is using a website called Calendly www.calendly.com

Calendly allows you to have another person schedule an appointment by which you can meet the other person. You specify the time frames by which you can accept an appointment, and the other person can make an appointment to see you. Calendly can connect people without the game of phone tag.

Calendly works in the following way:

• You create an account on Calendly at the website www.calendly.com
• You then create an event page to describe the event and the time frames by which you can accept an appointment. The event page will be the screen that another person will see when they make an appointment to see you.
• You then will get an Internet link that will connect to your event page.
• You then can use the Internet link in communication with a potential employer. The potential employer can use the Internet link to connect with your event page.
• The potential employer then could make an appointment to see you using Calendly.

Calendly may work with a potential employer when you are using e-mail (or other similar communications that will support Internet links). Calendly may also work for resumes and cover letters where the complete Internet address link is listed; a potential employer may copy the link into a web browser and then be able to see your event page.  The potential employer could then make an appointment.

YouTube explains Calendly

We can find a YouTube video that explains how to use Calendly at:

YouTube Title: How to use Calendly – Tutorial for Beginners (2020)
YouTube Publication When: June 11, 2020
YouTube Channel: Simpletivity

They used Calendly in sales to encourage potential leads to make an appointment with the salesperson; you may use Calendly to have a potential employer make an appointment with you.

Live Your Life Learning Blog

Have a spare: ideas for using the Internet to make money, job search, or a combination of both

Imagine:

You have a flat tire.

You are driving down the street, and you notice you have a flat tire.
So, you go to the side of the road and use a spare tire to get back on the road quickly.

Sometimes in life, having a spare replacement can be helpful.

When you are doing your job hunting, or make your living online, or a combination of both, you may find it valuable to have a spare, a replacement to get you back on the Internet. Extra replacements in the following may be helpful.

Computer

You may find it valuable to have a spare computer. You may find it helpful to have an extra computer in case your computer fails. You may find a moderately priced laptop computer that will serve your needs.

Telephone

You may find it to your advantage to have a spare telephone in case your phone fails. The extra phone can help you connect with people quickly if your phone fails. You may find a pre-paid phone helpful as an option to keep costs down.

If you use a pre-paid phone, make sure your plan is current

If you use a pre-paid phone, ensure you have enough data, text, and messages in storage to communicate with clients and potential employers.
You will not want to be in the middle of a vital conversation to suddenly end, for you ran out of minutes on your pre-paid phone.

Internet connection

You may find it helpful to have options to re-connect to the Internet if your original Internet connection fails. You can consider the following ideas:

Wi-Fi Hotspot

A Wi-Fi Hotspot is another route by which you can access the Internet for your computer.
YouTube video that explains a hotspot is:

YouTube Title: What is a Hotspot?
YouTube Date: Nov 10, 2019
YouTube Channel: PowerCert Animated Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktxC3vDukbc

Ways to have a Wi-Fi Hotspot

You may have options in finding a Wi-Fi Hotspot that may work for you. Below are some ideas. You can also search Google using a phrase like “Wi-Fi Hotspots options.” to gain ideas.

You May Need a Mobile Data Plan

You may need mobile data to plan to access the Internet with your Wi-Fi Hotspot.  You can search Google with the phrase “Mobile Internet plans for hotspots” for options:

Here are some ideas to have Wi-Fi hotspots.

Your Smartphone

You may use your smartphone as a Wi-Fi Hotspot.
YouTube video that gives ideas is:

YouTube Title: How to Turn Your Phone into a Wi-Fi Hotspot
YouTube Publishing Date: Apr 16, 2021
YouTube Channel: PCMag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fZG-HtoTbY

Your Computer

You may use your computer as a Wi-Fi hotspot device. Check your individual computer for capabilities to see if this is an option.

A YouTube video that gives ideas is

YouTube Title: How To Turn Windows 10 Computer Into a Wi-Fi Hotspot | Create Wi-Fi Hotspot in Windows 10
YouTube Publishing Date: Apr 5, 2020
YouTube Publisher: ProgrammingKnowledge2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOa25gIAmnQ

Portable Mobile Wi-Fi Device

You can get Portable Mobile Wi-Fit Device to create a Wi-Fi hotspot that you can use to access the Internet.
YouTube video that gives ideas is:

YouTube Title: Best Portable and Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspots in 2021 [Tested & Reviewed]
YouTube Date: May 3, 2020
YouTube Channel: TechEmpire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX1zRWZaAy4

You may find it helpful to have spare devices when using the Internet for job searching, making a living from the Internet, or combining both. A spare can make it possible to recover when something goes wrong and get back to what you were doing.

Live Your Life Learning Blog

Sales Cadence – ideas for follow up for job hunting

Learn from Sales/Recruiting
I sometimes learn more about the job process by reading about sales/recruiting (I am not a recruiter or Human Resources (HR) person myself).  The following are my guesses of what I think can improve a job search.

Sales Cadence
I read about a concept called sales cadence. 
We can describe sales cadence as:
“a sales cadence is a sequence of different sales activities and methods whose main idea is to establish a contact with a prospect, engage them, and nurture them into becoming your customer. What’s also an indispensable part of any sales cadence is a timeline, that is a frequency of these activities.” (p. 86)
From the Ultimate Cold Email Outreach Playbook by Autoklose.  (From https://autoklose.com/books/cold-email-playbook/)

As I understand it, sales cadence is a schedule set along a timeline composed of different ways to contact a prospect. The timeline goes from initial contact to follow-up. The goal of the contacts is to change a prospect into a paying customer. The major methods of contact were the phone and e-mail. An important concept was a follow-up from the initial contact to increase the prospect’s odds of becoming a paying customer.

Could Sale Cadence apply to Job Hunting?
Could there be an ideal “sales cadence” schedule for job hunters? Is there an optimal timeline of activities that a person could do to move a job application to an interview??

My thoughts about the timeline for job-Hunting
Here are my thoughts about a timeline to move from job applicant to interview (not covering steps after an interview).

Get the name for the cover letter (first two contacts with a potential employer)
(Skip the step if already have a name for a cover letter)

• 1^st contact with a potential employer
  Send an e-mail to Human Resources (or recruiting) to find the name for a cover letter.

• 2^nd contact with a potential employer
  (After some time) – if you do not receive any information, follow up e-mail with a phone call to Human Resources (or recruiting) to find the name for a cover letter.

(You may not be successful in finding a name to a cover letter)

Apply for the Job Position (3^rd contact with a potential employer)
Fill out an application to apply for the job position
At the same time, also send out an e-mail to your potential boss

Follow up with E-mail (4^th contact with a potential employer)
(If you hear nothing after some time)
Follow-up with an application with an e-mail
(E-mail your potential boss if known otherwise someone in Human Resources/Recruiting)

Follow–up with Phone Call (5^th contact with a potential employer)
(If you hear nothing after some time)
Follow–up with a phone call
(Call your potential boss if known otherwise someone in Human Resources/Recruiting)

So, these could be five potential contacts you could make with a potential employer to move a job application to an interview. You may be able to use a table to track your progress in the job search.
Thoughts of mine on how to improve the job search through follow-up  – what are your thoughts. Let me know by writing an e-mail message to helpfulfeedback@yahoo.com.

Live Your Life Learning Blog