?? 15 Good Conversation Starters Guaranteed to Make Networking Events Easy

?? 15 Good Conversation Starters Guaranteed to Make Networking Events Easy 685 Beat the biggest problem people have with networking events. Some ideas on how to break the ice at your next local business or job networking event or just on the street. After a recent all-day conference, I was about to head home when a friend there, Natasha Shine of Rounds, said she was on her way down the street for the evening networking event at another all-day conference.eval “Well… I'm pretty tired,” I told her. “Come on, you'll meet a lot of entrepreneurs,” she pushed back, and that was all it took.evaleval Good thing I went. I did meet a lot of entrepreneurs, including some in the job search and recruiting industries, plus others who were able to give me business feedback or even contact information for other people or companies that might be useful for me. How did I do it? Look for people who were standing alone so I wouldn't need to interrupt any conversations Start the conversation by asking how the conference had been, since I had been up the street at the first all-day conference That's it. It was an easy question to answer, and for the few people who had also missed the first part of the day like myself, they would just reply by asking how my own conference had been. How to start a conversation at networking events For some people, reaching out to strangers comes naturally. For others like myself, it took practice and time to build up confidence to the point where I now enjoy it instead of getting anxious about it. Things get a lot easier when you have an opening question that works, and once you realize that often the stranger in front of you is also looking for a way to reach out to you too, and is hesitating for the same reasons you are. That alone is an interesting conversation starter: “Isn't it funny how we're both trying to think of something to say first?” Here are 14 other good conversation starters to use when the time is right: 1) Keep it simple, introduce yourself and offer a handshake. “Hi. My name is … . What's yours?” 2) If they're wearing a nametag, ask them about their name. 3) If they're wearing a nametag, say “Hi … . What do you do?” This isn't my favorite opening line, but you'll always get an answer. 4) Look for something you have in common with the person, and ask a related question. At the very least, ask what they think of the event you're both attending, whether you're referring to the speakers, the topics, or even just the room you're in. 5) If the person has something very different about them, such as being a member of the opposite sex, much older/younger, etc., ask them for their specific point of view on an issue at the event i.e. “as a woman, how do you feel about the …?” 6) Ask what inspired them to come to the event. 7) If you recognize the person from the brochure for the current event, say so and ask them about their role in the event. 8) If you recognize the person from somewhere else such as a previous seminar, tell them so, and ask them if they liked that other event. 9) If you're at an event with many foreigners, ask where they're from. 10) If you're at an event with many foreigners, ask what they think of the location. 11) If you're at an event for a professional association, ask what made them become a member when they did. 12) Compliment them, but only if you really mean it. Women love this, and love doing it e.g. “I love your hair/watch/purse/etc.” 13) If they have a personal brand accessory, ask the first question that pops into your mind when you see it. 14) If you have a personal brand accessory, ask them what they think about it. Bonus suggestions 15) If there's food or refreshments, offer to get them something. From another friend of mine, career strategist Tim Tyrell-Smith: “You find and connect with people when your eyes meet theirs. You make a connection with your eyes, smile and approach with confidence. And then you kick things off with a question. A starter or introductory question needs to be open ended so that the other person is given a wide berth in which to answer. To put their own spin on things. Everyone likes to give their ideas and opinions. The question also needs to be genuine.” 16) Just ask “How's your day?” Try these ideas as soon as you can, and you'll start to get comfortable with which ones work best for you. You'll know things have changed when other people start asking how it's so easy for you to start a conversation. 5 Conversation Starters for Introverts: Networking and Meeting New People Question of the article Which conversation starter has worked well for you? Tell us in the comments. Get more networking tips with 7 Quick Rules for Networking To Your Next Job. I originally published a version of this article on the terrific Personal Branding Blog.

Best Resume Writing Tips For 2020

Best Resume Writing Tips For 2020There are a lot of resume writing tips that you can find to help you on your way. These tips are great and all, but if you don't know what you're doing, you'll be pretty much lost.The first tip I found is the most basic and the most used. Don't type it out from scratch - read and re-read a resume that has already been created and apply the tips therein.For example, how many times have you gone through a resume and run across a single word that is not spelled correctly? You could have four or five different versions of the same word in another person's resume. It's even worse if the word wasn't used in the resume at all. That's why you need to have a good background in writing and read resumes out loud and try to decipher them from your own mouth.If you don't have access to someone else's database, do a search on Google for what it is you're looking for. There's no point in trying to figure it out yourself, because your resume won't have a chance.Learn ing as you go along is the best way to go. If you take a course, do all of your reading and writing as a class. Then take a test. This makes you better, because you're being forced to become knowledgeable about the field you're applying for.I've seen people take courses and take a test and it does nothing to improve their skills, because they never learned the basics of the job. Instead, they become less focused on improving themselves and more focused on the career in general. This makes sense to me, since nothing is going to prepare you for what's next once you get into the field.In any case, if you're just starting out, you need to always read books and listen to seminars to learn the ropes of doing business in a new business. There's a lot to think about, a lot to understand, and a lot to gain from other people's knowledge. There are a lot of new people entering the industry every year and learning as you go.These are my best and easiest ways to go about making sure that you're applying for the right jobs. If you do it correctly, there's a very good chance that you'll find success with your career, and you'll find out a lot of valuable lessons along the way.

Flexibility Steers You Toward Increased Sales - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Flexibility Steers You Toward Increased Sales - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Putting a professional foot forward each and every time we conduct business is certainly ideal. But one of the best things you can do for yourself is to recognize everyone is human and we all make errors; yes, even us. Have you ever been late to show up at a meeting or phone someone, or even worse, double booked and needed to reschedule. Mistakes happen Should we be the one making the error, the best strategy is to quickly apologize to get past the embarrassment and heal the wound. The next step is to then ask for forgiveness. In the case where you recognize ahead of time you will be late, let the other party know and ask if their time still allows for you to meet. And should fault lie with the other party, the best thing you can do is relax, smile knowing everyone makes errors, and be forgiving. Becoming stressed out or angry serves no one and most likely will deter future business. But by being open and flexible, the other party receives the message you are easy to work with. This enhances your chances for securing the business down the road. The more important factor hidden in all of this is the process helps you to qualify whether this is someone with whom you wish to continue a dialogue. Should the other party be inflexible or unforgiving, you may face a very difficult time working together. On the other hand, when flexibility is demonstrated, you are likely to feel a better connection and find increased enjoyment doing business. Flexibility is a win-win Flexibility is also another type of negotiation. In sales terms, it is best to work for a win-win conclusion. By either apologizing or being forgiving, you negotiate your way through a misstep leading to an improved outcome. Another area where flexibility holds importance is when an out of the ordinary request is made. Accommodating the wishes of others, within reason, will put you in the favorable spotlight. But once again the request needs to be reasonable and if possible benefit all parties. My own example is that of being invited to a gathering of long time business acquaintances that required a drive time of almost two hours each way. I was willing to do so, but politely asked if I could arrive an hour early, even help set up, so that I could leave in time to avoid rush hour. I was teaching a class that evening and could not be late. Unfortunately, my perspective was never taken into consideration. In fact, no response was ever received. The other party simply got angry and refused to reply. The lack of flexibility baffled me because over the years, I have accommodated many in the same manner. Qualifying the situation in retrospect, I recognized that it’s obviously not a good match. Saving four hours of driving allowed me to focus my time where greater possibility existed. On the other side of the table, the next time someone makes an out of the ordinary request of you, stop to analyze why it was made. Rather than letting the request get the best of you, determine if it is reasonable. Working from the other party’s perspective first for understanding and clarity will lead you most often to a more favorable conclusion. When you are flexible and accommodating, others recognize it and appreciate it. Your personal brand incorporates the sought after identity of “easy to work with.” Relationships improve dramatically and business becomes a Smooth Sale! Author: Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC, (800) 704-1499, was honored by Open View Labs with inclusion in their international list of “Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012.” Elinor authored the International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”, Sourcebooks and the best selling career book, “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews”, Career Press. She provides team sales training, private coaching and highly acclaimed inspirational keynotes for conferences. Elinor is available for consultation.

Download FREE Cover Letter Template

Download FREE Cover Letter Template Writing a cover letter is hard. As graduates, we all have been through spending hours thinking how to start and what to write. You can now download our free cover letter template. This template gives you an idea of forming your thoughts and is optimised to a professional level. Download Cover Letter Template Download Cover Letter Template 13.83 KB 16213 downloads ... Additionally, you get the benefit of knowing that 4000+ people have used this cover letter template so far. You can be going for any job, but dont waste your time thinking how or what you should write in your cover letter. Download this cover letter template and it will get you started in the right manner. If you like the fact that you have just received a free cover letter template, which has been tried and tested and made your job of writing a cover letter a lot easier, why not thank-us by signing up for more resources below? We send two emails a month telling of some new resources that we create and share. If you use the cover letter, please share your comments and feedback in the comments below. And if you know of someone who would benefit from this, why not share it with them? After all, which student doesnt like some freebies! Updated 19/10/2013 Celebrating 4000+ free cover letter template downloads   Updated 26/04/2014 Celebrating 8000+ free cover letter template downloads   Updated 04/10/2014 Celebrating 11000+ free cover letter template downloads   Updated 28/07/2015 Celebrating 13000+ free cover letter template downloads   0

Writing a Resume, .edu is Not As Hard As Many People Think

Writing a Resume, .edu is Not As Hard As Many People ThinkWriting a resume, .edu is not as hard as many people think. The truth is it is not as complicated as people make it out to be and you can easily write a resume that your recruiter can read.I've been there many times before and writing a resume at this point in my life has never been any harder than it is right now. I'm not really sure what it is that scares people off when they first start the process of submitting their resume. The fact is that if you're willing to put the time in you can accomplish this task as easy as eating an apple.If you're like me, you need to make sure that you get your information in there. That means doing some research to make sure that you know how to put it all together. So, what does all this research entail? Well, it's going to take some time and some effort. But don't worry, once you get over the hump you'll be glad you took the time to go through it.Of course, if you want to write a resume, .e du without a degree you can take some tips from those that already have. The good news is that you can learn from them and use what they've learned as a way to help you. You can also use them as a jumping off point for your own education.The best thing that you can do for yourself is starting to learn about the career directions that are available today. Make sure that you research each career path to make sure that you don't miss out on anything. The next thing that you need to do is determine how much you're willing to invest in order to begin the process of preparing your resume.You need to know how much it will cost you to be able to get started so that you can get started as soon as possible. Once you know that you have that set up, then you can use your new found knowledge of the career opportunities available to you to begin developing your resume.If you want to create a resume, .edu and you don't have the resources to do so, then you need to make sure that you follow the sam e rules that every other person who wants to learn how to make a resume, .edu follow. There is no way to prepare for a resume, .edu better than you can.It's a great idea to use the internet to find templates and examples that are similar to what you're looking for. As you can see, it isn't as hard as many people think. It's just about being prepared.

Happy Holidays from Career Pivot Family - Career Pivot

Happy Holidays from Career Pivot Family - Career Pivot Happy Holidays I wanted to wish everyone in the Career Pivot community happy holidays. I will be taking a break so this will be the last post for 2017. I wanted to take a moment to introduce those who support me in my efforts in keeping Career Pivot running. Even though Career Pivot has only one employee, that is me, there are many that support the effort throughout the year. Stephanie Brodt Stephanie has been my virtual assistant for all of 2017. She edits all of my writing, creates the BoomerJobTips posts, the Weekly Career Insights email and assembles podcast post. I will continue to hand off more functions to Stephanie in the future. Podfly Podfly’shome page says it all: Podfly Productions, LLC is a boutique podcast production company. Podfly takes the time and headache out of creating your own podcast. Our team sets you up with the right equipment, training, and guidance to ensure you sound amazing. Podfly does all the heavy lifting and technical work so you can focus on creating great content and growing your audience. I have been working with the Podfly team from the very beginning. Elizabeth Rabaey Elizabeth has been a client and later an intern. She continues to support me by assisting me with my Mailbag podcast episodes. You can listen to her story in Episode 20 of the Repurpose Your Career Podcast. Brian Kinsella Brian is the latest addition to the team. Brian is now building the Career Pivot Community websiteand is keeping the CareerPivot.com running.You can check out Brian on hisLinkedIn profile. Brian replaces my dear friend and comrade, Melinda Taylor, who passed away in early 2017. Melinda was with me from the beginning and made the Career Pivot website attractive and usable. She was a valuable asset that will truly be missed. Look for some big announcements in early Januaryabout the new community. Happy Holidays and Look for some Big Changes for 2018 As I announced in my podcast last month, my wife and I will be moving to Ajijic, Mexico in the middle of 2018.Career Pivot will continue but I will be running it south of the border. Look for the 2nd Annual Reader Survey in early January, along with the results from the Podcast Survey that is currently open. If you are a ‘Repurpose Your Career’ podcast listenerand you have not taken the survey, please do it now. Let me close with … 2017 has been a tumultuous year and I am really looking forward to 2018. Happy Holidays!! Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Keywords The Key to Getting Your Résumé Noticed - Pathfinder Careers

Keywords The Key to Getting Your Résumé Noticed - Pathfinder Careers Keywords: The Key to Getting Your Résumé Noticed As the job market tightens and there are an ever-increasing number of applicants for each job opening, standing out from the crowd is becoming a matter of survival of the fittest. Or in the case of résumés, survival of the ‘key-wordiest’. Human resource and hiring managers have employed a variety of tools to help ‘weed out’ lesser or non-qualified applicants in the form of software that scans or ‘reads’ your résumé. Those résumés that score below a certain number of keyword hits go directly to the electronic round-file, while those who score high end up being viewed by a live human being. So what’s the trick to getting into the coveted interview pile? Keywords, keywords, keywords. Is it sinking in yet? Good. Now, your next question should be, “Where do I find keywords?” Excellent query! Here’s how to find those words that are going to get your résumé to the next level in the application process: The first place you should look for specific job-related keywords is the actual job posting itself. That alone is the first resource that hiring managers go to in order to make sure everything matches. You’ve heard of the ‘apples to apples’ comparison? This is in full effect â€" so sit down, pull out a separate sheet of paper, pore through the job posting and identify key required skills and duties to figure out what are those key words. Secondly, review other related job postings that can be found posted on online job boards or websites, such as monster.com. Review each of those related postings and you’ll start to see a list of words that pop out and match the ones you’ve already reviewed. Another good source for key words can be found by reviewing industry news or articles â€" oftentimes, key industry buzz words are repeated in these publications, and specific trends are identified, so this can also be a research bonanza for future interviews! Industry trade associations are also a wealth of knowledge. Specific industries usually have their own trade association representing them at a local, state and federal level, and each organization has loads of information, articles, job listings and trends that are also a good fountain of industry-specific knowledge. By talking to people in the industry, a lot of key skill information and definition of the types of duties can be gleaned from informational interviews. Seventy (70%) percent of all applicants find jobs through networking, and by making connections in an area that you are pursuing can be very helpful. Getting a good understanding of what kinds of skills and duties are required in a particular position are things that usually come out in informational interviews. Having first-hand, real-time background on that job from someone currently employed there is incredibly valuable. Finally, there are some aggregate online keyword sources out there that you can research to find out specific industry or job-related keywords: www.onetcenter.org www.keywordspy.com www.google.com/trends www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html Good luck and happy researching!

Tough (Question) Tuesday What will it take for you to Trust

Tough (Question) Tuesday What will it take for you to Trust Trust by blue bicicletta Wow. This seems like its the toughest of the tough (questions). But honestly, I find that Trust is the biggest barrier for, well, all of us Creatives/Passion-Career-Seekers, and while we dont specifically tackle the question itself, were working around it: what it would take to feel confident, to feel safe, to feel secure. But really, all of those things make up What will it take for you to Trust? Meet you in the comments section!