Tips & Tricks — Work Advice

LinkedIn has now become one of the most important websites for finding a job and promoting your personal brand. Here are a few tips to improve you LinkedIn and put your best forward.

1. Create a personalized URL
   It’s best to create a custom URL around your name. It makes your name easily searchable on Google
2. Join groups
   Joining groups allows you to connect with people who are not your contacts. It gives you permission to reach out to them and invite them into your network without having to upgrade your account.
3. Only endorse your top skills
   Ask contacts to only endorse your top skills. Having the highest number of endorsements for your key strengths will influence those who are looking at your profile and highlight exactly what your best at.
4. Make wise connections
   Employers look to see who you associate yourself with so make sure you connect with people who reflect well on you.
5. Ask for recommendations
   Recommendations can make or break a job application. Having your connections write a good recommendation letter for the public to read immediately increases your credibility and adds depth to your experiences.

After updating your profile using these tips, make sure to keep your profile up to date with new skills and experiences to further increase the chance of a future employer connecting with you. 

Comment below if you have any tips for improving your LinkedIn

It is hard to be a frequent business traveler and have a family waiting for you back at home. You miss out on important events and your spouse may find it difficult to handle everyday life without you. Here are a few tips to help lessen the strain on your family and strengthen the relationship.

-Stay connected. There are so many ways to keep in touch with your family these days. You can Skype, phone, and email easily from wherever you are. This is important in keeping a strong connection with those left behind.

-Share your experiences. You may want to take photographs to share with your family when you return or through email on a regular basis to keep them updated. Also try bringing home small gifts from each place you’ve visited.

-Include the family. It is possible to combine business with family trips. If you’re going somewhere interesting, family members may want to join you. You can work while the other spouse entertains the kids but make sure to find time off work to spend with your family.

Ever have one of those days where you have finished everything that needs to be done and find yourself with some spare time on your hands?  Especially as we enter the summer months when business tends to slow down with long weekends and vacations, most of us may be tempted to check social media and zone out for a few hours.  Instead, Forbes gives us 5 great things to do on a slow day at work to make that down time productive.  

1)   Create a succession plan and if you already have one, keep it updated. It is always a good idea to be prepared for the future, and the bonus is having an outline of what your job requires and the tasks involved each month will keep you on track and organized too.

2)   Emails can easily get messy and inboxes overloaded which is why it's important to keep them organized. And as we're often writing similar responses or inquiries, having email templates on file will save time in the future.

3)   Use your free time as a chance to make catch-up calls with your clients and stakeholders. This is an opportunity for you to strengthen your relationships.

4)   Your extra time could be used to help out your other colleagues. They could really appreciate the help and this is a great chance for you to learn about other departments of your organization and develop some new skills.

5)   If you only have a short time to kill, you can focus on your professional development. You can read up on your industry by being informed on your industry’s trends as well as search up articles on leadership, networking, or anything that you’d like to learn more about.