Finding and Landing a Job Through LinkedIn

The reason we all are going to school is to increase our chances of finding good job. In today's global market and the state of the economy, it is harder to find one. One great tool to find a job is to use social networking sites, specifically LinkedIn. 90% of Fortune 500 companies are using LinkedIn to recruit employees, so make sure you maintain an account with LinkedIn. How can we use it to find a job?
First, you need to find a target market, or all the companies involved in your career path. For example, if you want to work as an accountant, you need to know all the accounting firms you may want to work for. Then, start joining on LinkedIn to different groups associated with these companies, such as the National Association of Accountants.
The third step you need to take is to fill out your LinkedIn profile. You can ask prior employers, and professors to write recommendations for you. Moreover, you need to start writing on that organization's site, blogs to fill out your LinkedIn profile.
The next step is to get into the inner views and start calling potential employers. Call them for career advice, and follow up after you send out your resume.
The final step is to go to interviews and make a grand impression. Show them why you are an asset and how your addition to the company will be valuable for both of you.Following these steps will give you an edge on landing that job.
 Good Luck.
   
Follow the link below to register for LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join?goback=.bzo_*1_*1_*1_%2Fbrownstone*5babies*5llc

Negative Organizational News

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for ongoing efforts to make XtremePlus a leader in extreme-sports products. Today I am writing to inform you about the decision top executives at XtremityPlus have reached to terminate the Looney Launch. My fears about the Looney Launch safety were just confirmed when I was notified of the first lawsuit by a parent whose child broke several bones after crash-landing off a Looney launch.Simply, the company cannot afford the risk of additional lawsuits. I would like you to be prepared for some negative feedback from some of our enthusiastic customers and retailers.  In addition, even to XtremityPlus standards we were pushing the envelope a little bit too far. Although the Looney launch comes plastered with warning labels indicating that its use is inherently dangerous, the product is simply too dangerous to sell in good conscience.

I understand that we have all worked hard to making the Looney Launch possible, and I also know that people will still buy it, but the decision to remove it from the market is best both for the survival of our company and the benefit of society. A lot of you worked hard in designing, manufacturing and marketing the Looney Launch, and don’t want your hard work to be ignored. I want you to continue your dedication and love for your jobs to come up with a better and safer alternative that will demonstrate to our customers and retailers that we care about them and we will always make sure that we have them in our mind. That being said, XtremityPlus simply cannot afford to have lawsuit against it if we want to stay in business. So, we have notified all of our retail partners to explain to them why we are removing the Looney launch from the market and our product line. Moreover, we will contact all the customers who have already purchased the Looney Launch and inform them that they can get a full refund if they bring back the Looney Launch by the end of the month. If someone wants to keep it we will no longer be liable for any damages.

I will see you all in our next company meeting at the end of the month. We will discuss the progress of handling the removal of the Looney Launch. I am looking forward to seeing you all. 

Maneef Hassan

XtremePlus

CEO

 

The Secrets To Overcoming Anxiety in Public Speaking

Presenting to a large group of people is very challenging, and overcoming some of these challenges a few tricks can help. We all have had an experience where everything just went blank. What do we need to do to avoid such embarrassing episodes? Following the three step writing process to complete your presentation can be very helpful. You may have a great presentation put together, however if you can't deliver it adequately, you can lose your audience. So, in order to prepare you to speak, visit the venue where you will do your presentation and familiarize yourself with the facilities and the equipment to be used.
What do you need to do to feel more confident in front of an audience and to overcome anxiety. Probably the best thing you can bet on is preparation and practice. Following these simple steps will help become a more confident speaker.
-Prepare more materials than necessary. knowing more about your topic will reduce anxiety.
-Practice, practice, practice. With enough practice you will feel less panic.
-Visulalize your success. Visulalize yourself in front of the audience by frrling confident, prepared, and being ready to handle any situation that might arise.
-Take a few deep breaths. Do something that makes feel happy, and remember the audience wants you to succeed too.
-Be Ready. Try to memorize opening and closing statements as well as quotes.
-Be comfortable. Do dress appropriately for the situation, be well hydrated.
-Don't panic. If you start to feel your heart is racing, pause , and take some deep breaths.
-Concentrate on your message and the audience. If you do that you tend to to forget about your fears
-Eye contact. Do maintain eye contact with your audience. Find a friendly audience member and connect with them.
-Keep going. Don't stop, things get better as you go on, building your confidence with it.
-Record yourself with a video camera and then watch it. See what you did wrong and correct it, and what you did right and improve on it.
-Check Youtube videos on tips.

Using Technology in Creating REPORTS AND PROPOSALS

Communication differs in today's corporate cultures. It is very important to know how to communicate in one's organization. To be an effective communicator, you need to be able to persuade people, both higher and lower. To do that, you need to be able to write good reports and proposals. As in writing any form of business letter, o messages, you can employ the three steps writing process to write effective reports and proposals. You need o adopt to your audience needs in writing reports and proposals, by using the "you" attitude, emphasizing the positive, and using bias-free language. Writing reports is no easy matter, you need to include accurate information, include all necessary information, present all sides of an argument, be clear and logical, and give credit where it is due.
Technology today has given us easier ways to do things, and writing is certainly one of them. You can use many great tools to compose reports and proposals. For instance, you can use templates, which can help you identify the specific sections required for each type of report. you can buy software wth many templates, or even download them from the internet. websites like this offer some free sample, http://www.businessballs.com/freeonlineresources.htm
Another great tool is electronic forms which are used for recurring forms such as sales reports, and compliance reports. In addition, electronic documents such as PDF or portable document format can be used to secure reports and proposals. It is a highly valuable tool in today's business world. Further, you can use multimedia documents to enhance your reports with videos clips, presentation slides, animation. We tend to use either Word or PowerPoint in creating our messages, but Microsoft's Producer is a great program that lets you compose a message using different variety of file types. Check the video below to learn a few things about Microsoft Producer

 

Why should you attend Job Fairs, workshops, Seminars and Clubs at your school?

 

Last Friday, on March 25th I attended my first workshop here at LIU in my three years I have been a student here. I did not go, because I wanted to attend, but because my Professor for Management of Human Resources had required us to attend. I forced my self up early last Friday and went to school for the first time on a Friday. The workshop was the 6th Annual leadership Skills Development Workshop hosted in the gymnasium. The moderator Frank Ross, as well as the panelists were LIU alumni, who came to talk about and answer questions about their careers and jobs in their respective fields.Mr. Ross is the managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office of the accounting firm KPMG LLP, positions he held from July 1, 1996 to December 31, 2003. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Accounting at Howard University, Washington, D.C. and the Director of its Center for Accounting Education. For the past six years, he has been working with the LIU's School of Business Administration to sponsor  the Annual leadership Skills Development Workshop.

The workshop lasted all day. we started the day with breakfast and some informal meetings. We then sat at different tables with five to six other students, whom we became a group with.  Then, the presenters and the moderators talked about many different things that affect our personalities. What I liked the most about this workshop is after a brief presentation, usually a few slides of PowerPoint, the presenter would ask each group a question which a group member had to get up to the microphone and discuss what the group had discussed. I really learned a lot about myself and my career in this workshop, and that's is why it is of critical importance to attend these kind of events as a student especially if you are undecided. Check this website to learn about possible careers for you, http://www.jobweb.com/studentarticles.aspx?id=76.

Aside from the fact that the workshop was unnecessarily long, it was effective in that many students including myself left with more knowledge about our careers and education. One of the earliest exercises we did as groups, we had to each generate a "Burning Question" which was to be asked later to the panelists. Some, if not all of our questions were answered with real answers from the panelists usually with a motivational experience they had. One of the questions  that seemed to resonate with many of the students was the future of job market and "how to stand out?".
Again why should you attend workshops and job fairs as much as you possibly can? Well, let's be realistic, the economy is not in the best shape it has been in years, and after graduation, you will be another college graduate available in the marketplace or workforce.

We all know there are secrets to each trade, and as a college student and future graduate you need to learn the secrets to becoming a successful student and an outstanding job candidate. These secrets are usually not hidden, but they are revealed to you in these kinds of environments by people who have been in that path before you. They can teach you a thing or two about what you might face in the future. You will also expand your social and professional base. It's a rare opportunity you can seize to form relationships with professionals in your perspective career to expand your networking base.

You can even ask some participants to act as advisers, mentors, or coaches to you in your pursuit of your goals. Moreover, you will also find out that many other students share similar career aspirations whom you can associate with, form personal and professional bonds with, and express concerns and dilemmas with.

The best thing about these events is that they are free. You are paying a lot of money to get an education here at LIU, but they only teach you from, sometimes outdated textbooks and sometimes outdated professors who have not been in the real workforce for decades, but these events offer real life examples as well as advices to college students pursuing their careers. Further, you can land an internship and possibly a job attending an event. An upcoming event that I am sure not to miss  is Best of Brooklyn Career Fair on April 5th, here at LIU, and you should not miss it too. Check out some of the employers who are looking for YOU.

Developing an Audience Profile

All forms of business message writing require three important steps, planning, writing, and completing.  Writing the actual message is not the difficult part. However understanding what constitutes planning is important to getting one’s point across effectively and easily. Although, defining one’s purpose is important to successful writing, developing an audience profile is the key.

            What does it mean to develop an audience profile and how does it serve the writer? After defining the purpose of your message-whether to inform, persuade or to collaborate- you need to analyze your target audience to help plan your message. People always need to fulfill their intrinsic needs from anything, so you need to let your audience know what they will get from your message. They want to know how your message will affect them personally or professionally. To fully comprehend the needs of your audience, you need to determine several factors in analyzing them.

            For you to analyze your audience, you need to identify who are your primary audience, determine the audience size and geographic distribution, determine audience composition, gauge the audience’s level of understanding, understand their expectations and preferences, and predict their possible reaction. You need to figure out Who are these people? What do you know about their age, class, gender, education, or political position? You also need to know the audience attitudes towards the topic, and what values they have. 

           The reason why I chose this topic is because when I write messages I tend to lose my intended audience. I usually have shortcomings in terms of who I am writing to and what for. Also, I tend to lose focus on my original audience.  To me, analyzing my audience more carefully will help me get my point across easier, and keep me focused on satisfying the needs of my audience. Moreover, the textbook is very helpful not just for writing better in school and getting good grades, but I feel if I master it, it would save me a lot of time in the future and make me a more successful communicator.

            The textbook suggests that for simple, routine messages, you usually don’t need to analyze your audience in depth. On the other hand, complex messages, or messages intended for indifferent or hostile audiences, one needs to take the time to study their information needs and potential reactions to the message.  For the example from a real-life case where developing audience profile is presented, I chose an article from the Wall Street Journal Corporate News section about Google. The article is dated February 24^th 2011, and is titled Google Tool To Move Microsoft Files To Web. According to the article, Google will offer Microsoft Office documents on Google servers that can be available to share with other users.  This is an enhancement that will enable users to take Office files and upload them to Google’s servers under unique Web addresses, so they can be accessed from any internet-connected device through Google’s Docs. The article about Google’s Docs relates to developing an audience profile in two categories.

            The first category is the corporate readers, or people who will speculate on the effectiveness of this new tool as a new investment for Google. The article is written to showcase what Google is doing to establish itself as an online software seller.  The intended audience profiles are clearly those who will determine if Google’s move will be successful, affecting Google’s shares. The second audiences in this article are the general reader. Besides how Google developed Google Docs, the article exposes its development to the reader and what it does. Inevitably, the article will generate buzz in the business world, where Office tools are mostly used, and an increasing need for easier accessibility is visible. The new tool offered by Google is introduced as Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office.

            How will Cloud Connect improve business communication? Undoubtedly, this is a great step in liberating Office users. Sending files as attachments did not mean the receiving party will be able to access it. Sometimes people have different versions of Office, or the operating systems are not compatible. Cloud Connect will enhance productivity, because people can share files more easily from anywhere they are, with any platform they are running.

              Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular in business communications today, but is vulnerable. The reason why many people are hesitant to make the move to sharing their work online has been the security risk. Business people are genuinely distrustful in making that leap to cloud computing, even if it were more accessible. Generally, Business people rely on their internal networks to communicate, but if Google and Microsoft can convince their users that their content are secure, more people will move toward cloud computing. To see what Google's Cloud Connect is all about and what you can do with it, view the demo video

Globalization and Diversity

The impacts of a globalized marketplace and a diverse workforce have changed the way we communicate. Communication has evolved to accommodate to changes in our lives. The reason I chose this topic is because if we want to succeed in today's competitive world economy, we must learn about other cultures and learn how to effectively communicate with people from all over the world, and people with different views. The world economies are interdependent and no country can live in isolation. As fear escalates, recent social, economic and political reforms sweeping the Middle East will have a profound impact on the economies of the world.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, An article about oil prices going up is written by Guy Chazana aptly titled Oil Prices Surge on Fears Unrest May Hurt Supply. In the article, oil prices have surged to 2008 levels. Worries about effects of the chaos on the Suez Canal and the Sumed pipeline could further increase the prices of oil. Both the Suez Canal and Sumed pipeline (which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea) carried about 2.6 million barrels a day in December. Oil can still reach Europe and the U.S if ships are rerouted around Africa but that would further increase the price of oil.

This is an obvious example of how the world economies are connected. An unrest in Egypt will increase gas prices at the pumps. We can’t not care about what is going on around the world and say this will not affect me. This goes beyond how much you pay for a gallon of oil, or the cost to heat your home. This is going to change the way the Middle East is perceived by the West.

If we want to understand what is going on in Egypt, we must first understand their culture and history. In business communication we need to learn about other cultures. Learning about other cultures can enhance the ability to perform better in today’s highly competitive globalized economy. How do we learn about other cultures and improve our skills in intercultural communications? We can learn about other cultures by studying other cultures and languages, respect style preferences, write and speak clearly, listen carefully, using translators and interpreters and helping others to adapt to our culture. To enhance our sensitivity to culture and diversity we need to overcome ethnocentrism, and recognize cultural differences.

 Secondly, the American workforce is becoming more diverse and we must utilize the advantages of a diverse workforce if we want to become effective managers. As managers we must realize that advantages of a diverse workforce. According to the textbook, some of these advantages include a broader range of views and ideas, a better understanding of diverse fragmented markets, and a broader pool of talent from which to recruit. Moreover, thousands of U.S businesses depend on exports for a large portion of their revenues to countries around the world. Most of these countries speak a different Language than English and have a different culture that what we are used to.