Finding a Job You Love

Flickr CC via  charliekjo

Ken Lear here.

A famous Confucius quote reads, “Choose a job you’ll love and you’ll never have to work another day.” This is something that most people believe in, but don’t take the steps to make it a reality. No job is worth it if you’re not happy or satisfied with the work. It can be difficult to find and lock down a job that you will love, but it is also very worth the effort. To find that job, you must be able to have a sense of where you want to be headed in the future. Finding meaning in a career is of utmost importance to a happy life. Here are three things you can do today to find a job that you can have a real passion for:

For more business advice and information about Ken Lear, check out his personal website.

Find a Company with Similar Values

It’s tough to love your job when the company you work for does not practice the same values as you do. From environmental awareness to employee appreciation, finding a company that does the things you think a company should is significant. This is imperative: no one can be happy with a job when they are aware they heavily disagree on the values the company presents.

Look to the Future

When taking a new job, think five years down the line. Is this a job you will be satisfied with? Will it keep you motivated? Will it help you get where you need to get?  Looking down the line with your job is a great way to see if it will be worth your time. If this job is not going to get you where you need (and want) to go, you may have to look elsewhere.

Ken Lear is on Twitter. Follow him to keep up with his latest updates!

Talk with People Who've Figure It Out

It doesn’t hurt to ask those who love their jobs how they were able to do it. Most will tell you that they figured out what they were passionate about and pursued it. This is the underlining fate that you must understand to get a job you love: passion will always triumph money or power. Talking with others will allow you to see that its possible to find a job you love. You just need to put in the effort and time to find out what your passions truly are.

3 Tips for Job Seeking New Grads

Flickr CC via CoastalLaw

I'm Ken Lear, a business professional with expertise in leadership, management, and entrepreneurship.

Getting a first job can be a lot of work, especially if you have never worked before. In a competitive economy, sometimes it can seem tempting to take the first job that comes your way, even if you lack interest in it. But new job seekers have more control over their situation than they might realize. Below are some things to keep in mind during any job search:

Follow Ken Lear on Twitter for more business and leadership advice.

Apply for the Right Jobs

Don’t waste time applying for positions that are not right for you; instead use your time and energy to personalize and target the jobs you have a chance to land and are interested in. Study a job description and highlight the parts that you feel describe you to see if it is a good fit.

Check out Ken-Lear.com for the latest updates and blog posts by Ken Lear.

Create and Cultivate a Professional Online Presence

Over 89% of companies report they will use social networks as part of their hiring plans this year. Many recruiters utilize LinkedIn to scout out and recruit new employees. Employers will also scan Twitter, Facebook and any other social presence job seekers have to screen and see if they are a good fit for the company. Consider creating and maintaining your own professional website so you can curate what companies are seeing. Always delete anything from social media that you wouldn’t want an employer to see. But you have to maintain your online presence, update your status, reach out to people you want to know and demonstrate your expertise online.

Network in Person

Join professional organizations and attend events where you can meet prospective hiring managers and mentors. The more people you can meet and impress in person, the more likely someone is to remember you and refer you for an opportunity.

Creating the Perfect Resume

Ken Lear's Resume Workshop

Hi, I'm Ken Lear, an expert in all things business, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

Crafting a perfect resume is an essential skill that any job seeker should continually be improving upon. Like you, your resume is a living and breathing document that will evolve and follow you throughout your career. As such it is important to revisit it and revise it to reflect your life’s trajectory.

Here are a few tips and techniques designed to help you along the way:

·               Create Your Own Template: You can use the pre-made templates found in word processing programs or online to serve as a foundation for your formatting but it’s often best to develop your own template that is appropriate for the industry you are applying for.

·               Don’t Include Irrelevant Information: Keep your list of hobbies and references out of the resume because they simply waste valuable space. You should locate your education history at the bottom of the page and only include the relevant details (organization, degree, and graduation year).

Check out Ken Lear's personal website for his latest updates and news.

·               Experience Should Determine Page Length: Your resume should only contain professional experience that you are proud of. Generally speaking it should remain at one page for ease of use but if you’ve acquired more than 10 years of experience in your field, adding a second page is perfectly reasonable.

·               Format the Page to Organize Your Data: By breaking up blocks of text with bolded and italicized words you can emphasize the inherent strengths found within your resume. Additionally, using bulleted lists to organize your key responsibilities and accomplishments will help improve the readability of the page.

·               Have A Creative Objective or None At All: There is some debate over whether or not to include an Objective on your resume. If you include one it can pigeon hole you into a narrow focus, if you don’t it can leave your resume feeling directionless. Ideally your Objective should emulate your elevator pitch by remaining clear and concise.

·               Highlight Your Name & Contact Info: Many resumes push the applicants contact info to the bottom or to the side. It should be front and center (so to speak) and aligned at the top of the page in bold.

·               Quantify Your Accomplishments: Whenever possible, stay clear of subjective and abstract language – instead opt to include real and manageable numbers that give your experience grounding within the company.

·               Tailor Your Resume for the Position: By molding your resume to reflect what the employer is looking for you maximize the potential of a single sheet of paper. Research the company to identify key words, phrases, and the company’s overarching philosophy. You should also research the position itself to determine which work experience you should include.

·               White Space is Key: If you’re resume contains too much information it can quickly overwhelm the tired recruiter that is reading it alongside a hundred others. By using negative space to draw the eye you can highlight the key information on the page in an intuitive manner.

Remember that your resume should be designed to get you the interview. It is there that you can elaborate on the information that you left out. By having an up to date resume on file at all times you will be more equipped to handle opportunity or hardship when it happens. In these moments it will provide you with a sense of professionalism and also relief.

Good luck!

Unlocking Social Media Potential For Sales

Flickr CC via tfrancis

I’m Ken Lear, entrepreneur and leadership expert, and I want to talk about utilizing social media.

The golden rule of a successful sales transaction is getting to know a sales prospect while establishing a solid relationship for them to come back for more. New spectrums have been created to establish this digitally, using social media as the main influence. Salespeople now have an easy way to reach a target audience, and communicate with them at all times.

The biggest social media networks are worth billions of dollars. This is a large amount of money that could be worth a lot more to the sales industry. Utilizing social media can help with sales while also building engagement and reputation. Being familiar with these social networks regularly can help a business succeed, but it also could become trouble if not used correctly.

For many salespeople, social media can become time-consuming and distract from the real path to completing a sale. Salespeople should focus on growing the customer base and reach more than gaining followers and friends. Getting caught up with these interferences will not do the business any good.

Social media is centered on the idea that connections with others can turn into relationships. This helps business in many different ways. Relationships are the basis of business, which can lead to creating customers.  They also allow the company to gain notoriety on search engines and other social channels.

In a video by Jill Konrath, she explains that selling on social media is centered on 4 aspects: building a strong online brand, gathering sales intelligence, making connections, and sharing the good stuff. All four of these things can lead to greater outreach with potential customers that can lead to helping your brand on social media.

Trending topics are also great for sales. By taking advantage of hashtags, a salesperson can reach out to more users who are following the hot topics of the day. Not every visitor is a customer, but it will give you more opportunities to get the attention of someone looking to buy.

Social media engagement has even become a business itself. Celebrities and corporations have begun to buy fake Facebook likes and fake Twitter followers. There is a growing market for this fake engagement, and its leading to bad reputation from the public. Soon, it’s going to be difficult to

The most important thing to take away from social media and driving sales is to work on making your company an engaging brand. Users will come back to a page if they enjoy the content, and can trust it. You want to create an engaging and positive image for your brand. If you can do these things, social media can become another medium for the company to grow.

Ken Lear is a father and an entrepreneur specializing in leadership and business consulting.