Reinvent Your Job Search the Jobs Way

Reinvent Your Job Search the Jobs WayReinvent Your Job Search the Jobs WaySteve Jobs 5 principles of job successAs I was researching the material for my new book, The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs (McGraw-Hill), I realized that many of the principles responsible for Jobs breakthrough success at Apple apply equally to the management of ones job search career. If you are searching for a new job in your field or pursuing a change in the type of work you do, here are five principles to jump-start your career.1. Put a dent in the universe.Jobs never underestimated the power of geistesbild to move a brand forward. imagination inspires new ideas and attracts evangelists. In 1976, Steve Wozniak was captivated by Jobs vision to put a computer in the hands of everyday people. Wozniak was the engineering genius behind the Apple I and the Apple II, but it was Jobs vision that inspired Wozniak to focus his skills on building a computer for the masses. Jobs vision was intoxicating because it had four components that all inspiring visions share It was bold, specific, concise and consistently communicated.Just as Jobs had a vision for his brand, you must have a vision for the most important brand of all - yourself. What vision do you have for your career? When I was a journalist for CNN, I knew that I wanted to start my own company. My vision for my brand could be summarized in one sentence the communications coach for the worlds most admired brands. I began adding that statement on my business cards before I even had a client I could call a most admired brand. Today my clients touch your life every day. Yes, you need to follow your passion, but while passion gives you energy, vision ultimately points you in the right direction. It will be easier to succeed in your next job, if it is one you are passionate about.2. Kick-start your brain.Jobs creative ideas have transformed leid one industry, but four - personal computers, music, entertainment and telecommunications. Inn ovation requires creativity and creativity demands that you think differently aboutthe way you think. Scientists who study the way the brain works have discovered that innovators like Jobs employ a technique available to all of us - they seek out diverse experiences.Jobs creates new ideas precisely because he has spent a lifetime exploring new and unrelated things - seeking out diverse experiences. Jobs left the comfortable suburbs of Los Altos, California, to attend a liberal arts college in Oregon he studied the art of calligraphy in college (a study that found its way into the first Macintosh) meditated in an Indian ashram studied the fine details of a Mercedes-Benz and evaluated the Four Seasons hotel chain as he developed the customer service model for the Apple Stores. If your approach to the job search isnt yielding results, seek out diverse experiences attend meetings you wouldnt otherwise attend, network with people in other fields and explore new business ideas.3. Look outside your industry for career inspiration.In his insightful book, Iconoclast, Gregory Berns could have been writing about Jobs when he said, To see things differently than other people, the most effective solution is to bombard the brain with things it has never encountered before. Novelty releases the perceptual process from the shackles of past experiences and forces the brain to make new judgments. Bombard the brain with new experiences outside your comfort zone.4. Say no to 1,000 things.Jobs once said the secret to innovation comes from saying no to 1,000 things. Jobs is as proud of what Apple chooses notlage to do as he is about what Apple chooses to focus on. The lesson - dont spread yourself too thin. Find the job that intersects your passion, skill and the ability to make money doing it. Once you find it, focus on it, work at it and dedicate yourself to excellence in that area.5. Master presentation skills.Jobs is considered one of the greatest corporate storytellers in the world. His presentations inform, educate and entertain. By giving extraordinary presentations, Jobs stands out as a leader.On the job search you are being judged to a large degree on your ability to communicate what you do. The big difference between great presenters and the average presenter is that great presenters use tools like PowerPoint to complement the message. The speaker is the storyteller PowerPoint slides serve as a backdrop to the story. That means you must learn to avoid bullet points and to think visually about bringing a story to life. When Jobs (who uses Apple Keynote software to design presentations) unveiled the MacBook Air in January 2008, instead of showing a slide with text and bullet points, he showed a slide of an interoffice manila envelope. He said the computer was so slim it would fit inside. Thats memorable and different. If your career requires excellent presentation skills, improve those skills by reading books such as The Presentation Secrets of Jo bs, Slideology and Presentation Zen. You wont want to bring a slide projector into job interviews, but consider the language that you use and visuals you create when telling your story to others.Dont let bozos get you down.Many people around you think they know whats best for you. Only you can be true to your own heart and intuition. Jobs chose to drop out of college so he could drop in to the classes that really interested him, like calligraphy. The classes had no obvious practical application at the time but would eventually lead to world-changing products.Jobs knew that he had the skills to build a computer that would be simple enough for the average person to enjoy. Few others shared his vision. Ken Olsen, the founder of Digital Equipment, once told Jobs, There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home. Thank goodness Jobs didnt listen. If he had, millions of people would not be enjoying Macs, iPods, iPads and iPhones, which popularized touch-screen technology. Perhaps the greatest lesson Jobs teaches us is that risk-taking requires courage. Believe in yourself and your vision and be prepared to constantly defend those beliefs. Only then will innovation flourish and only then will you be able to find an insanely great job.

The Most Popular Self-Publishing Services

The Most Popular Self-Publishing ServicesThe Most Popular Self-Publishing ServicesYouve done your self-publishing research and read the self-publishing success stories- and now youd like to know more about your options. Heres a mobiltelefon overview of some of the most popular self-publishing services. Each has its pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages, and proprietary features. Blurb High-Quality Designed Illustrated Self-Published BooksBlurb offers print-on-demand services and seems especially suitable for highly visual, bookstore quality books. As a testament to Blurbs popularity for visual artists, it was the service of choice for photojournalist Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post - he used Blurb to print his Pulitzer-Prize winning collection of photos of Ian Fisher, a young soldier sent to Iraq. Blurb also has a collaboration with Adobe Systems, featuring built-in Blurb bookmaking functionality within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. This feature makes the process of book cr eation turnkey for those photographers and visual artists already using and/or conversant with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. BookBaby Got Its Start In An Indie Music CompanyBookBaby seems friendly and accessible and offers up a number of free marketing resources, along with a friendly blog that dispenses regular advice. CreateSpace Amazon.coms Paperback Self-Publishing ServiceThrough CreateSpace, self-publishing authors can set up a basic book with no initial costs and get seamless access to its parent company, Amazon.coms, powerful book distribution and merchandising channel. CreateSpace claims to offer some of the highest royalties in the industry, as well as an easy ebook conversion through its Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) electronic publishing program (see below). iUniverse iUniverse Guided Self-Publishing from an Author Solutions companyiUniverse uses the term guided self-publishing to describe its robust range of DIY publishing services, which are laid out much the saatko rn way as in a traditional publisher- at a la carte and package prices. If you want to see your book available both in print and in ebook formats, represented in stores and maybe even in the mediaand are willing to pay for the privilegeconsider iUniverse. Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Self-Publishing eBooks with Amazons KDPKindle Direct Publishing offers ebook-only publishing and the advantages of Amazon.coms online distribution power. Kobo Writing Life Kobos Reading Life Extends to Self-Published eBook AuthorsThe Japanese-based cross-platform e-reading service Kobo launched theKobo Writing Life ebook publishing service in Beta in June 2012. Offering key reader insights and marketing tools gleaned from their capabilities, the Kobo Writing Life aims to be Best in Class, helping self-published authors to engage with fans on a global scale through their reading service, and puts all aspects of publishing (setting prices, advertising, marketing) in the hands of the writers helpin g them to maximize sales. Lulu.com A Wide Array of Self-Publishing Print and eBook OptionsLulu.com is a very popular self-publishing service that offers both a print-on-demand book and ebook digital development capabilities and a wide array of publishing support options. The author picks the package and the price, and promotion is available through Lulu.com. NOOK Press Barnes Nobles eBook Self-Publishing PlatformNOOK Press, from the major book retailer Barnes Noble, offers the distribution of barnesandnoble.com and some of the useful promotional features of being associated with a major brick-and-mortar store. With NOOK Press, there are no upfront costs and competitive royalty rates. Smashwords A True Indie eBook Self-Publishing ExperienceWith Smashwords, the author is considered to be the publisher of his or her ebook. Unlike some other ebook self-publishing services, Smashwords allows its authors a great measure of control over pricing, and over access to the work. To expl oit the Smashwords service to the fullest requires the author to take a good deal of responsibility for the quality of the work uploaded to the service, as well as be fully engaged in other aspects of the process.

How Automation Can Lead to a Promotion at Work

How Automation Can Lead to a Promotion at WorkHow Automation Can Lead to a Promotion at WorkRecently, we have puiblished a number of posts concerned with automationnot just the potential for it to disrupt employment in years to come, but also the need for employees in all walks of life to ensure that they have the training and experience to ensure that their jobs are secure from the threat of automated outsourcing. In this post, contributor Josh Snow outlines this latter premise perfectly, and illustrates that, when employees embrace the opportunities offered by automation, it can lead to productivity gains and career growthHow automation can lead to promotionFor many, automation poses a threat to job security, for fear of being replaced by a machine. Although the concerns are valid, it doesnt necessarily mean that your job lage will one day become obsolete.Instead of worrying about the move towards automation, embrace itMany job duties are repetitive in nature, and where there is re dundancy, there is an opportunity for automation. This can be good, in fact, great, if you can find ways to automate repetitive tasks in your current job, freeing up time to focus on other things that cannot be automated.Redundant tasks are a part of many daily activities in the workplace and at home, many of which can be automated. The progression of automation has seen vast improvements since the industrial age. Utilizing the advances in technology has given way to mass production, allowing businesses to bring their products to consumers at significantly reduced costs.With the advent of embedded systems and industrial automation, products can be created very efficiently. In the realm of evolutionary advancement, creating systems that perform repetitive tasks has allowed us to utilize our intelligence in more creative ways.Embracing automation earned me a promotion. With a career in information technology, I spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Part of my job duties are to r eport client data to upper management on a regular basis. Although necessary, gathering and organizing the data can prove tedious and time consuming. The reports are the same in nature, its the data that changes. In an effort for efficiency, a template was created, requiring me to input the data into the correct fields of the template. Over time, the repetitive nature of the task grew tiresome. I was spending the majority of my day doing essentially the same thing. I really wanted to help some teammates work on an interesting project, but the reporting didnt allow much time to be a part of the project. The opportunity for growth was dim and I was frustrated with what seemed to be a time consuming position that didnt allow much time for other pursuits within the company.I needed to find a way to free up some time in my day to get involved in the projects that I really wanted to be unbekannt of, allowing opportunities for growth. With a little effort, I began learning how to automate the reports. Utilizing the capabilities of within Excel, I created a macro toolbox, requiring a mere click of the mouse to perform the once tedious reporting tasks.Once I had the report automated I had a lot more time to join my teammates in other projects. I was now getting the reports turned in quickly, while also playing an integral role in several projects. This did not go unnoticed. What started as repetitive reporting with minimal growth opportunities, turned into a challenging and appreciated position within the company, all thanks to automation.I will continue to look for opportunities for automation at work and at home. Automation has made my life easier, freed up time on repetitive tasks, saved my employer money, which in turn, meant a promotion for me. This has allowed me to be more productive, focusing my time on essential tasks that only a human can do. Instead of fearing the inevitably increasing forms of automation, use it to your advantage. Your employer will appreci ate your forward thinking attitude, likely putting yourself in a position for new growth opportunities within the company.Josh Snow is a Freelance Writer and SEO Specialist, with a B.S. in IT. You can visit his blog here.