How IKEA Australia Recruits with Flat Packs

How IKEA Australia Recruits with Flat Packs The Swedes are brilliant recruiters. Even when they are down under and use an advertising agency. In this case The Monkeys  helped the Sydney, Australia IKEA store recruit new employees with an innovative method. The concept Career instructions were printed and placed inside the famous IKEA flat packs. Customers literally delivered the mailer to themselves. They could then also share it with friends and family. Not only did it talk directly to those who love the brand, it created a whole new media channel â the flat packs themselves. The results The result was no less than 4,285 applications filled with 280 of those hired, all the while the project incurred no cost of its own. Very clever idea and on top of the new hires, it certainly got IKEA and their agency lots of free exposure. A very good recruitment case study in other words. Perhaps something for Home Depot, BQ, Homebase and Brico Depot to emulate? Related: Is Social Recruiting Really Happening?

7 Big relocation mistakes

7 Big relocation mistakes Last fall I took my kids to Hermosa Beach. It was a big moment for me because the whole time I was playing professional volleyball, in my 20s, I dreamed I would have a family and live in Hermosa. Its a great beach town with top-notch volleyball. Theres proximity to good career opportunities in the LA area, and a culture of kids growing up with sand in their hair. The day we arrived I realized that it might be really hard to leave. I worried that maybe Id never go back to the farm. And the more the kids loved the water, the more closely I looked at For Rent signs. I thought maybe I could split my time between the beach and the farm. But then something happened. We didnt miss only The Farmer (who doesnt like to leave the Farm). We missed the animals, and the feeling of being in a cozy warm house surrounded by snow. Which made me realize that when we think about relocation, we think about the wrong stuff. 1. We focus on what we gain instead of what we lose. When people think about relocating they think almost exclusively about what they will gain by going to the new city, but psychologically we are affected much more by what we lose. For example, if we sell stocks high and win, the emotional impact is less than if we sell stocks low and lose. We hate losing, and we are hard-wired to care more about what we lose. So instead of thinking about what youll gain by moving, think about what youll lose. What will you miss? Because thats what youll think about the most. Think about what you are actually willing to give up. Each relocation is really about giving up stuff that you have now that you wont have later. Getting new, fun stuff is going to be great. But knowing what you can do without is more important. And more mature. Because the most adult decisions in your life are ones that put severe limits on other possibilities. 2. We underestimate the commute. I know this one very well. You think you have something that outweighs everythingthe big house, the fun job, the good schoolsfor me it was living on a farm. But if that entails a huge commute in order to get everything you want, well, then the truth is you cant have everything you want. The commute makes you more unhappy than any of that stuff can make up for. 3. We waste time visiting in person before moving there. When you decide where to live, it should be based on the essential issuesproximity to people you love, ability to earn a living, and so on. These are questions you can answer online, or with a phone call to a friend or relative. To try to find out if you are a cultural fit by visiting is absurd. It is impossible to get the sense of a city from just one visit. A large city is different block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, and you could not get a taste of all of them in a visit. You will have to read about them and trust statistical analysis in order to choose. So a visit to a city gives you a skewed view and will simply mess up your decision-making process by giving too much weight to sketchy data. Wherever you decide to move, a good real estate agent will know exactly where in the area you should live. 4. We overestimate the raise. Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman summarizes decades of happiness research this way: It is only a slight exaggeration to say that happiness is the experience of spending time with people you love and who love you. (via Jonah Lehrer in Wired) So then it should come as no surprise to you that if you are relocating away from people you love in order to get more money, you should think twice. Nattavudh Powdthavee of the University of London did the computations to show that you need to get a raise of $130,000 to compensate for the happiness you will lose by moving away from friends and family. 5. We think we are an exception. Look at the demographics of the city. You are normal. You are regular. You are going to become the mean of your demographic. Its the law of nature. Average is average because thats what most people are. You make your life overly complicated by living in a fantasy world where you are not typical. Once you accept that, you can use research to its full benefit. For example, even if you earn $500,000, you will not feel rich if all your neighbors earn a lot more than you. This is the law of financial happiness that its relative, not absolute, and you feel best when you are an average earner in your community. Too high and you feel like an outcast, too low and you feel desperate. The same is true of city living. Cities are not appealing to normal parents. This is because marriages do not stay together when two parents need to earn huge incomes. Women simply do not want to have their kids raised by nannies. This means that only families where there is a single wage earner in the very highest of brackets does city living look appealing. Otherwise, the compromises a family makes to live in a city leaves them short on benefits. (If nothing else, parents who work all day and tuck kids in to bed every night have no time or energy to enjoy the cultural benefits of a big, expensive city.) 6. We trust a cost-of-living calculator. The problem with this tool is that it gives you information you cant use. You need to know which city will make you happy, not which city will save you $20,000 in housing costs. Lets say youre thinking of moving from San Francisco to New York City. Theyre both really expensive to live in, so the difference in your salary isnt going to matter. You should probably think harder about their cultures than about money; very few people fit in well in both cities, and most feel like they belong in one or the other. A calculator cant tell you that. Now lets say youre moving from New York City to Los Angeles. Youll save money on housing, of course, but youll need a really good car. In L.A., a BMW is totally reasonable. Youll end up spending more time there than in your apartment. In NYC, however, owning a BMW is commonplace only among millionaires. For most New Yorkers, having a car like that is absurdthey just dont drive enough. But cost-of-living calculators dont have a BMW: yes or no option. 7. We overlook key research. When I relocated from NYC to Madison, I did tons of research. I knew everything about happiness and economic development and I knew what I was getting into even though I never stepped foot in Madison before I moved there. But I ignored a crucial piece of research: The schools. I simply could not believe that the schools were as bad relative to the rest of the country as all the data showed. Its a university town, I reasoned. Its liberal. They must raise taxes a lot for schools. I couldnt believe it. But it was true. And I ended up having to leave Madison because the schools were so bad. Then I moved to the country. I paid a lot of attention to the research about optimizers. People in the country are generally content with a relatively simple life with few options. City people complicate their lives with lots of choices for all the best stuff, but that doesnt make them happy. And you become like the people you live with. Really. So I decided to become a content, country person by moving to where they live. It turns out that choosing a location is a lot like choosing a mate. What you decide to overlook ends up being the most important part of your decision. You know what is going to be hard about the life you are choosing and you know that you are deciding to ignore it and go ahead with the choice anyway. We never really know if we are making a good decision or if well have to get over it.

Twitter can save your life

Twitter can save your life Its safe to say that the majority of the world thinks Twitter is a waste of time. Yes, Twitter is a darling of the New York Times and frequents front pages of mainstream media. But Twitter gets coverage not because the intelligentsia loves Twitter, but because the intelligentsia hates feeling like its falling behind. This post is for all the people who think Twitter is stupid but wish they didnt. Here are five ways Twitter can save your life: 1. Twitter lets you find people like you. The core of every career problem is actually loneliness. You dont change jobs because you dont have faith in yourself.You dont ask for more money because you dont believe in your own value. You dont quit because you worry about not being associated with a company. Believing in ourselves is the only thing that keeps us going and if we stop believing in ourselves, we get stuck. Twitter helps solve this problem because you can find people like you. That voice inside your head telling you that no one has your problem? Do a search. Every problem you can imagine is tweeted about somewhere. You can find someone talking about it. The most important reason to be on Twitter is to connect with people, so if one person is there, talking about the problem you have, then they want to talk with you about it. The more people you find who are like you, the more you can connect with others and feel okay with who you are, and then you believe in yourself and you start to move on. Twitter is a live index of people and the weirdness we harbor, which is a gift to the world of loneliness. 2. Twitter solves specific problems. You can tweet into the world, and ask for help, and someone will answer. Twitter users ask questions all the time usually how to. Wheres a good place to eat near the intersection of in San Francisco? Or What adapter do I need to run PowerPoint from my Mac into a projector? You will get an answer in twenty seconds. Twitter answers questions so efficiently because there is such an incredibly wide range of top-performers. Theres a directory to find anyone on Twitter, by company or title or location. This means that whatever you want to do with your life, there is someone there who can help you. And you know they want to help, because thats why people are on Twitter to connect with people. Its why so many people use social media to help others. Social media is about networking, and networking is about helping people. This means that you have millions of people waiting to help you. But what do you need help with? Its much harder to ask a good question than get the answer. Twitter gives you the ability to get the help you need to get what you want. Once youre using Twitter you have no barrier to getting what you want in your life except you. 3. Twitter helps you find what youre good at. Twitter is a way to let people know what youre doing. For most of the day, what were doing is not as interesting as what were thinking. So in the end, Twitter is sort of a window into your head: what youre doing in your head while youre doing nothing thats all that interesting otherwise. If you force yourself to start tweeting, you force yourself to think about what youre thinking. Most of us focus on what were doing: our to do list, our schedule, etc. Once you focus instead on what youre thinking, you free yourself to start connecting with people based on what youre thinking about. Then, you will learn the best way to communicate what youre thinking. For some people, 140 characters in Twitter is enough. For many people, Twitter is a way to link to a widely ranging reading list and for some people, Twitter will be a gateway to their longer ideas. Youll learn for yourself how to best present whats in your head. Then you can be more than just a static resume, more than just a list of your contacts. You can be a known for your ideas. 4. Twitter delivers exactly what you want to know, fast. Twitter helps you get better information and give better information. And, in an information economy, you cant have a more important tool than that. Twitter is a way to curate information in a way that makes news useful to you. It used to be that the New York Times told you what was the news for that day. Later, the news of the day because so large that it would fill 10,000 New York Times every day. Or maybe every minute. Today we cannot read all the news but we need to sort and synthesize at a decent pace, in order to stay useful and engaged in the fast-changing world around us. Twitter is a curating system. You can follow people who are good at finding the news you care about, and then you have a stream of information better than the New York Times live, updating every minute. You might think this is crazy, but its the reason why all major news organizations have a department devoted to getting the news from Twitter. Thats where news breaks first today. And the inherent crowdsourcing nature of Twitter makes it the most efficient way to tell which news people care about most. 5. Twitter makes you brave. Maybe you think all this is stupid and misguided. But let me tell you something. I am not an early adapter. I resist new technology until I think its proven. I hate learning new contraptions, and I dont even know how to program my expensive-because-its-programmable coffee maker. Sometimes I cant even understand whats going on in my own social network, Brazen Careerist. But even with my technoskepticism, I know that you have to try Twitter. Because bravery begets bravery, and trying new things keeps you fresh and interesting, even if you are trying new things that you dont believe you really need to try. Its why I went to the rodeo, its why I worked on that chicken farm, its why I read car and driver magazine when Im getting a manicure. You have to force yourself out of your comfort zone if you want to grow. (And for starters, you can follow me :)

5 Questions to Ask When Defining Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

5 Questions to Ask When Defining Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Whether you’re an accountant, entrepreneur, or writer, any type of professional can benefit from building a personal brand. When creating your personal brand, the most important (but most difficult) step is to define yourself as a professional. Your personal brand isn’t just something you use to market yourself to employers or other professionals; it’s who you are as a person 24/7. This is why it’s important to focus on qualities and characteristics you want to be recognized for as a professional. As you begin to think about what you want your personal brand to say, here are five questions to ask yourself: 1. What are my strengths? A key component of a strong personal brand is to have confidence in your strengths. Your strengths and talents will make your personal brand shine as you build a name for yourself in your industry. To discover your strengths, take a look at what excites you most about your career, what you do differently from everyone else, and where you’ve experienced the most success. These strengths will help you define who you are as a professional. 2. What are my passions? Pinpointing your passions can be difficult, but it’s not impossible if you set aside time for self reflection. To discover your passions, think about what you love doing on the weekends or in your free time. For example, if you love writing and cooking, these are unique qualities you can use to define your personal brand. 3. What are my past accomplishments? Your personal brand is the story about yourself that you want to share with the world. To illustrate your story, past accomplishments are a great way to show people what you have the ability to do. 4. How do I want others to describe me? Take a moment to think about your favorite brand. Whether it’s a beverage, clothing line, or musician, focus on the feelings that come to mind when you think about that particular brand. When you think about a brand you like, it evokes positive feelings and words. As you develop your personal brand, think about the feelings and words you want your colleagues and coworkers to think of when they think about you. For example, if you want people to think of you as an ambitious, kind, and talented professional, those are feelings you should incorporate into your brand. You can portray this brand through personality, how you talk to people, and how you engage with people online. 5. What makes me unique? Everyone has a unique skill, opinion, or experience to offer. As you think about what makes you unique, use these qualities as an element of your personal brand. For example, if you’re a graphic designer who loves to travel, incorporate both of those elements into your brand. Remember, your personal brand is who you are as a person. When it comes to creating a personal brand, stick to your passions and focus on what you want to be recognized for. These things will help you create a genuine personal brand that people will want to get to know. How do you define your personal brand?

Format For Resume Writing

Format For Resume WritingFormat for resume writing is something that should not be taken lightly. It will tell the reader a lot about the candidate. There are certain mistakes that can be avoided, but there are others that cannot be overlooked. The latter will be those that will cause some people to end up with a bad impression of the organization.You should consider the information contained in your resume format. It should tell the employer who you are, what you do, and where you came from. In addition, it should give them something they can work with, without becoming too personal. Avoid being too long or too short. You should just be able to inform them how to contact you and what to expect in the future.When you are applying for a job posting, don't think that the employer wants to interview you by phone. Sometimes, you might find out that they just want to get in touch with you for some reason. This is why you need to ensure that you put the company's phone number in your resum e format.If you have a format for writing resumes, then you will know that there are certain options that you should avoid. The first one is the use of extra spaces. They only get in the way. Always avoid the use of extra spaces because they make the resume look unprofessional.Another option that you should avoid is using acronyms in your format for resume writing. Do not be afraid to write short sentences and use short and simple words. Don't put more than two or three titles in a single document. Even if it takes a long time to type, it is better to avoid this type of formatting.If you are unsure about the formats for resumes, you can refer to a sample resume format and check it on your computer screen before submitting it. The sample format will allow you to see if your resume looks good or not. However, this does not mean that you have to use the sample.You should also think twice before altering the format for resume writing. You may have thought that you just needed to adjust the font size and color to get the best results. This is not the case.You need to remember that you should follow the format for resume writing that is prescribed by the employer. If you do this, you can ensure that you will not have any problems with the job. You may also learn some things about the employer and the job that will make you a better candidate. Remember that this is a great way to get the right job.

What The Healthcare Model Can Teach Us About Business Success

What The Healthcare Model Can Teach Us About Business Success Success in business can be a hard thing to achieve, but if your business is concerned with life and death situation and human suffering, it can seem like an impossible task. Of course, this isnt the case, because there are many thriving healthcare companies out there. Something that means they have some valuable lessons to teach the rest of us regarding how to run a business. Read on to find out what they are. Healthcare business have a surprising amount to tell us about success. The customer always comes first. One thing that the healthcare industry does incredibly well is always to put the customer, or patient in this case first. What this means is that they are always thinking about how the customer experience can be improved. In fact, as healthcare is often such an emotionally charged environment, many indirect measures are used to help calm and relax patients to make their experience more favorable. Such measures can include thing such as providing video medical appointments so a patient doesnt have to leave their own home to seek help, to using things like the print graphics for patient experience that are available. This is because they can assist in calming people waiting for their appointments. Something that can not only help them to feel better and so report a better experience, but also support the consultation on going more smoothly as well. Another factor that will play into further business success, and it is this concern with the customer that is buying the product and the experience they have that a non-healthcare business can apply to boost their own profits. Your product can make or break you. Another thing that the healthcare business model can teach us about success is that your product can make or break you. Our course, in this instance we are calling the medical service,  the healthcare business provides as a whole, the product. The reason being that it is this what the patient is paying for. Now, if the patient receives poor service, they are unlikely to become a repeat customer, provide a positive review, or recommend the business to their friends or family, and the same goes for dissatisfied customers in any company. Therefore it is essential that whatever you are selling does what it promises and is a product of quality, a lesson even business not in the healthcare sector would be wise to learn from. Payment flexibility can increase your profits. Lastly, non-healthcare businesses can learn from the way that payment is dealt with in this field. Obviously, treatment is often necessary and can even be essential, something that means when people dont have the money available to pay; they need another option such as credit. In line with this may healthcare business run their own lines of credit for their customers, something that those companies outside of the industry can profit from. After all, if the only thing that is stopping your customer making a purchase is that they dont have the funds, providing them with a reasonable credit option can easily override this obstacle and create more sales to boost your profit margin.

5 Tips for Entrepreneurs to Find Funding

5 Tips for Entrepreneurs to Find Funding Funding is a key ingredient in all entrepreneurial pursuits, whether you have a newly budding business or an established company seeking financing for sustainable growth. But despite its necessity, funding can be difficult to access for a number of reasons. Kathryn Petralia, co-founder of Kabbage, a leading online lending platform which has funded over?$2 billion?to help businesses grow, says entrepreneurs often struggle to find the right access to capital that they need to help take a business idea to new heights. “Entrepreneurs today are increasingly seeking reliable sources of funding to match their fast-paced growth, and are eager to invest in great opportunities,” Petralia says. “Many of those seeking smaller loans or investments have been underserved by an existing process that is highly competitive and risk-averse.” In light of this, Petralia noted there are several ways for an entrepreneur to stand out from the crowd and secure the funding they need to launch the business of their dreams. 1 A good story is everything Spend time developing a solid story around your business idea, underscored by the reasons why it is not only important to you, but how it can also help solve a significant problem for others. Show your inexorable passion for your mission and your vision â€" your energy and enthusiasm will resonate with others and encourage stronger interest in your business. That said, while you want to put forward a good founding story, you also need to know how to communicate it simply. If you’re struggling in this area, reevaluate your approach. That may mean making necessary tweaks to a pitch or cultivating a stronger narrative that quickly communicates your business mission. 2 Be organized Using organizational tools can help investors better assess your business’ performance. Many financiers will require documents that exemplify strong performance. Great bookkeeping tools such as Xero, Quickbooks, and Expensify can keep you organized and prepared. 3 Establish your business credit, but be careful about spending You shouldn’t use personal credit for your business, and should instead begin to establish the business’ credit separately. Not only will using your own credit decrease your personal credit score, you won’t be helping your business by doing so. To show your business is a safe investment, get a business credit card. They are a reliable tool that can be helpful especially during the early stages. Many business credit cards have a low credit line, and while they are likely too low to be a significant source of funding, they are a great way to begin establishing business credit. Although credit cards are advantageous, be careful about how much you spend. Just like a personal credit card, overspending can hurt your business credit and have a negative impact on how lenders see your business as a whole. 4 Build a strong team, including a business partner You can’t create a prosperous and thriving company on the work of one person alone; it takes multiple people to encourage that growth. Investors want to make sure your team is durable and suitable for the task at hand. That said, build a team that investors can believe in and who will achieve your metrics for success. Highlight the team’s individual experience and explain why each is a great asset the team dynamic is important to investors, so show how their talent and expertize will enable a successful business. Finding the right business partner is critical. Not only can they provide alternative opinions as the business grows and changes, but they can also be great networking sources. Effective in all stages of business growth, having a partner to help generate ideas, opinions, and perspectives can better position your business for both success and funding. 5 Don’t rely on just investors for funding, consider alternative lenders as well Often, when people think of funding, they think of outside investment from a third party, but there are other options available for fund-seeking entrepreneurs. Although bank loans typically have a lower interest rate than most other options, they can be extremely difficult to get and the application process is often excruciating. In addition, they often don’t cater to smaller businesses seeking less than $250,000 to grow their company. On the other hand, alternative lenders like Kabbage can offer more flexible funding for businesses, with a simple and direct application process that won’t require tons of time to complete. For this reason, online lenders might be the best choice for a business looking to grow. Ultimately, while accessing capital to boost growth of your business can be daunting, there are ways for entrepreneurs to set themselves apart from the crowd. Petralia reminds business owners, “if you are a small business or entrepreneur in need of extra capital, look to take an out-of-the-box approach to achieve the next step in your business journey.” Join Dana Manciagli’s Job Search Master Class ® now and get the most comprehensive job search system available!