Archive for the ‘jobs’ Category
All you need is a break
Sometimes, all you need is a break. Not just a long weekend or Christmas holiday, but a good, two-week vacation that takes you far away from the city and out of the reach of office co-workers… preferably some time in the middle of the year, when holiday destinations are not too crowded. Yes, it costs money, but if you don’t mind roughing it out a little, you can get a pretty decent holiday for a couple of hundred $. The point is relaxation, not luxury. But what you do on your vacation is important too. If you take your laptop with you, keep your mobile phone on and tell your boss which hotel you’re staying at, you may as well not go. Completely disconnect is what must be done. Your company existed before you were there, and it will exist long after you’re gone. So don’t worry!
Keep your mind fresh
People tend to get bored with their jobs because it’s all they ever do. We’re not machines. We’re intelligent, highly-evolved creatures that need to be constantly fed with new information to be able to live comfortably. Our brains cannot appreciate being fed the same stuff daily, no matter how mind-numbingly difficult it is to understand. So what can you do? To start with, do you have any hobbies? Do you go out with friends on the weekend? Do you even have any friends? In short, do you have a life? Oh, yeah, laugh about it. But having a life is not just healthy. It’s necessary. If you are to come back to work feeling refreshed every Monday, you must first forget about work over the weekend. It’s when you have work on your mind day and night that your job begins to take on that peculiar, dull quality you’re starting to hate. Keep your mind alert with new stimuli from other places besides the work and you’ll find yourself wanting, instead of dreading to go back to work.
When was the last time you went on training?
This is an effective way of kick-starting your job again, as you’re introduced to new concepts and rediscover old ones. We tend to take a lot of aspects about our work for granted, and this is what makes them lose their charm. All those little details you used to love and find so exciting are gone! Undergoing training to improve your skills on the job will help you look at things differently again; high-quality training serve as excellent refreshers besides. You’ll come back to work raring to go again!
Find new inspiration
Are you sure you’ve been giving your 100 percent on the job? If you haven’t, well, that’s partly to blame for your current state of mind. A job only starts to get tedious when it starts to get boring. A job only gets boring when it starts becoming repetitive. But when does it start to get repetitive? When you stop innovating. To find new satisfaction in your job, take a long hard look at it and see what you can do to improve. Think of new ways to accomplish certain functions of your job, or new processes to speed things up and make it more exciting.
Try something new in your job
Assuming your company values you as an employee, one of the first people you should go to when you find yourself losing interest in your job is management. If you excelled in your current position, they’re not going to want to lose you. Ask them if there’s something else that needs doing in the company – in another department, preferably. Sometimes, the only way for us to appreciate what we’ve got is to have it taken away – temporarily. Lots of companies have interesting schemes that involve inter-department transfers between valuable, but jaded, employees like yourself. Explain to your boss that if you continue where you are, you’ll become hopelessly disinterested, and your performance will be adversely affected. Don’t close your eyes to new opportunities, where you are. When you get back to your current job, you’ll find that spring in your step you thought you’d lost forever.
Why did you get into your line of work to begin with?
We’re prone to forgetting too easily the motivations that spurred us to take on something in the first place. You forget why you fell in love with your boyfriend. You forget why you wanted to have kids. You forget why you loved computers so much, that you could imagine spending the rest of your life with them. Everything was fine up until a few months ago. Then something, well, crumbled. The good news is you’ve not fallen out of love with your job. What you’re feeling is weariness with doing the same thing, 24/7 (well, almost). Think back to why you wanted this job in the first place. Don’t be surprised to find your toes tingling at the memory, and a cynical smile on your lips.
Become a Pedorthist
The job: A pedorthist is a professional “foot fitter” who helps fit shoes to your feet. We are trained to assess feet, advise on the use of foot aids, especially orthortics (shoe inserts), and to help fit and modify shoes in order to assist a person’s movement and alleviate foot ailments.
The challenge: Being able to help people! Most people don’t realise how vital proper footwear and footcare are and, as a result, many suffer from pain and posture or movement problems. Some of our clients are diabetics or arthritics who have been suffering from foot pain for years. To be able to give them relief is one of the most satisfying aspects of the job. Since we educate people about footwear and footcare there is a high level of interaction as well.
Downside: Trying to convince people that killer heels kill! People have yet to realise that improper footwear and neglected footcare can lead to pain and various ailments. The level of awareness about pedorthists is still rather low too.
The customer: Pedorthics is a fairly new line of business in the market. Yet our services offer real results so as more people become aware of the role of pedorthists, there will be a greater demand.
How to turn fired into a positive experience
You might think the world has come to an end when you’re fired. Turn it into a positive experience with these six strategies:
Don’t take it to heart
You’re not an awful person. You just might not hove the skills the company’s looking for. If you suspect the firing is fueled by something personal, you’re better off without the company anyway.
Get answers.
Getting fired and being laid-off ore two very different things. Ask whether the decision was because of your work attitude, one specific event or a result of corporate downsizing.
Take it in stride
Use this experience as a challenge to do better, accomplish this by honestly evaluating your situation, taking responsibility for your actions that led to the termination and learning from them.
Stick with or shift your career path.
If you loved your last job and the industry you worked in, then stay with it. But if you weren’t happy, now is the time to think about a career change. For example, if you worked in an IT company, but now want to get into sales, find out if you picked up any sales and people skills -these skills are transferable from one job to another.
Don’t cut ties.
Stay on good terms with your ex-boss and your ex-colleagues. Vou don’t want to burn any bridges, especially considering that potential employers may phone your ex-boss for references.
Network
Tell everyone you’re on the job market. Your network includes family, friends, former co-workers, former bosses, neighbours, friends of friends – just about anyone. These people may not be able to offer you a new job, but they may know someone who can. Even once you find a new job, continue networking.
Become a Travel Journo
The job: Researching new and exciting travel destinations and activities. You also propose story angles for coverage, plan the travel itinerary and execute photo shoots to convey information in the most enticing way possible. Writing, of course, is a major part of the job.
The challenge: You get to enjoy luxury hotels, fine dining, spa treats, you name it. To sound less like a free-loading vulture, you have to travelling to unusual places, discovering a different side of destination, including diving in some of the most pristine marine havens on earth. Nothing beats the feel of the wide open road and the adventures that lie around the next bend.
Downside: Getting stung by jellyfish and polishing off a can of insect spray in an attempt to ward off leeches in our beautiful rainforest. Long hours on shoots are to be expected of course.
The income: If you’re in it for the money, you’re in the wrong job. But, the experiences gained are priceless. Freelancing is a good way to supplement your pay. But this requires funds to subsidise travel expenses.
The customer: Travel writers may either go on to write for international publications or become editors of travel mags. One could even release a book, travel guide or brochure or start up a travel website.
Creative thinking is an acquired skill
Always stumped for ideas during brainstorm sessions in the office? According to Doug Hall,author of jump Start Your Brain, creative thinking is an acquired skill. Adopt Hall’s methods to get your creative juices going:
Make the connection: Flip through newspapers and magazines with plenty of photos, and allow your mind to absorb the images, news, trends and ideas presented. Jot down captions, titles, names, brief descriptions that interest you. This exercise opens your mind up to make new connections from the material to your related task.
Get a fresh perspective: This involves expanding on ideas from other people. Ask someone outside your industry a question that pertains to your task. Listen to their off-the-top-of-the-head spontaneous responses and explore the possibilities of their answers. Sometimes we get so sucked in with the task at hand that we lose sight of the bigger picture. By combining your expertise and their fresh ideas, you’d be surprised what it can lead to.
Do a mental swap: Step out of your chair and imagine you are in someone else’s shoes. Scientist, Jeffrey A. Stamp, PhD, used this method during his doctoral research on aspartame. He mentally transformed himself into an aspartame molecule, to understand the reaction of food sweeteners under certain experimental variables. Your insights may lend a helping hand to your task!