Career Course

Point seven of my Ten Steps to Interview Preparation is to “practice aloud with answers to predictable questions.” After all, as the adage says, “practice makes perfect.”

Some of you may be thinking “why bother?”

Consider this: although networking or a great resume can land you an interview, it is your interview skills that land you a job offer. Furthermore, it is not always the most qualified candidate who lands the job offer, it is the candidate who interviews best.

How does one practice then? And to which questions?

Have you tried practicing aloud? I have, and let me share that the first time I practice, I ramble, digress, sound silly, and wouldn’t impress the most forgiving audience. Even I can’t

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In today’s cutthroat job market, it’s impossible to overestimate the importance of a resume. It’s your foot in the door, your first impression, your one and only shot at landing an interview. That’s why it’s critical that you polish that sucker to perfection.

And that means ridding it of common clichés, the kind that make hiring managers’ eyes roll. So, what buzzwords and phrases should you avoid? The CeeVee Blog offers five tips for creating a CV without clichés, including:

Team player – Do you believe that others will write on their CV that they are not a team player? Of course not,

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The U.S. Senate may use a procedural maneuver this week to repeal the health-care law’s provision that would have required businesses to file a 1099 tax form for purchases over $600. The maneuver would allow the Senate to pass the House version of repeal as an amendment to a small business bill currently being debated on the floor.   Some Democrats in the Senate and the White House oppose the way the repeal is funded in the 1099 repeal bill approved by the House on March 4, according to a Bloomberg report. Re Readm Full Article…

As part of the 2011 Budget, the Government has announced that it will consult to remove the “unworkable” requirement under the Equality Act 2010 for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment of their staff by third parties.

The Plan For Growth, launched alongside the Budget, outlined plans to scrap proposed regulatory changes, which the Government claimed would have cost businesses more than £350 million to implement.

Chancellor George Osborne announced in the Budget that dual discrimination rules, which were yet to be introduced under the Equality Act 2010, would not be brought in.

The dual discrimination provisions would have allowed individuals who believed that they had been treated less favourably because of two “protected characteristics” – such as age, disability, race, gender reassignment, religion or belief, sexual orientation or gender – to bring a combined claim.

Osborne also confirmed that there will be a three-year moratorium on new business regulation for those organisations with 10 workers or fewer and that the right to request time to train will not be extended to businesses with fewer than 250 employees, as announced by business minister Mark Prisk last week.

Additionally, the Government has said that it will “launch a major drive to revise burdensome EU regulations and directives”, including those on maternity and paternity rights.

It claimed that if EU plans to give 20 weeks’ maternity and two weeks’ paternity leave on full pay go ahead, it would cost UK business in excess of an extra £2 billion per year.

Other announcements included a £180 million investment in apprenticeships to create 50,000 additional places over the next four years. In or

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The nice thing about being human is that you dont have to be normal. You can choose to be odd, for example. I prefer odd. Particularly odd brands. If theres a quirky or idiosyncratic vibe going on, all the better. Why? An odd brand tells me something vital is going on. For a personal brand, thats hugely appealing.

Personal brand pumping

If this kind of stuff interests you, I’m going to pile up nine odd strategies that will get your creative juices firing, and your personal brand pumping. I

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