The Times Are Changing ... Are you?

Where should you start? Ever wonder how you can interview better? Not sure who you are meeting with and how you should act? Not sure what you can do to better prepare? Well, I can help with 2 important reminders.   Tip #1 Act the interview!  Imagine being in a conversation with a friend. You both have the same tone, facial gestures, hand gestures, and way of speaking You can maintain rapport through similarities when speaking to another person. The sense of ease when talking with one another and the same mood is called mirroring.  Establishing good rapport is important when interviewing and it may make the difference in getting an offer or not getting the offer. People usually hire people they like.  Apply the mirroring technique to help you make everyone feel at ease with the conversation taking place.  Observing body language, including posture, hand gestures, facial expressions, tone, volume and rate of speech, and applying it to yourself.  ...

Remember the Five Keys to Success By Alicia Pozsony I believe that those of us out of work have to have the very same qualities it takes to become our own boss, because we  are  our own boss in the business of networking, job searching, and selling ourselves. Imagine yourself an entrepreneur. What do you need to succeed? According to a recent article on Web site  ezinearticles.com — http:// ezinearticles.com/?How- Entrepreneurs-Succeed---The-5- Qualities-Needed-For-Business- Success&id=22948 —there are five qualities that all entrepreneurs share that are the keys to their business success. See how they apply to your own job search: Desire       You must have a desire to break into the workforce or out of the average nine-to-five in an economy as tough as today’s and to put your ideas, ideals, and beliefs into action. Desire is the one key strength that forces entrepreneurs to stay ahead of competitors. Positivity      ...

The end of the year is not only a good time to reflect but also to perform that ever so important part of any Project Mangers role ... Lessons Learned.  Perhaps the most important lesson I learned this year involves a unique project I was tasked with completing. I was assigned the huge challenge of a Designing a SharePoint solution for a company wide intranet, including a solution for the PMO. The PMO solution needed to include a repository for project documents, confidential financial documents and the usual project inputs and outputs - issues, action items and risk lists. The Problem: This was an internal project funded by overhead, not from an external client or vendor source and stakeholders wanted it done without much time or input from them. They wanted it done right and it had to work for everyone. 'Everyone' meant, HR, Development, Finance, executives, remote and in house developers, too.   Without requirements, some of the dilemmas I encountered included: No de...

So, what ensures Successful Project Management?   If project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals in a timeframe having a defined beginning and end, what is needed to meet the unique goals and objectives? Essentially, it's Two Things (yes, just 2!) : Ensure project goals are met Let's consider the simplest highest goal: to ensure the change, meet the milestones and project goals while adding value .  Projects are usually constrained to tight time and resource budgets and usually have a financial budget that work needs to be contained to. Project plans, Visio high level milestone charts , lists of issues, action items, and risks are needed. Project Administration Deliverables and milestones are another thing that requires great attention to during the various stages of the project. Having a Project Administrator   monitor action items, issues and risks is key e...

By Alicia Pozsony I believe that those of us out of work have to have the very same qualities it takes to become our own boss, because we are our own boss in the business of networking, job searching, and selling ourselves. Imagine yourself an entrepreneur. What do you need to succeed? According to a recent article on Web site ezinearticles.com — http:// ezinearticles.com/?How- Entrepreneurs-Succeed---The-5- Qualities-Needed-For-Business- Success&id=22948 —there are five qualities that all entrepreneurs share that are the keys to their business success. See how they apply to your own job search: Desire You must have a desire to break into the workforce or out of the average nine-to-five in an economy as tough as today’s and to put your ideas, ideals, and beliefs into action. Desire is the one key strength that forces entrepreneurs to stay ahead of competitors. Positivity Like an entrepreneur, the job seeker of today must have a positive mental attitude toward...

No matter the industry, there are many things that are the same for all projects. Some of them are: 1. People 2. Timelines and Milestones 3. Action Items, Issues and Risks If you have studied the PMI Principles of Project management as I have, and your company is willing to implement them under the same standards, your life will be easy because you can utilize PMI Standards.  Your projects will go smoother even if you need to manage projects to some other methodology, perhaps according to the companies specific SDLC or worse, a combination of their standards and different client standards. Internal reporting can be difficult in this situation unless you know how to bridge the gap. This is the case with many companies, both large and small. Then complicate matters by introducing methodologies such as Agile or Waterfall and environments such as a matrixed environment, and it becomes a whole new ballgame! The bottom line is the same, though: Stay organized Communicate ...

By Alicia Pozsony As we set our clocks ahead and await warmer, sun-filled days, it’s time to recognize the season of spring. New life and bright colors of nature—it’s as if Earth is taking new breaths. Take this opportunity, as nature flourishes, to start anew in your job search journey. Whether you’re new to being unemployed or you’ve been unemployed for a longer while, I hope you will find my story uplifting. Can you think of another time in your life when you were down on your luck? Maybe it was when you were younger in age and less informed about the ways of the world, as was true for me. I recall the very first time I was asked to walk to the corner store to get milk and bread for my mother. This was a challenge I gladly welcomed and proudly accepted. It came with age and she felt I was ready. “Come right home and bring me all the change” I heard my mother call as I walked away from our front door. It was a warm, sunny day, and I had the confidence of ten thousand men. Repeating ...