What do your professional references say about you? Ever think about it? You should because no matter how good your interview went, if your references don’t say good things about you….you’re not getting that new job you want. Seems kinda harsh doesn’t it? But it’s true, a bad reference can single handedly sink an otherwise great opportunity.Ironically, most people pay little to no attention to their references. I hear things like “I haven’t talked to him in ages.”, “I didn’t really work that closely with her.”, “I’m just his friend” but my favorite is the “one word answers” – yep, no, yes, maybe, absolutely. Joking aside, if you aren’t taking the time to really cultivate and inform your professional references you are putting yourself at a disadvantage in any job search. Someone who takes their job search seriously has educated, informed, prepared and PREDICTABLE references. I recall a candidate interaction a long time ago where the recruiter asked a reference “Would you hire so and so again?”. Simple stuff, nothing major, should be a straight forward response and it was just that….”I wouldn’t hire that guy to stock shelves”. End of interview, no hire, thanks for playing. If your references say they wouldn’t hire you again, it’s pretty bad but when they go out of their way to torpedo your application it’s apocalyptic.Without further adieu, a few quick tips on how to give the best professional references:1) Give people who you know, trust and who will absolutely, positively say nice things about you – I know, right, who WOULDN’T do that? You’d be surprised. I’m not even going to talk about this anymore, do your homework, call your references so when they talk to potential a employer they don’t throw you under the bus.2) Give a former manager – Again, I know, not rocket science. I’m always happy to hear how great a guy someone is, or how they play a mean guitar or how they can finish Halo without dying……….but, at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. I want to talk to someone who can tell me what kind of an employee you’ll be once you are hired. Former managers are critical to making sure any potential employer can get the info they need to hire you without reservation. If you don’t have a former manager who’ll say nice things, try someone else in a leadership role. You need someone besides your lunch buddies to say nice things about you, especially in a competitive job market like we have now.3) Make sure your references are available and expecting the call – This one drives recruiters crazy. Nothing more frustrating than leaving voice mail after voice mail for a reference only to follow up with an email that bounces back “On vacation until September 2013″. Good times! It’s common courtesy for everyone involved and will help also make sure our references say nice things about you.4) Have a few people recommend you on LinkedIn – Simple stuff, and frankly it doesn’t matter if this is a former manager or not. With the rise of social networking, more and more companies are searching the web for potential hires. No better way to reinforce that you are a quality hire than to have a well groomed LinkedIn profile that has several people singing your praises.5) Keep in touch with your references to make sure you have a big stable of people to use -This is the final tip, and probably the most important. You want to keep in touch with people who can serve as great professional references. Seriously, think about it. How many former managers can you give that would say nice things about you? The more you have, the better off you’ll be long term. You don’t need to talk to them every day, week or even every month however, you should be just touching base once every quarter or two, JUST in case you need them or, get this…..maybe they need you. That’s right, your former boss may be looking for a job and need a “former direct report” to say nice things…next think you know you guys are colleagues again. So, trust me on this one, figure out who will give you a stellar reference and then maintain and build on that relationship.That’s it, nothing crazy, nothing complicated. Follow these simple tips and I can guarantee you’ll have much more success converting those interviews into offers.
Outdoor Fitness – Tips To Get Fit Out Of Doors
Experts advise to break up the long-term fitness goals into shorter, smaller and more realistic ones in order to ensure success and to be able to stick to an exercise regime, many professional health instructors suggest making work-outs fun to do! Once you eliminate boredom from an exercise routine, such as only working out on a stationery bike or hitting the home-gym where you are faced with the treadmill and the same old environment by taking your workout out, you stand a better chance of sticking to the routine – thanks to the novelty factor as well as the freshness of the ideas as such.
Moreover, with increased health awareness and learning about the ill-effects of obesity, there is no dearth of the number of open-air fitness options that are increasingly being made available to singles or groups of people wanting to explore being outdoors – and benefit health-wise from it, too!
So, it’s a common sight today to find people engaged in sporty pursuits for a health purpose as well as one that combines a certain amount of communing with nature or socializing such as walking the dog or swimming in a community pool ensures they benefit from.
The advantages to taking your daily work-out outdoors are many: from needing little by way of expensive gym equipment (read nothing more than your own two feet or a pair of dumbbells, if you wish) to avoiding the sweaty crowds at the local gym, from no having to drive back and forth to a health spa to availing the benefits of fresh and pure oxygen, from ensuring your daily dose of vitamin D that is only available from sunlight to being free to exercise anytime of the day, anywhere – the benefits of outdoorsy workout are huge!
There are also many different types of activities one can pursue outdoors, some of which we list here for your benefit and healthful knowledge:
Apart from exercising your lungs and filling them with pure oxygen that an outdoor work-out in the early morning guarantees you, you also get to benefit from the added room and spaciousness of an outdoor environment where you can perform lunges to build leg, buttock and thigh muscles. You can team these with other forms of exercise that are restricted by limited space indoors, such as jogging and stretching.
Thus, when outdoors, you can accommodate various forms of energetic exercise to sweat more, weigh less and look great by combining different motions such as performing standing lunges, brisk walking and rear lunges besides elevated walking.
The benefits of performing push-ups for a toned upper body are many and these can best be realized when performed in a natural environment that does away with the need for investing in a bench-press machine or an expensive gym membership fee. Basic movements for a push up includes standard, wide and close gripping of surfaces that will help to stimulate shoulder, chest and triceps muscles and this can be achieved with simple elevation of the hands; more intense work-outs can be performed by elevating your feet.
If you feel up to it, try clapping between push-ups or even squatting on one leg then standing and trying a wider stance; do remember to repeat till you feel the legs experiencing the effects of your efforts.
Other great outdoor exercises include sit-ups, chin-ups (try a tree or playground), uphill running or even walking like a duck – and you will be on your way to good health, cost-effectively!
Real Estate Housing Market – Oh, It Is Just Back to Normal – Yea, Right!
“It’s just back to normal’, “Just a seasonal slow-down’, “A normal minor adjustment’, “A great time to buy, with a much wider selection’, “A cooling market’”, “A soft landing”, “A slight tapering off” etc. Yes, these P.C. phrases are now replacing the “We should have a strong market for the foreseeable future” industry line prevalent just a few short months ago.The sad fact is people are still in self-denial here. We’re “special” because of our weather. We are known as America’s Finest City after all. It’s still common to hear someone say, “If you don’t buy now, you’re going to get priced out of the market!”Talk about your irrational exuberance in the Southern California real estate market. In a 2004 summer poll in the LA area, residents believed prices would continue to go up by more than 20% a year for another decade!What will be the industry P.C. phrases we’ll be hearing in about six to nine months? “It may well go as: “This home is a great buy, why just nine months ago you would have paid $25,000+ more…what a great savings.” Naturally, you would be talking to a buyer. For a seller (who has owned for some years) you might say: “Well, you are still making a profit. Who could have even known that the market would have turned down so fast?” For the downtown high-rise buyer who though they got a real deal on the final phase of their Gas Lamp digs, a real estate agent may be saying: “Well, because the resale value is actually below your 100% interest only trust deed, you really should consult a real estate attorney and/or meet with your lender to propose they accept your deed in lieu of foreclosure”.Are you reading this and thinking I’m way off base? Here are a few recent headlines:National Association of Realtors reports, in part: Total existing-home sales – including single-family, town homes, condominiums and co-ops – were down 5.7 percent in December from November.Time Magazine reports that ‘Vegas Condos Go Cold.”The Washington Post reports “Real estate groups in the Washington area have also reported declines to varying degrees.”"The bloom is definitely off the housing rose. Housing peaked last summer and has been weakening ever since,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said the real estate market was slowing “dramatically” and only a “miracle” could stop soaring mortgage rates from eating into housing prices. “The real estate market is slowing down dramatically and we’re going to have a problem down the road,” Bloomberg said.”If people who want to sell their houses have to wait a longer time before someone comes along and buys it, it would be a miracle if prices didn’t start to go down,” he said.”‘The market has definitely peaked,’ said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the L.A. County Economic Development Corp. ‘The fever has broken and now the question people are asking themselves is if there is a crash ahead.’”This is my own opinion on a realistic view of what lies ahead as far as the San Diego real estate market: A multi-year depreciation that could easily take 30% off the highs which reached this market’s peak during the summer of 2005! Plus, I foresee headlines, maybe even national, announcing how the San Diego high-rise downtown boom has turned into a foreclosure city!As a realistic San Diego Realtor, I provide these facts to my sellers. If their property is not generating meaningful activity within the first month of being listed, it would be prudent to consider a revised marketing plan similar to what many San Diego real estate developers are doing. This would be a combination of value-range reduction as well as agent and buyer incentives to position the property as the best total value for the area.I think as Realtors we must adapt and not deny. To otherwise will have a dramatic impact on your financial health and community reputationCopyright 2006 – http://www.websitetrafficbuilders.com All rights reserved. any additions/modifications/hyperlinks added to this article will be considered a copyright violation & subject to immediate legal action without further notice.