5 Tips For Attending Your First Office Party - Classy Career Girl

5 Tips For Attending Your First Office Party The holidays are quickly approaching, and so is the inevitable office party. If you’re a new college graduate or started working for a new company this year, you might not be sure what to expect. In fact, the more you start thinking about office party etiquette, the more nervous you get. Relax. We’ll guide you through it! 5 Tips For Attending Your First Office Party 1.  Find Out If It Is Work or a Party First and foremost, it’s important to know what the tone of the office party will be. Chat with your coworkers to double check. Usually, office parties lean toward business casual. Don’t go to the office party expecting it to be like a night at the club. However, each company has its own culture. Maybe there will be party games and karaoke. Or maybe you will all just nibble on pretzels and peanuts, make small talk and go home. Try not to think of the office party as an obligation. Such an attitude will only steal the fun! Think of it as an opportunity to get to know your colleagues better. After all, you spend half the day with these people; it would be nice to find out if you have anything in common other than work. Be sure to also ask ahead of time where you can bring a plus one. Sometimes office parties are just for employees and guests are discouraged. [RELATED: 5 Most Popular Office Gift Ideas] 2. What to Wear Ladies, leave your stilettos and short, tight dresses at home. What’s the fanciest thing you would wear to the office on a work day without feeling embarrassed or overdressed? Wear that, and make it a little festive with holiday-themed colors, patterns or jewelry. For example, you could start with a simple and modest white dress, like the Time Warp Midi Dress pictured below. The skirt hits below the knee and the neckline is very high. If you don’t like the exposed back, you could pair it with a pashmina, cardigan or jacket in a rich, festive color. Add some colorful Mary Janes or ballet flats, and you’ve got the beginnings of a cheerful office party outfit. (Special thanks to Tobi for allowing me to use their image below in this article.) 3. When to Arrive and When to Leave Be polite and arrive within 10 or 15 minutes of the party’s start time, if not precisely on time. Do not show up with the mindset that you will “make an appearance” and then skedaddle after quickly helping yourself to drinks and snacks. Try to stay for at least an hour. If the party has a specific end time, prepare to leave about half an hour beforehand. You’ll need some time to finish conversations, say goodbye and gather your things. Otherwise, when the party naturally begins to wind down, it’s time to say your goodbyes. Take your cues from other people. If they start heading out the door, it’s time for you to leave as well. No one likes having to usher someone out the door because they just can’t take a hint!   4. What to Do and What Not to Do Get ready to listen and to engage in small talk. Stay positive in your chit-chat. This isn’t a time to hotly debate politics or to moan and complain about so-and-so in the accounting department. Even though it’s a work function, try to avoid talking about work. Although you surely have friends that you’ll want to spend some time with, don’t stay huddled up in one particular group. Roam around the room. Introduce yourself to people you don’t interact with on a daily basis. This is the perfect time to put names to faces. Mingling is the name of the game! Avoid stuffing your face with food. Eat beforehand so that you’re not tempted. The more you eat, the messier you’re likely to get. You don’t want to shake hands with the CEO after eating a greasy appetizer or have crumbs all over your mouth from a cookie. First impressions are, after all, important. Snack moderately. Even if they do serve alcohol, try not to drink. This is particularly true if you know you have a hard time stopping once you get started. You don’t want to be the punch line of the party. If you do want to have an alcoholic drink or two, sip on water in between drinks. 5. Don’t Forget to Have Fun! When it comes down to it, you’ve handled more stressful work activities than this. Have fun and stay classy, and the office party will be a breeze.

How to Identify a Clear Vision For Your Dream Business - Classy Career Girl

How to Identify a Clear Vision For Your Dream Business We are back with this lesson on how to create the vision now for your dream business and to create your brand identity. And this is important because this is how your customers are going to see you. And it’s the first impression that they’re going to have when they interact with your business and your brand, when they come to your website, when they see you on social media. That’s what we’re going to talk about today, that impression you want to create and where you want to take your business in the future. So a lot of you guys know that we recently went through a re-brand for the Classy Career Girl brand. So today I’m going to walk you through the steps that we took to really uncover who we are. Subscribe  on  your favorite platform below: iTunes Google Play Music Stitcher Radio TuneIn iHeartRadio Sound Cloud How to Identify a Clear Vision For Your Dream Business We’ve been doing this for nine years, but like now, who are we really? What do we want our customers to think about us right when they come to our website and they interact with our brand? We worked with a designer before we even started the membership site upgrade process. We worked with a designer to figure out what does our brand mean because she can’t figure out what colors and what our logo looks like if she doesn’t really know what our brand really needs. And she really, really challenged us to dig deeper. This isn’t just like we want to be classy. Like what is deep down inside? Why is your brand different? And what do you want your customers to feel when they interact with your brand? 1) Uncover What Your Core Values Are I want you to pick out those values that describe your brand. You can pick out a ton of them. Don’t worry about limiting them, just pick out as many core values that represent your business and your brand right now. So some of our values are happiness, inspiration, growth, balance and class. 2) Know Your Business Vision Some ideas for us is we want to be known as the full guide. We want to walk you every step of the way and be the full guide for you. We want to be encouraging. We want to be motivating. And so hopefully you would describe us that way. We’ve worked hard, but that is how I want our community to describe the Classy Career Girl brand. So this kind of helps build your business beyond just you when you can pass this off to someone else and they know how you want your community to describe you. 3) The Benefits That Your Audience Get So once your customer interacts with you, how do they feel? We want you and everyone who interacts with Classy Career Girl to be hopeful and to be motivated, to be inspired and encouraged. And that’s why we don’t post negative things. 4) Your Impact To The People You Work With What impact do you have when someone comes and you work with them? What do they leave with? What is that benefit? What is that transformation that you do? Long term we want to help paint that picture of that vision for your client of where you’re going to take them, whether they buy a product, whether they buy some service that you have. Whatever they buy, you are solving a problem in some way. 5) Identify What Makes Your Vision Unique What makes you different from everyone else out there? Now I can’t tell you what yours should be. But for me, ours are stories. We want to share a lot of stories of progress. That makes our brand different. We want our brand to be very focused and very about the follow-through. We want our trainings to be very high quality. That’s very, very important to us because that matches our brand. And so those are our differentiators and you’ll want to think them through in your vision. Remember, the vision for your dream business. It could be 5 to 10 years from now. What makes your dream business unique? It might not be now. Other Podcast Episodes You Might Like: QA With Anna Runyan About Planning and Goal Setting Your Goals For 2020 and How To Reach Them Faster 3 Simple Strategies To Find More Time For Your Goals

Brand New Year. New Personal Brand - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

Brand New Year. New Personal Brand If youre like many people, January is the time to make â€" and stick to â€" resolutions that will improve your life in some way. While youre working on those resolutions, why not also take stock of your personal brand  and brand messaging, to be sure  theyre aligned with your career plans for this year. Times being what they are, you never know when a new job opportunity, a possible career change, or even a layoff may come your way. Maybe its time to re-brand. Ponder these questions: Whats my brand reputation about these days? Have I become the go to person for a new area of expertise? What is my promise of value in the marketplace? What ROI do I offer potential new employers? Step one with any career branding work is identifying which employers (or which kind of employers) you will target. If youre happy in the kind of work youre doing now, and would want to continue in the same vein, then you probably know quite a bit about your target audience. If youre ready for a change, its time to do some research and plan a new career path. An essential piece in both the re-branding process and job search strategy is looking at your recent career accomplishments and contributions. What did you do for your employer(s) last year that most benefitted them? Think about the things you did that positively impacted your company or organization â€" saving money, increasing profits and market share, improving processes and/or productivity, expanding service offerings, improving communications, turning around failing processes/operations, etc. How will those contributions impact your promise of value to your target employers? If you werent keeping track over the past year, get to work cataloging them now, while you can still recall them. Here are some things that could be important: Joining new professional associations and/or contributing to existing ones Publishing articles, white papers, blog posts Getting a promotion Overcoming challenges you and the company faced. What were the results that benefitted the company? Suggesting initiatives to make the company greener Negotiating a lucrative new contract Sourcing a cost-saving new vendor Introducing new best practices Being part of the recruiting and hiring process Being a mentor and helping others progress in their careers Earning certifications or awards Reaching a career milestone Connecting with new people who brought in business for your employer Completing special training or gaining any relevant new skills Taking advantage of professional development â€" seminars, webinars, attending conferences Volunteering in your community What should you do with all this new information? Update your resume and career biography, so theyre at-the-ready if youre suddenly laid off and find yourself job hunting. Consider adding new career marketing documents to your career portfolio, such as an Achievement Summary, Performance Milestones, Leadership Initiatives Brief, Case Studies Profile. Name the document to fit the content. Update your and other online profiles. Revamp your brand statement to keep it relevant and make it resonate with your new target employers. I know this is a lot of work to do. Youll be thankful youve done it, if you find yourself suddenly in a job search. Another major benefit to you. Reminding yourself of your valuable contributions and personal achievements is a HUGE ego boost. Something we all need from time to time. Related posts: Bullet-Proof Your Executive Career in the New World of Work Get Personal With Your Executive Brand Statement 10 Things to Love About Your Executive Brand 00 0

3 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Advance Your Career Change - CareerEnlightenment.com

Use the location where you want to workIf youre willing to move to where the jobs are, then update your LinkedIn profile to the address or zip code of the place you want to be. Economists say  that most of todays unemployment would go away if people werent tied down to where they live. Sure, its underwater mortgages, but its also an  unwillingness to go where the jobs are. If you can cut the rope, your chances of getting hired to do what you love increase quite a bit.Think about how you use a job board. You enter two pieces of data: job title and location. Recruiters do the same thing. So if you want an accounting job  in San Francisco, your profile is more likely to show up on a search-results page if your location matches that of the recruiter.Add recruiters to your networkRecruiters want you in their network because they may want to pitch you for a position. So when you add recruiters whom youve never even met before,  theyre very likely to accept your connection invite.Furthermor e, external recruiters work with companies in contracts. So when you add a recruiter as a primary contact, youre very likely going to pick up a  collection of people working at the companies you are targeting in your second degree network.Therefore, the more recruiters you have in your network, the greater your chance of 1) showing up in targeted search results and 2) having an effective  second-degree network.

Do You Have a Micromanaging Boss - Hallie Crawford

Do You Have a Micromanaging Boss If your manager is suffocating you through his or her micromanaging, its time to identify the causes and potential solutions to the problem. Certified Career Coach s latest article on US News has been published. Its called, How to Handle a Micromanaging Boss Without Getting Fired. When you start a new job, its normal to have your boss check up on you and double-check your work to make sure that you are doing things correctly. At the very least, she will touch base with you verbally or via email to ensure that everything is going smoothly. But what if your boss is always double-checking your work, even when its not appropriate because you are a high-level employee? Or if she is doing it after you have been at your job long enough â€" and proven yourself enough â€" to earn her trust and some loosening up on the reins? If your boss is a micromanager, here are three things you can reasonably do without jeopardizing your job or seeming like youre undermining her authority. Read More

Can You Upload a Resume to LinkedIn?

Can You Upload a Resume to LinkedIn?If you are applying for a job on LinkedIn, you may be wondering if you can upload a resume to LinkedIn. However, there are some things that you will want to remember before making this request.The first thing you should know is that you will not be able to upload a resume to LinkedIn. Although there are other sites that allow you to do this, LinkedIn is the only one that allows you to upload a resume from your computer. This means that you will need to create a LinkedIn account, then upload your resume to your personal profile.Another thing you should know is that you cannot upload a resume to LinkedIn if you do not have a personal profile on LinkedIn. You will also not be able to upload a resume to LinkedIn if you are not using a computer. If you are using a personal computer, you will be able to upload a resume to LinkedIn.However, if you are using a personal computer and you are not using a computer at work, you will not be able to upload a resu me to LinkedIn. The last thing you want to do is to accidentally delete a file and get in trouble because you forgot to upload a resume.However, there are some things that you can do if you are working from home and still want to upload a resume to LinkedIn. You can log onto the site on your laptop, then log onto your personal LinkedIn account. You will be able to upload a resume from your laptop.However, you will not be able to upload a resume to LinkedIn if you are on a PC or laptop. If you are using a personal computer, you will be able to upload a resume to LinkedIn. This means that you should take all of your files on the computer and transfer them to your laptop, then upload those files to LinkedIn.If you are thinking about uploading a resume to LinkedIn, you should make sure that you are aware of the rules that apply to LinkedIn. There are some people who have made mistakes because they were unaware of these rules. Make sure that you are aware of the rules that apply to Linke dIn so that you are not putting yourself in a difficult situation if you are asked to upload a resume to LinkedIn.

Lisa Sugar No Mean Girls at POPSUGAR

Lisa Sugar No Mean Girls at POPSUGAR “Work hard, play nice” is my mantra. I learned it growing up, and now I want my children to live and breathe it. No one deserves good things in life if they cheat to get there. One thing I knew for sure when I became “the boss” (though I hate that word and try to never use it) is that I never wanted to be intimidating. I wanted to encourage people to work hard and find their strengths without resorting to scare tactics. Video Player is loading.Play VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time  0:00/Duration  0:00Loaded: 0%Stream Type  LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time  -0:00  SharePlayback Rate1xChaptersChaptersDescriptionsdescriptions off, selectedCaptionscaptions settings, opens captions settings dialogcaptions off, selectedAudio TrackFullscreenThis is a modal window.Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaqueFont Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall CapsReset restore all settings to the default valuesDoneClose Modal Dia logEnd of dialog window.PlayMuteCurrent Time  0:00/Duration  0:00Loaded: 0%Stream Type  LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time  -0:00  Playback Rate1xFullscreenClose Modal DialogThis is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.Close Modal DialogThis is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. Thankfully, it’s working for me: “Work hard, play nice” has become my overarching philosophy in life and in work. After all, we all knew the mean girl in high school or the bitch in the office, but I didn’t want to play dirty with them. I believe that playing nice will get you just as farâ€"as long as you work hard. Nice girls can be badasses too without being bitches. Read Next: How to Keep Toxic Colleagues in Check When I first started POPSUGAR, my mission was to create a website that would be a refreshing break from all the snarkiness and meanness on the internet. But for me, nice doesn’t mean saccharine or relentlessly positive. It can mean being fiercely competitive (which I’ll be the first to admit I am) as long as you play by the rules. Nor does nice mean being sickly sweet or timid (I also curse like a sailor). My brand of nice comes from a place of honesty, supporting others, and being empathetic. Nice is the simple lesson you learn in preschool: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I cannot stand anyone who acts like an asshole to flight attendants or servers, who treats people as if they are beneath them. I seek out friends and employees who treat everyone with the same respect. Some people think it’s a problem to be too nice, but I disagree. In fact, if I hear any manager at our company is being egotistical or political, I do my best to crush the behavior immediately. My number one rule when I started the siteâ€"one that our editorial team still lives by todayâ€"is to never say anything about celebrities you wouldn’t say to their faces. That’s also a rule I follow in life: Never say something about someone you wouldn’t want them to overhear if they unexpectedly appeared from around a corner. That doesn’t mean I’m dishonest. I believe it’s far nicer to be honest, even if telling the truth isn’t easy. After having some pretty tough bosses in past jobs in San Francisco, I knew early on that I wanted to be the type of leader who was encouraging and not intimidating. Even now, if I ever hear someone who works at POPSUGAR is scared of me, I need to figure out why, and how I can change that. There is simply no reason not to be nice or easy to talk to, whether you’re the most junior employee or the boss. You don’t have to be scary to be successful. Read Next: These Are the Most Infuriating Office Personalities My “no mean girls” philosophy extends to our office culture. I want to create a safe, positive environment where I’d rather hear what the 22 year-olds have to say than make them cower in fear. And being the new kid or the youngest employee shouldn’t mean you have to do all the dirty work. At POPSUGAR, we have the mentality that everyone should know how to do a little bit of everything. Sure, you need to start by learning the basics and train your way up to bigger tasks, but being at the top doesn’t mean you are ever above doing a little dirty work. That’s part of working hard and playing nice.   Lisa Sugar is the founder of PopSugar. This essay is adapted from her new book, Power Your Happy: Work Hard, Play Nice, and Build Your Dream Life.