Pixar gets it - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Pixar gets it - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog The Holllywwod way of organizing a movie is by using only contract labour. The vast majority of movie people, from grips and gaffers to high-paid actors, are in essence self-employed and are hired for one movie at a time. Pixar goes against this trend, by focusing on people: Contracts allow you to be irresponsible as a company. You dont need to worry about keeping people happy and fulfilled. What we have created here an incredible workspace, opportunities to learn and grow, and, most of all, great co-workers is better than any contract. Weve made the leap from an idea-centered business to a people-centered business. Instead of developing ideas, we develop people. Instead of investing in ideas, we invest in people. Were trying to create a culture of learning, filled with lifelong learners. Its no trick for talented people to be interesting, but its a gift to be interested. We want an organization filled with interested people. Says Randy S. Nelson, the dean of Pixar University. Among the advatages cited are: * People learn to work more efficiently together through long-term collaborations * People can better support each other through difficult creative processes * A culture of learning * People have more fun Also check out the amazing offices at Pixar. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

How to get a job when youre unemployed -

How to get a job when youre unemployed - Ironically, it’s easier to find a job when you already have a job. Unemployed job seekers are subject to a “damaged goods” bias; some employers assume a great candidate would already have a job. A new study, which will be presented at next month’s Academy of Management’s annual meeting, suggests there is evidence that human resource professionals and the general public have a tendency to show a bias against unemployed job seekers. Researcher Geoffrey Ho, a doctoral candidate at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a researcher for the study said the bias began “virtually from the outset of unemployment,” not only after a long period of joblessness. If you’re unemployed and looking for a job, you probably are not surprised. What can you do to help avoid being discriminated against just because you are unemployed? Have a well-rehearsed story describing your situation. Be able to confidently explain the situation at your company in a way that showcases your situation in the best possible light. Use a succinct response to explain why you are out of a job and do not delve into details. For example, if you were laid off: “When I joined X company, their goals and my skills were aligned, but their plans evolved in a different direction, which compelled them to eliminate my (position/department), even though we were on target to make our goals.” If you were fired, try to frame your situation in the most favorable light, for example, “When I interviewed for my last job, we agreed on specific plans and approaches, but a new supervisor joined who had different ideas about how to move forward. I was no longer a match, so I agreed to move on.” Tell a positive, matter-of-fact story without getting into your emotions. Do not lie, complain, or badmouth your past employer or organization and do not appear bitter or angry; it will come back to bite you. Maintain your skills. From the minute you are unemployed, keep in touch with your network and find ways to use your skills so prospective employers don’t think you are eating bon bons on the couch. Attend industry meetings and volunteer to handle projects relevant to your field. Use your skills and list that work and your accomplishments on your resume. If you cannot volunteer for a professional organization, seek out a non-profit group or even a company where you might want to work, identify a problem you can solve for them, and offer to take on a pro-bono project for a set time. When you take these steps, you can keep your resume and online profiles and updated with current activity so it’s not so obvious you’re unemployed. Even if you’ve been out of work for a while, you may be surprised by how helpful it can be to get started on a project or two to update your resume; it’s not too late. Network effectively. Instead of asking everyone you meet if they know of a job, have a short, targeted pitch to introduce yourself and your skills. Request meetings to learn more about people or companies that interest you, and make it clear you don’t expect a job as a result: you’re doing research, which will expand your contacts and the number of people who may be willing to refer you for a position. When you know how to ask for help when youre job searching, you have a much better chance of getting what you want. Use social media. If you can engage online and demonstrate your expertise by posting links to news and sharing your own commentary, you will keep yourself top-of-mind with those who could hire or refer you to positions. Update your LinkedIn status for a brief (one- or two-week) period to indicate you are “seeking an opportunity in _______” or “available for a new position as _______,” but once you’ve let your network know you are looking, don’t be “the person without a job.” Secure a project, list it on your LinkedIn profile, and share updates about your work on all of the social media channels. Additionally, you can learn what is going on at conferences, even if you cannot attend, by watching social media updates â€" for example, many conferences have people “live tweeting” what the speakers are discussing. You can keep up with all of this from the comfort of your home, and even participate, even if traveling and signing up to attend in person is too expensive. Another great reason to use social media? Employers are looking there to find candidates. A Jobvite study says, “Social recruiting has become an essential HR practice, with 92% of U.S. companies using social networks and media to find talent in 2012, up from 78% five years ago.” Put yourself on social media where employers are looking, and even if you are not employed, you are more likely to gain their attention. (Read more about how important social networking is to get a job.) It’s not easy looking for a job when you don’t have a job, but take advantage of your free time to research organizations and jobs, to network, and connect to a new opportunity that may be an even better fit than your last job. You can help overcome the bias against the unemployed by revving up your network, getting active online, and finding volunteer gigs where you can show what you know. photo by emilyvalenza

Tips on Writing a Resume

Tips on Writing a ResumeIf you are looking to get your resume published in the various government recruitment websites, then writing your resume is an absolute must. This is because not only do these websites need a strong resume, but also someone who can properly showcase their skills, experiences and expertise.A good resume should be as professional as possible and therefore you must make sure that it does not deviate from this model. So what do you need to do to make a good resume? A few tips on how to write a resume are as follows:Professionalize - As a resume needs to be professional, it is better to have it written professionally by someone who knows what they are doing. You might need to pay for some kind of professional services for writing your resume, but they will definitely be worth it. For example, you might want to look at writers who know how to present information in a proper way and who knows how to properly design a resume layout.Length - A well-written resume is al ways longer than an average resume. In the past, people used to write shorter resumes to save time. Nowadays, resumes are more sophisticated and longer than ever before.Customize - Make sure that the resume that you submit to the various recruitment websites is exactly what they need to see. Do not choose the resume template that someone else gave you because that means that you are only using your personal preferences. There is no point in submitting a resume that is so similar to others because it won't impress any potential employer and he/she might give it another thought when choosing the person for a position.Typesetting - The most important aspect of a resume is the way it is formatted. If you are not able to format it correctly, then it will be useless.So in conclusion, the most important aspect of a resume is that it should be well written. These few tips will help you write your resume in the right way and thus it will get you published in the most suitable recruitment web sites.

Lesson for Entrepreneurs from Alex Blumberg of Gimlet

Lesson for Entrepreneurs from Alex Blumberg of Gimlet Like many entrepreneurs, especially those of a certain age, Alex Blumberg never intended to ditch it all to launch a business. He was a producer for public radio program This American Life and worked on the popular business podcast/blog Planet Money. He was winning awards. Getting raises. Life was great. But all along Blumberg had an idea he couldn’t shake: to produce narrative journalism podcasts, in serial formâ€"to be, as he puts it, the HBO of podcasts. Blumberg tried to sell the idea to his NPR bosses. No luck. So he decided to go it alone, launching Gimlet Media in the fall of 2014. The company’s first 14-episode series, StartUp, chronicled his own adventures as a rookie entrepreneur. Since then he’s launched two more acclaimed series, and he expects the venture to generate revenues of $2 million this year. But the journey hasn’t been easy. As Blumberg, now 48, told MONEY: “It was only after I got into it that I realized how little I knew about running a company.” R ead on to get the benefit of his experience. Q: A lot of people have business ideas but never take the plunge. What made you take the next step? A: I was at Planet Money, and the business was growing rapidly. The audience was really passionate. I felt people liked the content but wanted to consume it in a different formâ€"in length and voice. I told people that we should put together shows like Planet Money where episodes come out once a week and people could listen on demand. In 2013 I realized that in order to make that happen, I was going to have to do it on my own. Did you question whether this would be a financially smart move? A: My wife and I both thought about it. I could have climbed the ladder at NPR and gotten higher salaries. In my old job I had more free time, less travel, and fewer early mornings and late nights. Right now, I’m poorer than I would have been. If anyone fully understood the magnitude of starting a businessâ€"the costs personally and financiallyâ€"they wouldn’t do it. So why do it? I felt the upside justified the risk. If the company became a multimillion-dollar company, I’d own a large chunk of it, and that would be way more upside than I would have earned at my old job. But if it doesn’t or the company turns south, which the odds say are the likeliest outcomes, I’ll have made a huge financial mistake. Do you worry about money now? A lot. My wife has a good job as a TV producer, and she got a raise, so that helped. I also did other stuff on the side, like speaking engagements, to bring money in. But we were hand to mouth there for a little bit. We were both pretty stressed by it. Have you had to change your lifestyle as a result? We never go out to movies or dinner. I just bought new clothes for the first time in maybe three years. I was wearing the same ratty pair of running shoes for a year and a half. But compared to most, we’re in fine shape. We go on vacation in the summer. And our kids still take swim lessons and go to camp. Did you tap your retirement funds to launch the company? I didn’t tap the 401(k). God, no! But we spent down our savings and racked up some credit card debt. You also raised almost $2 million from investors to start the business. How hard was that? I thought it was going to be pretty easy to raise money, that I’d be able to go to people and say, “Look, I did this and now I’m going to do more of it,” and it would be easy to convince them. I had my ass handed to me. One of the first guys I approached was this venture capitalist I interviewed on NPR. I didn’t know what a VC did. It was a ridiculous place to start, and he turned me down. I should have started by trying to raise money from people who were familiar with what I did. There were plenty of people in the public radio system who would have written me a check. You also realized that you needed a partner who knew something about business. It quickly became clear I needed help on the business side. I didn’t know what I was talking about on a profound level. I worked in public radio. It’s sort of a destination for pretty much the least savvy business people on the planet, you know? That’s when I met my co-founder, Matthew Lieber, who was working at the Boston Consulting Group. He’ll say, “No, this is a horrible thing for us to do” or “This is a great thing for us.” Matt sees things I don’t see and understands things I don’t understand. I don’t think in terms of what things will cost or make money. I think in terms of stories and how to tell them. It wasn’t until I teamed up with Matt that we actually started attracting investors. There’s an episode of StartUp in which you and your wife agonize over giving Matt an almost equal share of the business. But you eventually relented. That’s true. It was a risk because we didn’t really know each other. But if the company was going to work, we both needed to feel fully invested in its success. Fighting over equity percentages just felt like a bad use of time when the company is worth nothing. It was absolutely the right decision. What was it like to let these kinds of business and personal decisions play out in public? We worried before each episode. Would this be the time we reveal too much and have people use it against us? But every time, people related. I think it’s taught me the value of not being defensive. I now try more than ever to be as honest about my shortcomings as I can. The more you’re open about it, the more people respect you for your honesty. That’s good advice. What else should aspiring entrepreneurs know before starting a business? Don’t tellâ€"make. Fundraising went very slowly for us, and we’d still be fundraising if I hadn’t launched the first episode back in September 2014. I knew that people would like StartUp and it would attract some kind of audience. But more than that, it made it real to potential investors. It wasn’t until I made something completely on my own that investors took me seriously. The faster you can take your idea from theoretical to tangible, the better off you’ll be. Also, focus on what you’re good at. A company at the beginning is like a stem cell: It can grow into anything. We wrestled a lot with what exactly we should be. Should we focus on building podcast technology or exclusively on content? In the end we decided to stick with what we knewâ€" content. Focusing on a different discipline might have been too much. What are the most important lessons you’ve learned so far? One lesson I’ve learned over and over is that the reputation you personally built before starting a company is incredibly important. Finding good people who are willing to leave their jobs to join a “business” that is nothing more than an idea in the head of a public radio producer isn’t that simple. If you’ve pissed off a bunch of people in your past professional career, it would be really hard to start a company. But these days a lot of people launch companies when they’re young. Is it too late to start at your age, with young kids and all? Too late is maybe a better time to do it in a weird way. It is hard to start a business at this stage in life. But if I hadn’t done all these other phases of my career, it would have been so much harder. I couldn’t have done this when I was 23 or even 40. So many people I now work with I met in my old job. Also, having a family grounds you. It gives you discipline. I can’t couch surf and live off credit cards with a family to support. Last question: How’s business? Are you going to make it? Our audiences are bigger and our revenue is better than we thought it’d be. We have a couple of years to run on what we raised and the revenue we generate. I worry about ad rates plummeting and not being able to find other sources of revenue. But big picture, I’m about as optimistic as I’m capable of letting myself be. This interview has been edited.

Job Seekers Is Your Approach Holding You Back - TheJobNetwork

Job Seekers Is Your Approach Holding You Back - TheJobNetworkWhats the 1 thing standing in the way of some thwarted job searchers? Unfortunately, the answer may be closer to home than expected themselves. The contemporary job market is trickier than ever and many pitfalls exist throughout the process, but there are also plenty of opportunities if you know how to capitalize on them. Read on to learn if your approach is holding you back from the job of your dreams. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) One Size Fits OneBack in the good old days of dot matrix printers and snail mail submission, job applicants might send off tens (even hundreds) of identical resumes in the hopes of reeling in a response or two. This approach in todays market is leid only a waste of time, but demonstrates a lack of insight as well as many missed opportunities. Why? Because we live in the age of instant information.Your resume and cover letter arent just a chance to show off your skills rather, theyre a chance to show why your skills are a match for a particular job. The best resumes are not a comprehensive detailing of everything youve done for the past 25, 10 or 5 years. Rather, theyre a showcase of your fruchtwein relevant experience and skills. Every single resume should be customized specifically for the job for which youre applying. Every word is an opportunity to get noticed so take your time and make it count.Its Not About YouA hiring manager wants to get a sense of your skills, but the truth is these are meaningless in a vacuum. Instead, your interviewer is also looking to determine how your skills will fit into their particular company and corporate culture. After all, your experience is moot if it cant be applied in the workplace.Dont write a cover letter or go into an interview prepared only to talk about yourself. Again, this is a missed opportunity. Instead, be prepared to demonstrate that you understand the job, the companys nee ds, and the company itself. Yes, youre marketing yourselfbut beyond anything else, marketers know and understand their audience.Prep and ConquerTo put it bluntly you have no excuse not to be prepared in the age of instant information. From websites to social media, everything you could possible want to know about a prospective employer is readily available for your consumption. Use it.The most successful candidates understand the company, its culture, and its market position. The least successful candidates remain obstinately and senselessly uninformed. It may seem like a waste of time to spend hours looking into a company where you may or may not eventually work, but its not. Think of the pre-interview research as an investment in your future, and the knowledge you learn as an asset youll take with you when youre hired.Follow Up and Follow ThroughPicture this youre in the middle of an interview with a manager, and the discussion is going well. Youre conversing about the job, and yo uve had plenty of opportunities to demonstrate your skills, talents and experience. But dont get too comfortable yes, the interview is a chance for the company to get to know mora about you, and you to get to know more about the company. But its also a test, and one of the quickest ways to fail it is to forget or neglect critical follow-up. If youre asked to provide follow-up information or thoughts during an interview, make a note and follow-up immediately. Failure to do so no matter how impressive the interview is likely to send your resume into the shred pile.Job hunting today is anything but general or passive. The best candidates proactively revise themselves with every single job application not just to make an impression, but to make the impression. Meanwhile, failure to incorporate these tips into your process can result in unhappy outcomes.

EYs Leadership In Paid Leave

EYs Leadership In Paid Leave Yesterday, consulting firm EY announced a new parental leave policy that a Fortune articles byline aptly summed up by saying The gauntlet has been thrown.Indeed, the professional services firms press release specifically describes themselves as a leader among their competitors The new policy increases benefits for all eligible parents and positions EY as a 1st mover in equalizing parental leave benefits for men and women among the Big Four, Accenture, IBM and other professional services firms.So what are the details of this policy?Upon the arrival of a new child (for either parent, and whether the child is born, adopted, taken into foster care, legal guardianship, or conceived by surrogacy), employees will be eligible for up to 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave. This policy applies to U.S. employees (of which there are roughly 1,200).The new policy expands upon the current policy of 12 weeks for birth mothers and 6 weeks for dads and adoptive parents. EYS U.S. Chairman Stephen R. Howe Jr. has said that these enhanced benefits are to demonstrate their commitment to helping their employees families succeed and because traditional gender responsibilities at work and home are evolving. Moreover, EY pointed out that their internal surveys showed that employees who were parents were some of their most engaged employees and these policies supported them.EYs new benefits also include financial assistance for adoption (up to $25,000 per family), advanced reproductive technology procedures (ART) including for surrogacy, and medically-necessary egg and sperm freezing available to both saatkorn sex and opposite sex couples. These benefits go into effect on January 1, 2017 and the enhanced parental leave policy goes into effect this summer, on July 1, 2016.We have written before that there seems to be an arms race to offer the best benefits in order to attract and retain talent (millennial and otherwise). While most of the press seems to be reporting on the paid leave policies of technology companies, we have observed strong momentum in other industries as well. For example, Coca-Cola implemented their first paid parental leave policy earlier this week. In the consulting industry, according to a Fortune analysis, Accenture is the only other consulting firm besides EY to offer 16 weeks of paid parental leave (though it is only available for birth mothers). This analysis matches the data in our own crowdsourced parental leave database, which shows that EYs benefits exceed the consulting industry average of 12 paid weeks of maternity leave.We applaud EYs announcement and welcome it as parte of a larger trend were proud to be help supportFairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace for women.

A Guide to Gta Resume Writing Service Brampton on

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