Learn About Professional References

Learn About Professional ReferencesLearn About Professional ReferencesYou may have recently seen a note in a job posting that an applicant should provide professional references along with a resume or as part of a job application. Or perhaps youve been asked for alist of referencesafter you had an interview with a company. What exactly are professional references? Who should you use to provide those references? Professional Reference A professional reference is a recommendation from a person who can vouch for your qualifications for a job. A professional reference for an experienced worker is typically a former employer, a colleague, a client, a vendor, a supervisor, or someone else who can recommend you for employment. Recent college graduates might also tap professors, coaches, and college personnel who were advisers for your activities. The key is picking references who have observed you acting in a productive capacity where you displayed your skills and credentials for employ ment. These differ frompersonal or character references, which are much mora personal references. The professional reference is speaking mainly to the applicants employability and work-related qualities, as opposed to their personal or character traits. Personal references may be helpful at times, but dont be tempted to submit a personal reference as a substitute when the job listing or interviewer specifically requires a professional reference. Find the Ideal Reference Consider thequalifications for your target jobwhen yourechoosing individuals to act as your references.Ask yourself who can vouch for the skills and attributes in your background that are most critical for success in that job. Your mix of references might differ based on the varied requirements of the positions for which you are applying. The ideal reference will be able to speak in a very specific way about your assets and back up her assertions with examples from your work.An individual who can only provide vag ue positive references to your strengths may be less convincing. So, youll want to place a priority on people who know your work quite well as opposed to picking the most prestigious or highest-ranking individual. Think of your most successful roles first and consider individuals who can attest to how you engineered those achievements.For example, maybe you had a close relationship with your academic adviser but when you took her four courses, you only got C and B grades. In this case, you might not want to select her as a professional reference. Instead, youd be better off with references from someone else. Maybe tap another professor for whom you earned two As, as long as she knows you well enough and is willing to help. Make aya the individual you select is comfortable providing a positive recommendation for you.Many candidates make the mistake of assuming a person will provide a strong endorsement when they are only prepared to provide a somewhat positive evaluation of your perf ormance. Find Out What They Are Going to Say The best way to gain a perspective on how a prospective reference might represent your background is to ask them to compose a recommendation for your file.Try writing a recommendation for your references on LinkedIn and then ask them toreturn the favor. When requesting that an individual act as a reference, ask Are you comfortable providing a very positive recommendation for me for a financial analyst job? Im trying to make a strong case for my candidacy.Making your requestin writing is usually the best approach so a reluctant individual can decline more comfortably. If youre concerned about getting a bad reference, reviewtips for handling them. You may be able to offset a negative reference from an employer with a positive one from a different professional connection. 137 7 Things That Make a Recommendation Letter Stand Out How to Provide References to Employers When you apply for a job, you may be asked for alist of profession al referenceseither after ajob interview or in some cases when you apply for a job. Heres how to handle it When you provide a professional reference to a prospective employer, include the persons name, job title, company, address, phone number,and email address.Create a list of references to have ready to share with prospective employers.Be sure that you have the personspermission to use them as a referencebefore you give out their contact information.Keep your references appraised of your progress with the hiring process and give them a heads up if you think they might be contacted. If there are particular issues that have come upduring your interview let your references to those concerns. They may be able to address the issue during a reference check. A well-prepared reference will usually be able to provide a more detailed and convincing recommendation when contacted. Be sure to thank anyone who gives you a reference. A short note or email is all it takes, and people want to know when their efforts are appreciated.

Top Five Reasons to Apply for a Government Job Today

Top Five Reasons to Apply for a Government Job TodayTop Five Reasons to Apply for a Government Job TodayTop Five Reasons to Apply for a Government Job TodayThe federal hiring process has changed for the better The written Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA) narratives are 95 percent gone, so applying consists of posting a USAJOBS resume and completing a multiple-choice questionnaire.The application process is still complicated, but if you can play poker, golf, bridge, monopoly, or another game with complex instructions and a little strategic thinking, you can compete for a federal job. Here are a few of my favorite tips and insights about whats new and important in federal hiring after the hiring reform of last year1. The written narratives as part of the government jobs application KSAs are mostly gone.This is the best berichterstattung about the hiring reform that was implemented in November 2010. Before then, government job applications required half-to-one-page written narra tives for about four or five required skills for the position, such as how you can communicate orally, plan or coordinate, or provide technical expertise in your field.2. Time for applying for federal jobs is cut in half.Many more jobseekers are applying for federal positions now that the narrative KSAs are eliminated. This change means that the total time investment required to apply for each position is roughly half of what it would have been under the old system.3. Now is the time to apply.The government agencies finally got their budget for 2011. But the budget year will be over at the end of September 2011. So this is a great time to look at announcements and apply for positions. Theyll still be hiring after the budget year ends, but right now there are more positions posted.4. The government job application process is totally online, with a resume builder and upload system.I recommend that you copy and paste your resume into the builder, even though it will take you 30 to 45 m inutes to set up your first resume. The resume builder will prompt you to give certain resume details that are critical for your qualifications, such as month and year of employment dates for at least 10 years, hours worked per week, supervisors name, phone numbers of employers, and salaries for positions going back 10 years.5. Federal positions are the best in the country.The entire application process from finding the best announcement through using the resume builder, completing the questionnaire and uploading both the cover letter and transcript will take time, determination, and patience. But the end result could be an outstanding career for you, security for your family, and an opportunity to provide service to America.Tips for ApplyingSet up your accounts to apply for government jobs. There are usually two parts to each application1. The Resume Builder in USAJOBS.gov and2. The Questionnaire in ApplicationManager.govBoth systems require a user name and password. The Question naire can have between 10 and 80 questions, but they are multiple choice, so they dont take too long.Give yourself as much credit as you can. Read the multiple-choice questions and determine your answers carefully. You will be self-scoring your skills for the human resources reviewer. You will usually have 5 choices for each question, and can often choose one of the following 1. I have no experience or education in this skill area. 2. I have education in this field, but have never done this work. 3. I perform this work closely supervised. 4. I perform this work independently, with little or no supervision. 5. I am an expert in this work. I supervise others or I am the person who is consulted in this area because of my expertise.Your resume must match the answers to your questionnaire. If you select the 5, or the highest score, your resume must demonstrate this expertise. Edit your resume slightly for each application, so that the resume shows that you have the skills that are listed in the announcement and the Questionnaire.Order your college transcripts right away. You do not have to upload originals. You can scan all of your transcripts into one file and upload them into USAJOBS.gov. Later the agency you are applying to might ask for an original, but they are not needed for the applications.Write a cover letter now with your application. You can upload this into USAJOBS or ApplicationManager. This is another step that you can take with your federal application according to recent Federal Hiring Reform regulations. The letter is optional, but could help you stand out.For up to date advice, tips, and news regarding federal jobs and the federal application process, like The Resume Place on Facebook and follow Kathryn Troutman on Twitter.

Quitting alcohol may help your mental health, especially for women

Quitting alcohol may help your mental health, especially for womenQuitting alcohol may help your mental health, especially for womenA new study from the University of Hong Kong, however, says that stopping drinking alcohol completely can have great effects on our mental well-being and this effect is more profound in women.The study comes as a surprise, as for years, its been commonly thought that a glass of wine with dinner is good and good for your heart, to boot and that moderate drinking is fine as long as you dont overdo it.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and morePast research on alcohol has been conflictedBut research on alcohol has historically been conflicted.Some research has suggested that coffee and alcohol is the secret to a long life. Earlier this year, a study published in the Lancet suggested that even moderate drinking could increase cardiovascular risk. brde year, a study in the PLOS Medicineindicated that moderate drinkers were likely to outlive teetotalers. And thats only a sampling of studies on alcohol out there.To make things even more confusing, theres the current sober curious movement, a mostly booze-free lifestyle/health movement not associated in any way with Alcoholics Anonymous. Its made up of people who are sometimes, mostly giving up alcohol because of the mental clarity and health benefits it gives them but theyre not against having a few glasses of wine here and there, either. There are even booze-free bars and the requisite crop of sober-curious lifestyle influencers.And yetThis new research is enticing improved mental well-being and all you have to do is swear off the firewater completely? A hard habit to break, but if youre a woman, in particular, it may be worth it for the benefits.Heres how the researchers came to their conclusion.Analyzed data from 10,386 participantsmostly middle-aged adults from a past study at Hong Ko ng who were non-drinkers or moderate drinkers between 2009-2013, they focused on the participants were either nondrinkers or moderate drinkers. Of the sample, 64% of the men were nondrinkers, and 88% of the women abstained completelyThey examined the link between drinking patterns and mental well-being in two phases, then compared that data with the participants in the U.S. National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions a separate group of 31,079 people.Major findingsThe researchers saw that people who had never drunk alcohol had the greatest baseline of mental well-being. They also observed that people who had quit alcohol especially women experienced the highest improvement in mental health for both the Hong Kong and US groups. (The people in the group who drank moderately didnt see any boost in physical or mental well-being.)For mental well-being, researchers recommend a teetotaling lifestyleThe researchers dont recommend alcohol as part of any diet not with your wine, not with your brunch, not with your baseball game. The actually recommend quitting.Ouf findings suggest caution in recommendations that moderate drinking could improve health-related quality of life, said lead author Dr. Michael Ni of the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health, in a release. Instead, quitting drinking may be associated with a more favorable change in mental well-being, approaching the level of lifetime abstainers.If you think that booze doesnt affect you, it may more than you think. Another recent study in the Lancet reported that auf der ganzen welt alcohol consumption has gone up a staggering amount in the last 30 years.