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This week, Microsoft unveiled a sneak peek of its new Office suite—officially called Office 2013, but also known as Office 15. Visually, Office 15 is similar to Windows 8 with a clean, “Metro” style.
One big change: the program is now capable of being operated by touch, making it more tablet-friendly. (Using your stylus can be especially efficient when it comes to PowerPoint presentations.)
The other big news: this version of Office will be cloud-based and saved in your Microsoft account, so you can access your files from anywhere. (Files will be saved to the Microsoft SkyDrive storage area.) This comes in handy for people who have multiple devices and work in a variety of locations....
Read More »Where do you want to go in your career? Most likely, you have some vague—perhaps really ambitious—ultimate goal (like, you want to reach the upper management level, or perhaps even start or run your own company). But you may not have specific targets for your career advancement journey. More importantly, you may not have any ideas for how to get there.
That’s where a career action plan can really make things a lot easier. As you can probably guess from the name, a career action plan is an outline of where you want to go in your professional journey—and, more importantly, what steps you plan to take in order to reach your goal. Surprisingly, many people never take the time to identify specific goals and action steps for their careers.
To make things less intimidating, you...
Read More »- Take a Conference Call Without Driving Everyone Crazy [Forbes.com]
- Most Americans Work More than 40 Hours a Week [Ragan.com]
- Train Like an Olympic Athlete for Career Success [Glass Door]
- Lose Weight While Chowing Down at Work [CBS News]
- Could a Gimmick Get You a Job? [US News]
Read More »
Career experts are constantly encouraging job seekers to check, recheck, and check again for any errors in the material they submit to potential employers. In a tight market, something as simple as a typo can mean the difference between your application making the first round or thrown in the trash. So imagine the horror when Vanessa Hoja of Toronto discovered that she didn’t attach her cover letter and résumé to an email she sent inquiring about a position as a summer administrative assistant but rather had passed along a wacky-faced photo of actor Nicholas Cage.
The 20-year-old later wrote about the mistake...
Read More »This article is the first in a series on how real workers use their lunch break for more than checking Facebook or (please, no) catching up on more work.
Looking for a way at lunchtime to get your blood pumping, your back loosened up after a morning sitting in a computer chair, and your mind off of your to-do list? (Oh, yeah, and eat, too, because an empty stomach is no way to start the afternoon.) A craze called Lunch Beat has been sweeping Sweden since 2010, and it is gaining momentum in the United States and other countries.
Here’s how it works: For a fee, workers are admitted to a club for an hour of dancing to pulsating music...
Read More »If there is one thing that can kill your output at work more than anything else, it’s procrastination. This is like the arch enemy of productivity. If you have a habit of constantly putting everything off, it will be very hard to get anything done. This will not only negatively affect your productivity, but it can also harm your professional image because people will start to doubt your ability to work quickly or meet deadlines.
Of course, winning the battle against procrastination probably won’t be easy, especially if you have become accustomed to putting things off on a regular basis. One tactic is to just force yourself to conquer one challenging or annoying task first thing in the morning, so you can get it off your plate before you have a chance to come up with an excuse or...
Read More »Nobody can deny the value of networking. Building and maintaining valuable connections is a critical tool in today’s workplace. But some people have the tendency to take things too far, enjoying the networking aspect of business so much that they become obsessive about it. This can become a problem if you spend so much time networking that you barely have time to do actual work. You may also start to become overly competitive—obsessing about the number of connections, as well as likes, friends and fans you have.
This article shares some signs that you might be becoming a compulsive networker. One big red flag is if your moods are affected in a...
Read More »- Maintain a Social Life While Telecommuting [Jobacle]
- When You are Busy but Still Bored at Work [HBR.org]
- A Sure Way Never to Get Hired [CBS News]
- Work Habits That are Making You Sick [US News]
- Dumb Ways to Ruin a Meeting [Inc.com]
Read More »
If moving into a higher position is part of your career plan, don’t just bide your time until you’ve put in enough years to get noticed. There are plenty of things you can do right now to position yourself for a step up the ladder.
Start by taking a look at your skills and educational background. Employers love workers who are always trying to learn new things, especially skills that would benefit the company. Would mastering Spanish help with customer service? Could your computer skills use some updating? Are you afraid of public speaking? Use classes and conferences to develop yourself – and your résumé. Also, be sure that you have the qualifications necessary for making a move upwards. If the next position you desire requires a higher degree or specialized training, you...
Read More »Humor helps all of us get through the workday (not to mention life in general). It can lift our spirits, decrease tension, and make us feel closer to others. But office humor can be tricky. What one person may consider funny or harmless can be interpreted by a co-worker as intolerant or mean-spirited. Reacting to such jokes can be difficult, too. Nobody wants to be considered a stick-in-the-mud who lacks a sense of humor, but keeping quiet when you find something offensive is likewise uncomfortable.
Kerry Patterson, co-author of Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior, recommends using a three-strike approach when dealing with the offender:
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