I received a complimentary copy of “Advance Your Image” by Lori Bumgarner for review and wanted to share it with you because it is a good find and a timely topic. I received no other compensation for this review.
It is clear in this ebook that Lori is divinely inspired and on a mission to propel people forward with poise and self-confidence and to bring the beauty within each person out in the best possible light.
As a career adviser to college students turned image consultant to musicians, Lori has an excellent take on the big picture for how personal image plays into career development planning. She points out the nuances of why and how to strategically manage your image for the desired result of connecting with the audience be it a potential employer or your network of supporters. She champions work you can do to improve your image as a fast-track to improved self-confidence which then leads to making better first impressions and being received better by others…a win-win!
Lori also weaves together your in-person appearance with your job search marketing materials and online presence in a practical and easy to understand way. She also outlined a helpful rule that I had never heard of before called the Rule of 12 within her powerful strategies for making a good first impression.
Volunteering provides many benefits to the volunteer in addition to the organization and individuals receiving the help. And it doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Just an hour a week or a Saturday every three months can do wonders for example. Here are some benefits to the volunteer.
You improve your problem solving skills.
You can increase your personal network.
You help strengthen your community and set an example.
You can use volunteer time to increase your skill level.
The first part of the book is about Tony’s youth and his important personal career development insights are highlighted along the way. He was interested in being an entrepreneur at a very young age. The first story he mentions of beginning his own business was just after his 9th birthday…and involved a worm farm!
What I found most awesome though is that he seemed to naturally check-in with himself through his school and early career and hold his own opinion of what he wanted to do as the most important one. He was able to balance that outlook with getting others to cooperate with him and he was able to build a supportive personal network.
Especially as he spoke of his college years and beyond, he focused on people he was meeting and how they got know each other’s talents. It seems Tony always kept people in mind as he continued on his journey and would get back in touch with them and bring them on board with his projects at the first opportunity.
This is basically how Zappos.com came to be. But the main reason it came to be is because Tony became aware of the importance of passion in the pursuit of happiness. He felt when he was not getting the juice he wanted from life and he stayed alert for solutions to appear…usually through his connectedness to others that he had gathered around himself.
This story of ideas, personal connections, honesty, and success of his company is compelling. The mission he is now on to spread happiness is beautiful.
You can also find the book on Amazon.com and follow the book promo tour and activities on Twitter.
I was not disappointed. Susan does some great teaching in this book. She starts where it all should start, figuring out what job you want next and the keywords that go with it. People often want to jump right to the look of the resume and finding a template. That is not an awful thing except that it often results in a person getting in a mode of doing what everyone else is doing and blandly listing responsibilities. Most importantly by starting with keywords first and encouraging you to customize a resume for each vacancy announcement you respond to, Susan is teaching a critical strategy that is extremely relevant for your resume to compete well and rise to the top for interview consideration.
From there, Susan moves on to resume format and details each section of the resume one-by-one sharing her expertise thoroughly yet succinctly, and giving lots of example resumes to boot. In parts 3 and 4 of the book, you get other important pieces of the resume puzzle like cover letters, thank you notes, and how to get a resume and portfolio online to take advantage of web technology in your job search.
O*Net is an excellent site for exploring occupations. They also have a skills search which I linked below. Only put checks on the skills you enjoy using…any skill you are good at but do not enjoy using is a recipe for burnout.
Go to the homepage to begin researching careers when you have a career choice you are curious about or just browse careers by clicking the pull-down menu in the “Find Occupations” area on the homepage.
This is a little kooky (this is what helps make it fun too!) and worth attention because of the unique and insightful ideas presented.
It is about law of attraction, yes…but even more so it is about paying attention to emotions and thought patterns for self-improvement. It is also about being more concerned with how you feel then what others think. It has potential to be a life changer if you can hear the core messages.
Here are a few links you may find to be useful tools to complement your career decision making. These are online tools but remember the best method to actually finding a job combines accessing your personal network and using online tools.
To access your personal network simply go to your family, friends, and acquaintances with a question such as this, “Who do you know at The Widget Company?” or “Who do you know in sales and marketing?” or “Who do you know who might be looking for part-time administrative help?” Customize the question to the type of position you are looking for and be sure to follow up with any leads they give after first asking, “Is it okay if I mention your name?” If they say no, you can still follow up with the new lead by reporting that you have heard their name dropped often in your personal networking so you wanted to say hello.
For online job search here are some handy sites you might want to bookmark for when you need them.
I ran across this presentation during my internet travels and wanted to share it. It is a little talk on success secrets. I especially like the part where he says you have to persist through the CRAP = Criticism, Rejection, A**holes, and Pressure. I find that so true. Many times people put off doing or exploring what they really want to do for their career. Then often when they do begin to venture out to do work they love, they might run into CRAP that they must learn to ignore as distractions. Most important, they have to learn to trust themselves, listen to that intuitive voice inside, and take action to connect to work that makes them feel good.
