Top 10 Training Metrics

Is it time for you to measure the effectiveness of your training programs? If you’re not sure where to start, these Top Ten Training Metrics can help.

Measuring the effectiveness of training is a very difficult task, for stakeholders, training departments and end users. If you are a training manager or company stakeholder looking for ways to measure the effectiveness of your programs, these ten metrics are a great place to start.

One: Increased retention. Most Human Resources departments measure the rate of retention in all or various jobs. Many times, the front line, high turnover jobs are the ones that receive the most attention. If newly trained employees feel ill-equipped for the job, they are more likely to leave within their first 90 days. When you measure training success this way, higher retention points to a successful training program.

Two: Increased sales. Many organizations can track efficiency based on sales. If training is heavily geared toward a sales or customer service force, an effective program will eventually increase sales numbers. You can also measure product knowledge training as part of a sales number – poorly educated sales people usually do not make the sale. Dollar figures and unit sales make good metrics, but be sure to balance any metric with other factors that can influence sales numbers.

Three: Increased operational efficiency. In highly regulated or production-oriented businesses, managers look for more efficiency, which raises the bottom line. If your training programs teach skills, look to management’s efficiency metrics, as a baseline, before and after the training intervention. If you are building a new program or product, look at the efficiency numbers to obtain direction on training course content.

Four: Customer service results. Any organization can link training to customer service, which can be both internal and external. Customer service is also one of the easier place to start: one well-written survey can identify a host of customer related issues that can be addressed by training programs. Remember that training may not be the only solution to those issues. If your organization already has a customer survey in place, use those metrics to cross check your programs. When your programs impact the survey items, you can correlate an increase in customer satisfaction back to training.

Five: Company-defined scorecards. Training outsourcers tend to use client-defined criteria to determine training effectiveness. If your organization has a wide variety of possible measurements, sit down with management, and stakeholders, to create a custom scorecard based on expectations and the training programs that need to be in place.

Six: Cost of training. This is an internal training department measurement. In high turnover organizations, lowering cost per student can be used as an effectiveness measurement. Cost of training could also relate directly back to retention – if you’re spending less on new hire training, your retention may be higher. Work with your stakeholders and the HR department to determine training costs and where you want those numbers to be.

Seven: Return on Investment. ROI has long been a “catch all” metric. In some cases, it’s easy to define ROI, but in more cases it’s increasingly difficult. If you deliver soft skills training, it’s hard to put a dollar figure on the return. There are numerous ROI calculations available, so if you’re thinking about using an ROI metric, look for the formulas and plug in what you can. If you are part of a numbers-driven organization, you’ll be able to make friends with the stakeholders by defining and measuring concrete ROI.

Eight: Revenue generation. This metric appears most likely as a combination of sales numbers, operational efficiency, and customer service. If an organization shows increased revenue, a solid training program can be part of that increase. If your organization is rolling out a new revenue generator, such as a product or service, that is generally the best time to use revenue generation as training metric.

Nine: Instructor performance. Instructor evaluation is an important internal measurement. The results can come from student and manager evaluations, and must take into account the instructor’s presentation skills, knowledge of the subject, projection of organizational values, and adherence to instructional guidelines. The good part about instructor performance as a metric is that it can also be used as an external measure. When training is under discussion, training managers should be the first to praise their instructors for delivering quality instruction in every course – and instructor evaluations provide the supporting evidence.

Ten: End-user satisfaction. Your audience can measure effectiveness quicker than anyone else, both immediately following training and after a given time period, such as 30 or 60 days. The immediate results, sometimes referred to as “smile sheets”, can give you a picture of what happened in the classroom. The delayed results can tell you if the material is useful or not. Plus, end-user surveys are great tools for proving effectiveness with management.

Remember that training metrics may take time to put into place and show results. It’s also important to obtain buy-in from your stakeholders while you’re determining how to measure results. Use these metrics to start with – and use them whenever you’re developing or revamping training programs. Once you can prove bottom-line effectiveness, your credibility will go a long way.

Copyright 2008 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Managing Director and National Sales Trainer – assists executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for sales organizations.Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering.

Subscribe to his monthly ezine – Lengthen Your Stride! ™ – and learn the legendary secrets of top business achievers at: http://www.BryantNielson.com

Exit Strategies To Make Money In Real Estate Foreclosures

Once you have purchased your first foreclosed investment property the clock starts ticking. Every month that you have to make a payment on it is eating away at your profit. Before you buy, make sure that you have a concrete plan in place as to exactly how, when, and maybe even to whom, you will sell. Soon, you will find that you have an infrastructure in place that works like a well oiled machine. You will easily be able to buy properties that become available, and it turn you will have a knack for knowing when to sell.

Understanding contract assignments is an important part of making money with foreclosure investments. You need to know who is responsible for what aspect of the sale and what the timeline is for their portion of the deal. If not, the business of buying and selling can take much longer than necessary. Time is money and no one will be as concerned about your money as you are. It will be important for you to stay on top of what is happening and hold everyone involved in the contract accountable to their tasks. This is the only way to ensure that the transactions are completed in a timely manner.

One tool that you can use to make money by selling foreclosed properties is called wraparound mortgage. This tool allows you to create new mortgage for the buyer that includes the remaining amount on the current mortgage and the remaining purchase price amount. The new mortgage “wraps around” the current mortgage. You are still responsible for the first mortgage held by the bank. The new buyer pays both mortgages using one monthly payment.

You don’t have to sell the foreclosed properties that you buy in order to turn a profit. You can make money by holding on to the investment and utilizing the rent that your tenants pay you to pay the mortgage or use that money to invest in purchasing a new property. The properties will essentially pay for themselves. While this may not leave a lot of extra cash on the table at the present time, this is an excellent way to invest in the future, as the properties will be worth their full estimated value to you once they are paid for. One day you will be able to sell them and pocket 100% of the cash value of the property. You can’t really go wrong with this as a long term investment strategy.

Another similar option is a lease with an option to buy. This will give your tenants some incentive to stay and create a long term relationship with you. One of the most costly things that landlords face is tenant turnover. This means lost months of rent and costly renovations to meet the needs of new tenants. With an option to buy, a tenant who isn’t yet ready to buy, but hopes to be in the future, will stay long term and reduce your overhead.

If you have the cash reserves, you can also increase your profit margin by doing seller financing. Instead of the buyer going through a bank or lending institution, you as the seller allow them to pay you over time. Of course, you are charging them interest. This means that you are not only making the principle amount of the sale, but the interest that would normally be paid to the bank will now be paid to you. If you agree with your buyer to beat the bank’s current interest rate then it is a good deal for both of you, thus earning the possibility for repeat business. This is especially true in transactions involving commercial property.

It can be a bit risky for several reasons, but some investors find short sales a profitable way to buy and sell foreclosure properties. A short sale involves a property that is foreclosed and an agreement with the lender to pay back less than the full amount owed. It can be risky because there is often no guarantee that the lender won’t seek this difference at a later date. If however, you find a deal and work with an attorney that you trust, you can turn a handsome profit by scoring short sales. This is a good way to build equity quickly.

Some foreclosure investors choose to make money, not by selling, but by buying and keeping the properties. They enter into the property management field and rely on tenants to fund their future purchases. Many properties, both residential and commercial, have great long-term property management potential. If you own just a few this can give you a little extra income, since you’ll have to pay taxes and insurance on all the properties, but once you acquire more properties, this can be a very lucrative option.

http://www.homesearch4investors.com is an easy to use website that offers homes that are currently in pre-foreclosure, foreclosure or for sale by owner. Find great property deals in all 50 states instantly.

Finding Or Creating Your Own Options Trading System That Works

Stock Options are wonderful! This clever derivative of the equities market has to be one of the most ingenious inventions of modern times. For the trader who can learn how to win at trading options there are many luxuries in life that can be experienced.

Success in options trading requires a consistent approach for long-term success. This statement is not meant to be grandiose, idealistic comment made by some ‘trading theorist’, rather, it is a statement born out of the hard knocks and success experiences of the author and many other long-term, successful trader contemporaries.

This “consistent approach” to options trading can also be called a “trading system”, or an “options trading system” in this case. The term “trading system” is not necessarily confined to a series of computerized “black box” trading signals. A trading system could be something as simple as “buy an option on a stock in an uptrend that breaks the high of the previous bar after at least two days of pull back down movement that make lower lows.” A trading system is simply an organized approach that takes advantage of a repeated pattern or event that brings net profits.

Since an Option is a “Derivative” of the stock you must derive your options trading system from a stock trading system. This means your trading system must be based around actual stock price movement. That said, your trading system doesn’t need to work for all stocks it just has to work for certain types of stocks, certain volatility of stocks and certain price levels of stocks etc… So focus your trading system on certain stocks that have price behavior that is predictable to the net results you wish to abstract from a stock.

You can develop a trading system, a trading approach, and a trading methodology by identifying a price movement pattern (or lack of price movement pattern) or some event that occurs on some sort of regular basis. This means you can trade price behavior patterns on price charts such as: traditional chart patterns, trends, swings, pivot points, boxes etc… or you can trade events that motivate stock price such as earnings runs, post earnings runs, stock splits, seasonal factors etc…. Bottom line to make the maximum profit in options trading you want your stock to move in your favor fast and you want it to move far. Just a relatively small movement in the price of a stock can double your money in options!

There are so many different strategies and combinations that you can trade with options. You can buy calls and puts for directional trades. You can employ call spreads and put spreads to trade directional movements with a buffered risk, and profit. You can sell or purchase spreads to receive the credit of the premium decay by options expiration. You can trade straddles and strangles if you expect a big move but are not sure in which direction. You can also get into ratio back spreads, condors, and butterflies… And if you’re really feeling crazy you can sell ‘naked’ options (just better use a stop loss or you’ll end up like one of my old trading buddies who ran an account to $20 million then gave it all back selling naked options.) You can go to cboe.com for more information on options trading.

Directional options trading systems are the best. Keep it simple, buy calls for and upside trade or buy puts for a downside trade. But this means you need a directional stock trading system in order to trade directional options.

Here are a couple of different approaches for directional systems:

Develop an options trading systems that trades the swings in stock price movement. There are many good swing trading systems available today. We suggest you obtain one. Bottom line with swing trading is that you want to swing trade with the trend. Options brokers these days have advanced order technology that will allow you to enter swing trades based on the price movement of the stock so you don’t have to watch this stock all day. That huge advancement to swing trading options.

Swing trade the day bars. Most swing trading systems are based on daily bars on the stock price chart.

Swing trade the Intra Day Bars! Their other fantastic systems based on intraday charts that pin point swing trading entries.

Develop an options trading system that trades three to six month trends. This is where the big money is. Trading the large trends is where many are able to place larger sums of money to develop their net worth.

Develop an options trading system that trades pivot points. Pivot point trading is arguably the best way to trade options, because price action usually is explosive, and happens quickly in our direction when a trade works. This is good because you can use shorter-term options and leverage yourself a little better. And it’s also nice you can make great gains in five days to four weeks on average so time decay issues become less of a worry.

There are many different directional trading methods you could use to trade options. You need to pick one, work it, and never use more than 10% options position size per trade on small accounts 1% to 5 % max position size on larger accounts. This methodical way of money management trading options is the fastest way to potentially rapid account growth, helping you avoid needless set backs.

Chris Viscaya is a head trader at http://www.opivotrading.com Opivo Trading specializes in trading a unique pivot point strategy on stocks with options offering a subscription service as well as a home study course.

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing For Marketers and Product Owners

Affiliate marketing is derived from Internet marketing. In this program, the ad publisher receives a payment on each customer for any sale done. Affiliate marketing serves as a base for other strategies of Internet marketing where management companies, internal domestic managers and third party sellers are used for search engine marketing, e-mail marketing, display advertising and RRS capturing, so the product launch is successful on the market.

Traffic to the web site is traceable using self-affiliate programs or through any third party. This process surely involves hard work. First, marketing through these means involved spamming, trademark infringement and false advertising. However, since the findings of advance security and complex algorithms, the same is safe for shopping online and doing business.

Through affiliate marketing programs, online merchants find it easy to scrutinize their terms and conditions. Affiliate marketing has become more profitable and opened doors to opportunities facing a stiff market competition.

Benefits:

Affiliate marketing has many benefits to offer its sellers. It provides sellers with a big scope for advertising e-book, software product or any service, cutting down on the marketing costs involved therein. Higher the number of affiliate web sites intended to promote a product, higher is the targeted leads for converting the same into sales. To have a working sales network of people aimed at marketing is the same as affiliate marketing. Here, the commission depends entirely on lead generation.

Benefits to product owners: In affiliate marketing, owners have a great space for promoting their products and services. The market expands when there are more affiliates promoting the product. It is advisable owners do not select associates only for the sake of adding to the strength. Make sure that the Internet site of an affiliate has a connection to the business. If the web site of affiliate marketer fits the product idea, then there are chances that the sales may boost. The web site may attract prospective customers willing to learn about the product.

In affiliate marketing, a number of affiliate marketers promote the products of product owners. This results in more sales in little time. The owner’s Internet site also looks after promoting the product. If the owner’s web site along with that of affiliate marketers caters to customers’ demands, the product attracts more traffic. The web site of affiliate marketers on the Internet directs leads to the owner’s main business site.

Affiliate marketing calls for a tough task of promoting the owner’s product. Affiliates are engaged in this work. Since they work on generating targeted audience to the product, the owner need not invest much effort on the same. This saves both time and money for the owner. All the owner needs to focus on is improving the product quality and putting new products on display.

Through affiliate marketing, owners are able to build a strong customer base in a short time with the help of affiliates. The program creates additional income for them. The marketing banners of their products result in quick sales. As for the affiliates, they need not worry concerning customer support, e-commerce and bookkeeping. It is on the part of the owner to look after these works.

Customers need not attend the owner’s store in person for purchase of a product. They may avail of membership facilities in affiliate marketing programs. This online business has gained popularity ever since the introduction of Internet marketing. Product owners depend largely on this type of marketing for their source of livelihood. Most web site owners actively participate in the program without having to invest many efforts. Simply place an ad on a web site of the affiliates and reap long-term benefits.

This article was written for Find This Online an online resource guide that offers a variety of articles written on different subjects. Offering you relevant information that you are looking for. Browse through plenty of useful articles, information, content and resources on the subject.

Take Career Planning Tests – Learn About The Right Career For You

A career planning test can be very purposeful. It can help a person realize his planning abilities, maturity in decision-making and basic career management. The career planning tests can aid you to find your aptitude level and your abilities. It can clarify all the queries in you. An employment counselor can chip in to help you choose the right occupation. A career planning tool is not a magic weapon but an eye-opening tool which can point out to you the best possible options for consideration.

These are done either on paper or in a computer. Standardized assessment instrument or inventory, as it’s also called, is usually provided by professionals. These professional people usually are career counselors. Students, in general, write a lot of such tests to locate themselves in the career-radar. Elementary school students are generally not advised to take these tests because of their mental maturity.

Career planning tests which deal with work values, ethics and lifestyle values are also taken up by students to explore the different types of jobs. Answers to these career planning tests never have right or wrong answers. It is a tool which measures your responses in variety of areas such as creativity, altruism, security, economic rewards, physical activity and social relationships.

They can also involve questions based on what you like or dislike. Such tests explore interest inventories. Questions could be like; would you rather fix a flat tyre or play a game on the computer? These tests can fail sometimes, especially when students who really don’t have a clue about few of the activities listed.

Another way of career planning tests involves aptitude and achievement test. It can help you in a large way as it not only helps you realize your inherent skills but also to develop new skills. Schools and other educational institutions normally use this tool for its students. However, even military, employers and licensing agencies have started to use these tests to recruit people. These kinds of tests often require some coaching and hence students resort to taking courses. It might be required to take an English Proficiency Test for entering into a post-secondary institution.

Class counselors use personality assessment tests to observe a person’s choices and help them relate to their occupations. The answers, often, are True or False types and questions could be like; ‘would you rather sleep in your bedroom or go to play in the beach?’

Career planning tests are conducted for both youth and adults. Career maturity testing might give a clue to the person about his ability to take up career management.

Abhishek is a Career Counselor and he has got some great Career Planning Secrets up his sleeves! Download his FREE 71 Pages Ebook, “Career Planning Made Easy!” from his website http://www.Career-Guru.com/769/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.

Software to Boost Link Popularity

For most affiliate marketers, link popularity is a vital component to their success. They give special efforts to make links popular through efficient link management. Well-founded links can make one’s web site more popular. With the many related web sites pointing back to your site, more people will be lead to your page and thus, increasing the probability of turning this traffic into sales. If you do link building campaigns, you will be able to create a stronger presence online and eventually result to better search engine rankings. However, for web pages that do links campaign poorly, you can expect that your site will most probably be positioned at the last pages of search engines.

Having high quality backlinks is much coveted by most online marketers who are intensively doing their internet marketing campaigns. This would surely increase link popularity for your business. Every affiliate has their own style of making their way towards link popularity. Some webmasters create hundreds of links thru link farms while others settle to manual submission of links and manual links exchanges. However, according to some experts, sending out too many links can have its drawbacks. It is more advisable that you have a consistent campaign in building links. It must not increase abruptly instead it must be under control.

Those who are doing links management manually would say that they can get better results since their service is more personalized. To increase the pace of your popularity, you may do a fast link building campaign by using special tools. Doing things manually may be tedious and time-consuming. But don’t fret; there are softwares that can liberate you from these tasking jobs. There are tools in the market that can help you to further enhance the popularity of your links. You may opt to have a cheap link builder but don’t overlook its features. It must be able to qualify to your requirements.

Do not sacrifice quality service to cheap prices. It may not do any good for your business. Do your link management in a gradual manner so as not to alarm search engines with the sudden increase of links. Search engines might even black list you. It is better to be consistent at what you do. Allow your links to increase congruent to your site’s increase in link popularity. Link building is just a part of the whole internet marketing process. You cannot savor success overnight so no matter what tool you use, there is no guarantee of an overnight success.

Make sure that you build a firm business plan prior to engaging in any campaigns. Keep your mind focused to your marketing plan so that you will be lead to the right path. For a long term success on the internet, it is important that you build your business on a solid ground. Lay out your plans well so that you will not invest on tools that won’t help forward your business. By having a good business plan to guide you, you would know how to approach your prospective customers efficiently. It may be high time to review your marketing plans and see which ones are successful or not.

The author of this article Menno Spijkstra is an underground Internet Marketer who has been successful selling products online for many years. Menno is now coaching people how to make real money online through his program http://www.IMAchiever.com This course includes a detailed manual plus 5 products to sell and keep 100% of the profit.

How to Create a PAD File

If you’re a software author, you’re probably familiar with those never ending requests and the need of updating the info on your programs, over and over again. The Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) also thought of this and decided to do something about it. That’s how the Portable Application Description (PAD) came about.

This standard was created to simplify the information synchronization between developers and their promoters. PAD files allow for all the software information to be updated from a single location on the developer’s website.

Here are some details about the PAD standard:

• PAD contains the most important and frequently requested information on a software program, all in one place. Many download sites demand and support it;
• PAD uses the XML web technology, which means data can be easily extracted by any XML toolkit;
• As a webmaster, you get all the needed information, just by using an XML extractor, without having to contact the author
• Now, if you want to add some extra information in the PAD, you simply insert additional fields, by creating HTML forms;

The PAD file needs to go in two places:

• Inside a ZIP file, from where anyone distributing your software can extract it and retrieve the information. You can include the PAD files inside the ZIP as PAD_FILE.XML.
• On your website. Don’t use a version number in the link, as it’s important to use an address that won’t change, because some sites are automatically checking PAD files for changes, updating their lists. Remember that many download sites ask for the URL of your PAD file as they import all the information contained in it.

Other facts:

• PAD file generators are free. Here’s a link where you can download some of them: http://pad-files.qarchive.org/
• When you generate a PAD file, fill in all the fields. Failing to do so will generate incomplete information that will be displayed as such by vendors. PAD files are used to increase your shareware sales, so you should fill out everything;
• You need to provide a URL in the PAD file that points back to the file, because they’re used for automatically updating the information.
• To make sure your PAD files are working properly, you have to validate them. Visit this website to learn more about how to validate PAD files: http://www.padspec.org/validate.php.

To promote your software and submit it to download sites, you need to create a PAD file. First install a PAD generator, next follow these steps (I’ve used PADGen):
1. Complete all the fields regarding your company and the contact person. This makes it easier to be contacted and it also increases your website credibility. It’s very important to have the company URL and e-mail address, as most likely, vendors will contact you this way.

2. Fill in all the details regarding the program you want to sell: its name, version, release date and type, select the languages and also the operating systems that it supports.

Additionally, by selecting the Configure tab, you can select alternative languages then fill in all the description fields in the selected language.

3. Fill in all the description fields. Some websites may have a certain maximum number of characters they display, so better fill in all of them, respecting the number of characters suggested. Also, avoid using characters like: ” ; “, ” / ” “,” “, ” * ” etc. because some software sites may not display them correctly.

4. Complete all the fields regarding the URLs where clients or vendors can download the program. Point out the URL where more information can be found about the program and where the program’s icon is displayed. Your icon should have the standard 32X32 size, and be in GIF, JPG or PNG format, as browsers don’t know how to display ICO files.

5. Include the distribution agreement or at least contact details for this and the end-user license agreement.

6. Complete the affiliates PAD extensions, if your payment processor accepts affiliated programs.

7. Let people know if you’re a member of ASP.

8. Click on File Generate PAD file. If you include your PAD file in your distribution file, keep the default name. (pad_file.xml)

When you’re storing the PAD file on your website you can give whatever name you desire, just remember not to use version numbers in the URL and leave the name unchanged until you update your product.

Put your PAD files in the same folder, so that they can be easily identified, and give distinct names for each product.

PAD files are easy to create and use. Because it’s a standard way of sharing information about your program, it makes it a lot easier for webmasters and program librarians to generate program listings and basically saves everyone a lot of time.

Copyright © 2006, http://www.avangate.com all rights reserved. This article was written by a Web Marketing Specialist at Avangate B.V. She has in depth knowledge of internet marketing services and website analysis applied to the software industry and e-commerce development. Avangate is an eCommerce platform for electronic software distribution incorporating an easy to use and secure online payment system plus additional marketing and sales tools, such as an affiliate management system, automated cross selling options, software promotion management, software marketing services as well as consultancy on how to increase online software sales. Read more software marketing articles. This article may be reproduced in a website, e-zine, CD-ROM, book, magazine, etc. so long as the above information is included in full, including the link back to this website

Seize the Opportunity to Advance Your Career

Read on for things you can do to advance your career.

-Look for opportunities. It is very important to be alert to your office surroundings – you should look for opportunities to showcase your skills.

By doing things others might not have thought of doing, you can take advantage of the opportunity to get noticed by your superiors. This will help you advance, since your name could pop up whenever there is any mention of people to be promoted in your department.

-Keep your skills ready to exploit opportunities. In order to advance, it is essential to have the
necessary skills so that you can do specific tasks better than your colleagues.

In order to do this, first determine which skills will be required to do the job accurately and speedily and then go about obtaining those skills.

You may need to go to workshops or attend courses to obtain the skills – but do it if you want to get noticed.

-Enhance your reputation. You should project yourself a little bit in order to get noticed by management.

This does not mean, however, that you brag about your achievements or take credit where it is not due. But if you have become a problem solver, then be sure that management is aware of it.

-Subscribe to your industry publication. You should subscribe to a publication about your industry and also attend various trade fairs or conferences in order to get a wider picture of your industry.

You could also mingle with others in your industry if you are looking for a better job. This is a good way to find opportunities in other companies.

-Update your skills and your resume regularly. You should update your technical skills and your resume on a regular basis to keep up with developments in your industry.

This will be particularly useful if you are planning to change jobs and want to find a new position at a higher level then your current one.

-Improve your presentation and communication skills. This is an important factor in career advancement. You should not be a recluse, but should mingle with your colleagues and management.

When you are making a presentation, you should speak well and impress them with your communication skills and your technical knowledge. This will help you develop into an effective leader and will provide you with an excellent opportunity to move up.

-Network and expand your circle. You should network on a regular basis with like-minded people and should constantly strive to expand that circle.

You will not only make new friends but will also gain additional knowledge. Also, you might find some people who could help you get the job you want.

You can improve your opportunities, but you need to be proactive. Be alert and act on any opportunity that presents itself – and you could reach your goal faster than you had imagined.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions – Six Sigma Online ( http://www.sixsigmaonline.org ) offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

Creating Compelling Interview Stories

During a job search, several tools and strategies can be used to weave together a compelling story of your value to an employer. Resumes, interviews, and networking meetings should be rich with memorable information about you and the problems you have solved for organizations. Your story should be so good that the interviewer can’t wait to repeat it to the next person in the hiring chain. Here are some tips for making that happen.

1. Create an exciting resume that the reader just can’t put down.

Don’t just write about job tasks and don’t just list statistics. Build a story around your accomplishments that succinctly communicates the impact you had on an initiative or an organization as a whole.

2. Tell your story with pictures.

Try adding some charts or graphs to your resume to create a visual representation of your impact. For example, if you increased sales 500% over a 5 year period, create a bar graph to show the year over year growth.

3. Add your online stories as well.

LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook profiles are a great way to let other people see who you are both professionally and personally. If used properly, they can help build your credibility, authenticate your passion, and show your human side. Blogging software (try WordPress or Typepad) and microblogging (I like Twitter) can be leveraged quite effectively to create an online presence and voice and establish yourself as an expert in a given area and an engaging storyteller.

4. Showcase samples of your work.

Bring examples of the types of reports, business communications, or design work you do to the interview. Consider including links to websites, photographs, videos, or project prototypes to your resume or portfolio when appropriate.

5. Answer interview questions using the Challenge-Action-Result story format.

Employers are interested in learning about your past successes because they feel that past successes are a good indicator of future success. By describing the challenges you faced, the actions you took to address those challenges, and the corresponding results for the organization, you are more likely to create interest and excitement about your candidacy.

6. Ask questions that invite the interviewer to tell their story.

In order to build a strong rapport with the hiring authority, you need to share information. Asking the interviewer to also share information helps deepen this relationship. Ask what issues the department is struggling with and what types of strategies they have tried in the past to address these issues. Asking questions shows your interest and concern for the company’s problems and also positions you as the right person to address them.

Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers, http://www.careersolvers.com , has over 12 years of experience in career management, recruiting, and executive coaching. Ms. Safani partners with both Fortune 100 companies and individuals to deliver targeted programs focusing on resume development, job search strategies, networking, interviewing, salary negotiation skills, and online identity management

Teamwork at Cardiff

Teamwork is much more challenging task that doing an individual project. While doing teamwork one should proceed from one step to another keeping the whole flock together, managing the interchange of ideas, views and experiences, deploying individual tasks as well as dealing with different individual behaviours. At the same time, one has to concentrate on the real motive of the project report, not to mention the least. I would like to share my first experience during a group work of the Strategic Management project at the University of Wales.

There were six members in my group, belonging to various different Asian and European countries. I was really excited and keenly looking forward towards our initial meeting as I would have a chance to know personally each of my colleagues in my group. All the members of the group met in the library of Colchester Avenue, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, at eleven in the morning to get acquainted with one another and thus feel at ease while working together.

The meeting lasted for about two and a half hours. In the meeting each and every group individual was given a chance to come up with a topic for the prospected project. It was really a very nice experience listening to various creative ideas and suggestions of different individuals. There was the interchange of knowledge, views and ideas of each of the proposed topic. At first it was decided to do a project on the NHS (National Health Service) that later was abandoned as some of the colleagues did not like the idea and came up with other interesting topic for the project.

Ultimately it was a unanimous decision to do the “Cardiff Pyramid Project” a scheme managed by the Health Promotion Team at Cardiff Local Health Board. Its aim is to identify those children at risk of emotional problems and to provide help. All the members of the group were briefed about the history and rational behind the “Cardiff Pyramid Project” as well as the area where we were to concentrate. By this time I personally had developed a keen liking for the project. At the same time it was quite obvious, that each and every member of the group was quite satisfied by the topic of our project. After much discussion the meeting came to an end with the decision to meet at an appropriate time and venue for our next meeting. Personally, I was happy and satisfied with our meeting and our decision.

Alan Belth is a scientist from Cardiff.