5 Tools for Creating an Infographic Resume

5 Tools for Creating an Infographic Resume It is natural for people to be attracted to aesthetically pleasing images and visuals. In fact, according to Salesforce, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Taking this into account, people would rather process information and data visually through imagery and video. This is why there is a magic to the art of infographics. Infographics tell a story and allow a great visual to be created. This explains why people are increasingly creating infographic resumes to showcase their skills and talent. Infographic resumes can make you stand out from the crowd due to the hundreds, or thousands of resumes that hiring managers have to go through on a daily basis. So how do you create a great infographic resume? Here are 5 tools that will help: 1) Slideshare: On SlideShare, you can create an infographic resume through your LinkedIn profile. You connect via LinkedIn, pick a template and publish your journey. Its as easy as that! 2) Resu-me: Resu-me  by Adecco Group turns your resume into a short movie. Resu-me also uses data from your LinkedIn profile and automatically creates a video which you can edit after. Then you can share your movie on your social media pages  and download your infographic. 3) Vizualize.me: On  Vizualize.me  you can create an infographic with LinkedIn or sign up through email. This site shows you a variety of imagery that you could use such as pictograms, treemaps and bubblegrams. 4) Accenture India: Accenture  India offer a tool where you  can  enter your details or once again use your LinkedIn profile to transform your data into an infographic. 5)  ResumUp: ResumUp  allows you to create an infographic resume from either your LinkedIn or Facebook profiles or to create it manually yourself. Which tool do you like the best? Let us know or send us an example of an infographic resume you have created! RELATED:  Creative Resumes â€" How Much Is Too Much?

Foolproof Ways to Improve Your Credit Score

Foolproof Ways to Improve Your Credit Score Your credit score can affect many of the things you want to do in life. Buying a house or car, or taking out a business loan, all require you to have a healthy credit score. Without one, you will struggle to get any organization to lend you money. When you need to make sure of your credit score, you might need to know how to improve it. If its poor or perhaps non-existent, you need to work on it. Luckily, you do have some control over your score, and there are plenty of things you can do. Dont despair if your credit score isnt perfect. Follow the advice below and you can correct it. Get Your Credit Report Before you start to do anything to make your credit score healthier, you should get your report. You are entitled to get one a year, free of charge, from each of the major credit bureaus. So you can get one from Experian, Equifax, and the TransUnion. If you want more, you can also pay for extras. It shouldnt take you long to get hold of your report. Filling out a quick form should be all it takes. Go to annualcreditreport.com to get yours. If you want to think smartly, you can stagger them throughout the year. Get one every four months so that you can look at your score regularly without having to pay anything. Challenge Any Mistakes When you get your credit report, the first thing you should do is look for errors. Is there anything there that looks incorrect? You should be able to tell if theres a debt you never took out, or something you have paid off that hasnt gone away. Once youve identified these types of mistake, you need to make them go away. Sometimes, its as simple as writing to the credit company. You need to include any evidence that backs up your statement that the information is incorrect. However, sometimes you need some extra help to correct the problem. Companies like the Lexington Law firm perform services to fix these issues. They challenge any problems to try and get them removed from credit reports. Start Building Credit For some people, the biggest worry is that they dont have any credit history to speak of. It might be that youre young or that you havent wanted to have any kind of debt. The problem a lot of people find is that it can be hard to start building credit when you cant prove that you can be trusted. Its a catch-22 that a lot of people struggle with. But there are ways to start building your credit score that should be easy for most people to access. For example, you can apply for a secured credit card. Theyre easier to get because you back them up with a deposit with the bank. You can also look at credit-builder loans, or get someone to cosign on a loan or credit card for you. Keep Credit Card Balances Low Just because you can borrow a certain amount of money, it doesnt mean you should borrow all of it. Your credit card might allow you to spend $10,000, but it doesnt look great on your credit report if you actually do. Many experts recommend that you keep your credit card balances at 30% or less. So you should aim not to put too much on any of your cards at once. Make sure youre meeting your payments and try to spread out your purchases. Consider how much youre spending each month and keep it lower, even if you are paying your balances on time. Get Rid of Small Balances How many credit cards do you have? Do you have a habit of putting a small payment on one card and another small amount on a different card? Some people think that theyre helping their credit score by doing this, but you could in fact be hurting it. One of the things that credit companies take into account is how many of your cards have balances. So if you have lots of cards with small balances on them, it might not look so good. Its best to pay off these amounts and reassess your cards. Pick one or two that you can use regularly, and put away the rest. You might want to keep them for emergencies or larger purchases, but you dont need them all the time. Leave Paid Debts on Your Report Some people think that once theyve paid off a debt, they should remove it from their credit report. In fact, it looks much better if you leave it on there. An entirely paid-off debt shows that you were able to pay back what you owed. As long as you were responsible and met all your payments, it will count as good debt. Not all debt is bad to have, especially when youve paid it off. So leave any record of your good behavior on your credit report for creditors to see. Draw Up a Budget to Pay Off Debts If looking at the debts you have to pay makes you nervous, it may be time to get organized. Drawing up a plan to know how much you need to pay each month will help you meet your obligations. Youll be at less risk of missing any payments if you make paying them a priority. Plus, you can create a calendar so that you know when youre going to be able to pay off each debt. It can help you work toward a goal and feel more confident about being debt-free. Meeting payments in a timely manner is one of the key factors that counts toward your score. The total amount you owe is important too, so reducing your debt can help you. However, other factors arent as much in your control. For example, how long you have been using credit matters too. A healthy credit score will help you make many major life decisions, including buying a home. Take charge of yours so that you can be in control of your financial future. Image Source; Image Source; Image Source

Direct Sellers How to Quickly Focus Your Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Direct Sellers How to Quickly Focus Your Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Having a home based business holds a lot of advantages like flexible hours and being your own boss. You can even take vacations whenever you please. These are all enticing and a lot of people would actually prefer having their own business instead of going to work. Yet, like most things that hold an advantage, you have to put in a lot of effort into your business before it starts giving you the life you want. There’s the planning, strategies, implementation, and the continuous innovation everything you need to get your business off the ground. Staying focused The challenge of having your own business is the ability to stay focused on your goals, which takes a lot of effort and consistency. Even with the right opportunity, you need to stay focused, be patient, and persevere. All successful businesses have one story line in common; they all started small and through hard work got to where they want to be. The challenge of being a direct seller is the same, you are your own boss, therefore you need to find ways to push yourself to meeting your goals. It’s important that you love what you are doing and are enthusiastic about it. But there are days when you just feel like taking a day off, and then you want another one just because you feel that business is slow. These are the times when you need to talk yourself into working more. If business is slow, you have to find ways to keep it moving. If customers are not buying, why not extend your network a bit and attract more customers? There are always ways to keep your business moving if you look back at your goals and focus on them. How can you stay focused on your business? Write your goals down â€" thinking about your goals is one thing putting them on paper is another because it will make you more conscious about them. This will help you stay focused because you have a better understanding of your goals. Stay motivated â€" it’s not easy to stay motivated, but when you start to doubt your business, think about your goals and imagine the benefits. If you still have strong reasons to continue, then get back there. Focus on your motivation because this will keep pushing you toward your goals. Imagine your goals â€" take some time to imagine your goals until you can actually feel them. Visualize how you sell your products, how others will react, how it will make your customers happy. It’s a way to keep you on track and think of new ideas for your business. Plan of action â€" you have your goals, motivations, and you already have an idea how it’s going to play out. All you have to do is plan how to execute it. Find ways   to realize your goals but remember to stay flexible to challenges. Even focusing on small things that are guaranteed can help your business move forward during slow days. Ask yourself, what’s important now? What is moving you forward to your goal? Steer clear of confusing activity with accomplishment.   This is important because you don’t want your business to stay stagnant. Remember that if you’re inactive, so is your flow of income. Here are some things you can do for an hour each day to help your business: Get in touch with customers â€" call them and ask if they like their new purchase, how they are enjoying it, or if there’s any problem. It’s a win-win because you’re making your customer happy by following-up, and you get feedback for business ideas. Thank you notes â€" send your appreciation for having them as customers. Send birthday or holiday cards to them, and its great if you can include a discount for their birthday. Social media â€" make use of the Internet. Read something about your industry and share it with your customers. It’s a way to widen your network and find interesting ideas. Look for seminars, webinars and helpful blogs to give you ideas on your business. When it comes to business, it’s important to have clear goals and a focused mind. I would appreciate hearing how you stay focused on your goals. Author: Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog, CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks.com â€" a word of mouth marketing firm and Director of Client Communities of Momentum Factor-focused on the direct selling industry.   She helps create connection, credibility, community and cha-ching through mobile marketing and social commerce around your brand. She is co-founder of #brandchat a weekly Twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding.

8 New ways to think about financial security

8 New ways to think about financial security Generation X is the first generation in American history that earned less than their parents. Generation Y is the most in-debt generation in American history (and the early American colonies were built on indentured servitude, so thats saying a lot.) We are in an era of financial ruin. Generation Z will face this with a sense of inevitability. They will feel it is their job to stabilize the failing economy and acclimate to a much lower standard of living. In the meantime, you are not Generation Z. And you are probably wondering how to adjust to the idea that you do not have the level of financial security you had imagined you would at this time in your life. I have done my own adjusting to this harsh reality, and here are some ways that Ive shifted my thinking. 1. Your social clout is your credit score. Do you know the site Klout? It measures how well youre stacking up in social media land. Its petty, yes, but its also a measure of how well youve established a brand for yourself. Does your reputation precede you? Because you can get people to cut you a lot of slack if you look accountable in a Google search. (Note: My Klout score is so high that I get into the Cathay Pacific elite airport lounge for free.) 2. Your ability to make money fast is your emergency fund. I dont have an emergency fund, which is surprising since Ive had so  many  emergencies over the past few years. But each time Ive needed money fast, Ive been able to earn it. Im scrappy and I have a really wide network of solid connections that come through in a crunch. 3. Your ability to stay engaged is your retirement account. You are not going to retire in the traditional way because you wont have the money, and Marci Alboher shows in her new book, The Encore Career Handbook, that the traditional idea of retirement is outdated.  Is there something youd really like to do during retirement? Do it now. The best life is an engaged life, and people who are engaged in something theyre good at can usually make money at it. So maybe you wont have a huge retirement fund, but as long  as you keep working at what you enjoy, youll make enough money so that it wont matter that you didnt save. 4. Your kids level of determination is his college savings. Your kids have a choice: they can work really hard to get into a top school, in which case the bill for college will be relatively low  and its worth it for your kid to take out loans to have Harvard on her resume. But if your kid cant show an ability to get into a highly selective school (there are ten of those, not 50) then your kid should get a cheap degree from online school so as not to be saddled with senseless debt. But Id recommend your kid skip college entirely. Even if you have the cash for college spend it on a franchise. Now thats an education that will make a difference. 5. Your career is your investment portfolio. Its absurd that people spend time worrying about what stocks to invest in. The majority of this country does not have enough money to be investing in single stocks its not diversified enough. And, anyway, you are much better off learning how to build a solid career than how to build a solid portfolio. Youd have to have an incredible amount of money to be able to increase your stock investments faster than you are able to increase your salary if youre a rock star at work. So spend your time studying career management strategies  instead of stock picking strategies. Itll pay off. 6. Your high learning curve is unemployment insurance. Unemployment insurance is scary. Because its not enough to live on, and also, its vulnerable to Congressional politics, so you never know when it will be terminated or suspended. Fortunately, you control your life in the unemployment lane by getting good at job hunting so you can get back to work. A high learning curve wherever you are ensures that youre testing  new tactics  and new ideas  in new arenas  that continue to make you attractive to hiring managers. 7. Your patience for the nontraditional is your revolving credit. I started building an addition onto our house. Its not an addition, really, so much as an elongation of our front porch. It was coming apart so why not make it bigger as we fix it? But then I got distracted by a new tree house. And then I got distracted by planting 20, 000 bulbs. Yes, its gone from 15,000 to 20,000 because, did you know, you can plant straight through the whole winter as long as the ground doesnt freeze? So I keep buying them instead of finishing the addition, which most people would probably have put on credit by now, but I cant because I blew my credit launching three start-ups. My son said, Mom, doesnt our house look weird with the porch sort of blowing in the wind? Yeah, I said. It does. And then I bought more bulbs. Because my ability to live in a house with an unfinished room is my credit card. 8. Your friends are your health insurance. As health care costs keep increasing, you will have to get a higher and higher deductible. This is where friends come in: people who have friends are more likely to be mentally healthy, and mental health brings physical  health. And the Framingham Heart Study has shown that if you pick healthy friends, youll be healthy, too. And if theyre really good friends, you can use their health insurance policy instead of getting your own. So you should probably go make some friends, instead of  worrying about your money. Friends mean you have a better network for staying employed, a better network for understanding yourself, which is really what financial security is all about anyway. Because creating financial security is a mental exercise, not a money exercise.

Excerpts From the Summer 2020 High School Curriculum

Excerpts From the Summer 2020 High School CurriculumWheaton Interim Library is a new name on the high school curriculum. This year's focus is on history, which includes country, state, and history of the United States, as well as the Civil War. The class is taught by a resident, a former Peace Corps volunteer, and has a schedule that differs from other schools.The different types of classes taught at Wheaton include various levels of courses, and students choose one based on their interests. Classes include algebra, science, English, and so forth. The classes are interesting and involve actual courses in which the students take an active role. Students are able to play teachers as well.Saturday June 3rd will be a test-week for the Interim Library, and registration opens that day. Registration for this year's yearbook begins on the second week of April. The program will open in May and remain open until the end of the school year. In addition, a free class resume writing Saturday June 3rd will be given to prospective writers.Classes begin at 11:00 a.m. every day of the week except Monday. Those wishing to work on their resumes or those wishing to go to the library after school can do so. The library is open until 9:00 p.m. on Fridays.It is located within the Crawford campus, which is in the town of Bryn Mawr, Pa. Bryn Mawr is about fifteen miles south of Philadelphia. All classes are taught in three phases. First, there is the written portion of the class, which lasts until all students have learned the skills.Next, students can begin to participate in classroom discussions during which they use the skills learned during the course. At the conclusion of the third phase, students complete a skill test, which will count toward their final grade. The final phase of the program begins when students meet in the library to write their final, official resume. All information on the resume will be reviewed, and students must submit their resumes and tests at least six w eeks before the semester ends.Students who wish to learn the skills during the first three parts of the program can expect to know a great deal about writing as well as reading and spelling. Once students have demonstrated how to read and write the English language, they will be ready to move on to the second part of the program. They will receive a free class resume writing practice, and a free copy of their High School transcript.This is a transitional library, which was established because the initial Library was no longer meeting the needs of students in the rural part of Pennsylvania. This library now serves students from all areas. It offers students a chance to improve their overall academic performance.

5 Great (But Not As Well Known) Sites For Job Seekers

5 Great (But Not As Well Known) Sites For Job Seekers 5 Great (But Not As Well Known) Sites For Job Seekers Everyone knows the BIG, popular career sites like Monster, CareerBuilder, and Glassdoor. They all provide great information for job seekers. But, there are a many other albeit lesser known resources that can help you move your job search forward. Here are 5 of my favorites. Occupational Outlook Handbook When I was working as a vocational counselor we had a copy of this in our office. That was in 1998. Now it’s available for free online. OOH has information on 100’s of careers: Accountants to Paramedics. There are Summaries, which provide an overview, and more detailed information on job duties, education requirements . . . on all of them. Bureau of Labor Statistics â€" Free Military.com This is a great site for anyone transitioning from the military to a civilian career. The skills translator evaluates your skills based on your military job title, specialties and training. Military.com also provides a list of civilian jobs that use skills similar to those used in your military job. Military.com/Monster.com â€" Free Salary.com While this site is pretty well known, many candidates go into a job interview with no idea of what the salary should be. On Salary.com you can research salaries for your target position by title, geographical location, industry, etc. Knowing the salary range for your target position is essential BEFORE you begin a job search Salary.com â€" Free, but you can buy customized reports photofeeler I recently learned about this site which analyzes your photos. How it works. Members rank uploaded photos as: competent, likeable, and influential. PhotoFeeler gives you the opportunity to test your photo before you use it professionally, i.e. on LinkedIn. Wouldn’t you like to have an idea of what others think before you post? PhotoFeeler â€" Uses credits, but you can vote on other photos to earn credits, so it’s essentially free. Your College/University Alumni Site This is another great resource often untapped by job seekers. Many colleges and universities offer informative webinars; online communities; even local networking events. One of my alma mater’s  hosts alumni events across the country, yours might too. Alumni Association: facilitates alumni connections; career mentoring; job openings; etc. University â€" Free for alumni

You Wont Believe These Careers Actually Exist! - CareerAlley

You Wont Believe These Careers Actually Exist! - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Everyone likes the idea of being able to do something a little bit different for a living. But most of us tend to end up doing the same sorts of things time and time again. People bounce from offices to retail stores and back to offices again, assuming that theres not really that much else out there. But just stop and think for a moment, there are thousands of situations where things that you take for granted are definitely being handled by someone! But who are these people? Who are people doing the weird and wonderful jobs that most of us never even think about? Perhaps you may find that one of these jobs appeals to you and you can finally get out of the office! Food scientist Now, this might sound like an incredibly intense scientific career to pursue, and it certainly can be. There are those who dedicate their lives to understanding and analyzing the chemical makeup of the food that we eat every day. However not all food scientists have such intense tasks to do. The term food scientist actually covers a lot of different areas, one of which includes the field of ice cream tasting. Yep, thats right, ice cream tasting! There are people in the world who actually earn their living by taste testing ice cream. This might be perfect if youve got a serious sweet tooth, but it might also cause you to lose your appetite pretty quickly! Trauma clean up crew Whenever theres any kind of accident and someone is hurt do you ever wonder how things go back to normal? How does a crime scene go back to simply being a normal looking place that you could never tell was once the site of something unpleasant? Well, thats where blood clean up services come in. Any place where there is any amount of blood is going to put people at some degree of risk, simply because of the hazards that are present whenever people are exposed to blood. These crews are dedicated to clearing up crime scenes and the sites of accidents and getting things back to normal as quickly and safely as possible. Its an incredibly important job, but its definitely not for the faint of heart or the squeamish! Chicken sexer Fortunately, this career is definitely not what you might think! In fact, its one of the most important jobs in the poultry farming industry. Being able to determine the sex of a newborn chick is incredibly important since chickens and roosters have very different uses. Most businesses simply arent interested in rooster since they cant supply eggs and you usually only need a single rooster to be mixed in with a large group of hens. Of course waiting until they are fully grown is a serious waste of time and risks throwing off the ratio of roosters to hens. The issue is that chicken genitalia is incredibly difficult to identify, especially on newborn chicks. Japanese chicken sexers are used by companies all around the world because of their remarkable ability to identify the sex of even a newborn chick. Though its probably not a good idea to ask how they discovered this particular skill. We are always eager to hear from our readers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding CareerAlley content. Good luck in your search,Joey Google+