Careers to Consider in 2014 – Career Consultant

by Bernadette Ontong

“The biggest mistake that you can make is to believe that you are working for somebody else. Job security is gone. The driving force of a career must come from the individual. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career!” – Earl Nightingale 

Career Consultants are trained to analyse people, give them assessments as to what their capabilities are. Once this is done, they would attempt to point the persons in a specific career direction.

As a career specialist, you too need to have certain types of skills as well as the knowledge of the various careers that are available to people.

Your job is to give people the available options. You are not the job finder, but you do make them aware of their capabilities and present them with job niches that would make them successful employees.

Finding a Job that is Fulfilling – Is It Possible?

by Bernadette Ontong

“Work banishes those three great evils, boredom, vice, and poverty.” Voltaire

Most people today are extremely unhappy in their jobs. There is often no way out as they have also been entrapped by the familiarity of the feeling of dissatisfaction. It is therefore necessary to look for something to ensure that you are fulfilled and not just trudge through the day.

What does it mean to be fulfilled in one’s job?

A fulfilled job is one where you have a deep sense of purpose. The reason for this is that you find fulfillment is that it reflects your personality, your passion, and your values. In the end, it has to do with earning a salary, but that the elements of fulfillment are of far more importance.

The fact is also that you must understand that the fulfillment is subjective. In other words, what might seem like something unworthy of fulfillment in your eyes, might be what the other person need at the time.

Finding the Job Fulfillment

Study Hard and Play Hard – How To Get The Balance Right!

by Bernadette Ontong

“I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.” – Zig Ziglar 

The start of a new year is always quite exciting. It is the start of new things such as:

• Perhaps entering a new school.
• This will, in turn, provide you with new friends
• You also have to contend with an all-new set of books with all new information to ingest.
• For some it means entering the
  • Last year of school
  • The first year of university or
  • The last year of university
• It could also mean that you might be repeating a year.

No matter what educational space you need to fill at the start of any new year, you need to make the best of it all.

How to Deal with Public Criticism – Even When You Are Called A Bunch of Losers!

by Preston Loxton

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” Winston Churchill 

After a thorough thrashing by the Nigerian football team, Bafana Bafana (SA football side) whimpered out of the Tournament with their tail between their legs and ready to lick their wounds, only to be further given a publicly humiliating torturous tongue-lashing of historic epic proportions.

This punishment was not generously dished out by a frustrated coach but by the Minister of Sport himself – read full story here or watch statements made by Minister of Sport.

A lot of focus is placed on whether the Minister went too far with his harsh statements but what do you do when you are on the receiving end of public criticism by a superior/manager/boss?

The New Beginnings for all Job Seekers and Job Holders in 2014

by Bernadette Ontong

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford 

The year of 2014 began with many murmurings of changes in people’s lives and life in general. These changes seem to have grabbed the global ether by storm and there is nothing anyone can do, but to follow the norm. These changes are directed mainly at the spiritual level. Most people are looking to find a more positive way of life and the same applies to the work environment.

If you are starting a new job in January 2014,the onus will still be on you to walk into the job environment and assert yourself in some of the following ways:

• Be Positive: This means that you are going to forgive and forget all of the happenings of the year 2013.
  • You can achieve this by being mindful of your steps throughout the day.
  • Be focused on every step you take and what you do so that you are mindful of its consequences
• Be Focused: Set up your plan for the day and what you want to accomplish. Make use of the day-planner that you have received. You could also download a day planner in Excel format. It will also give you the ability to add in the time that you spend on each task. This will also prevent you from procrastinating.
• Be Productive: This is important, as it will give you the self-fulfillment that you are in need of. When you have completed your daily schedule successfully, you will see and feel the difference
• Let Go of Expectations: It is important that you walk into your office and know that you have work to do. You cannot expect things to fall into place automatically.  Start afresh without any expectations.
• Have Compassion on Yourself: You need to look after yourself and not be overcome or overwhelmed by the situation in your office. All workplaces have difficulties, but you should learn how to work around these.

Self-compassion starts from within. You will be a better person if you do some of the following:

• By waking up early or in good time, you can get ready for work at a leisurely pace and do not have to rush. It will help you to arrive at work in a calm and peaceful state.
• Make the effort this year to get rid of all debt and start living a simplified life. Buy only what you need to make your life productive and healthy.
• Exercising is important, but you do not need to go to the gym for that. Find easy and productive ways, at home, to get into shape. The more varied your routine the more you would persist.
• Meditation is a good way of relaxation. However, many people make it into a chore. For the individual, it could mean just sitting and staring at the sea or even just at some ants busy at work, for half an hour or so.

This applies if you are walking into your old job as well. You should make the effort to discard of all that is negative and that went wrong in 2013.

It is time to place you in a position of growth, prosperity (not just financially), and the many other aspects that 2013 negated. Your focus will be on solving issues and not on what went wrong.

Why not make success permanent in your life?

TopCV recommends The Morning Ritual Blueprint – How to Wake Up Early, Energetic, and Ready to Achieve your Goals (The Morning Routine Series – Ultimate Guide to Creating a Successful Morning Ritual)

Work-place Happiness – Achievable or Impossible?

by Bernadette Ontong

“Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness – great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy.” – Jim Rohn

The work place is the one place that you spend the majority of your time.

An emoticon with a smile. For more emoticons in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Emoticons. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Complaining about the workplace is a common past time for many.

However, having a happy work environment depends mostly on you.

Many organizations or businesses do not have much money, but they are often the ones to offer internships. These internships are supported by external funding and are often not enough to cover all expenses.

They are, however, also the ones that often give people the head start to their careers.

Your question at this point might be: What does this have to do with a happy workplace?

Physical Office Elements for which to be Grateful

A great deal of happiness comes from being grateful for what one has.

Have a look at what you have around you in your current workplace:

Are you Promotion-Ready? Answer These 5 Key Questions…

Cover via Amazon

by Mpho Mashita

“You were hired because you met expectations, you will be promoted if you can exceed them.” ― Saji Ijiyemi

The company you work for has an opening a rank or two above you and you are thinking of giving it a shot.

Moving up the ranks or getting that coveted promotion is dream that many employees are working hard to achieve. Many are enticed by what comes with it; the financial reward, the status, the possibility of networking at a higher level, as well as the numerous perks.

The truth is that there is more to a promotion that the glitz it promises and it is important for you to realistically assess whether you are well equipped to climb higher up the corporate ladder by asking yourself these questions before you submit your CV:

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – Dealing with Competition In The Workplace

by Jennifer Rault-Smith

My kid came home from kindergarten the other day with a fistful of her favourite liquorice all sorts.  “Oh! So you got to the front of the queue for a change,” I commented.  Her response surprised me.  “I was at the back as usual but the kids were taking too long and I knew what I wanted so I pushed to the front and my teacher said that I was assertive so I could choose first.”

I couldn’t complain.  I had to learn assertiveness the hard way in the business world where, if you are not assertive, you lose out in the competitive nature of the environment.

The Good

Managers have long since figured out the advantages of competition. People perform at their best in a competitive environment.