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Top 10 Etiquette Blunders

Recently, a colleague was lamenting the lack of etiquette he deals with on a daily basis.

 “You would not believe how some of these people speak and act,” he said of salespeople at businesses he frequents. “They don’t know how to answer the phone, they text while talking to you, and when you walk in, they don’t greet you appropriately. They don’t even seem to know how to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’”

 Do I need to mention that he is in his 50s and he was mostly referring to younger workers? No, I don’t think I do. But it is valid nonetheless. And I must say, I share some of his concern.

 And so, after speaking with some etiquette experts, I came up with the Top 10 Business Etiquette Blunders to avoid:

Read more at openforum.com

18 Common Work E-mail Mistakes

Most of us rely on e-mail as one of our primary communication tools. And given the number of messages we send and receive, we do it with remarkable success.

But as with anything, the more e-mails we send, the more likely we are to screw one up. And simple e-mail mistakes can be disastrous. They can cost us a raise, promotion–even a job.

With a new year upon us, this is the perfect time to go through some of the worst e-mail mistakes employees make and how to avoid them.

Read the full article on yahoo.com!

Quote of the Day

“Quit counting fans, followers and blog subscribers like bottle caps. Think, instead, about what you’re hoping to achieve with and through the community that actually cares about what you’re doing.”

~Amber Naslund, Social Media Today

Top 5 Online Communities for Starting Your Career

It’s helpful to have someone with more experience show you the ropes when you’re beginning a new journey — this is especially true when it comes to entering the job market.

Having a community that shares job openings, tips, resources and words of wisdom is of real value, especially when you can ask the tough questions, such as “Do I really need to write a cover letter?” or “What are the job prospects in my industry?”

There are several career communities that focus on those initial years of your career and offer resources for you to start off strong — here are five.

Read the full article by Sharlyn Lauby on mashable.com!

11 Traits of a Great Employer

Darcy Breeman works for Edward Jones, a company that recently came in at No. 2 in Fortune’s annual list of the 100 Best Places to Work. So what makes that investment company unique and why is it on the list? Well, just consider Bremen’s story:

“I’m in the process of adopting a newborn and will be a single mom. Jones will send someone to my office to cover me while I’m gone and serve my clients… I can [then] come back and take a couple of appointments a day and then come home. If I want to bring my daughter into the office, that’s fine. They [even] have an adoption reimbursement plan.”

Read the full article on openforum.com!

100 Best Companies to Work For

Fortune’s annual list of the 100 best companies to work for has been released, it’s a must read!

See if your company made the list here!

Quote of the day

“Advertising is the ‘wonder’ in Wonder Bread.”

~ Jef I. Richards

How Can Designers Make the Most of Their Workdays

Workdays matter a lot in your professional life when you take and overview of all of them. It is important that a professional makes the most out of his workdays in order to succeed in his career. Same goes for the designers. Either you are a salaried designer working for a design house or a freelance design business owner working from home, spending your workdays effectively is the actual key to success. There are some key-points to be remembered by both these individuals.  This article focuses on freelance designers only however, I am going to discuss salaried individuals in my next posts.

Read the full article tutoriallounge.com!

Current web design trends – an overview

Web design trends keep on changing with every passing year or within a period of few months. There had been significant changes last year whose impact can be seen more clearly in this year.

Popularity in the mobile device space has immensely increased in the sense that Smartphones and tablets like the iPad have made the interaction between users better and have facilitated easier accessibility to contents. Moreover, now people can take more and more advantage of the latest and the optimized features.

And this is possible because of web standards like HTML5, web fonts and CSS3, but What about the small businesses? It actually becomes difficult for them to stick to the latest designing trends because of factors like cost of the redesigns and the need for reaching a wide range of users.

Read the rest on skyje.com

Quote of the Day

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”

~Franklin D. Roosevelt

13 Essential Tips for Landing a Job on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the best places online to find a job, period. It’s also a great place to connect with top decision makers, generate targeted leads for your business, drive traffic to your website, and more.

I hear countless stories every week from people who land amazing full time positions at great companies thanks to engagement on LinkedIn. Although there are a number of approaches you can take when hunting for the right job, start with these 13 important tips for using LinkedIn effectively.

Read the full article on mashable.com

Quote of the Day

“Starting out to make money is the greatest mistake in life. Do what you feel you have a flair for doing, and if you are good enough at it, the money will come.”

~ Greer Garson

The Ins and Outs of Working In-house

I started my career at the in-house design department of a Fort Lauderdale-based construction company. It was a terrible experience that lasted all of seven days. After that I swore to never work in-house anywhere, ever again. For four jobs (and about as many years) I kept that promise. Then I moved to New York City.

In other cities, I never had any trouble finding work. I would decide I hated my job one week, only to have another one lined up the next. I got unsolicited job offers and was the subject of a few hostile take-over attempts. I ignorantly assumed that New York would be the same. As one of the capitals of design, it must have thousands of jobs to offer, no? As you can all imagine, I quickly discovered it was quite the opposite.

Read the full article by Johanna Björk on aiga.com

Why and How I Switched to a Standing Desk

I spend about 45 to 50 hours a week working on my computer. Up until a week ago, I did that work sitting on my ever-expanding behind.

Last Monday I adjusted my desk to standing height (pictured right). I spent the week working on my feet, and I’m never going back to a sitdown desk again. Here are some questions and answers about the change.

Read the full article on lifehacker.com

Quote of the Day

“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

~ Confucius

Get More Out of Your Fonts

It’s a text-based world. Everywhere you look, there’s a sign, an ad, or a screen relaying information. The hand-lettered signage at your mom-and-pop corner store aside, most of the messages you see are set in familiar fonts.

You’ll find plenty of tips and tricks on using type elsewhere –- and far more technical ones, at that –- but here are some select ideas and advice that will put you (and your online presence) on the path to becoming a font savant.

Read the full article at mashable.com

30 Brilliant Advertisements

Most creative ads strongly believe that there is no second chance to make an impression on the buyers. So it creates that impression on the very first sight itself. Here are some great creative ads that can make you look at them again and again. Never forget to close your mouth in wonder. They are that impressive and creative.

See the ads on dreamtuts.com

Quote of the day

“Work and Play are words used to describe the same thing under different circumstances.”

~ Mark Twain

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