How I perfected traveling the world and working remotely

How I perfected traveling the world and working remotelyHow I perfected traveling the world and working remotelyI thought about working remotely for five years before I did it. I wanted to travel and a mentor of mine where I worked had said that his best experiences in life happened when he welches away from home and he loved the challenge of adapting to other cultures. According to a Citrix report, 50% of the workforce will be working remotely by 2020. We have technology to thank for this. Countless apps like Slack and Asana have been created to help professionals stay connected from anywhere in the world. I read in a Forbes article that among U.S. workers, 27% said they might become digital nomads in the next 2-3 years while 11% said they definitely would. The truth is most of them will not be able to make the switch. That group could have included me.Heres a little insight on how I went from a type-A publicist working for agencies in Manhattan 80% of my time to a freelancer who le arned to slowdown in Croatia, enjoy lunch breaks from work in Italy and set boundaries in Lisbon I also learned a new definition of kindness for oneself and others in Japan, how to paint a mural in Thailand, a hike in Peru and stargaze in a desert in Colombia.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraPrior to becoming a digital nomad and working from 15 different countries in just one year, I sat behind a desk for nearly 10-hours a day for eight years. I spent a lot of my free time daydreaming about traveling and screenshotting pictures of places I wanted to see. In 2014, I clicked on an Instagram ad for Remote Year, a service for digital nomads. I followed the company for two years before applying. I acknowledged I was deeply unhappy, but the predictability of my daily routine provided a weird sense of comfort.One day I found a quote that really spoke to me be just as excited to fail as you are to succeed as there are lessons to be learned from both. I identified my goals and wrote down everything I was currently doing that was aiding them and what was holding me back. My main goal was to find a work-life balance to be happier, one that allowed time to appreciate the small things.After an unsuccessful attempt to convince my employer at the time to let me work remotely, I gave my notice and accepted an invite to Remote Year. Even with some uncertainty, my life feels more permanent now. I no longer screenshot images of other people traveling, I just go. Im living in the moment and soaking up every triumph and failure I experience.Do you think working remotely might be for you? Heres what you need to ask yourself1. Can I manage the unpredictability?Traveling, like anything else in life, is fraught with unknowns, even more so if youre traveling often. Some may find it too stressful to manage expectations. The reality is that your workspace Wi-Fi might not be strong en ough for your office VPN, the hostel might not have air conditioning, you may be a target for pickpockets, your computer charger might stop working in a city where you cant find an electronic store. You need to make sure that youre ready to cope with the shortfalls. Since this was all so new to me, I chose to transition with the support of service for digital nomads. All I had to worry about was work, and Remote Year handled everything else.2. Does my profession allow for working remotely?This is a simple question for an individual, but a complicated question for a corporation. If you work deals simply with communication and youre at a desk all day with a laptop and cell phone, you can work from anywhere. If youre in a profession that centers around relationships say for example, as a congressional staffer, working remotely would be a challenge. Once youve confirmed that working from anywhere in the world is possible, identify how youre going to make the transition.3. Do I want to w ork for a company or work for myself?Convincing an employer whos not familiar with the concept of working remotely can be more difficult than convincing yourself. The fact is, remote workers are 13% more productive than those working in an office every day. Youre cutting commute time, unnecessary meetings and distractions. You have options. You can work with your current employer to come up with a plan that works best for both of you, find a full-time remote position using job boards (i.e. We Work Remotely, FlexJobs and Working NoMads), or work for yourself as a freelancer in your own field. It will surprise you how many of the connections youve already made in your career can lead to a new opportunity. Businesses are always looking for quality help without having to pay steep agency prices.4. What are my personal and professional goals?Write down your goals. You dont need to wait to make a certain amount of money or wait until your next promotion to start taking baby steps towards achieving them. Identify if each decision youve made to date is bringing you closer or taking you further away from realizing them. Create a plan to make changes. For me, working remotely and traveling the world allowed me to take control of my own schedule, meet new people, practice new skills and learn about different cultures. I hope that wherever your next decision takes you, you enjoy the journey of getting there.To learn more about traveling around the world, sign up for the TravelSquire.com Newsletter here.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

7 Trends Job Seekers Should Expect in 2019

7 Trends Job Seekers Should Expect in 20197 Trends Job Seekers Should Expect in 2019 Whether youre looking for your first full-time job or actively seeking the next step in your career, its a good time to put yourself on the market. The U.S. economy is growing and expected to maintain its strength going into 2019, leading to notlageiceable effects on hiring. This is especially true of in-demand occupations. If youre interested in a technology career, here are seven trends that are shaping employment opportunities in the coming yearNext year, the unemployment rate is expected to drop to its lowest point in 40 years, according to New York Federal Reserve President John Williams.Employers need skilled workers to take advantage of the strong demand for their products and services. They cant grow without workers. And because unemployment is so low, skilled workers have become a scarce and therefore valuable resource. If you have the right programming experience and soft sk ills, youll be very attractive in this market.Organizations are competing for a limited pool of talented workers. When they do hire someone, they want to be sure its the best fit. Thus, the growing use of cognitive assessment tools to analyze and evaluate prospective hires. These tools, like the one used by Indeed.com, screen and rank candidates based on various dimensions. They consider not only experience, skills and aptitude but also motivation, personality and behavioral factors.To attract skilled workers, organizations realize that money isnt everything. Skilled workers are just as interested in maintaining a healthy work-life balance . To that end, job seekers can expect to be offered expanded perks, from free meals to regularly scheduled social events to unlimited vacation days and more.Skilled workers are valuable in this market, but organizations still have an obligation to hire employees whose personalities and values align with their missions and culture . In other wo rds, expect employers to examine your social media profiles. If you present an unprofessional image online, they will often decline to hire you. Dont limit your career because of a few ill-advised posts. Clean up your social media.Even the smallest businesses today are driven by data . Jobs responsibilities that require data analytics and even light coding are becoming more frequent. If youve never been exposed to the concepts and principles behind data analytics principles and coding languages, now is a good time to learn those skills .Even if youre not seeking a job, expect some outreach from prospective employers. Skilled workers are so scarce that employers arent waiting for you to respond to job posting. Instead, theyre constantly sourcing, the term for proactively identifying potential hires and engaging them in a recruiting process. To signal your interest or at least let them know you exist, it helps to have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile.If youre looking for a technology job in 2019, Revature can provide you with everything you need training, connections with top companies, and a clear path to success. If youre interested in programming and software development careers, Revature can help you make the transition, no prior coding experience required. Learn the in-demand technologies that todays Fortune 500 companies are using.Unlike organizations that charge you fees to learn coding and programming skills, Revature provides this training as an employee benefit to new hires through an intensive and customized 10-to-14-week program, where they learn and practice the technologies required for entry-level jobs in software development.By the end of the training, youll have a feel for the real-world, enterprise-level environment in which software developers work. On top of that, youll have a job in a field you can grow and be successful.

How your Current Resume is Hurting You

How your Current Resume is Hurting You How your Current Resume is Hurting You First off, dont mistake your resume for a Curriculum Vitae (CV). A CV is a more comprehensive and technical document than its cousin the resume. Your resume should rarely (if ever) run longer than 1 to 1.5 pages in length and the shorter the better. Most of the time, information that cant fit on a single page is superfluous and does not contribute anything of importance that can be effectively used to weigh a candidate against his or zu sich peers. Most of the information a hiring manager needs can be condensed into one page, and usually about half that. So, not matter how many more accolades, experiences, and interests you want to throw into the document, fight the urge and keep it to no more than one page.Next, understand that resumes are not creative documents and shouldnt be treated as an art project. The point of a resume is to give a hiring manager a quick overview of your qualifications and educati on they want to know what makes you the most qualified and prepared candidate in the bunch. The cleaner and simpler the format (meaning efficient use of bullet points and numerals only) the better. Colorful backgrounds and fonts and unconventional layouts are not considered professional and can lead to an applicant being completely disregarded as a job candidate.One of the goals of the vetting process is to ensure an applicant is enthused and excited about working at a particular company. No matter how impressive your resume, if you arent perceived as someone who wants to work at the company you probably wont get an offer. One way to show a hiring manager that you couldnt care less about their company is to omit the name from your cover letter. Personalize those cover letters folks, and give each employer the respect of identifying them by name.The final two mistakes are two sides of the same coin spouting nothing but generic platitudes about or insulting a company. Every interviewe r knows that their company isnt perfect and can always be improved, so never patronize an employer with unending and empty praise. On the opposite end, you should also never insult a company for which you are being interviewed, meaning be careful at your language as not all insults are blatant or intended. Using dismissive or diminutive language about a companys placement in the market, for example, is a big turn-off.Creating your resume to portray a positive attitude, a healthy understanding of a companys successes and where it can improve, and professionalism will go a long way to persuading an employer to take you seriously and better appreciate what you have to offer.Master the art of closing deals and making placements. Take our Recruiter Certification Program today. Were SHRM certified. Learn at your own pace during this 12-week program. Access over 20 courses. Great for those who want to break into recruiting, or recruiters who want to further their career.