How to Become a Journalist

How to Become a JournalistHow to Become a JournalistJournalism is, in most respects, the backbone of the media industry. Therefore many media jobs require some aspect of journalism. The type of writing a journalist does depend largely on the subject they deckblatt. Aleidher thing which affects a journalists job is the outlet they produce nachrichten for TV, the Internet, a newspaper, etc. That being said, a traditional journalist reports the news. What does that mean? Well, it can mean various things. The standard image of a journalist and one often portrayed in ?movies is of someone working a beat for a newspaper and finding stories. Which begs the question What is a beat? Working a Beat A beat is a media term for the area, or topic, a journalist covers. So a beat could be anything from local crime, to national news to Hollywood movies. Beats can be very specific, or broader, depending on the kind of publication youre working for. A mid-size daily newspaper, for example, will ha ve reporters covering everything from local police goings-on to local sports. Why You Need a Beat A journalists job is to report the news. To find the news, you need to understand the subject matter and the people youre writing about. Lets say youre working a crime beat for a newspaper in Chicago. One morning the police report that theres been a murder in a posh neighborhood of the city. Now, in order to write about that murder, you need to know whats been going on in the city. Is this an isolated incident? Was there a similar crime two weeks ago? Two years ago? People always discuss the five pillars of journalism or the Five Ws - who, what, where, when and why - and, the why, section can only be filled out by someone with a background and knowledge of their beat. If, for example, you were asked to write about the aforementioned murder in Chicago, and didnt know anything about the city or the recent criminal activity there, you wouldnt be able to cover the story in the best wa y. Because lets face it, the story is very different if its a random act instead of a potential sign of a crime spree or, lets say, a serial murderer. Developing Sources The other big reason journalists work beats, aside from developing a deep knowledge of the subject theyre covering, is to develop sources. Sources are people you talk to report a story. Now some sources are obvious. If we continue with the example of working as a crime reporter in Chicago, you would have regular sources in the police department. Now some would be obvious - you would likely speak to a spokesperson for the department whose job it is to handle reporters (a kind of publicist) - but other contacts might be developed from relations you foster over years of covering a beat. A journalist often refers to their sources - everyone knows the saying, I cant reveal my sources - because these are people they turn to get inside information, or perspective, on a story. Now that bit about revealing sources po ints to an instance when a journalist gets an important piece of information from a person who does not want their identity revealed. If, for example, youre working on that story about the murder in Chicago and you get information from someone in the police department that the murder looks like it might be the work of a serial killer, that officer might not want his name given out. After all, hes giving you information that might get him in trouble. So, when you write the story about the murder, you wouldnt name your source or reveal his identity to anyone. (If you did reveal his identity, no one would ever want to give you secret information, or information that people in the business refer to as stuff thats off the record.) When a journalist works a beat over time they develop a multitude of sources. This means that they know who to call when something happens and they know the people who will talk to them. A good journalist establishes solid relationships with his sources so he c an turn to them to get information. Although people dont always like talking to reporters - especially when the story is about a scandal or something negative - a good journalist will have sources who recognize that there is a positive in getting a story out and getting it out correctly. In other words, a good journalist will develop a respectful relationship with his sources.

5 Things Successful People Do After Being Rejected (Instead of Moping Around)

5 Things Successful People Do After Being Rejected (Instead of Moping Around)5 Things Successful People Do After Being Rejected (Instead of Moping Around)Your hopes were high- and now theyve been dashed. You received a curt, Thanks, but no thanks for anopportunity you were really excited about.Theres no way around it- rejection is tough for all of us. And, while theres nobody out there who will claim toenjoyit, there are some people who seem tocope with it better than others.Take some of the worlds most successful people, for example. They notlage only deal with rejection with poise and professionalism, but they also use it to their advantage. They extract lessons from the experience that they can use to better themselves moving forward.Want to know how you can do that same thing? Begin doing these five things that all successful people do after facing rejection.1. They Recognize Their RoleRejection can be brutal, and its often enough to inspire us to begin playing the blame game. It s their fault that they didnt see the value we were offering or that they decided to go another direction.When were hurt, its pretty much human nature to make ourselves the victims of the situation. However, successful people understand the importance of recognizing the role they played in their own rejection.Were they as prepared as they should have been? Did they settle for mediocre when they should have put their all in? You need to accept responsibility for anything you did that might have contributed to you being passed over, or you simply wont learn as much from the situation.2. They ReflectSimilarly to the point above, successful people dont immediately jump into action after being rejected. Instead, they press pause and take a little bit of time to look back on the experience.Are they blindsided by this rejection, or did they not feel great about their chances to begin with? If they could rewind time, what key things would they do differently?Before you can use rejection to help you improve, you first need to pinpoint exactly where you could make some changes.3. They Ask QuestionsWhen youre turned down for something, your first inclination might be to bury your head in the sand and get as far away from that humiliating situation as possible.However, successful people resist the temptation to run and hide. They know that its better to use this as an opportunity to gather more information that will help them to become better in the future.Swallow your pride and directly ask what you did well and what you could do better next time. Thats all valuable information- directly from a reputable source- that you can use to improve moving forward.4. They ImproveFar too many of us fall into the trap of collecting feedback, but then never actually doing anything with it. But, not successful people. They go the extra mile to actually implement the suggestions they receive.You know you cant continue to do the same things and make the same mistakes while expecting dif ferent results. So, remember to detail an action plan you can use to put those tips for improvement to use. Youll be better off for it.5. They Move OnRejection can bruise even the healthiest of egos. But, it wont do you any good to obsess over it- which is why successful people know its better to take a deep breath, let it go, and move on.Yes, youll need to take a little bit of time to reflect on the experience and pull out the necessary lessons and value. However, once youve done that, dont continue to dwell or hold a grudge. Ultimately, that will only hold you back.Theres no denying that rejection can be a painful experience, but it can also be extremely educational- as long as youre willing to make the most of it. Take these five strategies, and youre sure to use rejection to your advantage.More From Inc.One Behavior Separates the Successful From the Average18 Effective Habits of Highly Successful PeopleWhy You Should Love Rejection

Innovative Reward Techniques for Your Employee Referral Program

Innovative Reward Techniques for Your Employee Referral Program Innovative Reward Techniques for Your Employee Referral Program These compelling reasons form the basis for rewards offered by organizations as incentives to participate in the program. Referral rewards do notlage merely constitute offering cash incentives for successful referrals, but extend beyond that to include ways of engaging with employees through recognizing and appreciating their contributions to the referral program. A referral reward is only as good as the employees ultimate recipients of the rewards have to find them motivating. A referral reward, even if it is of high financial value, is worthless if it fails to excite employees to participate. On the other hand, there are many examples of organizations who have achieved a great verstndigung im strafverfahren of success in their referral programs through comparatively smaller rewards.It is therefore essential to first have a good understanding of what mo tivates your employees before defining the referral rewards. Organizational culture plays a big role in understanding the nature of employees and what is a good motivator for them. For instance, employees in a consulting organization with frequent business travel might find rewards related to travel experiences bigmotivators. Then again, healthcare professionals might appreciate family outings, like a fully paid family day trip.Employee referral rewards can broadly be classified as monetary or non-monetary rewards. While most organizations have monetary rewards in place to incentivize people for successful referrals, it is actually the non-monetary rewards that can actually keep employees engaged and active with the referral program.Monetary rewards are generally cash bonuses offered to employees if the candidates they refer are hired by the organization. Most organizations release the cash bonus once the hired candidate has been in the organization for a certain period of time usu ally 3 months. Apart from this, many organizations also offer supplementary bonuses for niche positions.Non-monetary rewards are ways to recognize employee efforts and contribution in small and big ways without doling out money or cash. The big advantage to non-cash incentives is that they are comparatively more cost effective. They can be used to reward employees participating in the referral program even if their referral is not hired. Ability to recognize more employees means more motivated employees and greater participation and enthusiasm among employees.It is because of the twin benefit of cost effectiveness as well as higher reach that organizations have started experimenting more and more in the realm of non-cash incentives to reward employees for their contributions to the referral program. They have ranged from the usual gift cards and movie tickets to highly adventurous ones, like flying and wine tasting experiences, and family pampering ones, like fully paid vacations to exotic destinations. Another big addition to rewards programs is the concept of gamification the opportunity to earn redeemable reward points based on how far you have progressed in the referral game.Below is a list of some of the more innovative referral rewards and recognitions successfully implemented by organizations, to help you get an idea of the kind of thinking that goesinto designing rewards for employee referral programs.A leading American video game developer has implemented gamification to reward employees because it has a very strong gaming culture. The rewards start small and get bigger and bigger in value as the referred candidate progresses through the recruitment process. For instance, the employee is presented with a Head-Hunter mug if his referred candidate receives an interview call. If the candidate is found suitable to be made an offer, the employee receives a sweater. In the case that the candidate is hired, the employee becomes eligible for the referral bonu s.Accenture, one of the foremost advocates of referral programs, has used the charity concept very successfully int their referral reward program to inspire employees towards a higher and nobler cause. Employees can choose to donate a part of their referral amount to a charity of their choosing, and the company donates a similar amount. Similarly, Informatica welches able to triple participation in its referral program by allowing employees to donate the referral bonus to Philippines typhoon relief over a two-month period.KPMG has been using micro rewards like gift cards for local coffee shops and other local events and places to improve employee participation in the referral program. They generally offer the gift cards for hard-to-fill and niche positions as a means of rewarding employees for their contributions.A leading engineering and service companyhas been able to achieve a 55 percent rate of employee participation, mainly by displaying leaderboards of top referrers on company boards and in newsletters. This, along with regular mails appreciating the efforts of top contributors, has helped keep employee participation well above industry average.A good employee referral reward program should strike a balance between cash and non-cash rewards, since both have a part to play in motivating employees. The nature of rewards should be defined based on your companys own unique culture, which shapes the way employees react to different motivators.

Career Skills for a Job Transition

Career Skills for a Job Transition Career Skills for a Job Transition While you might feel a sense of trepidation while making acareer transition especially if you have never been faced with such a challenge. Eventually, you will benefit from making the move. Remaining stagnant in a changing job environment is not the answer.Companies expect their employees to be computer literate and able to use all of todays latest technology to help perform their job faster and more efficiently. Acquiring theskills for a new careermay seem difficult at first, but with a little determination, you can do it. Perhaps you are deficient when it comes to computer skills. You may know how to get on the internet, check your e-mail and maybe use a word processing program to write a letter. Do you know how to create a financial spread sheet? Can you create a PowerPoint presentation? How about learning to create a web page or using social networks to increase a companys recognition and perhaps increase th eir sales?However, technology goes much beyond regular Word processing and spread sheets. The profession that you are trying to enter into most likely requires highly specialized skills. Make sure to do research into the specialized technology skills that will be required. Should you have an understanding of supply chain software? SAP? Microsoft Dynamics? Make sure to look up what technologies their employees list on social networks like Linkedin and if you dont have ansicht skills, read a book about the technology before interviewing with a new company.These are a fewcareer skillsthat can enhance your chance of findingemploymentin any number of jobs from secretarial and clerical jobs all the way up to management and executive stttes. The most important career skills of course have to do with how you work with people. Working well with teams, ability to market yourself, and confidence are the most important skills you can have. If you feeldeficientin one of these areas, be sure to try to improve. Join Toastmasters or a similar public speaking club if you need to improve your interpersonal skills.While some jobs require technical skills and special training, many more require common skills and basic intelligence. If you have good math and communication skills, are organized and have a good attitude, you can be an asset to most companies. If you add in great interpersonal skills, making a job transition should not be difficult for you.To give yourself the best chance when changing career paths, get the career skills you know you are lacking, walk in to the interviewers room, hold your head up high and tell them why you should get the position being offered. Remember, career success is not a matter of necessarily having the required career skills, but rather knowing how to talk in the vernacular of the profession and engaging well with the interviewer.

What Is So Fascinating About How to Spell Resume?

What Is So Fascinating About How to Spell Resume? Make certain if theres a watermark on the paper that its facing the suitable way and regardless of what you do, ensure it remains readable. Recognizing the way by which to tailor your work application will probably clearly provide you with a benefit. It will probably be split into sections. As pspecies of selecting the best resume builder, consider whether it provides you with the flexibility to modify section headings. The Argument About How to Spell Resume Maintains ought to be constantly improved, custom-made and edited in order to meet up with the demands of the work hunter. Your resume structure will also enable you to incorporate some achievements. Introducing How to Spell Resume Youd be hard-pressed to locate an employer who will sit there and read through a whole paragraph on a resume, plus, the ATS is just likely to locate keywords. The reply is it depends. It is yes if you want to. Its possible for you to enter your social websites profile address for an extra point of contact. For almost whatever you want to include on a resume, theres a category to help organize it. Bear in mind the idea of Less Is More and filter the ingestaltation that you have in your job program, only including the relevant information. Then take a look at the following resume writing tips to learn to compose a resume optimizing each section for greatest success. How to Spell Resume Ideas Obviously, there are a few skills to add to resume which can be considered recruiters favorites. Hence, no 2 resumes will probably be the exact same. Be careful while using the accented form resumeit could possibly be considered hypercorrect to some recruiters, particularly when it comes to resumes for entry-level positions. Looking at how others published their resumes can give you some adequate ideas. Spend some time matching your qualifications to the job to make sure youre including the suitable key terms and technique s. If youre developing a Squarespace website for your job search or private brand, you may want to add your resume to ensure it is accessible to prospective employers, contacts, and clients. You may also search and view resumes of different candidates who have the sort of job that youre searching for to obtain insight into the experience and skills employers value. A fast search online will display a lot of cover letters for resumes examples. Lies Youve Been Told About How to Spell Resume Along with helping your resume get selected, it will likewise help the hiring manager see how your abilities and experiences make you a perfect candidate for the particular job. Companies are constantly looking for talented team members. If you wish to catch the interest of the hiring manager, youve got to give them what they want. A legal professional seeking the most suitable job ought to have a strong resume as a way to be noticed by the employers. Whatever They Told You About How to Spell Resume Is Dead Wrong...And Heres Why Naturally, youre write what degree youve got. Each one takes a different strategy and what works for one wont do the job for one more. Whether youre looking for your very first job or attempting to earn a career change, the method starts with your resume. It is a rather simple process as it will be like expounding on the points. The Lost Secret of How to Spell Resume Men and women make it sound as if everyone lies on their resume, but thats not correct. Most people have this, and it is a quick, totally free download whenever they dont. They look at writing a resume as just something you have to do to get a job. The issue is, a great deal of people dont see it like an art formrather an obligation. The Basics of How to Spell Resume Together with thethree main sections to include in a resume, it is a good idea to tailor your resume to your private profile with the addition of different subheadings where you are able to develop the appro priate info. Use the checklist to be certain you have included all appropriate data in your resume. Youll receive several websites with all the info you want. Include your complete name, contact number, email and personal branding website if youve got one. The Benefits of How to Spell Resume Now press the letter you want to accent. Additionally, there are a few instances of cover letters. The accented variant of the letter appears. Finally, dont neglect to take a look at our professional cover letter examples. Surely, it is possible to find hundreds of resume examples on the internet to use as patterns. As soon as its only a page or two in length, a resume is among the most important pieces of a work application. Including a couple of numbers isnt an indication of a good resume. You should include both your telephone number and e-mail address.

Best, Worst Cities for Employee Satisfaction from Glassdoor

Best, Worst Cities for Employee Satisfaction from Glassdoor According to the second annual Employment Satisfaction Report Card by City (2014), which was released by Glassdoor, San Jose ranked first for the second consecutive year in a comparison of the 50 largest metropolitan areas by overall employee satisfaction, number of employers hiring, business outlook expectations and other criteria. San Francisco was ranked second in the survey. Both cities are home to several companies that won a 2014 Glassdoor Employees Choice Award, which recognized the 50 best places to work. Washington, D.C., climbed five spots to third place, followed by Norfolk, VA., and Salt Lake City, UT. Salt Lake City also ranks first in employee optimism for business outlook. More than half of Salt Lake City employees believe business will improve in the next six months. Local employees report several benefits of working in Sa lt Lake City, including enjoying a healthy work-life balance, in parte comprised of working reasonable hours and being able to take advantage of both urban and outdoor attractions.The Top 10 Cities for Employee Satisfaction1. San Jose2. San Francisco3. Washington, D.C.4. Norfolk, Va.5. Salt Lake City6. San Diego7. Seattle8. Oklahoma City9. San Antonio10. AustinThe Bottom Ten Cities for Employee Satisfaction41. Milwaukee42. Charlotte43. Riverside, Calif.44. Portland, Ore.45. Buffalo46. Phoenix47. Tampa48. Las Vegas49. Denver50. Pittsburgh

Insect Drone with Camera Flies Like a Bee

Insect Drone with Camera Flies Like a Bee Insect Drone with Camera Flies Like a Bee Insect Drone with Camera Flies Like a BeeEngineers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have created miniature drones that fly and flit just like insects. When you watch one of their drones, called DelFly, in action, it will flutter over a green patch of grass, beating its transparent wings so fast its hard to tell how many it has exactly. It hovers over the grass, darts back and forth, and then shoots upwards making an impressive 360-degree flip, worthy of an aerobatics show.The drone flies like a bee, and some researchers hope that such flying robots could one day replicate some of the important agricultural work that bees do.DelFly Nimble held by its main developer, Matej Karasek. Image TU DelftBut when G.C.H.E. (Guido) de Croon began working on what would become DelFly, he wasnt thinking about building a mechanical pollinator. Instead, de Croon and his team at the Micro Air Vehicle s Laboratory at Delft were interested in creating a small flapping wing drone capable of carrying a camera.Editors Pick Air Taxi Aces Test FlightThe first DelFly, built in 2008 by 11 students as a capstone project, was insect-like, but on a scale of the giant dragonflies from the Carbonaceous era. Made from ultra-lightweight materialsthin sheets of Mylar stretched over a carbon fiber frameit weighed 21 grams (slightly less than an AA battery) and had a wingspan of 50 cm.DelFly Nimble in stationary (hovering) flight. Image Henri Werij, TU Delft.Over time, as the Delft team learned more, the drones miniaturized. DelFly II had about half the wingspan and could hover and fly forward and backward, staying airborne for 15 minutes. DelFly Micro shrunk to 3 grams and a 10 cm wingspan. The Guinness Book of Records named it the smallest camera-equipped aircraft in the world.Thats still enormous as bees go. A worker honeybee weighs about 130 milligrams and has a wingspan of less than 1 cm.List en to ASME TechCast to Find Out How a High School Senior Helped a Wounded MarineAs the drones lost mass, they added capability. The 2013 DelFly Explorer gained autonomous navigation, thanks to a stereovision camera and hardware for processing obstacle detectionno mean feat for a system that could only weigh a few grams. Self-driving cars make complete 3D maps of their environment to feed into their obstacle detection algorithms, but that requires sensors, processors, and memory, even the lightest of which would be too heavy for a gossamer robot to lift.So the team built different vision algorithms, inspired by hunting dragonflies. If you ask a biologist how dragonflies catch flies, the current hypothesis is that they keep it in the same position while making it bigger and bigger as they approach it, de Croon said. So you could make it very complicated and calculate the flys velocity and directionor you can use the same kind of simple intelligence they use. Thats what we didwe either programmed it into the robot, or tried to make the robot learn it by itself.More Useful Robots The 7 Coolest Rescue Robots Tackle Almost Any DisasterThe drones learned to avoid collisions, but they werent very stable in flight. Even when they flew inside a room, an air-conditioners draft could toss them around. They needed more agility to recover from such gusts. The team realized they had to abandon some of the traditional concepts of flying machines and once again watch how insects work.The result was the DelFly Nimble. Unlike its predecessors, whose flight is controlled similar to conventional airplanes via deflections of specific surfaces on the tail or behind the wings, DelFly Nimble has neither. Instead, it is controlled by insect-inspired motion adjustments of its two pairs of flapping wings.The tails absence makes DelFly Nimble very agile and less vulnerable to wind. That enables it to dart as nimbly as a fly escaping a swatterand then straighten itself out and return to it s original heading.If you try to swat a fly, it will make a super sharp turn like a fighter jet, and then it will quickly turn its body into the flight direction again, de Croon explained. Whats really interesting, he added, is that the fly doesnt do it consciously. It does so passively, essentially relying on the aerodynamic forces specific to its flapping wings.Even more surprisingly, so does the robot, even though it hasnt been programmed to do it.The robot also corrects for the flight direction error, but we know for sure that we didnt put this into the control code, de Croon said. Its a new effect and we think it applies to all flapping wings.The Delft engineers have various practical applications in mind. For example, when perfected, the bots could flit around greenhouses spotting plant diseases with their cameras.More on Agriculture Innovation 5 Ways How Digital Farm Technology Is Transforming AgricultureThe robots could also be fitted with apparatuses to perform an even more vital and insect-like taskpollinating crops. That sounds like something out of the Black Mirror television series, but the idea of building robotic pollinators predates that. A mysterious plague called colony collapse disorder has decimated entire beehives worldwide during the past 20 years. Scientists pondered many possible causes of bees plight, including pesticides, habitat loss, poor diet due to the limited variety of agricultural crops, parasites called Varroa destructor mites, and other pestsor a combination of these factors.No matter the cause, science provided no clear remedy for the little creatures that helped our crops bear harvests for millennia. In America, bees pollinate about 80 percent of flowering plants and about 75 percent of the nuts, fruits, and vegetables humans eat, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Other countries are similarly dependent on healthy bees to assist in food production.While scientists rush to pin down the cause of colony collapse disorder and race to find a cure, engineers have wondered whether we might one day supplement real bees with mechanical ones. Bringing DelFy to greenhouses will take more time and work. Commercial pollinating will also require many such bots operating in an organized fashion, something no group has yet perfected. Lina Zeldovich is a freelance writer in Woodside, N.Y.Read More Exclusive Stories from ASME.org Robots to the Rescue Solving World Hunger with 3D-Printed Food Engineers Making Waves in AquacultureYou could make it very complicated and calculate the flys velocity and directionor you can use the same kind of simple intelligence they use. G.C.H.E. (Guido) de Croon, Delft University of Technology

The ABCs of Personal Branding, According to a PR Expert

The ABCs of Personal Branding, According to a PR ExpertThe ABCs of Personal Branding, According to a PR Expert In the digital world we live in, the concept of personal branding has never been mora important.Think about the products you buy every day and why you buy them. For me, I buy Nike shoes, Lululemon clothes and just recently bought a Boss suit (a little splurge, but worth it). I am willing to pay more for these products because I view them as trustworthy and reliable thanks to their branding as well as my personal experience with the product. Its also why I prefer Starbucks coffee even though its more expensive than making coffee at home. But the experience is consistent, and the coffee has never let me down.At Mercury Marine , our brand is, among others, reliability. When you put a Mercury engine on your boat, you can always count on that engine to perform and help you create amazing experiences with friends and family.So why dont we view ourselves through th e same lens as we do our favorite brands? People buy what we are selling every day. At some point in our lives, we are going to apply for something. Whether its a job, internship or home loan, you will put yourself in front of someone and must convince them to give you something you want. In this instance, you are the brand. Companies are marketing themselves every day to consumers as a personal brand, you should be doing the same.A quote I once heard that I absolutely love should be plastered on your wall at work. If you arent branding yourself, you can bet someone else is and you probably wont like what they have to say.People are willing to invest in YOU if your brand is strong. Personally, I work every day to make sure my brand remains strong you could say it keeps me up at night. Im a firm believer that when I wake up every morning, I have to prove myself all over again, its what keeps the focus on my brand. A personal brand is the spawn of how you see yourself and how ot hers view you, its a meeting in the middle. Its in how you dress, how you talk, how you compose yourself. Its about your resume, your experience anddrum rollyour social media. All of that together defines who you are.Here are my A, B, Cs of personal brandingAppealing We buy brands that are appealing. As a personal brand, someone will invest in you if you are an appealing brand.Believable Is what you are selling believable? When Nike or Mercury Marine is marketing, do I believe in their message? When Im marketing myself, are people believing what Im selling?Consistent Its the Starbucks example. As a personal brand, when people interact with me, their experience must be consistent. Im not treating our security team any different than our CEO.Distinctive This is the single most important trait in developing a personal brand. What makes you stand out from the rest? Ill dig deeper into this one in a minute.Evolving Your brand must constantly evolve. What you did as a freshman in high school isnt applicable as a professional. Find ways to evolve your brand.Think about your brand as your health. If you exercise, youll be healthy if you sit around all day, your body and mind will suffer. Its the same with your brand. If you exercise your brand, itll continue to evolve and define who you are. If you dont spend any time on it, someone else will.Now back to why being distinctive is so important. We live in a world where everything looks the same, sounds the same and feels the same a Sea of Sameness. When you graduate, you walk across the stage and get a diploma. Your diploma looks the same as mine. As an employer, for every job we have open, we receive hundreds of resumes, LinkedIn profiles, etc. More times than not, they all look the same. Your brand needs to stand out above the rest. Graduating top of your class from Harvard is impressive, but its not going to guarantee you the job.Here are four things you can do to help define your personal brandO ur world moves at the speed of light and we live in a what have you done for me lately world. Theres no real-time anymore its NOW-TIME. Creating and defining your personal brand is extremely important in fact, its a must. Like anything, it takes time and hard work. But if you do it right, you will create a lasting memory of yourself when you leave the room. So, ask yourself, what are people saying about you when you leave the room? And, are you OK with what they are saying? That will help you determine whether your brand is strong or needs some work.Lee Gordon is the Director of Global Public Relations and Communications for Mercury Marine , a division of Brunswick Corporation . Prior to taking the role at Mercury, Lee was a television anchor for CBS and FOX for 15 years and a sideline reporter for the NFL on FOX.Want to develop your personal brand alongside Lee? Mercury Marine is always looking for great talent. Check out their latest job opportunities

Heres the most dangerous proverb in the English language

Heres the fruchtwein dangerous proverb in the English languageHeres the most dangerous proverb in the English languageCuriosity killumineszenzdiode the cat.Or as the Russians say with far more dramatic flair, Curious Barbaras nose was torn off at the market.These proverbs, according to the ever-reliable Wikipedia, are used to warn of the dangers of unnecessary investigation or experimentation.Curiosity, in cats or in Russian market-goers, isnt just annoying or inconvenient. Curious people arent just pesky troublemakers who cant be satisfied with the status quo. Theyre downright dangerous. As the legendary Hollywood producer Brian Grazer writes, The child who feels free to ask why the sky is blue grows into the adult who asks more disruptive questions Why am I the serf and you the king? Does the sun really revolve around Earth? Why are people with dark skin slaves and people with light skin their masters?Curiosity also requires an admission of ignorance. Asking a question means that w e dont know the answer, and thats an admission that few of us are willing to make. For fear of sounding dumb, we assume most questions are too basic to ask, so we dont ask them.In this era of move beinahe and break things, curiosity can also seem like an unnecessary luxury. With an inbox-zero ethos and an unyielding focus on hustle and execution, answers appear efficient. They illuminate the path forward and give us that life hack so we can move onto the next thing on our to-do list. Questions, on the other hand, are exceedingly inefficient. They dont yield immediate answers, so theyre unlikely to get a slot on our overloaded calendars.So we wait until a crisis occurs to become curious and start asking questions. Its only when were laid off that we begin to ponder alternative career paths. Its only when our business is disrupted by a young, scrappy, and hungry competitor that we gather the troops to spend a few futile hours thinking outside the box. But by that point, the ship has a lready sailed. Just ask Blockbuster, Kodak, Borders, and the entire cab industry.Our education system is also to blame. In most classrooms, theres little room for curiosity and experimentation. An authority figure steps up to the szene to feed us the truth. Textbooks magically reveal the right answers to questions. We learn about Newtons laws - as if they arrived by a grand divine visitation or a stroke of genius - but not the years he spent exploring and revising them (not to mention his experiments in alchemy, which attempted, and spectacularly failed, to turn lead into gold).If your chemistry class was anything like mine, the outcome of each experiment was predetermined. There was no room for curiosity or unexpected insights. If you didnt get the right result, youd be stuck in the lab repeating the same experiment over and over again, while your classmates trekked off to the movies.As a result, we believe (or pretend to believe) there is one right answer to each question. We be lieve that this right answer has already been discovered by someone far smarter than us. We believe the answer can, therefore, be found in a well-crafted Google search, the latest self-help book, or advice from a self-proclaimed life coach.Fear is another reason we shun curiosity. If we spend too much time investigating and experimenting, were afraid of what we might find. Worse, were afraid that we may not find anything at all, that our inquiry led us nowhere, turning this whole curiosity business into a gigantic waste of time.Lets nip these beliefs in the bud. Unnecessary investigation and experimentation are precisely what you need for a creative personal and professional life. Hustle and innovation are antithetical to each other. You cant generate breakthroughs while clearing out your inbox. You must dig the well before youre thirsty and become curious now - not when a crisis inevitably presents itself while youre too busy staring at the rear-view mirror.Curiosity killed the ca t. But it just might save you.Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned law professor and bestselling author.Click hereto download a free copy of his e-book, The Contrarian Handbook 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, youll get the Weekly Contrarian - a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).This article first appeared onozanvarol.com.