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6 Job Search Tips That Are So Basic People Forget Them

The irony of job search advice: There’s so much available that you don’t have to spend more than four seconds Googling before you land on some nugget of wisdom or another.

Yet, at the same time, there’s so much available (some of which completely contradicts other advice you’ll find) that it can easily overwhelm you. Which, in fact, is probably the exact opposite outcome you’re looking for when you go sleuthing for genuinely useful counsel in the first place.

So let’s do this: Let’s boil things down to a short list of sound, timeless job searching tips that’ll help you fine-tune your strategy so that you may sail through the process (or at least cut out some of the unnecessary time and frustration). 

1. Make Yourself a “Smack-in-the-Forehead” Obvious Fit

When you apply for a job via an online application process, it’s very likely that your resume will first be screened by an applicant tracking system and then (assuming you make this first cut) move onto human eyeballs. The first human eyeballs that review your resume are often those of a lower level HR person or recruiter, who may or may not understand all of the nuances of that job for which you’re applying.

Thus, it behooves you to make it very simple for both the computer and the human to quickly connect their “Here’s what we’re looking for” to your “Here’s what you can walk through our doors and deliver.”

2. Don’t Limit Yourself to Online Applications

You want that job search to last and last? Well, then continue to rely solely on submitting online applications. You want to accelerate this bad boy? Don’t stop once you apply online for that position. Start finding and then endearing yourself to people working at that company of interest. Schedule informational interviews with would-be peers. Approach an internal recruiter and ask a few questions. Get on the radar of the very people who might influence you getting an interview. (More on that here.)

3. Remember That Your Resume (and LinkedIn Profile) Is Not a Tattoo

Yes, your new resume is lovely. Your LinkedIn profile, breathtaking. However, if they don’t position you as a direct match for a particular role that you’re gunning for, don’t be afraid to modify wording, switch around key terms, and swap bullet points in and out. Your resume is not a tattoo, nor is your LinkedIn profile. Treat them as living, breathing documents throughout your job search (and career).

4. Accept That You Will Never Bore Anyone Into Hiring You

Don’t get me wrong—you absolutely must come across as polished, articulate, and professional throughout your job search. However, many people translate this into: Must. Be. Boring.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Realize that few people get hired because they had perfect white space on their cover letters, memorized all of the “correct” interview questions or used incredibly safe, common phraseology (i.e., clichés) throughout their resumes. All of this correctness is going to make you look staged and non-genuine. Instead, give yourself permission to be both polished and endearing. Memorable, likable candidates are almost always the ones who go the distance.

5. If You’re Not on LinkedIn, You Very Nearly Don’t Exist

Considering that more than 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn as their primary search tool, this is not an understatement. If you’re a professional, you need to not only be on LinkedIn, you need to be using it to your full advantage. Don’t believe me? Think about it this way: If tomorrow morning, a recruiter logs onto LinkedIn looking for someone in your geography, with expertise in what you do, and you’re not there? Guess who they’re going to find and contact? Yes, that person’s name is “not you.”

6. Thank You Matters

I once placed a candidate into an engineering role with a company that manufactures packaging equipment. He was competing head-to-head with another engineer, who had similar talents and wanted the job just as badly. My candidate sent a thoughtful, non-robotic thank you note to each person with whom he’d interviewed, within about two hours of leaving their offices. The other candidate sent nothing.

Guess why my candidate got the job offer? Yep, the thoughtful, non-robotic thank you notes. They sealed the deal for him, especially considering the other front-runner sent nothing.

And finally, remember that the interviewer cares much more about what you can do for them than what you want out of the deal. Certainly, they’re going to care a bunch about what you want once you establish your worth. But during the interview, you must demonstrate why you make business sense to hire, period.

Source :Themus

What do Affiliates really want?

Having your own affiliate program can seem like a fast and easy way to boost your business, as having an army of commission only salespeople is obviously music to most business owner’s ears.

And rightly so, as an effective affiliate program can quickly, cost effectively and dramatically grow your business, probably better than any other method.

However, it takes expertise, hard work and most importantly the right offering to make an affiliate program truly work.

You can’t just provide your affiliate with a few links, then sit back and enjoy the deafening sound of cash registers ringing. The key to success lies in the support and resources you offer your affiliates, whatever level they are currently at.

Forrester Research shows that the average Affiliate program has about 10,000 Affiliates, but only 10-20 % of the affiliates actually participate or promote the program.

So why do so few affiliates that sign up actually promote the product? Why the huge disconnect?

Simple. Most Advertisers don’t provide their Affiliates with the help, support and resources they need to promote their products. So they sign up, look for resources and when they don’t find any, their excitement and motivation evaporates and off they go to find a program which gives them what they need.

Here are our 6 top features, switched on affiliates expect in a quality affiliate program:

1: Communication Leads to Community

The best way to keep top Affiliates loyal is to maintain a good relationship with them. Not just while they’re signing up, but ongoing.

For starters, it’s essential you offer a dedicated point of contact for affiliates and respond quickly. Don’t make them wait for answers and lose trust or you’ll lose them.

As many Affiliates sign up but then get side-tracked and never get around to promoting, (remember the disconnect?) you should also send regular emails to keep them engaged, ensure they’re on track AND to show your program is active.

As they move forward, you can’t presume they are up to date with your offers and new resources, so keep them informed of any program news.

Finally, a sense of community and open communication with Vendors can really build loyalty, so although this goes against the usual school of affiliate program thought, give them what they want. The long term rewards can be huge.

ClickSure believes in the power of communication, so unlike traditional networks, we allow Advertisers and Affiliates to communicate directly with each other using our in-house Messenger Service. It’s extremely rare but we believe open communication fosters trust, saves a ton of time when setting up campaigns and offers outstanding efficiency.

2: Technology

As Affiliate marketing is becoming more and more competitive in the marketing industry, data-analysis has become a crucial factor for Affiliates.  Marketing methods need in-depth evaluation in order for Affiliates to gauge their success and test and improve, to generate the best return on their investments.

Although there may be many individual reporting platforms available out there, the majority of Affiliate programs are now offering proprietary reporting and tracking technologies, in order to provide their Affiliates the opportunity to enhance their performance based on their sales analytics.

Obviously, you’ll be more successful if you also show affiliates how to use this technology effectively. Many veterans will be familiar with it, but be specific to yours and don’t forget, your new affiliates may have never seen this kind of resource before. Without help, it can seem overwhelming and become another reason for the 80% disconnect.

Affiliates also need reassurance that their marketing efforts are working and providing all the relevant sales data on their profile obviously helps that too.

So don’t even think of building your affiliate program without this essential resource. No-one wants to run their promo campaigns in the dark.

3: Competitive commissions and fast payouts

As an Advertiser, you need to work directly with your Affiliates to create a payment model that best fits your business.

99% of affiliates are in it for the money. So the higher the payout the more chance you have of attracting affiliates to your offer. On top of that most super affiliates spend a lot of money buying advertising, so the faster you can make payments to them, the better their cash-flow and the lower the risk for the affiliate.

Less risk means they are more likely to push your offers over affiliate programs offering inferior payment terms.

Take some time to research into what other Affiliate programs are offering in commissions. This would give you a better indication of the competition and also what payment terms you should offer to stay competitive.

For instance, Affiliate payment terms at ClickSure vary, as our Advertiser/Merchants select their own individual terms and payouts. What payout and terms you set is up to.

You have to try to get the balance right. See what others are paying as a starting point, but keep your payments really competitive, as it’s the most important thing to the majority of affiliates. The only exception is when your offer converts much better than your competitors, but remember your affiliates still have to pay for traffic, so keep those payout rates attractive.

Don’t go too far the other way and go overboard with the payments though, thinking you’ll clean up. If you don’t get your numbers right you could get an avalanche of sales you’ll end up making a loss on.

Keep in mind, however, it’s no coincidence that some of the best performing Affiliate Programs within the ClickSure marketplace offer the fastest payout terms, with most offering weekly payouts and some also offer private payouts for super affiliates.

It also makes sense to pay your affiliates well and as quickly as possible, because the payments could well be funding the next wave of traffic they send to your product.

4: The Art of Affiliate Incentives

One of the most popular methods to generate attraction is by offering affiliates a competition with a cash prize as a reward. These are especially popular during the festive season such as Christmas, as Affiliates are looking to earn quick cash around that time.

It’s also a good incentive for Affiliates to promote your offer. You may also attract top Affiliates with generous competitions to give yourself a competitive advantage in the Marketplace amongst all the other product owners.

Cash is obviously one of the most popular incentives. However, co-branded gifts can also work very well and still give you the opportunity of attracting additional business.

For example, run a ‘Win an iPad’ incentive but then brand the iPad so wherever the affiliate takes it your brand is on show.

You could also combine training events with incentives…

For example, win a trip to “office location” and “3 days intensive training with our marketing team”. This helps build relationships, gives your affiliate additional insights on how to drive business to your products and if you feature the winners experience in a video or post, you can also use it as a promotional opportunity for your next incentive.

Another effective way to incentivise Affiliates is to offer them a ‘money-can’t-buy’ reward. This can include VIP tickets to sold out events, sporting fixtures or even gifts and experiences.

There are many different options you can choose to reward your Affiliate from instant cash rewards to generous private commissions.

Test to find out which works best for you and how much you can offer to encourage affiliates to sign up.

5: In-depth product information

Always offer as much information as you can about your product as it would help Affiliates to understand the product better, in order to pre-sell and advertise to their traffic.

Affiliates are looking for products and services that match the content on the site, so the more information you give, the better judgment they can make as to whether the product is suitable for them or not.

Provide affiliates with as much information as possible so they have more knowledge to help pre-sell your products. Also, showing them the best ways to sell and where to generate sales, is important for keeping your affiliate marketing strategy aligned to your goals and product branding. For

For example, if someone has a Luxurious Skin Cream for Women, you don’t necessarily want affiliates targeting men with the product, unless it’s promoted as a gift idea for their partners or loved ones.

The more info you can supply, the better your affiliates can perform, so . . .

Give affiliates free samples, free demos or walkthroughs of the product/service.

Provide affiliates info on best traffic sources, customer demographics, best practices for promoting the product etc.

Send regular email newsletters to your affiliates, including tailored news of any new products you are launching.

Lastly, always keep your content fresh and remember to update and changes to the product as soon as possible.

6: What marketing materials should you provide?

Affiliates do not want to develop their own primary marketing materials. And why should they? They are promoting for you and increasing your ‘hands off’ sales, so give them the help they need.

Supplying your affiliates with free marketing material such as landing pages, banners, images email swipes etc. is a must.

Also important, if you want affiliates to use a great product image to show your product in the best light then provide them with images they can use. You do not want them cutting and pasting shady looking images that don’t show your product in all its glory.

Yes, it will take you time to create these resources, but it’s an investment, not a cost. By supplying a range of high-quality resources, your affiliates can hit the ground running and make an impact quickly.

Top Tip:

Keep your marketing materials simple as some Affiliates may be reluctant to use large images/ banner as it may affect the site load time.

It’s also better if YOU control the branding, quality and ‘voice’ of these resources, as some affiliates may get frustrated, create their own inferior examples and give the wrong message out regarding your brand.

Also, you are saving affiliates the time spent developing these materials themselves and instead they can focus on promoting your products straight away.

Source :http://clicksureblog.com

Naming Your Business in the Modern

Over the years, I have never forgotten that conversation, and his advice has become even more profound in a business environment that has forced companies to adopt new and unchartered branding strategies that consider social-media and mobile-content consumption. These days, when I consult startups and other aspiring entrepreneurs, I integrate his advice into a number of tips I have developed through my experience.

While there are numerous great resources to help you develop an effective company or product name, here are three tips to consider before you even get started.

1. The 5-10 rule:

My attorney friend explained that great companies throughout history had five to 10 letters in their name, had at least one hard consonant, and many had a repeating letter.

Interestingly, after this enlightenment, I noticed this convention everywhere -- Mattel, Hasbro, Google, Yahoo, CitiBank, Starbucks, Ford, Honda, Apple, Exxon, Mobil, Cisco, Verizon -- the list goes on. Of course, there are exceptions, but the point was that short, simple and recognizable names were keys to success. 

These days, consider that your name needs to be easily recognizable in an email subject line and fit in a 144-character tweet.

2. The icon rule:

Today, more than ever, customers consume content and make purchase decisions through their mobile smart devices. It is through these small screens that business branding is happening, so your company name and logo has to fit in this space. 

While you may never actually have a mobile app that requires a small square icon, consider how your company name and logo would look on one. We have become accustomed to seeing icons anyway, so this is a good place to start when developing your logo.

3. The social-media rule:

 In the past, the most significant barrier to establishing a name was if it was copyrighted or already registered as a business in your state. Today, your business needs to secure website domains and accounts with sites around the web, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, StumbleUpon, Reddit, etc. (there are hundreds). 

This not only improves search engine optimization (SEO) organically, it also helps protect your business's online reputation. You may not use most of these accounts, but at the very least, you will own the account name before someone else does. If you have a common business name that is already taken on many sites, consider a pseudonym for your account across these secondary websites.

For instance, if your name happens to be Wild Creations, then consider a strategy to use “WildCreationsGifts,” “TheWildCreations,” or “WCGifts” as your account name. The consistent naming convention across sites will allow your customers to more easily find you.

Naming your company does require a great deal of thought and planning. Leverage the resources available online but keep in mind these three tips to make sure you have a solid framework from which to start.

As for us, we have stuck with the name Wild Creations, although we did rebrand and develop a new logo a year ago that emphasizes “Wild” and is more iconic. Deep inside, I would enjoy another serendipitous meeting with my New York attorney friend and get his approval.

Source :entrepreneur

Need a Business Idea?

Today, tens of thousands of people are considering starting a home based business, and for good reasons. On average, people can expect to have two and three careers during their work life. Those leaving one career often think about their second or third career move being to their own home. People who have been part of the traditional nine-to-five work force and are on the verge of retiring from that life are thinking of what to do next. The good news: Starting a homebased business is within the reach of almost anyone who wants to take a risk and work hard.

1. ACCOUNTANT:

Create a flier outlining your services. Before you do that, you need to know what those services will be. Do you want to simply do bookkeeping for a small business? A more involved level of accounting would be do actually work up balance sheets, income statements, and other financial reports on a monthly, quarterly, and/or annual basis, depending on the needs of the business. Other specializations can include tax accounting, a huge area of potential work. Many business owners don't mind keeping their own day-to-day bookkeeping records but would rather get professional help with their taxes.

2. BICYCLE REPAIR:

In many parts of the country, this business tends to be seasonal, but you can find ways around that. Rent a storage unit and offer to store people's bicycles over the winter after you do a tune-up and any needed repairs on them. If you want to cater to the Lance Armstrong wannabes, you can have business all year round. These road race riders are training through snow, sleet and dark of night. Some of them work on their own bicycles, but many of them don't, so you can get their business all year. And if you keep Saturday shop hours, you can be sure you will have a group of enthusiasts coming by to talk all things cycling.

3. BOAT CLEANING:

Boats that are hauled out of the water for the winter or even just for mid-season repairs will need the hull cleaned. And depending on the type of boat, it is a good time to give a major cleaning everything else too--the decks, the sleeping quarters, the head, and the holds. Start by approaching homes that have a boat sitting in the yard. Or you could market your services to the marina to contract you to do the boat cleaning it offers to customers.

4. BUSINESS PLAN SERVICE:

Offer a soup-to-nuts business plan, including market research, the business plan narrative and the financial statements. Plan your fee around the main one that the client will want and offer the others as add-on services. You can give clients an electronic file and allow them to take it from there, or you can keep the business plan on file and offer the service of tweaking it whenever necessary. Have business plan samples to show clients--and make sure to include your own!

5. CHIMNEY SWEEP:

Learning to be a chimney sweep may mean nothing more than apprenticing with someone already in the business. By becoming a chimney expert, you can combine a chimney sweep business with a chimney inspection service--covering more than just whether or not the chimney needs cleaning but whether the chimney is in good working order or in need of repair.

6. CLEANING SERVICE:

There are many directions you can take this business. If you want to work during hours when no one else does, you can focus on office clients. You can focus on retail businesses and keep your customers clumped into one or two blocks. Restaurants are in great need of daily thorough cleaning and can be a great source of steady clients. Perhaps you would be more interested in house cleaning. Many times with cleaning services you don't have to spend lots of money on advertising or marketing because your customers will come by word of mouth.

7. COMPUTER REPAIR:

Study the main types of software that system users will want--word processing, photo manipulation software, mail merge, spreadsheet, design and especially security software. Investigate all the components--monitor types in all their varieties; keyboards, from wired to ergonomic to wireless; mouse types; as well as peripheral components like printers and scanners. Become completely familiar with all the ISPs (internet service providers) available in the market area you plan to cover. Establish yourself as the guru who can meet the needs of the personal computer user, the small business or a larger corporation.

8. CONSULTANT:

To be a consultant, you need to have an expertise in something so you can market yourself as an advisor to others looking to work in that area. Perhaps you managed several large warehouses in your career with a drugstore company, you did all the marketing for many years for a large shoe manufacturer or you set up a chain of beauty supply shops or take-out restaurants. You can use this experience to help others do similar things without making the same mistakes that you made along the way.

9. DOG WALKING:

Dog walkers take pooches out for their daily constitutional one or more times a day, either individually or in small groups. In some cities across the United States, like New York, dog walking alone can be a booming business. But it's actually more common for dog walkers to offer additional services, including playing with and feeding pets, bringing in newspapers and mail, and turning lights on and off.

10. EBAY ASSISTANT:

Do you have items lurking around your household that you could sell on eBay? Figure out your asking price and decide whether to auction it or put it in your eBay store. Then decide if you want a minimum bid and how long you want the auction to last. You will want to establish a PayPal account to use for transactions. The eBay website provides all the information you need to know to get up and running with an eBay business.

Successful Business Leaders Tell All: Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2016

What would you ask if you could score an exclusive sit-down with a successful startup leader or entrepreneur? As a solopreneur myself, I’m always eager to learn about the marketing secrets that kick-start a company’s rise to success.

From SEO and mobile marketing to influencer outreach and content marketing, keeping pace with the latest digital marketing trends is a serious challenge. Gaining insight from someone who’s been in the marketing trenches before is invaluable.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with four startup leaders. These successful visionaries shared their predictions for digital marketing trends in 2016:

What’s Next for Mobile Marketing?

Here’s what Andy Crestodina at Orbit Media, an innovation studio that’s been designing and building mobile responsive websites since 2011 has to say about UX:

“2015 was a tipping point in terms of smartphone usage for everything from mobile search to mobile ecommerce,” said Crestodina. “Now that Google has essentially made mobile-friendliness an SEO requirement, we’re witnessing a major push towards mobile optimization that goes beyond responsive design.”

“Optimizing for user experience (UX) is going to be huge in 2016. In order to stand out in the world of mobile, businesses need to provide their customers with a frictionless, memorable experience. Businesses need to ask, ‘What is essential content and what can be pared down or replaced for a more interactive experience?’ Micro interactions, for example, are an easy way to delight customers and add value to the mobile experience.”

Why Should Content Marketing Be Part of Every B2B Digital Strategy?

Brian Sutter with Wasp Barcode Technologies, a digital inventory tracking company, discusses why content marketing is essential at every stage of the B2B buying cycle:

“With so much hype around content marketing, it’s natural for startups and small businesses to wonder if it’s truly worth the time and effort, or if it’s just a lot of buzz with no substance,” says Sutter. “Content marketing is absolutely worth it, as long as you do it correctly. For small B2B companies, that means understanding how different pieces of content fit in the B2B sales cycle.”

“At Wasp Barcode Technologies, for example, we create a lot of informational content to help businesses better understand the different applications for our products as well as content geared towards best practices for using our products. These pieces fit the sales cycle differently. Information on different applications fits the early stages of the sales cycle when we are defining the buying vision and building awareness; how-to information comes later when we are differentiating ourselves from the competition. I recommend businesses list out each stage of their sales cycle in a chart and match up content pieces specifically for a customer’s needs at that stage. You can’t give customers what they want if you don’t know what they need.”

What’s Next for SEO in 2016?

Nadav Dakner, the co-founder and CEO of InboundJunction and an SEO expert, shares his predictions:

“SEO is continually evolving; the current challenge is to find that perfect balance between creating content for humans while also ensuring it's optimized for web crawlers,” says Dakner. "As a rule of thumb, you should always focus on providing added value to people through solving problems and answering questions". Google cares about whether a website page is useful content that answers search queries.

"Optimizing a website page for a specific keyword is only the first step. The magic comes when you deliver immediate useful content, incorporate relevant images and videos to lower your bounce rate and building a strong on-site infrastructure". It's worthwhile to create dedicated feature pages or landing pages in your site designated to rank for specific search terms and improve your sales and CTR. That'll also assist in building backlinks through better relevancy in your anchor texts and destination URLs.

What’s Next for Link Building?

Here’s why Elad Mor, the CEO at MarketAcross, a digital branding agency, says link building is far from dead.

“There’s been a lot of hype over the last year that Google has killed link building,” said Elad. “That’s not the case at all. Just like with keyword optimization, the key is quality, not quantity. Authoritative links are a critical part of Google’s ranking algorithm because they convey trust and credibility. It’s all about placement.”

“Contextual links are the strongest option for linking back to a website. A well-placed mention on an industry blog or high-quality resource page can strengthen the relevancy and authority of your website. Think of links as professional references: the best references are those with a wide network and a strong reputation that will convey credibility and recognition by the online community.”

Bottom Line

Understanding impactful marketing trends is essential to building a smarter digital marketing strategy in 2016. Technology is moving at such a rapid pace, it’s natural to feel like you’ve got a case of whiplash trying to keep up. From smarter mobile design and link building to a robust content marketing plan and the integration of videos into website content, focus on how each of these tactics fits into your overall strategy and execute from there.

Source :http://www.business.com

My 10 Best Pieces Of Career Advice For Millennials

Giving advice to millennials is extremely important to me because I am one of them and even though the economy was better back in 2006, it took me eight months to find a marketing job. I succeeded because I started six months before graduation, collected eight internships, seven leadership positions on campus and graduated with honors. I failed because I didn’t know how to build and leverage relationships. Either way, I learned a lot about what it takes to build a successful career over the years. Good career choices are extremely important early in your career because you can set yourself up for success later on. Even though you might end up in a completely different career, the skills you acquire and the people you meet, are what will open the doors for you. The following are ten things that all millennials should do to get ahead in their careers:

1. Think of your career as a series of experiences:

The most optimistic and intelligent way to look at your career isn’t how long you stay with one employer or that you focus on what you majored in at college. You need to collect experiences throughout your careers, whether that be with five employers or ten, with one business function or five or in one country or three. The idea is that you need to be a lifelong learner if you want to make an impact, succeed and feel accomplished. The experiences you have expand your world view, give you new perspectives and make you a more interesting person.

2. Don’t settle for a job you’re not passionate about:

 A lot of people are pushing college graduates to just get a job to pay the bills and that isn’t the greatest advice because research shows that you won’t last long there if you do. Furthermore, no smart company is going to have someone who is only there to make money because there’s always someone else who wants it more. When you’re passionate about your job, you’re excited, you work longer hours and end up accomplishing much more. Life is too short to settle for a career that you hate!

3. Focus on making a big impact immediately:

 The quicker you make an impact in a company the more attention and support you will get. Millennials understand this well because they won’t want to wait five years to get on a project where they can make this type of impact. Starting on day one, you have to learn as much as possible and start mastering your job so you can latch on to the bigger projects faster and prove yourself. By doing this, you will explode your career and become more valuable in your company, which will increase your pay, title and you’ll get to work on better projects.

4. Take risks early and often in your career:

 One of the important lessons this economy has taught us is that not taking risks is risky. There is so much out of our control and if we just keep doing what we did yesterday, we can’t get ahead. By taking a risk, you are putting yourself in a position to learn, whether you succeed or fail. You’re also showing to your management that you’re willing to put your reputation on the line to make things happen. As we become an ever more entrepreneurial society, those that take risks, both inside and outside of the corporate walls, will become more successful.

5. Spend more time with people than with your laptop:

 Students are plugged in and don’t understand that he strongest relationship are formed in person, not online. I constantly see students looking down at their iPhones and iPad’s instead of at people’s faces and it’s a missed opportunity. Soft skills will always become more cherished in companies so it’s important to drop your technology and actually communicate with people. People hire you, not technology and you have to remember that!

6. Measure your work outcomes and build case studies:

 If you look at any student resume, they almost always look the same. They have the same fields (education, experience, school activities). Under their experience fields, they list a company and then general information such as “Managed XXX project”. They dress up their experience bullets so they can turn menial tasks into something more marketable. The problem is that recruiters today, and especially in the future, are looking for outcomes. They want to know the numeric impact you’re having on a company through your work, which means increasing revenue or decreasing costs. Always think about measuring your projects and keeping track of the results because that’s what’s going to help you justify promotions.

7. Sacrifice today to position yourself for tomorrow:

You can’t have everything you want today so you need to work hard to put yourself in a better position in the future. From 2007 to 2009, I put in over one hundred hours a week working on something I loved. As a result, now I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want. While others would have used that same time to go out every night and party, I realized the bigger picture and you can too. The more you do early in your career, the more it will pay off later in life and you will be thankful just like I am.

8. Start your own website to centralize your work profile:

 You need a single place where you can store everything you accomplish and that should be a website under your name (yourfullname.com). By doing this, you can easily refer others to your work, whether it be hiring managers or for freelance projects. As you grow and develop your career, add new projects, education, skills and examples of your work to your website. Your website is a living, breathing resume that is always available to people even when you’re asleep.

9. Travel as much as you can, while learning about cultures and languages:

We live in a global marketplace now and companies are looking to expand and hire the best talent, regardless of location. The more you travel and experience the world, the better you will be at serving this marketplace and taking advantage of it. Furthermore, if you’re learning new languages, you are ahead of the curve. It’s hard for companies to find workers who are fluent in languages so if that’s you, you become more marketable.

10. Locate mentors who live your desired lifestyle:

 Most students aren’t selective about mentors and just feel fortunate to have them in the first place. I believe you need to choose the right mentor, who you can support and who has time to support you. That person should be someone in your industry who is living the lifestyle that you dream of. This way, they can tell you exactly what you need to do each day to get to their level. For instance, if you want to travel and do consulting in the future then find someone who has a job at McKinsey or Accenture to mentor you. Based on your meetings with them, you might even decide that the consulting lifestyle isn’t a good match for you after all.