Career Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Strange & Charmed

Winter Work from Home Day

Last week the Northeast of the US was hit with an overnight snowstorm that dropped something like 8 inches of snow in my area. It was no wonder that both myself and my husband got an unexpected snow day at home together! However, it wasn’t all fun and game for us as we both have the ability to work from home, and so we ended up working nearly a full day together from our living room. Since I am sure this was just the first snow day of many we are sure to have in the next few months, I thought I would write about my suggestions for a Winter Work From Home Day in case any of you also get to work from home when it snows!

Winter Work From Home Day Must Have’s

A Computer: Whether you will be working from your own personal computer or from your designated work laptop, for most at-home workers, this is your key to getting things done! Make sure to find a nice comfortable spot in your home to set up shop (if you don’t already have a designated office area) and make sure to stock up on pillows and blankets to keep yourself warm in your cozy spot!

Your Favorite Mug: Hopefully you didn’t leave your favorite mug in your office, but really any mug will do! Make sure to keep yourself hydrated with your favorite coffee, tea or other hot beverage!

Comfortable Headphones: Okay, so you don’t need a set of headphones that look like ear muffs (those are just my personal favorite on a cold winter day!) but you will probably find a set of headphones or ear buds a good idea to keep you in the zone and focused on working if you aren’t used to the treat of working from home!

Adorable Office Supplies: Nothing is more fun or can keep you focused on getting things done like lovely office supplies! Hopefully you have a nice notebook at home and some matching pens & pencils! Okay, they don’t have to match, but it all adds to the ambience!

A Fun Gadget: Whether it’s an iPad, iPod, or just your TV with Netflix, you will want to have a fun gadget with you to take your mind off work every once in a while! Just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you can’t take a break, so make sure you take a lunch and at least one fifteen minute break to decompress!

A Hydrating Hand Lotion: If you’re working at home because of a snow day, be sure to keep a nice hydrating hand lotion around to keep your skin hydrated and to defend against the chapped skin created by winter weather! Make sure to apply often!

Do you get to stay at home to work during snow days? What are some of your favorite tips for working from home? Make sure to share your experiences in the comments!

Organizational Tips for the New Year!

Happy New Year Everybody! Is one of your New Year’s Resolutions to be more organized? I have to say that next to getting in shape, I think getting organized is a very popular wish for the new year! So, if you are looking to get yourself more organized this year, here are a few tips that I find can be very helpful!

1. Get yourself some new supplies: I recently went to Target to get myself a bunch of new office and organization supplies for the New Year. I think getting new notebooks and pens is a very easy way to get yourself excited for the task of organizing so that you will be more likely to stick to it! I would make sure to pick up an agenda, cute pens & pencils, some sticky notes, as well as any bins, file folders or other accessories to wrangle you daily tasks! It doesn’t have to be an expensive trip, but I believe that the act of buying these things signifies a metamorphosis that from now on you will be organized!

2. Develop your own system of organization: What organization means to you and what it means to me are most likely very different things. You have an idea in your head of what organized looks like to you and that’s your goal! So, you need to decide on a system to organize yourself that fits your goals and also the way you work. You can devise a system in which all new tasks are entered into a to-do list in an agenda, so that as you get things done you check off the items and add new items as they come in, or you could use a physical inbox where you organize tasks and papers, or you could use an app on your smartphone to keep track of everything! The possibilities are endless, but the point is, you need to find a system and stick to it!

3. Put new tasks into your organization system first and then go back and take care of the past: I think one of the big issues people have when they start to get organized is that they think they need to organize all the old items sitting on their to-do list first. What ends up happening though is that many people find the old “stuff” too overwhelming because they can’t see any progress for their new “stuff”. I say to start your new organizational process with today forward, making sure everything from this point on is organized, then once you feel like things are under control with the here and now, you can then go back to old items and incorporate those into your new system as well.

4. If you have a hiccup, don’t fret, just reset: Another major issue that prevents people from staying organized is that when they have an issue or they stop using their system for a little while, they give up on it as thought the system as failed! The truth is, even the most organized person in the world has breakdowns in their organization system and routine. People get lazy for a little bit or they assume they can go it without their system for this project or these tasks. Just because you do this, doesn’t mean your system has failed, you just need to recognize what brought you back to that point and get back on the horse and keep going. Organizational systems are never perfect, people are never perfect, forgive yourself and get back into your system if organization is truly a goal for you!

5. Continue to tweak: Like I said above, organizational systems are not perfect, they require effort on your part to make them work and to fix little bumps in the road and even major bumps in the road. As you come across issues, think about how you can fix them and implement those changes into your routine. And guess what? You may eventually find that the system you put in place in the beginning of the year is not the same as the system you end up with by the summer or even by the end of the year, and that’s okay! It’s okay to change, it doesn’t mean you’re not good at organizing, it just means that people grow and their systems need to grow with them!

So, is getting organized one of your New Year’s Resolutions? Do you have any other tips or tricks that you find useful that may help others trying to get organized? Please share your tips in the comments!

Career lifestyle tech

My New iPad Mini Portfolio

If you haven’t noticed, I really like to be organized, especially when it comes to my many gadgets. So, I recently ordered this cute little iPad mini portfolio that I thought would be perfect for traveling and would make an awesome little to go bag for my iPad mini when I am out and about. I bought it off MochiThings.com which has seriously been my internet obsession for months. It is made by the brand M. Humming, which I have never heard of beyond this website, but they are a Korean accessories brand that focus’ on work & life balance!

Before I get into my impressions of the bag itself, I wanted to take a moment to point out the packaging this bag came in. I half expected it to be wrapped in plastic with maybe a little info card attached, but it come in this nice sturdy box with some nice images of the bag printed on it.

The back of the box was pretty cool because it gave specs on the bag and illustrations on which sorts of devices would fit in the bag. I love the little illustration of the bag open showing that you can fit your iPad, smart phone, and lots of little accessories like pens, headphones etc.

Here is a close up of that portion of the illustration. I don’t mean to be going on and on about the packaging, but it was seriously impressive to me.

Okay, so back to the bag itself. As you can tell from these last few images, one side of the bag has a nice zippered pocket and the other side of the bag just has the company info embossed on the bottom. They called this color “pink” but I think it would be more accurately described as rose or claret red. Either way, I do like the color and the way it looks on the faux leather. It’s feminine and professional which is exactly what I wanted!

Taking a peek into the zipper pocket on the one side of the bag, you can see it has slots for credit cards and a nice deep pocket that could easily store cords, cash, change, whatever loose little items you need to keep contained. Like I said in the intro, I think this bag will be perfect for traveling and I am going to test this theory out next week on my anniversary trip with my husband. Since we are flying and actually bringing minimal tech with us, I think this bag will be perfect for storing my iPad mini, iPhone, travel documents, ear buds, charging cables, etc.

Now, for the main compartment. As you can see, this main section of the bag is perfect for an iPad mini (it even fits my iPad mini while it’s in a case although I didn’t take a picture of that) and the alternate side has two large pockets that will easily hold a smartphone, small point and shoot camera, paperwork, cards, cables, pens, and more! I’m excited because I can even get a small Moleskine in here or a larger one in the iPad mini pocket. You can really use this bag a number of ways which is awesome because I am thinking about using this as a mini bag while I work that will fit my notebook, some pens, my iPhone and a few little extras! It is the perfect size to take to a meeting or conference because you can easily carry around your necessities in one small bag instead of juggling them between pockets and free hands.

So, how do you like this little portfolio? Do you use anything like this for work? Have you ever been to the Mochi Things website? Isn’t it filled with the cutest things on earth?!? Let me know in the comments!

Career lifestyle

Oh Hello Beau!

So, this week I became the proud owner of my very own Beau Bag from Kate Spade! You may have seen my little rant last month about how badly I wanted the bag, but thanks to the encouraging words of many of you I was able to resist the temptation of breaking my commercial detox over this guy! So thank you all very much for your support! Now, getting back to the bag and why I suddenly have it! My husband and I got some really great news in the last week or so, NO, I’m not expecting or anything, but a wonderful thing happened and if you are friends with me IRL and want to know what it was, send me an email or a direct message on Twitter! Because of said awesome news/event/game changer, my husband decided that he would buy me a bag for all my hard work/awesomeness/genius in getting us to this point! Now, on top of all that, as though it were some sign from the gods, the bag was on sale! Kate Spade NY has actually had two sales since the time I first ranted about my love for this bag but both times the Beau Bag was specifically excluded from the sale. Epic sad face! However, Saks Fifth Avenue is/was having their Friends and Family 2013 Sale and they were not so picky about what they were discounting, so when I saw the sale and shared it with Mike, he basically agreed that it was just too good to be true and we had to buy the bag. So, we ended up getting something like $150 off the bag plus free shipping and it was pretty awesome!

Now, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the bag itself, why I think its wonderful and all that jazz! Since I now own the bag, you can imagine I am treating it like a total baby! I absolutely love it for a number of reasons. First, it’s just an absolutely cute bag. I know it may not be everyone’s style, but it suits mine just fine! I have actually never owned a Kate Spade bag before, I have a few different accessories and pieces of jewelry, not to mention some iPhone cases, but never a bag before this. I am eager to see how the bag wears to the minor beating it will most likely get as a my work bag. Which brings me to the second point I want to make about why I love this bag; it will make a perfect work bag! It fits everything I used to keep in my Rebecca Minkoff MAB Tote that I was using as my work bag up until I received this one, and this bag keeps its shape! The Beau Bag keeping its shape was a major selling point of the bag. My Rebecca Minkoff MAB Tote looked sturdy when I bought it, but unless it was packed with items it didn’t hold a shape easily. That bag really took a beating, and it’s still in great shape, but I just didn’t like that it couldn’t stand up on its own and when I went to meetings and put it on the floor or on a table it would fall over and the contents of my bag would often fall out! This will not be the case with my Beau Bag. Since the Beau has a zipper closure I can make sure my items are secure, and since the bag holds a steady shape, it will actually stay standing up if I place it on a desk or on the floor during a meeting, etc! Okay, so final thoughts on things I love about the bag. I love the interior print which is a cream lining with gold polka dots and spade symbols. I am obsessed with the “iPad Compartment” which helps to conceal your expensive gadget! Finally, I adore the bow pocket on the front of the bag. It’s really a great sort of secret compartment, because when you look at the bag, you can’t tell that the bow is a pocket, it just looks like a structural embellishment to the bag, but nope, it’s a pocket and a wonderful place to put my iPhone because it has a magnetic closure! Okay, so that’s all I will say about the bag… for now! I do love it and I am so glad it’s finally mine!

So, what are you guys currently obsessed with? Have you put any fashion or accessory items on your holiday wish list? What bag are you currently carrying or eyeing right now? Let us know in the comments!

Career

Why it’s Important to Wear Lipstick to Work!

Now, before you get the wrong idea I want to make perfectly clear that I do consider myself a feminist, but also a pragmatist! Sometimes you just gotta use what God gave you and say to hell with the rest! You may not think that wearing a little lipstick is going to make a difference either way in your life or career, but it does, and perhaps not in the way that you might assume. You’re probably thinking that I am advocating wearing lipstick to work as some sort of way to please the general vanity of the masses, as though wearing lipstick means that you are trying to make a good impression and make yourself look your very best! It’s true, wearing lipstick probably does have that affect on your co-workers and bosses, either male or female, but that’s not the reason I suggest wearing it! Nor am I suggesting that you wear it to heighten the appearance of your femininity and perhaps make yourself seem more attractive to the opposite sex, thus gaining some competitive edge that usually only works on police officers and speeding tickets!

No, the reason I am advocating that you wear lipstick to work is because it has been scientifically proven to help women get the attention of others during discussions! Don’t ask me where the study is that concludes this, I honestly have never seen it, I have only heard about it! Once, I attended a women’s professional development workshop where the keynote speaker insisted that if you wear lipstick to work, specifically to meetings or during any sort of discussions or negotiations, the people in the room are more likely to give you their attention. It has something to do with your mouth being highlighted by the lipstick so that it draws attention to you and to the value of your words. Pretty interesting I thought! The speaker even went so far as to glance around the room and eventually pointed me out to stand up, saying that my lipstick was so bright (I was wearing a hot pink for sure!) that I got her attention despite the fact that I was seated in the very last row!

I love being made a positive example of, but I really think she was right! For some time before this event I had been wearing bright pink lipstick (in a color that suits me, don’t think I will just pick up any old neon pink I can find!) because I thought it drew attention to me. After all, not many people think they can pull off the color, so most don’t even try. I had been getting compliments on my lipstick for a long while by the time the speaker had pointed me out that day at the meeting, and I have received those compliments ever since. I think that for a long time I had already known what she was telling us, that your lipstick mattered! So make sure you wear it and make sure you pick as bold a color as you can muster! Keeping the attention of a room is a difficult task to achieve, but to think all you need to achieve it is a little bright lipstick and the confidence to wear it!

Do you wear lipstick to work? How do you feel confidence-wise when you wear it? Do you notice that more people pay attention to what you say when wearing it? Has this article inspired you to wear bright lipstick more often? Maybe you think this isn’t true or doesn’t work? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Career

Free Professional Resources

Often times when we are looking for professional or career advice, we turn to popular books on the subject. I have read my fair share of career and business books in order to help me develop my skills and talents, but do you really need to buy a book to help you on this subject or can you do a little of your own research using free online websites as resources? Here are three of my favorite professional advice websites, some geared specifically towards women, that I hope you find as helpful as I do!

Levo League

Levo League is an organization and free website ran by career minded millennial women. Their site includes profiles that connect members with mentors that work in a variety of industries and have had anywhere from a traditional to a unique career path! You can interact with other members that are just like you, ask questions about career advice and read daily articles on a variety of business, career or personal issues affecting young women in the workplace. I have even written for Levo, and you can check out my profile and posts here.

She Takes On the World

She Takes On the World is a website for business women and female entrepreneurs written by writer, business woman, motivational speaker, Natalie MacNeil and her team! This fun site is filled with blog posts and videos that cover real hard-hitting issues and questions facing female business owners and professionals. I love this site because it always has fresh perspectives and unique views on day-to-day problems facing businesses. Natalie and her team do a great job of giving real life tips, advice and complete solutions to every business problem!

Brazen Careerist

The Brazen Careerist site is not geared specifically towards women, but it is no less useful! The site itself provides virtual solutions for real life hiring needs for businesses and schools, but also includes a blog that addresses common and not so common issues that workers face. From finding a job, to turning your current job into a dream job, this site covers all the real life issues of being a professional in an insightful and relatable way.

Do you enjoy reading about professional and career advice? What sorts of topics do you find yourself interested in? Are you looking for a job or find yourself networking on career sites like Levo? What is your opinion of business websites vs. books? What other professional or career advice websites or blogs do you follow? Let us know in the comments!

Career lifestyle

5 Things a Woman Can’t Live Without

With a fresh season about to start, I thought this was the perfect time to discuss my top 5 things that I believe a woman cannot live without. In this day and age it’s no surprise that a woman in her twenties or beyond should really have a few things settled in her life in order to start developing her career, life and future plans. Some of these things are tangible, others not, but they are all equally important for any woman to have in her life!

1. A College Degree

A college degree in this day and age is pretty much a must have for a woman to succeed in any traditional career path. I realize that there are exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, if you don’t have a college degree you can’t expect to develop a dynamic career in most industries. Even if you expect to start and run your own business, a formal education will help you develop those base skills and critical thinking techniques that will help you to build your business and your brand. And of course, in unstable economic circumstances where you may need to find employment the traditional route, a degree will help set you apart from other, less qualified candidates.

2. A Trusted Confidant

Everyone woman needs a friend that she can trust 100%! From sharing secrets, to having a shoulder to cry on or an ear to vent to, a trusted confidant is a necessity for a woman. It is very important, of course, that this confidant be someone you know personally and not just some anonymous friend on the internet. It’s important that your confidant really know you, nearly as well as you know yourself so that you can trust her opinions and value her advice.

3. A Signature Makeup Look

By the time you hit the workforce, it’s very important to have a signature makeup look established for yourself. I don’t necessarily mean that this look has to be incredibly unique, you just need to know how to apply a face of makeup that looks great on you. Nothing to heavy, just an everyday look that can carry you from day to-night with only the change of a lipstick or an extra bit of pizzaz to your eyes! If you are a working woman and you don’t feel like you have your makeup look established or struggle with application techniques, I highly suggest making an appointment at Sephora, Ulta, or your local department store to have your makeup done and to learn the basic techniques you need to know.

4. A Place to Call Your Own

Whether this is your own home or apartment, or just a room in your parents house while you get your life and plans in order, every woman should have a place to call their own, a retreat if you will! It’s no secret, as a woman you need your own private space to just be alone with your thoughts and feelings. It’s cathartic in a way to just be by yourself on a couch or on a bed, able to feel at ease and completely comfortable. This can be especially useful if you live with a significant other or roommates, because you need your own space to just chill out and be yourself. A woman without the ability to unwind in her own privacy will quickly buckle under the stressors of daily life.

5. A Can-Do Spirit

A can-do spirit is very necessary as a woman. Too often I see ladies who refuse to help themselves, get stuck in ruts and rely too often on others. A can-do spirit can benefit you at home and in your professional career. This can include things like a willingness to do home repairs, taking the initiative at work, and changing your own flat tires. It’s the twenty-first century after all, and there is really no excuse why you should be relying on others, particularly men, for anything you could do for yourself!

So, do you agree with my must have list? Is there something you would add or do you have your own list? More importantly, do you have all these things in the list or in your own must have list?

Career

How to Stand Out at Work: Make your Boss’ Priorities Your Priorities

With half of the work year behind us and mid year performance reviews to look forward to shortly, now is the perfect time to discuss how to stand out at work. Whether you are hoping for a raise or a promotion in the upcoming year, learning to stand out from your coworkers is an important step to bigger and better things in your professional life. How to Stand Out at Work will be a 5 week series where we discuss different ways to improve your image to set yourself up for success.

Make your boss’ priorities your priorities

One very common gripe that workers often have is that they work so hard and yet their boss does not seem to acknowledge everything they are doing. Perhaps you have taken on some extra work or been working overtime on certain projects, but still no acknowledgement from your boss to let you know your extra efforts are appreciated. This issue may be caused from the fact that your extra work isn’t exactly helping your boss and his priorities. It may be helping you, or other team members, or just be work that needed to get done as part of your job, but unless your boss feels like your efforts are helping them specifically, they aren’t likely to bend over backwards to applaud your efforts.

It is a very strange fact, one that took me a long time to realize, but all your work does not necessarily align with your boss and his priorities. We all have a multitude of tasks and projects that we perform each day and taken on at certain times, but that is just part of our jobs. For most of us, our boss is at a higher level, perhaps overseeing dozens of people who each do a multitude of tasks each day, so its hard for them to be impressed with one particular employee and the minutiae of their tasks. But what a boss will be impressed with is an employee whose work is directly impacting the progress of certain larger goals that are the responsibility of their manager.

For example, in sales, it may be your job to sell new products or services to your customer, grow their business, close distribution gaps, etc. That could be your day-to-day function as a sales person. Your boss, however, may be focused against finding new business and clients in order to grow his overall business, especially during times when the economy is stagnant and existing customers aren’t growing at a sufficient rate. So, you could be working very hard doing your job, making small wins at the customer level, but if your coworker with the same job is winning new accounts left and right, expect them to be the one getting attention from your boss.

With everything in business, it’s about what you can do for others. Your boss may not expect you to be executing against his particular set of priorities, but you can bet that they are going to be very appreciative to the employees that end up progressing their plans and goals for the year. So, if you want to stand out to your boss and position yourself as a hard-working member of your team, you need to get with your boss and figure out his priorities. You may already know what he is focused against, but perhaps haven’t paid attention to it because you have your own work to do. Either way, you need to align with your boss on what they are trying to achieve and make it happen for them. Only good things will follow!

Read the rest of this series by clicking a link below!

Developing a Consistently Professional Demeanor

Volunteer for More Work or New Projects

Mentor Others

Give Praise to Others

Career lifestyle

Why I haven’t Changed My Last Name

I know I rarely discuss personal topics here on Strange & Charmed, but I have really been wanting to talk to you, the internet and my readers, about a subject that has given me a little bit of grief over the past year. You probably don’t know many specifics of my life unless you are a friend of mine in real life or follow me on a few different social media feeds, but last November I got married and since then I have yet to change my last name to match my husbands. It wasn’t something I intended not to do, but the whole situation started out of necessity for me and has now turned into something else entirely. Let me tell you the story.

So, after I returned from my honeymoon at the end of November 2012, I was immediately informed that I had been given a promotion to a job I had applied and interviewed for a few months earlier. Initially, I was worried that if I changed my name right when I accepted my new position, that people within my company and clients that I had developed relationships with may not know who I was if they suddenly saw a new name and a different title on my email signature. So, I decided that it was best for my professional life if I kept my last name until everyone I worked with on a day-to-day basis and all my customers knew who I was and all about my new role.

Then of course, once I returned to work for a few weeks, I began to get questions from co workers and of course family members as to what my new last name was. “I don’t have a new last name,” I would respond, but their questions really bothered me. Why did people expect that a woman would just go ahead and change her name just because she got married. This is 2013 for heaven’s sake (or 2012 as the case may be!), a woman can be a single mother, have a professional career, go to space, why does she immediately have to change her name just because she got married. I was even accused by a co-worker of not being committed to my marriage because I wasn’t interested in changing my name. Seriously? I am pretty sure couples with the same last name get divorced all the time! What is with all this unnecessary pressure?

So, I started thinking about whether or not I was going to change my last name and when I would do it. I had a few friends who were also married around the same time as me and by the time they returned from their honeymoons they were already using a new surname. Why did these bright professional women want to give up their name so easily? Hadn’t they worked hard to give that name a good reputation? Wasn’t it the name that defined them for two to three decades? Once I started asking myself those questions, I found that I didn’t want to part with my last name, it was mine and I wanted to keep it!

I still get questions all the time as to when I am going to change my name as though I have been lazy and forgotten to do something very important. The truth is, I don’t know when I am going to change my name, and I still don’t know if I am going to change my name. I like my husband’s last name, it’s a nice name and I wouldn’t be opposed to taking it in theory, but I just feel like my name is me and I’m not ready to give it up. Oh, and you may be wondering what my husbands thinks about all this. At first, I think he wanted me to change my name so that we would feel more like a family, but after discussing it with him and being married for the last nine months without a name change, he says my last name doesn’t bother him. He says I can keep it or change it, whatever I want to do is okay with him.

So, what do you think? Should I change my name or should I stick with it for a while? Did you change your name when you got married or did you keep your own? Perhaps you changed your name because of a life event like the birth of a child or the purchase of a home with your spouse? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Career

How to Stand Out at Work: Give Praise to Others

With half of the work year behind us and mid year performance reviews to look forward to shortly, now is the perfect time to discuss how to stand out at work. Whether you are hoping for a raise or a promotion in the upcoming year, learning to stand out from your coworkers is an important step to bigger and better things in your professional life. How to Stand Out at Work will be a 5 week series where we discuss different ways to improve your image to set yourself up for success.

Give Praise to Others

If you are trying to get ahead at work, it may seem counterproductive to share praise with others, especially when you are trying to stand out yourself, but it will actually help you to cultivate yourself as a leader. Don’t get me wrong, it is very important that you be seeking out ways to get praise from your superiors in order to show that you are a good worker and worthy of advancement, but being a team player means sharing the spotlight. No one wants to promote someone who is always looking out for themselves and for their own self-interest. Of course, everyone is doing those things as they are expected, but team players and leaders are more likely to advance and be seen in a positive light.

Think about it, although you may be very good at your job and getting work done and projects accomplished, you most likely needed the help and support of others to get you there, and acknowledging that is a very important thing. In the workplace, a staggering number of employees claim that they are under appreciated, you yourself may feel that same way. How would you feel about a coworker who took the time to thank you for doing your job and perhaps even went so far as to acknowledge your help and sing your praises to others? You would most likely feel indebted to that individual and perhaps be motivated to continue assisting them in the future. And that’s the magical connection! When you praise others, others want to help you and support you more!

So, I challenge you to think about the people around you at work who support you in getting your job and your tasks done. Next time you see them, make sure to thank them for what they have done for you and give them positive praise when speaking to others. You may think that if you don’t praise them in their presence they won’t hear about it, but don’t worry they will! One of the great things about praise is that it spreads like wildfire and will certainly get back to the ear of your subject! Of course, public praise is also a great way to acknowledge people, although we don’t often get many opportunities to do this. So, if you do have the opportunity to praise someone in a meeting or in a large gathering of coworkers, by all means go for it! Just don’t let the lack of a public stage for your praise stand in the way of you giving it! Even private conversations with supervisors or coworkers are great times to give praise to others and help you stand out as a leader and a team player!