Career Girl 101 How to Dress For Success at Work

Career Girl 101 How to Dress For Success at Work With so many clothes in our closets, sometimes it is hard to decide what is appropriate to wear to work. It is important to have some ground rules on the differences between work clothes and weekend clothes. Of course, all workplaces are different, but no matter where you work, there are a few things you should know about dressing professionally for work. Why is this so important? Because you want to make sure that you get attention for what you bring to the table, not what you wear to the table. 6 Tips for How to Dress for Success 1. Dress like the person you want to be:  If your boss wears a suit and you want to be the boss someday, wear a suit. One of the biggest dress for success tips is to literally dress as if you are successful! 2. Overdress rather than underdress: Stand out for being the best dressed, rather than for not wearing appropriate attire. Err on the side of too professional, rather than too exposed. 3. Do your research: Before your first day, do your research to find out what everyone else will be wearing so that you can fit in. 4. Be comfortable: If you know you look great, you will be much more confident at work. You won’t be at your best if you are distracted by how your clothing fits. [Related Post:  5 Places to Shop for Affordable Career Fashion] 5. Get the staples: You must have the essentials to mix and match: the black dress, the black blazer, the white button-down shirt, trouser pants, knee length skirts, black bumps, cardigan sweaters and of course a fabulous black work tote. These wardrobe essentials will make getting ready in the morning a cinch! 6. Dont overdo it.  Simplicity is key when accessorizing for work. Consider accessorizing with personalized jewelry online  to complete your classy ensemble. Remember that you have only five seconds to make a great first impression. By dressing like a sophisticated business woman, you can make those first five seconds count!

Salaries top out at age 40

Salaries top out at age 40 Whatever you earn at age 40 is likely to be the top of your earning potential. This is one of a gazillion things Ive learned from talking with Al Lee, the director of quantitative analysis at PayScale. Als data, which is based on the careers of college graduates, is basically that the salary curve for most people in their 20s is very steep. Then it starts to flatten in the 30s, and then you get into the land of the 3% raise. In real dollars, those 3% raises are not actually raises, they are just keeping up with inflation. The information is grim. But here are some things you can do with it: 1. Go where the men are. To be precise, pay tops out at age 38 for women ($61K) and age 45 for men ($95K). But the difference, according to PayScale data, is not due to unequal pay for equal work. Rather, the difference is that women choose lower paying careers, and women are more likely to take time out of the workforce for kids. So the first thing you can do to prevent your salary from flat-lining is choose a career that men dominate. But its not just about industryit is also about influence. Stick to line-management positions rather than support roles. For example, skip human resources and go to supply chain management. 2. Rewrite your resume. If youre at the beginning of your career, focus on accomplishments rather than responsibilities. This makes you look like youre in a higher pay bracket so you will get larger salary increases. If youve been in the workforce for a while, cut anything that is more than 15 years old, including the date of your college graduation. Al says that there is no premium paid for two decades of experience because jobs change so quickly that long-gone experience is not particularly relevant. And because age discrimination creates a sort of penalty for more than 15 years of experience. So just leave it off. (Good resume editing tips here, at Quint Careers.) 3. Be a lawyer. Have I ever given this advice before? I dont think so. Even the American Bar Association reports that law school is a ripoff. But Im open to counter-argumentsAl says that the only profession where your pay increases after 20 years is in law. Because laws change very slowly, especially procedural law, and so much of being a good lawyer is your on-the-job training. 4. Specialize. By your mid 30s, if you dont have a specialty, its hard to get your salary into the next bracket. You earn more money if your talents are more scarce. (Heres some information about how to specialize.) Also, dont give up hope if you have no idea what youre doing in your mid-20s. As long as you figure things out by the time youre 30, you will get a premium for 15 years of experience before your salary stops rising. 5. Buy a house assuming you wont get a raise. Ever. When it comes to houses in the U.S., the average age of a first-time buyer is 33. So people go through their 20s gaining super-high raises, and then people buy a house in their mid-30s with the assumption that the raises will continue. In fact, though, you should buy a house preparing for your real income to remain unchanged until age 55, when it is likely to go down. 6. Recognize your limitations. People eventually start to realize that they are not going to get to the very top. They see that only one out of 100 web designers is the director, and only one out of 50 directors is a VP. Al calls this the funnel effect, and he says many people recognize this and start to trade time for money; people see that chasing the increasingly smaller raises is not as fulfilling as doing a wide range of other things with their time. 7. Focus on maintenance. Most people in their 40s have a lot going on. Taking care of aging parents, young kids, community organizationsall these jobs are falling on people in their 40s, which means its not a good time to be trying also to leverage ones highest earning power. So instead of killing yourself trying to earn more and more, be realistic and go into maintenance mode. One of the most common but least-talked about career moves is to get to a relatively high spot and then see how much you can cut back in terms of effort and still maintain that level of salary and/or prestige. This seems like a reasonable strategy for a wide range of people. So do small experiments with cutting back early in your career because creating enormous efficiencies takes practice. And a nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic is not the training you need for this type of change. Do you feel stuck in your career? I want to give you advice! Submit any question you have about your career through this form here.   I respond personally to every single submission.

Women Working In A Mans World- Be Anything You Want To Be

Women Working In A Man’s World- Be Anything You Want To Be There are still careers out there which you still generally imagine women doing, and then there are some that you believe are still careers for men only. However, just as the military is beginning to let women be on the front lines, so too are women taking jobs in careers you may not have imagined for them.  Just as men can become hairdressers and women’s clothing designers, so too could women work in industries such as auto repair and even ranch hand. There is no reason a woman can’t take on any career she wants, and can learn the required skills.  Fixing Homes  Most people don’t picture women doing roofing jobs, but there are plenty of ladies out there doing just that, and more.  You don’t have to hire a man to put in your new windows or do your flooring, women are just as capable of doing these types of jobs.  In fact, there are plenty of women out there running their own house flipping businesses and doing much, if not all, of the work fixing up these homes themselves.  Working In A Shop  You may be surprised at how common it is to find at least one women working in auto care in your community. Although it’s not so common that you will find a ton of them,  they are there. For women in need of auto repairs, taking their vehicle to a woman can help them feel less like they are being taken advantage of.  Not that all men working in auto repair    take advantage of the fact that  women generally know a lot less about cars and car repairs.   Women can easily enough take courses in car care, and have the ability to be great car automotive technicians. Until people stop buying cars there will always be a need for people of both sexes to get into this industry.  Strange Career Choices  These are some of the more basic careers that many people still see as man run, but you’re also seeing women take on other man-centered careers. Just take a moment to turn on your television and watch women join the crews of crab boats, or driving semi trucks.   As a woman, with drive and with dreams, you can take on any career challenge you want. Don’t let the fact that the majority of people in the field you want to go into are the opposite sex keep you from following your dreams and having the career you want. Get the training and get to work! Alternative Careers:  The Choices Are Yours In this day and age, although there is still a gender gap when it comes to wages, there are far less rules keeping women from taking on the roles of men in society and in the workspace. Images: Aviation  female mechanic    Construction  salford   female mechanic  

Three Steps to Launch Your Child Toward Career Success

Three Steps to Launch Your Child Toward Career Success Study after study tells us that over 50% of Americans dislike or are even disengaged from their jobs. Perhaps you’ve come to this website because you are one of those people.Maybe your current job no longer challenges you, or you’ve realized you’ve been on the wrong career path for your interests and talents. Or maybe you’re under-employed or unemployed and you’re looking for something that will use your full potential.evalThe knock-on effect of job dissatisfaction can be huge â€" stress related illness, high absenteeism, low morale, and on and on. You may be experiencing some of those effects. And your kids are watching.What if the children you love grow up to work in jobs they hate? What if they end up dreading Mondays, celebrating Hump Day, and announcing with relief, “T.G.I.F.”? Can those dismal studies and statistics on job dissatisfaction be changed for the next generation?Fortunately, the answer is yes.1. Make it clear to your kids that you’re on a path to care er successWe all make mistakes, and in an age appropriate way, make sure your children understand how you’re working to improve your career situation. When our children see us strive for something better, it makes them proud to be a part of the family, and it provides them a great example of persistence and resiliency.2. Try to leave work problems at workUse your commute to defuse and de-stress so your career dissatisfaction doesn’t come home with you. Instead, bring home the positives. If you received an encouraging note or a positive review of something you worked on, post it on the refrigerator among the report cards, quizzes, and art of your children.Doing so can help them view work as a responsibility and an opportunity to contribute their talents to a greater good. As a result, they’ll go into their careers with a better attitude.3. Finally, keep track of your children’s strengths, talents, interests, and achievementsBy age six, they’re usually anxious to show off wh at they’re good at, and it’s during these elementary school years that we can see their true areas of giftedness.evalBut by adolescence, they’ll start being pulled by peer pressure, societal expectations, and school grading measurements that imply what they’re good at, and theoretically, what they’re not so good at. These pressures and expectations will start to drown out their memories of what they loved to do when they were younger.With your perspective, you can clearly see the true skills and interests of your kids, and you can understand how much better it would be to apply those skills and interests in their day-to-day work as adults.Recording interests and strengths from those earlier years will provide excellent material when it’s time to choose vocations or college majors. The result? Better career decisions for a more fulfilling job and life.evalEncourage discussion when your children share dreams of their future, and share some of the career lessons you’ve le arned as appropriate.As they grow older, be sure to point out what you’ve seen over the yearsâ€"their desires, their talents, their achievements, and the positive attributes they bring to the world. Your insight can help propel them into a career that’s a perfect match.