Vanya Wryter Consulting Services

Tag: job skills

  • What To Do If Your Career Takes A Wrong Turn

    What To Do If Your Career Takes A Wrong Turn

    Regret is a powerful motivator.

    This year brought some unprecedented changes to our lives. We are seeing a sudden rise in food prices, and rent and mortgage rates, but shortages in items that we used to see in abundance at the store.

    People say that salaries are about the same while many are looking for work. Some are looking for a second job or another gig to supplement their income.

    Times are tough. You might be thinking of changing careers or changing to a similar job with a slightly different skillset, but you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on courses. What can you do?

    If you’re thinking about changing careers in order to earn a higher income and keep up with rising costs, consider these tips:

    • Assess your financial situation. How much do you have in savings? How much debt? Should you borrow money to pay expenses while you work to get your career back on track? It may be wiser to take the first job you find so your expenses are paid while you continue to search for better opportunities.
    •  Look for options in which you can develop your skills while working. Can you use your current skillset to get a job that gives you opportunities to develop new skills that are a stepping stone to a different career?
    •  Build a professional support network. If you look around, you’ll find some positive online communities that share career resources and job opportunities. It’s also a great idea to attend in-person networking events and get to know people who can introduce you to companies or tell you about job openings.
    • Work with a mentor. A career coach or someone with more experience than you in an industry or field can guide you. They can point out what you need to work on, steer you away from making potential mistakes, and share important wisdom with you.
    • Build your skillset. Take free or paid courses that build your skills and qualifications. Read books. Join mastermind groups. Share your knowledge with your portfolio. 
    • Build a portfolio. Share your expertise online. Blog or post articles or advice on your website or LinkedIn profile. This approach is especially useful if you don’t have actual job experience in the field you’re interested in. For example, if you’re interested in a career in graphic design, you can start building a portfolio of your work on your own website.

    Changing careers is tough. Through a lot of investment in yourself and creating networks, it’s possible to change careers with effort and time. 

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  • Dangerous Jobs: Real Match Girls

    Dangerous Jobs: Real Match Girls

    Jobs and Tech

    On a cold winter night, a little girl lights her matches to keep warm. She sacrifices everything just to see the fantastic images created by the flame of the matches. You may have heard of “The Little Match Girl” by Hans Christian Andersen, a story of a girl who can’t go home until she has sold her matches. She isn’t the only match girl in history, however. In the same century, “matchstick girls” suffered terrible health issues manufacturing matches.

    In 1845, Andersen published his tale of a girl who is too afraid to go home and be beaten if she doesn’t sell her matches on the street. Shivering from cold, she lights one, then another, and another as she sees comforting visions of a Christmas tree, food, and finally, her late grandmother. The story was an insight into the horrible conditions of the poor. 

    In the 1800s, people worked in horrible conditions: long hours in factories in unsafe and unhealthy environments. Both children and adults worked in these places. In 1888, the “matchstick girls” made news headlines with a strike that brought attention to the dangerous conditions of the factory where the matchstick girls worked.

    They worked long hours, starting at 6:30 in the morning for little pay. Some girls started working at these factories as young as age 13. Thousands of people labored at these factories in terrible conditions to manufacture matches, working with machinery after receiving insufficient training.

    The women worked 14-hour days in London and were exposed to deadly phosphorous vapors from the white phosphorous dipped onto the tips of matches. The toxic phosphorous caused health complications such as “phossy jaw” that caused the jaw to rot. The purpose of the strike was to improve working conditions, but it was decades later before white phosphorous was banned from public use.

    Today, wooden matches are made entirely by machines. The process is safer for the workers compared to a century ago. When you think about it, a match is such a small item, but it has more impact than just creating a flame.

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  • How to Make Money in MLM… the Real Story

    How to Make Money in MLM… the Real Story

    It’s time to bring back an old post I made about making money in MLM. In the last few years, I’ve seen more articles and social media posts about people promoting their MLM, or people asking if a job post is an MLM scam.

    If you’re interested in the real facts about whether you can make money in an MLM, read this post on How to Make Money in MLM.

  • How to Increase Your Success When Applying for Jobs

    How to Increase Your Success When Applying for Jobs

    Applying for a job should be straightforward: see job ad, reply to job ad. From the employer’s point of view, it should also be a smooth process: review applications, decide if the candidates’ skills fit. However, in the past couple of weeks of reviewing applications, I’ve discovered that the process isn’t as effortless as expected.

    I certainly don’t know all the secrets a job candidate needs for a successful job application, but I have some insights that will benefit those who apply to organizations that don’t have an AI system for sifting through hundreds of resumes. We’ll start with a tip that eases the workload of the potential employer who reads through each application one at a time with human eyes.

    1 Indicate which job you’re applying to

    This first tip should be obvious: be clear about which job you’re applying to. Don’t assume the company is only hiring for the job you’re applying for. It can be very frustrating if the person opening your email has to guess which of five possible jobs you’re applying for.  

    Start with the job title in your email subject line. Then, in the first sentence, refer to your source for the job posting. Did you see the job online? Did you hear about the job from a mutual friend?  

    2 Don’t ask them to tell you more about the job

    The fastest way to give your potential employer a bad impression about you is to write, “I’m interested in (insert job post name here). Tell me more about the job.” This statement makes you appear lazy, as if you’re applying to multiple jobs at once and couldn’t be bothered to spend an extra five minutes to research the company.

    For example, a technical glitch caused the full job description to be hidden from immediate display in the email job posting. It was easy to tell who didn’t read the email carefully and wasn’t resourceful in finding more information. These people all replied with a simple, “tell me more about the job.”

    In another case, one person told a friend about the job posting but didn’t forward any of the details. The applicant’s first words were, “I’m interested in X job. Tell me more.” The applicants don’t realize how time consuming and exhausting it is to keep repeating details of the job to each applicant.  

    Show that you’ve done some research in the company. Ask a specific question about the job requirements. Make a comment about some information you found on the company website. To make an even better impression, try the next tip.

    3 Advertise yourself

    If the details about the job are sparse or you’re unable to find details about the job description, open your response by telling the potential employer a little bit about yourself. What skills or educational background do you have that qualify you for the job?

    If you have the complete job description, start your email with a description of how your skills are a good fit for the job. Ask if the company wants a resume (if that was not made clear in the job posting), or ask if they would like a link to your work portfolio. 

    If you don’t have access to a detailed job description, begin with a description about yourself and why you’re interested in the role. Just don’t say you’re interested in the job, and press send without telling the potential employer at least a little bit about yourself.  

    Perhaps you responded to the ad because you were waiting for your popcorn to pop before you could start your movie and you needed to kill some time. Even if you are only mildly curious about the job and don’t really care about the outcome of your application, putting a little more than two minutes of effort is worth it.

    Key Takeaways

    It takes minimal effort to make the hiring process easier for the potential employer. Tell them where you found out about the position, which position you’re applying for, and show some sign that you did your research about the job. No company wants to feel like they’re company 984 out of 1003 that you applied to that month. Finally, tell them about yourself so they will see that you are a fit and they will ask you for an interview.

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  • How Attention to Detail Increases Your Income

    How Attention to Detail Increases Your Income

    Remember how satisfying it was to solve a mystery just by replaying the details in your mind? Where are your missing keys? Did your sweetheart lie to you? Where did you see that statistic that you could use in your report? Paying attention to details has many benefits.

    Being detail oriented is a valuable workplace skill: Detectives analyze clues to solve a case. Medical professionals keep a close eye on details so patients get the correct dose of medication. Accountants check their numbers: a payment of $100,000 and a payment of $1,000,000 is just the difference of one zero, with very different results.

    From these examples, it’s clear that paying attention to detail is a vital skill to emphasize in resumes and skills assessments. Detail oriented people have more workplace autonomy because employers can trust them to keep a business’s reputation.

    Attention to detail, or being detail oriented, is valuable at the workplace. There are several ways to sharpen or improve your attention to detail skills.

    What does detail oriented mean?

    If you are detail oriented, you are thorough, observant, and notice small details. For example, your coworker schedules a meeting for Monday, March 6th. You check the calendar and notice that March 6 is a Sunday, so you ask your coworker to update the meeting information.

    Precision is an important skill for any job, but small errors can have minor to major consequences depending on the job. 

    Book editors fix mistakes such as incorrect page references. Not catching this error can result in a minor inconvenience for the reader. An incorrectly typed line of computer code can result in the program not working for the user. A mistake on an invoice could mean an incorrect payment. Marking the left leg and not the right leg for surgery can have disastrous consequences.

    An employer trusts that a worker with close attention to detail will be accurate and careful, and not likely to make mistakes. That worker won’t need to be constantly monitored, and their work checked and rechecked. 

    Detailed oriented people work effectively and accurately on each task. Their meticulousness will save the company embarrassment from careless errors that may harm its reputation or finances.

    Is attention to detail a skill?

    People list “attention to detail” as a skill on their resume or describe themselves as detail oriented during interviews. However, unlike other skills such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking, attention to detail is rarely tested as part of the interview process.

    Attention to detail, as mentioned already, affects a worker’s independence. A thorough and accurate worker is more likely to be given additional responsibility and more likely to be promoted. Employers trust that a detail oriented employee is careful to do each task correctly the first time. 

    Paying attention to detail also has social impacts at work. This skill improves customer and coworker relationships. A coworker who remembers the name of your kids, asks about the restaurant you decided to check out on Saturday, or wonders if your sprained ankle has improved is someone you’re more likely to remember and like.

    Similarly, the ability to remember small details improves customer relations and increases the likelihood of getting the customer’s business. Customers like to be remembered. It’s a great feeling, for example, to walk into a business and say you’ll get “the usual” and the staff knows exactly what you’re looking for.

    Does attention to detail increase your income?

    Those who are highly detail oriented are more likely to be in supervisory positions or have jobs with independence. These workers have shown that they are conscientious when doing their work. They can be trusted to check other people’s work and manage projects to complete them correctly and on time.

    Attention to detail can help you get a high-paying career, particularly for jobs in which accuracy and human lives are at stake. Here are some jobs in which attention to detail is extremely crucial:

    • Anesthesiologist assistants
    • Family medicine physicians
    • Proofreaders and copy markers
    • Prosthodontists
    • Urologists
    • Archivists
    • Camera operators, television, video and film
    • Computer programmers
    • Court reporters and simultaneous captioners
    • Cytogenetic technologists
    • Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
    • Nuclear Power Reactor Operators
    • Obstetricians and Gynecologists
    • Optometrists
    • Physician Assistants
    • Skincare Specialists 
    • Watch and clock repairers

    The income range for some of these detail oriented jobs ranges from $70,000 to $187,000 (averaged income for each career). If you thrive on the details, there are jobs in which your sharp focus is highly valued.

    How to pay attention to detail at work

    Like any skill, you can improve attention to detail over time, starting with short exercises and repeated habits.

    Fun exercises you can try at home to improve your attention to detail skills include: 

    • Listening to ocean sounds or jungle sounds and paying close attention to the range of sounds that you hear
    • Studying a pair of compare/contrast pictures and listing the particular differences between the two pictures
    • Looking at a diagram and deciding whether it is the top, side, or bottom view of an object
    • Studying a picture or series of images, numbers, or letters to memorize patterns
    • Complete crossword puzzles
    • Count using a specific pattern, such as multiples of five, or looking at a page of text and counting every second word without the aid of your finger on the page

    While at work, create habits that encourage you to become detail oriented:

    • Organize your desk and your emails. When you are organized, you can track deadlines and files better, and you’re less likely to forget to answer an email.
    • Write to-do lists. These lists will help you remember all the tasks you need to complete before their deadlines. You can also keep not-to-do lists, such as cutting down on TV time and spending more time on reading, exercise, or skills improvement. 
    • Create checklists. If you notice that you frequently make mistakes when writing emails, keep a checklist that you must complete before you send the email. For example, remind yourself to check the spelling of the recipient of your message and check a word you constantly misspell. You can also keep a checklist for procedures to make sure you complete all the steps before you hand off your part of a project.
    • Practice active listening. When you are the listener, don’t just stare into space until the speaker finishes. Nod or say, “um hm” or “yes” to show you are listening. Summarize or repeat what the speaker said to demonstrate that you heard the details.
    • Take notes. When you’re at a meeting, jot down important details about your tasks. During the meeting, take notes to keep you focused on details. After the meeting, these notes can become your checklist for what you must do.

    Key Takeaways

    Attention to detail is a valuable skill. People who are detail oriented are trusted with more responsibilities on the job because they complete tasks accurately and thoroughly. A careless mistake can cost a company their reputation and a person their job. Careers in which attention to detail can mean life or death are lucrative. You can become more detail oriented by creating habits at work that focus your attention on details. 

    How detail oriented are you? The next time you enter a room, take a look around for a few minutes, then close your eyes and try to remember as many details about the room as you can!

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