How to Give Productive, Respectful Peer-to-Peer Feedback

How to Give Productive, Respectful Peer-to-Peer Feedback How often do you think this about your coworkers:John should really do better at X or I wish Sally stopped doing Y?NowHow often do you voice such observations?If youre like most people, you probably think about advice for your coworkers far more often than you share it.Giving workplace feedback can be an uncomfortable experienceespecially when its directed at our peers.Even in my own company, Transizion, peer-to-peer feedback isnt always easyalthough we have a transparent and open feedback culture. We not only allow but actively encourage constructive criticism.As long as you respect your team members, we want feedback on our company practices.We dont want to seem like judgmental know-it-alls, and we dont want to hurt anyones feelings. We would prefer not to be that coworker.On the other hand, we do want to learn, grow, and solve problems as a team. And any team is only as strong as its players.Importance of Peer FeedbackFeedback is vital to improvement in the workplace. It helps ide ntify strengths and weaknesses, create opportunities for growth, and even improve communication and understanding.Though often overlooked, peer-to-peer feedback can be especially valuable.Coworkers interact and collaborate on a daily basis. In most cases, you have a clearer view of your coworkers strengths and weaknesses (and vice versa) than a manager or executive.Managers and executives often see only the output. You and your peers see everything that goes into creating it.Additionally, open and honest communication fosters a collaborative spirit that naturally improves team performance.According to Gartner, high-quality peer feedback can boost employee performance by up to 14%. Thats a significant leap, and you dont want to miss out because of discomfort.So, how can you get past the awkwardness and provide productive input to your peers?How to Give Productive, Respectful Feedback to PeersFeedback doesnt have to be uncomfortable. It can be compassionate, helpful, and performance-e nhancing.Use the six tips below to transform your observations into useful, well-received feedback.1. Establish TrustWant to give peer-to-peer feedback that produces results? Then its essential to establish a positive, trusting relationship with your coworkers.A recent Harvard study indicates that negative peer-to-peer feedback rarely leads to improvement. People who received corrective feedback from coworkers simply began avoiding their well-meaning peers. Instead, they chose to focus on relationships with more self-affirming coworkers.This phenomenon is called shopping for confirmation. So, does that mean we should give up on constructive criticism altogether?Not at all. The researchers found one notable exception: Peer-to-peer feedback works when the recipient feels valued by the giver.People do want to improve, but they also want to feel valued. We must consider both in order to give effective feedback.Build a comfortable, trusting relationship with your coworkers by:Regularly r ecognizing their positive contributionsGiving them credit publiclyBeing considerate- asking about their weekend, their children, their upcoming holiday plans, etc.Asking for their advice/opinionSmiling, making eye contact, greeting them by nameOnce your coworkers feel that you value them, theyll be much more receptive to your feedback.2. Be SpecificProvide specific information and examples when giving feedback. Telling someone that their work needs improvement is unhelpful and frustrating. It offers no guidance, only criticism.Concrete details, on the other hand, are actionable and useful. Instead of saying a presentation wasnt informative enough, pinpoint what information was missing.Rather than telling your coworker that her emails are confusing, show her an email that confused you and explain why it was unclear. What could she do to make her message clearer?I mean, what would you rather hear?Hey, your report was inaccurate, or The page 4 chart about Q1 sales in New Jersey lacked data from the first two weeks of January?And the same holds true for positive feedback! Dont just tell your coworkers, Good job! What was good? Drawing attention to the positive ensures more of it in the future.3. Be TimelyOffer feedback immediately, or as close to immediately as possible. The project or task should be fresh in both of your minds, so the conversation is actionable and relevant.(No, I dont mean interrupting someones presentation to take issue with it.) But waiting days or weeks to provide feedback diminishes its power.Have the conversation while challenges, pain points, processes, and ideas for the future are still top of mind.4. Be PositiveYouve probably heard of the compliment sandwich.The basic idea is starting and ending the conversation with positive feedback, sandwiching the criticism in between.Heres the problem: most people are aware of this strategy, and it often feels condescending. So, go ahead and throw that sandwich in the trash.Sneaky sandwiches aside, its still important to be positive. Feedback that feels overly critical or attacking will be defended against rather than received and implemented.To incorporate positivity, try the following:Dive straight into the constructive criticism, but keep it future-focused. Your intention is not to criticize or dwell on mistakes, but to encourage growth and improvement.Weave positive comments into the discussion throughout.Follow up the feedback by discussing how their strengths can be used to solve the problem.People tend to focus on and remember criticism, but they respond to praise. Effective feedback must incorporate both elements.5. Use Passive VoiceWait, do use passive voice?!Dont worry, your English teachers will forgive you. In this case, passive voice has a positive purpose.Passive voice helps you give feedback thats helpful and actionable without feeling too personal.Consider the difference between these two statements:You didnt include enough data in that presentation.The present ation would be more convincing if it included more data.Both statements communicate the same idea: the presentation needs more data. But the first statement focuses on the individual, while the second focuses on the subject.The second approach is more productive. Your peer is less likely to be defensive, and more likely to actually consider and use your feedback.6. Receive FeedbackNaturally, your coworkers wont be receptive to your feedback if you arent receptive to theirs. Cultivate the belief that feedback helps you grow, enhancing your abilities and your career trajectory.When others give you advice or input, dont take offense. Show appreciation, and even openly solicit feedback from your peers. Listen to what your peers have to say, then put their advice into action.Your coworkers will learn that you view feedback as a positive and have only positive intentions when offering it.Ultimately, youll help create a culture of feedback that fosters collaboration and drives continuous i mprovement.So, what do you think?How do you feel about receiving feedback from your peers?What are your tips for giving constructive criticism to coworkers?Id love to hear from you in the comments!

Google Guy Those photos dont matter as much as you think

Google Guy Those photos dont matter as much as you think By Jason Warner There has been a lot of press regarding the implications for job seeker of Those Photos on MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites. You know the pictures Im referring to Most of the discussions Ive heard on the topic are cautionary, as in, Beware! What you post or say on the Internet could be online for a Very Long Time! As the leader of large corporate recruiting organizations (now Google, and before that at Starbucks) I have a different perspective. We are in a new and unprecedented time with regard to the level of transparency the Internet creates between jobseekers and employers. More than ever before, jobseekers today know way more about the companies they might work for (and the people inside those companies, if you check OfficeBallot and Vault, for example), and employers know more about the candidates they might want to hire. But here are five reasons that employers are not going to spend their time worrying about your unfortunate online photos and other embarrassing antics from earlier years. 1. There is nothing any of us can do to change the behavior of college students. From what I can tell, these, er, activities have been happening in one form or another for as long as there have been colleges. Which is a very long time indeed. Our parents just didnt mention it. 2. As time goes on, more and more detail about all of us will be found online. Instead of a snippet or an indiscrete photo, there will be entire personal and professional dossiers about all of us and that information will be far more influential than a few unfortunate and unfocused pictures. For example, a blog is an excellent example of the sort of information that might be relevant to employers, if only to get a sense of how a potential hire communicates in writing. Half-naked underwear shots through a tequila-stained lensnot so valuable. 3. Searching for Those Photos wont be worth our time. As the velocity of job changes continues to move along at a rapid pace, and talent moves into and out of organizations more frequently than ever before. Most studies indicate that corporate recruiting departments are continuing to be strained to do more with less. So recruiters wont have time to go hunting for Those Photos when theres not much return on that investment. 4. The information isnt relevant anyway. Those Photos are representative of behaviors that many young candidates experience, and dont likely correlate to on the job performance. If we have the bravery to get real about the topic, we all recognize that there a lot of things we do in private that we wouldnt shared in public. Given the reach and permanence, the Internet just provides a smaller margin of error for revealing these natural human slips. 5. Its a slippery slope that could be bad for employers. Today there is a fuzzy but growing distinction that companies will continue to draw between candidate professional experiences, competencies, and capabilities and their private lives and outside behaviors. Its a line we dont likely want to cross, because if we cross it for candidates, we may cross it for employees, and that compounds the problem to a monumentally greater degree. In most cases, Those Photos will become a non-issue as this phase of the Internet Age plays itself out. Indeed, the leading companies in talent acquisition will continue to refine their hiring processes to become more and more scientific over time, because we now have much more data and tools to quantify what drives performance inside our companies. However, the vast majority of selection processes at companies arent based on data-driven analysis as much as on interview processes that are far from scientific. So, there certainly is risk in posting Those Photos online. But that risk should diminish over time.

Personal Branding Interview Steve McKee - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Steve McKee - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke to Steve McKee, who is a marketing expert, BusinessWeek.com columnist and author of the new book, When Growth Stalls.   In this interview, Steve talks about how companies can sustain growth during the bad economy, and how people can develop their careers.   Steve shares research from his book and then talks about entrepreneurship. Why is it so hard for a company to sustain growth?     What are the challenges that lead to instability? The short answer is that we live in an imperfect, unpredictable world. As with the quarterback of a football team, we often ascribe to successful companies more credit than we should in the good times and more blame in the bad. But nobody can control every variable, anticipate every competitive move, or predict every outcome. It’s just not possible. My research shows that at any given time some 15 percent of all companies are stalled, which we define as zero or negative year-over-year revenue growth. Of course, with what’s going on now that number is no doubt significantly higher. I’ve seen some estimates that over half of all companies may be flat or go backwards this year, and that wouldn’t surprise me a bit.   In When Growth Stalls, I spell out the three major factors that tend to sabotage growth: economic downturns (enough said), competitive moves and changing industry dynamics. No company is immune to any of the three, and sometimes they simply can’t be overcome in the short term. That’s when growth stalls. How can companies survive in this economic environment?     What are your top 3 tips? Since every company’s struggle is unique, the answers for each will be unique as well. Of course, the single most important thing is to preserve cash, because without it (as GM, Chrysler and Citibank have discovered) you’re sunk. Ford wisely (some would say fortuitously) mortgaged a number of its assets prior to the downturn, putting the company in a healthier cash position that may mean nothing less than its survival. The lesson here is to look around; while sales revenues are down, there may be other ways to generate cash. Do it. Tip number two might seem contradictory, but that’s the art of business. It’s to keep investing in the things that matter. I give a number of examples in the book and on my blog about companies that have found ways to keep investing in marketing and RD, knowing that they’re the lifeblood of future growth. As I’m fond of saying, you can cut your way to survival, but not to success. Wise companies find the balance. Third, make sure the members of your team are all on the same page. We all cope with challenges in different ways, and right now people are not only worried about their corporate finances by their personal finances as well. That makes them all somewhat tinderbox-like on any given dayâ€"ready to burst out in flames at the slightest spark. It’s vital to maintain communication, trust, and a common purpose so that no matter what happens the company stays focused. In fact, this problem is the number one internal dynamic that I warn companies to watch out for in When Growth Stalls. It can be a silent, deadly killer. As an individual working for a company, what are your   suggestions for career development during a recession? It’s funny, but they’re not a lot different than what I would recommend for a company (just as you preach personal branding in a way that’s very similar to corporate branding). Of course you need to conserve cash (we all have to pay the rent), but don’t lose sight of your own “RD”, if I can call it that. A recession is a great time to pick up new knowledge and skills or hone those which you already have. Rather than sticking your head in the sand (or in front of the TV) in fruitless escapism, use this opportunity to get ahead of the competition by improving what you have to offer. As leader of a company myself, I’m working twice as hard for half as much through these difficult times. Any of my employees who demonstrate the same level of understanding and commitment are moving up in my appraisal. It won’t be long before they move up in the organization as well. What research can you share that went into writing your book?     What was most intriguing? The first and most comforting fact that came out of my research was the near-inevitability of stalled growth. The reason it was comforting was that my company was stalled at the time, which is why we embarked on the research in the first place. So instead of dwelling on what I might have done wrong, that knowledge freed me up to focus on solutions. The second thing that struck me is how consistent the four destructive internal dynamics we identified are among stalled companies. Now whenever I speak to groups I see incredible head-nodding at the insights that I present. People say it’s as if I’ve been sitting in their boardrooms, observing their management meetings when I tell them what might be going on within their companies. That, in fact, is why I wrote the book. When you discover something that’s hurting a lot of companies and of which they are probably unaware, there’s a tremendous opportunity to make a positive impact by sharing the information. That’s what I wanted to do. What does it take to be an entrepreneur in the world today? To be an entrepreneur takes all sorts of things, as you know, from guts to passion. But if I had to choose a single wordâ€"especially in today’s environment but essentially anytimeâ€"it’s perseverance. It’s getting out of bed, day after day, and putting one foot in front of another through thick and thin. I never felt as unimportant as they day I started my business and tried to get credit, customer service, or favors from those to whom I couldn’t immediately offer something in return. I was a nobody, and they let me know it. The only things that kept discouragement from rendering me useless were a loving wife and four small kids who were depending on me to make it work. For the past dozen years my partners and I have been able to do that, but we face new obstacles every day. There is no other option in dealing with them but to persevere. I have a feeling that no matter how successful an entrepreneur or his/her company becomes, that never changes. - Steve McKee, agency founding partner and president, has held executive positions at NW Ayer Advertising, Della Femina Travisano Partner, and Phillip-Ramsey, a division of McCann-Erickson Worldwide.   He has also been published or quoted in The New York Times, USA Today, Advertising Age, ADWeek, Investors Business Daily and The LA Times, among others.   He has appeared on CNBC, ESPN2, CNNfn and Bloomberg and writes a monthly advertising advice column in BusinessWeek Online.   Steve is the author of When Growth Stalls: How It Happens, Why Youre Stuck and What To Do About It.

3 Types of Bad Managers - Classy Career Girl

3 Types of Bad Managers We’ve all had them. Managers that make your life difficult.  These managers are mean, bossy, unfair, and lack a certain amount of empathy. This often leads fellow employees wondering how they even became a manager  in the first place. But now, it is your turn. The tables have turned. You’ve just been promoted to a management position. Suddenly, you must face the pitfalls and hidden traps of being in a leading role. Management can feel like a constant catch 22. If you’re too nice, employees will take advantage of you. But if you’re too mean, they won’t hesitate to throw you under the proverbial bus. As you try to avoid these negative repercussions, you may find yourself asking will you be a bad manager? There are numerous ways to fail at management. Partially because of the many misconceptions about what a good manager should look like. We can sit back from an employee perspective and point out everything our manager is doing wrong. But from a management perspective, much of what we’re pointing out becomes a  gray area. For instance, most employees can agree that a manager should be flexible. But as a manager, finding the line between flexibility and being taken advantage of can change based upon the situation, or in some cases, based on the employee. Finding the management style that works best for you in your new role is a process. It will take a while to figure out. In the meantime, here are some management styles you should work to avoid. 3 Types of Bad Managers 1. The Pushover At first glance, the pushover can seem like a cool person to have around. She gets along with all of her employees. She goes out of her way to make sure they are all happy. The pushover understands when you rolled out of bed late and arrive an hour tardy for work. She even accepts deadline extensions for important projects. Although the pushover is great for some situations, unfortunately, she can be exceptionally difficult for others. For instance, because of her hands off and relaxed attitude, she expects employees to come to her with problems. This means they can fester out of control before she steps in and manages the situation. Additionally, she may be hesitant to deal with poor employees, which can be a real drain on team morale and functionality. 2. The Stick in the Mud Perhaps the opposite of the pushover is the stick in the mud. The lack of flexibility seeps into every aspect of management ranging from project objectives to lunch breaks. Although on the surface, this management style seems as though it will focus employees and bring about positive improvements in workflow, frequently, it does just the opposite. The stick in the mud’s control over the expected direction and outcome of projects tends to stifle creativity within the workplace. This will likely limit innovations and new ideas that can revolutionize the office. 3. The Fear Mongerer Maybe the worst of all managers is the fear mongerer. She might have the right level of flexibility when it comes to scheduling and project creativity. But that doesn’t stop her from making employees feel as though it isn’t worth the risk to take time off or propose new ideas. Crude jokes about getting fired for failing are no way to motivate employees and have actually been shown to decrease productivity. Furthermore, the fear mongerer is most likely to decrease employee happiness. It may not seem like much to maintain employee happiness. But, rates of job satisfaction have been linked to increased productivity, innovation, and sales within the workplace. In fact, some of the most productive companies in the world also have the highest rates of employee happiness around. Making the jump into a management position and navigating the challenges of leadership is not an easy task. It may take some time to find the correct management style of you and your employees, but by avoiding these three management types, you are on the right track. Related Post: 6 Female Leadership Strengths That You Should Be Proud Of

10 Negotiation Tips You Should Know Before Accepting the Offer - CareerMetis.com

10 Negotiation Tips You Should Know Before Accepting the Offer Photo Credit- Lifed.comNegotiation is apparently the process of table talk between two parties and taking an argument to such extent where both parties are agreed upon single agenda with mutual consensus.For me this is one of those skills that proves your confidence level in the field and as good as you are with your negotiation skills believe me or not this is going to take you places.Many of us, when getting hired might have faced such situations like negotiating on the pay scale and other official matters. Today, we will probably talk about 10 different negotiating tips one should know about when he/she is getting hired in any company.evalIt is famously said that being a good negotiator is one of the most important success factors for climbing that career ladder. It is a must that you should be able to learn about this success factor for your better career.So, without wasting a bit of a second let’s dive into the 10 negotiation tips:-1. Understand the nature of your jobThis is o ne of the pre-requisite tips or you can even say a precaution as well. You should be fully aware the nature of the jobs and other entities of that job like working conditions and etc.Before negotiating with the employer you should be fully aware about job responsibilities, requirements and expectations of the employer for this position.2. Learn about the companyI have personally experienced this and have witnessed many of my friends as well who become super stars of their workplace just because they were fully connected with the vision of the company. While being hired you should also know that what is the motto and vision of the company you are going to work with.This is only possible when you are good with your communication skills with your co-workers at your workplace. You shall know each and everything about the company policies and the culture of the company.3. Be confident over your skillsNo matter if the interviewee is going to hire you or not. You must be fully confident ov er your skill set and additionally you must be aware about the pay-scale that is trending in the market for the similar skill set. This way you can easily convince the employer over your salary package.4. Know your strengths and differentiate yourselfevalHere comes the test for your confidence level. First of all, you need to know that what are your strengths and what are those x-factors in you in terms of your skills that can help you out to prove to your employer that you were the right choice for the position you are hired for.While being hired, during the interview you had to make the interviewer feel that why you are different from other candidates and how ‘You are best, among the rest!’5. Know about your cost of livingWhen you are getting hired in an organization you should know about the current net worth for the position you are getting hired for. You should be well connected with the salary trends that are happening in the market and with the help of those trends you ca n easily manipulate your current net worth with respect to the market.This way you can easily negotiate with the HR manager of the company over your salary package. You can put the facts and figures in front of the employer to convince!6. Define your salary thresholdevalRather than justifying the unjustified and doing result-less prolonged discussions you must be clear with the minimum threshold of your salary.Obviously you have to decide it with the help of the market trends that you are going to work with a company if and only if they offer you at least $XYZ salary.7. Keep practicing your negotiation SkillsAs the whole write-up has mainly discussed about some essential negotiations skills. What you have to do is keep practicing these skills whenever you go for a job interview.You always need to be confident over your skills and especially the negotiations skills because that is how you can grab a good position as well as a handsome salary package from any organization.8. Make a re searchHere comes a part where most of you will get confused and the point where our professional maturity is going to be tested. It is the most fuzzy state when during an interview or an instant jo0b offer you start analyzing and start comparing your current job with the previous one.You have to be a critical thinker and compare you current earnings and acquire a virtual forecast that how your new job is going to be a good stop for your career growth!9. Know the policiesEvery company and organization has their own set of policies, rules and regulations which implies on all the officials and the whole organizational hierarchy from top to bottom and vice.You need to know about the organizational code of conducts and have a bit of conversation on it with the officials of company so that you can fully understand them and if something that is non-applicable on you then you have to tell the company that please exclude me from this and assign me the immunity.10. First impression is the bes t impressionAs many of us might have already heard this famous proverb and quotation that your first impression is the last impression. This is quite accurate and I have personally experienced it at different workplaces and I am sure that so as you also.evalThe point of discussion is that whenever you are negotiating with the organizational personnel while your job interview you have to take care of your impression. You have to make them believe that you are the right choice but not among the choices they have.Your negotiating demands must be of intermediate level which are not hard for the employer to commit and even easy for you to accomplish. This way you can go place, for sure.I hope that these 10 negotiation tips are going to surely help you out with your careers development and I hereby pray for your success also, good luck! ?

5 Action Steps to Help Make Excellent Career Decisions - CareerAlley

5 Action Steps to Help Make Excellent Career Decisions - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Career decision-making is an important aspect of career choice and career development. Possible limited learning experiences, levels of career maturity, career and self knowledge mediate the career decision-making process. Recognizing that vocational or career choice is influenced by career maturity, the extent to which one demonstrates knowledge of self and understanding of the pursued career, it becomes imperative to investigate how these factors shape career decision-making process. Choosing a career path illustrates the manner and extent to which a person is involved and committed to designing, styling and creating his or her world. Career development research by John Holland and Donald Super can be distilled to the four keys of what Career Vision calls Career Literacy: readiness, fit, supports, and self-knowledge. These four elements work together to yield more informed career decisions. Readiness is indicated by learning the skills needed to plan, gather information, evaluate it against established criteria, and make decisions. A good fit is the degree of alignment between a persons abilities and the performance requirements and work environment of a job. A good fit contributes to job satisfaction and performance, which is why it is so important. Supports for career development include family, friends, and possibly managers, people who are interested and encouraging as a student or adult navigates the career exploration and decision-making process. This process is repeated throughout an individuals life since career decision-making is actually a series of choices over ones lifespan. While each of these is important, accurate self-knowledge is fundamental. Career decisions are easier and of better quality if we can reflect on the answers to the questions: Who am I? How am I like others? How am I different? How am I special? The following five areas provide excellent information that leads to increasing your self-knowledge and provides the solid foundation upon which to make career and life choices. 1. Goals: What do I want? To develop your goals, use these questions as a starting point: What do I want out of life? What do I want to achieve? What kind of life do I envision for myself? What kind of contribution or difference do I want to make? The best goals are written and follow the SMARTER formula: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound, evaluate, and re-evaluate. The last two criteria allow for tracking and follow-up as well as adjustments as time goes on. 2. Aptitudes: What are my strengths? The best word to describe aptitudes is potential. They reveal the potential of a person to acquire the skills required to perform different tasks competently. Aptitudes are objectively measured innate or natural talents. Your aptitudes stabilize around the age of 14, and remain relatively stable across the lifespan. They provide good insight into the type of tasks and learning or performance environments that support success and satisfaction. Most individuals have an aptitude profile with aptitudes in a combination of the low, mid and high ranges. Being strong in every aptitude can be a challenge in finding work that is rich and interdisciplinary enough to use so many strengths. Your career, job, learning and work environments, and other activities in life should allow you to use your aptitudes. With this information, you can choose a career direction where the time spent in education and training will have the greatest payoff in skill development, that is, in the areas where you have the greatest potential. 3. Interests: What do I like? What dont I like? Discovering what you are interested in is also discovering what is motivating to you. Some people are interested in practically everything, while others are very focused in their interests. It is important to identify what you like or dont like, whether tasks, activities, subject matter, types of people, or occupations. Knowing your interests can lead you to the careers and educational possibilities that may be most meaningful for you. Since defining interests is related to exposure, students may not always know the full range of their interests because they have limited life experience. 4. Personality Style: How do I think, feel and behave? Your unique personality is expressed through permanent traits and characteristic response patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality is important to consider relative to career decisions because jobs and work environments may be a better or worse fit for different people based on personality. Some personality characteristics include extraversion and introversion, tough-mindedness, sensitivity, independence, self-control, and openness to change. Understanding personality style also leads to understanding performance environments and company cultures. 5. Values: What is important to me? Values are the standards or criteria by which we evaluate the importance of things or activities. Examples of work values include achievement, independence, recognition, relationships, support from managers and company policies, and working conditions. Values serve as a compass to keep us focused on what is most important, and assist in making good decisions. All of the above components of self-knowledge are important; decisions should not be based on just one of the above components. Information from each of the five areas gives a more holistic and complete understanding of who you are. The diagram below shows how the intersection of your goals, aptitudes, interests, values and personality converge to create what we call your Sweet Spot. The careers that match up with your Sweet Spot offer the most promise for you. This rich information about yourself becomes a great starting point for beginning to identify jobs, careers, and work environments where you can do your best work and make your unique contribution. For any further help on your educational work related issues, you can contact the specialists from essay writing companies, an online writing site to give academic writing support, and their important direction will control you to the correct spot. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Joey Trebif //

Quick Last-Ditch Request (aka Help send me to SXSW 2012)!

Quick Last-Ditch Request (aka Help send me to SXSW 2012)! Tara Gentile, Molly Mahar I worked super hard to put together a kick-ass proposal for SXSW 2012 Interactive, and now its time for the public (aka YOU!) to vote! Public vote counts for 30% of the ruling, and with over 3600 proposals submitted for 500 spots, we can use your help. Wed so appreciate you taking just a few moments to create an account and give us the Thumbs Up (comments totally optional, but obviously also appreciated) to present our proposal, Screw the Job Market: Young + Passionate ? Broke! Heres the description (so you know its worth your vote): Yes, you are an expert. Yes, you can make money doing your own thing. No, you don’t have to work for the next hot start-up to do it. Creative business coach Tara Gentile, the When I Grow Up Coach Michelle Ward, and Molly Mahar of Stratejoy are all young, profitable, and passion-fueled. In this workshop, theyll not only answer the question, How can I do what I love and not have to live in my parents basement?, but also give you the tools and resources to start making it happen for yourself. Yup it *is* possible to create a passionate business that actually pays the bills. The job market can suck it. Not to be missed by recent grads, the laid off (and appreciative!), side hustlers, wannabe solopreneurs, and those who are currently employed but looking to break free of the Corporate America shackles. Voting ends tomorrow (OK, 1a Eastern on Sept 3rd, essentially but still! Thats soon!), so whenever ya have 2 minutes to spare wed thank you times infinity to help us out. Click here and youll head right over. Yay hooray! ________________________________ Im shuttin down my Operations! applications tomorrow, which means its your last chance to save $936 with personalized coaching til next spring. Click here for the deets and happy people.