How to Accomplish Hard Work Challenges -The Muse

How to Accomplish Hard Work Challenges -The MuseHow to Accomplish Hard Work Challenges Of course I believe in myself, I can do anything I put my mind toThats the mantra of a confident person. One that I proudly repeated to myself (and to others) throughout my early career. But that wasnt the full mantra. It was actually Of course I believe in myself, I can do anything I put my mind to- except for anything that doesnt come naturally to meI vividly remember the first time I realized that my belief in myself was actually conditional, and that Id been limiting my potential all along. It was so engrained, I had no idea I was doing it. This might be true for you too, if any of the following phrases resonate with youIm just bedrngnis a numbers person, I could never learn Excel.Ill never be a gym person, I suck at working out.Learning to code sounds so hard, I could never do that.Im a schwimmbad writer- being creative like that isnt a strength of mine.My belief in myself wasnt a Yes I can i t was a Yes, but...So really, I could only do anything I hadnt already decided I was bad at. For all the obvious reasons, this mindplatzdeckchen was holding me back. I want to tell you that I had an epiphany one morning and set out to challenge myself to do everything I thought I couldnt. But thats not what happened. In fact, I broke out of this mindset by accident. I was working in management consulting, and knew that at some point, I had to learn enough Excel to not be a failure to my team. Keyword Enough.Before this job, Id only used Excel to type up my to-do lists in college, and it felt foreign and complicated to master. So, in my 21-year-old head, I set my target at meeting the bare minimum for it to not be a performance issue. Aiming high, I know...But then I was put on a project in which my sole responsibility for two to three months was to build an Excel model. I had to calculate outputs for a number of age and income segments of the population. Sounds intimidating, right? It was. But in the interest of not only keeping my job- but also excelling at it- I was willing to learn.Fast forward three months, and we were on version 78 of the model. It had grown and developed over time, and become more nuanced and complex. It now included dozens of inputs for different demographic segments, sensitivity analyses, and even toggles you could use to see how the output would change and for whom, depending on which of the 10 proposed strategies Id built in were selected by the client. Layer by layer, tab by tab, Id built a masterpiece. A masterpiece I understood better than anyone else on my team, and one that the client looked to me as the expert on.The client was happy with our work, but more than that, I was surprised and proud of myself in a way I hadnt expected. I remember looking at the final version of the model and realizing that if youd shown it to me three months prior and told me I would be building this, I wouldve laughed in your face and said that you were batshit crazy. Me? Build that? Yeah, no. But here we were,90 days later.My capacity for learning this new skill had far outpaced my belief in myself.And I asked myself a question for the first time that now regularly echoes in my mind Where else does my capacity for learning outpace my belief in myself?A few years later, I founded The Muse and when my co-founders and I were dividing up our roles, I took on geschftsleben operations. That was something I knew I could do and was good at. But I also raised my hand to take on leading product. I didnt know much about it, and had no idea what I was signing myself up for- but I believed that I could learn. As part of that journey, I learned how to code, write specs, wireframe, QA, set up our ticketing system, and soon was even helping push code to production when needed. (With the help of our engineering team, of course) I even coded a number of features, once again feeling like my ability to learn had outpaced my previous belief in my self. Doing so made me a better founder, a stronger product leader, and a more growth-oriented professional. All things I aspire to be.Im not telling you this in hopes youll open up Excel and push yourself to learn how to build interactive models (but if thats why youre here, click this), but rather to remind you that sometimes the only thing holding you back from being the person you want to be is you. So, the next time a new challenge scares you, take a deep breath, dive in, and see what happens. You might just surprise yourself.

How to Manage an Intern Program

How to Manage an Intern ProgramHow to Manage an Intern ProgramHaving an pro domo program at your office can be a valuable and rewarding experience for both your company and the team of enthusiastic laborers that have signed up to offer their services. Idealism and innovation run rampant with a fresh take on old problems. Cost savings on your end is exchanged for much-needed resume padding and work experience for them, making fr sichships feel-good win wins for all involved. That is, as long as your pro domo program is set up to create a recipe for success right from the get go.Before The Intern Arrives Clearly Define Your Goals for the PositionOne of the biggest keys to success for your companys intern positions will start out with a solid plan for the position. A big picture overview makes a great beginning for rolling out internships, especially when your company hasnt offered the role before or if youre a new manager, supervisor or direct report responsible for overseeing the inte rns daily work lives. Set out a list of clear objectives such as teaching new skills, adjusting young workers to an office environment or fostering management training in junior level employees. Once you have these forest type items in place you can start structuring the trees of intern program success.Brainstorm Open Company ProjectsThe next step in developing a clear-cut internship program will be identifying eligible tasks and projects for the new mentees. Consider polling individual department heads or managers or even sending out a company wide email asking for projects. A diverse set of tasks will be key to both you and your interns getting the most out of their time with your company. Target individual tasks or larger projects that can be wrapped up in the internship period with a range of small, medium and large assignments. Also be sure to pick to-do items that require little overall supervision or intensive training. An internship can quickly go sour if both your currently employees and interns spend most of it training and learning complicated systems, processes or technology.Wrap it All Up Into a TimelineOnce you have a set of overall goals and individual tasks you or the assigned intern supervisors and mentors will need to come up with a clear set of deadlines in the form of a program timeline. If your overall goal is to have interns develop competence in a given process, set up meetable benchmarks along the way along that monitor whether important skillsets are being met. Delegating individual timeline development will be key for larger intern programs and will also help get the right people involved in program implementation, spreading the administrative burden amongst a variety of individuals who still have day jobs.After The Intern Arrives Communicate ClearlyOnce your interns are on board its mission critical that you clearly communicate the nature of the job and the scope of their responsibility and tasks theyll be asked to perform. If youve laid out your program deadline, communicate key dates and overall program goals. This will provide comfort in the form of stability and also by letting the intern know what they can look forward to and how they should be proactive about structuring their time. If your company has certain employee standards or policies, its important that these are communicated to interns just as they would be to regular, paid employees. Some companies may overlook this critical task but having interns both fit in with and be comfortable in company culture and values will help avoid awkward moments during the program as well as set clear expectations for behavior and professionalism that prepares interns for entering the paid workforce.Set (and Manage) Clear DeadlinesSince youve put all that work into identifying projects and making up an intern program timeline, be sure to convey that information to your new, temporary volunteers. Each project assignment should be accompanied by a clear deadline. If youre comfortable with the interns ability to manage time, dont be afraid to assign multiple tasks at once. Being allowed to hop between a variety of tasks as they see fit will create an exciting and interesting work environment. As a bonus, successful navigation of this kind of responsibility can help point out which amongst the group would make great long term employees after the program has wrapped up.Check in OftenEven in an intern program where you provide your mentees with plenty of job freedom, its important to remember to check in often on progress and to provide ongoing feedback. Short, daily meetings and longer weekly sit downs will go a long ways to evaluating progress and identifying any problem or areas of particular interest for the interns. Providing consistent supervision is also an essential part of any internship programs. Interns give up the ability to earn monetary compensation in exchange for the invaluable asset of experienced mentorship. Consistent monitoring provides the best opportunity for your interns to grow and learn from their venture.Program Wrap-up and EvaluationFinally, its important to ensure your internship program has a formal evaluation session and debriefing as part of the final wrap-up. Professionals program reviews have multiple benefits both for program participants and recipients. Reviewing an interns performance helps prepare for the real-world annual review process which is critical to assessing progress and career growth. Getting an interns feedback on their experience in your program also helps supervisors and companies identify areas of improvement or aspects that are particularly enjoyable, which can then be included or excluded for future iterations. Most importantly, wrapping up the program with a formal goodbye allows both parties the ability to network, download and assess building on immediate successes or failures to provide long term learning opportunities for both interns and companies.

Tips for Writing Strong Interview Thank-You Notes

Tips for Writing Strong Interview Thank-You NotesTips for Writing Strong Interview Thank-You Notes Spring is a great time to search for new jobs for a number of reasons. First, budgets are often approved around January/February to hire more people. Second, the economy is pretty healthy right now and businesses are ready to expand and try to grow their profits. For some companies, this means new hires to support these growth efforts. Lastly, its also the time of year when companies often revisit their products, services and technologies, working on improvements to keep competitive in the market. Often, companies will hire new employees or teams to work on these changes.If youre ready to job search, or perhaps youve already started, heres one skill you should sharpen writing thank-you musiknotenzeichens. A powerful thank-you note can land you the job - weve seen it happen frequently with the candidates we place. (And on the flip side, weve seen bad thank-you notes da mage a candidacy.) Here are four tips from our recruiters for writing the kind of thank-you note that impresses hiring managers .This tactic isnt just about looking (and being) more engaged in the interview - though that certainly wins you points. Its also about writing a better thank-you note later. Mark down important points you discuss in the interview. What imperative job functions do your interviewers bring up? Are there any problems theyre facing as a company that you could help with? Do they pose any questions that you might be more able to answer after a bit more thought? These are the kinds of things to add to your thank-you note later. Time and again, we find that a generic thank-you note - one that feels like its copied from a template - will never impress hiring managers like a thank-you note that makes reference to specifics from the interview. In fact, in some cases, a generic thank-you note will hurt your candidacy more than help it There are hiring managers t hat think a generic, template-like thank-you note shows so little effort that they think less of a candidate.A thorough, detailed thank-you note thats beautifully written will never make much of an impression if its too late. Especially in some fast-paced fields like the tech industry, healthcare or marketing, time is of the essence. When you finish your interview, head home as soon as you can to write your thank-you note. Sending it the day of the interview (if possible) or within 24 hours is ideal, although sending the note 48 hours later can be acceptable if you get really tied up. If you send the note late, you might find that the hiring manager has already assumed youre not sending it and dinged your candidacy or rejected you for it.If you interview with multiple people, try to get their individual contact info from your recruiters. Writing each of them a note will show a level of care that goes above and beyond what most candidates demonstrate. If you can add a detail to eac h note that really personalizes it, thats even better. Especially today, the trend is for workplaces to be focused on building a great corporate culture, which often requires teamwork and strong interpersonal skills from all levels of employees. Showing off extra effort in your soft skills can be key for your candidacy. Individual, personalized thank-you notes could make you seem like the kind of team player that hiring managers will love working with. This may not always be necessary. However, if you felt there were concerns or weaknesses brought up in your interview, a thank-you note can be a great place to address that. The key is to keep things positive and, if possible, focus on how youre already working to remedy these potential issues. If you can handle this right, your thank-you note can significantly strengthenyour candidacy, as its your last impression that you leave on a hiring manager before they make their decisionSamantha Keefe is an Interactive Marketing Managerat AVID Technical Resources .AVID Technical Resources is a leading information technology recruiting company with offices around the country.