Successfully Calculate Your E-Commerce

You always want to invest money so that you get back more than you originally invested. However, if you don’t know how to properly estimate what it is that you are getting back, you might be missing out on revenue opportunities. Knowing how to properly calculate your return on investment also enables you to make smart decisions when it comes to investing your money.

 

To accurately calculate your ROI, you need to make sure you have taken the necessary steps to track all sales and conversions. There are two ROIs that will allow you to accurately evaluate how your campaigns are performing.

First, you can track direct sales, meaning that that the user goes to your website and makes a purchase, or a one-click sale. This is not an ideal way to track your sales because most users do not purchase right away. This will be your ROI No.1, which is calculated by finding the difference between the value of sales and the cost, and then dividing that by the cost, or (value of sale – cost)/cost.

In order to track sales that are indirect, you will need to tag your ads. This adds additional values in the URL that do not change the URL destination. They also allow you to see exactly what the user clicked on, such as an ad that led to your homepage, contact page or a specific product. On Facebook and Bing, you can add these as UTM parameters; Google uses auto-tagging.

Most advertisers think the Facebook pixel does this; however, the pixel only tracks direct sales and indirect sales within a short time period. If you were to go back to the website and purchase after a few hours, the UTM parameter would catch this, not the Facebook pixel.

Once you have tags in place, you will then be able to track assisted sales, which brings us to ROI No.2. Assisted sales are those who click your ad, go to your website, leave your website and buy later. For example, if you are shopping for a pair of shoes but leave the website to see if Amazon has a better deal, then go back to the brand website and purchase, this is an assisted sale and can only be tracked by UTM parameters.

Facebook tracks sales through the Facebook pixel. If Facebook tells you that you have eight sales and you go to Google and see you have five sales, then you have a difference of three. Those three conversions are assisted conversions. To see those and know where they came from, you need UTM parameters.

ROI No.2 includes your direct sales and assisted sales so that you have an accurate ROI calculation. It is calculated by adding your direct sales and assisted sales, subtracting the cost from that number, and dividing that difference by the cost, or ((direct sales + assisted sales) – cost)/cost. This is important when analyzing the bottom line of your business. Your ROI No.1 could be negative, leading you to think that you have a negative ROI, but when factoring in the ROI No.2, your business most likely has a positive ROI overall. With this in mind, it is important to know how to accurately optimize your ROI.

Indian staffing industry

New Delhi, Dec 1 (PTI) Indias staffing sector, with estimated total revenue of Rs 27,000 crore, is expected to register 12 per cent this year, says a report.

According to Indian Staffing Federation, an apex body of flexi staffing industry, the sector which comprises 15 leading firms that account for Rs 270 billion in revenues is projected to grow 12 per cent this year and 10 per cent the next year.


In India, the staffing industry clearly does not have a challenge of addressable market and it is gratifying to witness the rapid growth being shown by each of the organised staffing firms to tap into this opportunity on one hand and enabling rapid job creation on the other, ISF President Rituparna Chakraborty said.

The report noted that the top three firms including two home grown firms TeamLease and Quess along with Swiss headquartered Adecco together account for 20 per cent of the total market share in India.

The five largest staffing companies in India, based on 2015 revenue include TeamLease with a revenue of Rs 1,986.9 crore, Quess Rs 1,959.4 crore, Adecco Rs 1,500 crore, Randstad Rs 1,348.5 crore and Manpower Group Rs 799.1 crore.

Chakraborty further said demonetisation and implementation of GST in recent times shall definitely be a force multiplier to the growth of staffing in India.

The staffing industry provides a platform for recognised employment, work choice, even compensation, annual benefits and health benefits for temporary workforce that constitute a sizeable segment of Indias total workforce. PTI DRR SBT SA

Things That really Matter in your HR Career

1.Give them what they need, not what they want
Many years ago at another company my then Managing Director had a great idea for a leadership program and its content. I delivered it. But the program got terrible feedback and I nearly got fired.

My lesson from this was if you do things only to please people, you are unlikely to help them - or their organisation - to succeed.

2.HR is not about HR
I enjoy working with HR thought leader and academic Dave Ulrich. I’ve found from practical experience his writing about the purpose of HR is spot on: HR is not about HR, the scorecard of HR is the scorecard of the business, and the real customer of HR is the customer of the business.

3.Eat your vegetables before dessert – get the basics right first
I have done a number of HR transformations in my career. Before I get started I always ask four critical questions:

What do we keep?

What needs to change?

What can we do that will make the biggest difference?

How can we build it quickly, cleanly, and simply - and get it to stick?
By answering these questions from the customer perspective, we can build the internal mechanisms to deliver great customer experiences.

I joined NAB in March 2016, and again we are focussed on a handful of key priorities to delight customers and make NAB an even better place to work.

We still have work to do, but we are on our way to executing on a simple (not simplistic), focussed strategy that drives better people and business outcomes.

We know that when people are capable and talented and have good leaders, they will perform. Wrapped around this we must have the right values-based culture to inspire and engage people, and to ensure that the customer is at the heart of everything we do.

There is no cookie cutter approach to this. The things that really matter for success in each organisation will depend on their individual context.

4.HR is the chef, not the waiter
HR is there to help and coach the rest of the business, not to do the important work of line managers.

Line managers with the right skills and aptitude remain absolutely critical in any organisation. Research & experience shows the most important thing for employee engagement and performance is the quality of their immediate leader. HR’s role is support leaders to be their best through tools and frameworks.

5.Be ambitious – for yourself and others
In my 20s I was working in HR for a mining explosives company when I was put forward for an accelerated program. By backing me, before I backed myself, my company changed what I thought I’d be capable of.

To have a high performing organisation, we need to ignite ambition, encouraging people to reach their potential and to have a learning mindset. That’s why we have evolved how we manage performance at NAB to encourage managers to act as performance coaches for their direct reports. We also have a strong focus on developing our high potential talent.

6.Know your stuff and keep learning
I‘ve done three degrees and all of them have helped me in my career. My MBA helped me to speak the language of business, which is very important in HR.

It’s not just about academic learning. Be curious. Meet people in your profession, outside your company, dealing with the same issues. Go for a breadth of career experience. Apply your learning to find better solutions and continue to evolve.

When we get HR right, people benefit, from customers, to employees to shareholders.

I’ll keep learning and stretching myself as an HR leader. As author and cook Julia Child has said You’ll never know everything about anything – especially something that you love.

HR Solution Platform

Bangalore-based employee onboarding and engagement platform Tydy has raised $275,000 in angel investment from a group of individuals, including existing investor Bhupen Shah, former co-founder of Sling Media. Others who also invested in the firm are Jayesh Parekh, managing partner at Jungle Ventures and co-founder of Sony Entertainment in India and Sanjay Sathe, founder of outplacement firm RiseSmart, which was later acquired by Randstad.

The startup will use the capital for marketing and sales. We have grown to a phase where we can focus on making repeatable profits, therefore, our focus now is more on sales and marketing and managing deployments, Kiran Menon, chief executive and co-founder of Tydy told VCCircle.

Tydy’s mobile-first HR automation solution offers three key components to enterprises – employee onboarding, engagement and retention. ‘Tydy Onboarding’ automates the entire onboarding process, helping enterprises save on costs and strategic resources. For employees, it offers a gamified, mobile-first interface to easily complete the enrolment forms. ‘Tydy Listen’ is an employee engagement tool that helps firms receive regular feedback and sentiment analysis from employees. ‘Tydy Score’ is a predictive engine that collates data points right from onboarding, feedback, and sentiment analysis to create a single profile or score for every employee.

Owned and operated by Pagestitch Inc., Tydy’s client base includes Lowe’s, Taj Hotels, Kotak Mahindra, Sanofi, and Bajaj Finance.

Tydy was founded in 2013 by Menon along with Nikhil Gurjer and Gaurabh Mathure. Menon worked with web browser firm Opera Software and Gurjer was associated with mobile services firm Mobivatar Interactive and Crystera Technologies in the past. Mathure, who handles Tydy’s US operations, previously worked with advertising agency R/GA.

Initially, the firm offered a mobile collaboration tool for sales and marketing teams. The platform helped businesses manage their content and communications. Later, Tydy pivoted its entire product and launched the beta version of the HR tools in December 2015.

We consciously decided to stop that product and relook our assumptions. We did market research again and realised the need for mobility solutions was much higher in the HR departments of organisations and in a few critical processes. That’s when we made the pivot, Menon explained.

The company had raised $138,000 from a group of angel investors, including Sling Media’s Shah, in September 2014 for the sales product.

The startup was part of the maiden edition of IT major Oracle’s startup accelerator programme, which was held last year in June. Other firms that were chosen for the programme are ExpertRec, a plug-n-play search and recommendation engine for online marketplaces; Niyo Solutions, a fin-tech startup focused on alternate payment mechanisms; Ray iCare, an Internet of Things and artificial intelligence-based non-contact health and sleep monitor for babies; and Vear, an AI and VR-based content distribution and marketing platform.

The six-month Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator Programme (OSCA) provides emerging firms mentorship from Oracle and industry experts, a co-working space, access to Oracle’s customers and partners, and free access to Oracle Cloud including training. On the last day of the programme, startups can pitch their idea to technology investors and leaders.

Improve Your Interview Performance

Even the smartest as well as qualified job seeker needs to prepare him or her for job interviews. Why, you would question? Interviewing is nothing but a learned skill, and you must believe that there is no second chance to make a good first impression. Therefore, it would be helpful for you to study these seven most powerful communication tips to improve your interview skills. If you do not know how to build your case to an interviewer, you would grateful to follow these seven tips for powerful communication to boost the chances of landing a great job.

1. Practice Good Non-verbal Communication with Verbal Communication

You should practice non-verbal including your verbal communication, because both are mandatory these days for better communicator and crack an interview. It is all about demonstrating the confidence, like standing straight confidently, making eye-to-eye contact and connecting with a soft but firm handshake. You never over estimate the non-verbal communication, because while entering the interview room, sitting, and standing, and before started taking with the interviewers this thing would be great.

2.Dress Up According to the Job or Company

You must think, why dressing up according to the job or company and what are the necessity of dress up for communication. The necessity of good official dress up for specific interview can boost your confidence. You must know that casual dress code not at all permitted in an interview. It is, though, important to know which dress is good for which interview, so that your communication match with it and you chances would be high for the job you have applied.

3.Great Communicators Are Great Listeners

From the starting of an interview, your interviewer will give you information and all information would be important for you, either directly or indirectly. Whether you do not hear it, you will miss major chances. A powerful communication skill includes listening and letting the person know that you heard what he or she has said.

4.Talk Whenever You Need and As Much You Need

You should not talk many, if you do not need to talk for a certain thing that has been asked, you should avoid it smartly. Sometimes, interviewers asked unnecessary questions to test you level of communication and see whether you talk many or less for that. They may not be matched with your skills, career or other things.

5.Do not Be Very Much Familiar

An interview is nothing but a professional meeting to talk about business. Candidates do not go there to make new friends. You need to have a certain level of enthusiasm and energy in the interview. You should ask relevant questions, but you should not overstep or show that you are much familiar as a candidate.

6.Always Use Appropriate Language

It is necessary to use appropriate language during the interview. You should aware not to say any unnecessary language or slangs, or any other words related to age, race, religions or politics.

7.Take Care to Answer of the Questions

One thing you should keep in mind always. When interviewers ask for an instance of a time, you did something; you must understand they are probably asking you some behavioral interview questions. You should answer these questions carefully. If you miss, giving appropriate answers, you may lose to say something about your past skills and experiences.

Last, but certainly not the least, powerful communication not only helps you stay ahead of others but also helps you understand where and how to answer the questions during an interview. It boosts your confidence in a face-to-face interview as well.

Growth in Logistics Industry

Businesses tied to e-commerce fulfillment resumed hiring at a rapid clip in April, bolstering payrolls to meet changes in the consumer economy.

Parcel carriers and delivery firms, which had scaled back hiring in March, added 3,200 courier and messenger positions last month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its April jobs report. The warehousing and storage sector, which includes sprawling fulfillment centers that process online orders, added 2,500 jobs, accelerating from just 300 job additions in March.

The growth in sectors tied to online consumers came as hiring at other shipping operators more tied to industrial business was mostly flat. Trucking companies followed two strong months of hiring by cutting payrolls by 100, and railroads slashed 500 jobs despite improved freight shipping volumes last month.

Trucking companies have reported largely tepid earnings in the first quarter of this year, with uneven demand and overcapacity making it tough for carriers to raise the prices they charge shippers.

The hiring at courier and logistics companies was part of a robust national report. Overall nonfarm payrolls rose by 211,000 jobs in April and unemployment declined to 4.4%, the lowest rate since May 2007, potentially priming the economy for strong expansion in the second quarter.

Whether that growth produces more shipping demand is an open question, however. Goods-producing industries contributed only about 10% of the new jobs in April and factory hiring slowed, as U.S. manufacturing activity eased for the second month in a row. The manufacturing sector added 6,000 positions last month, down from 13,000 in March. Producers of durable goods cut 3,000 jobs.


The health-care, finance and other service-sector industries grew more sharply, by contrast.

The transportation and warehouse sector overall added 3,500 jobs last month, with declining payrolls at transit and ground passenger transportation operations undercutting gains at cargo-focused businesses.

Common Interview Mistakes

Interview mistakes are always costly, but they're deadly if you're unaware of them and continue to make them during every interview going forward. That's a problem that never ends and will always cost you great jobs, unless you fix it today—which is my goal. And if you've struggled to get jobs, the good news is you can improve and dominate interviews in the future.

My mission in writing this is to shine a light on common interview blunders and tell you how to improve. Ideally, you will never again shoot yourself in the foot during an interview. If you make these mistakes it's time you know so you can develop your interview game and fix these weaknesses. It's only then will you have a chance to stand out among all the other applicants to win job offers. And if you don't struggle in these areas, then you should be extremely confident going into your next interview. Because you know your competition will surely make these errors.

Let's take a look at the most common 11 interview mistakes so you can determine how well you interview.



Deadly Interview Mistakes

1. YOU DRESS UNPROFESSIONAL
First impressions only take about seven seconds to make, so you need to be on your game the moment they first look at you. A baggy, unfitted suit for a professional job interview will suggest that your ability and value to their company is also not high quality. And now you're starting behind the eight ball before you even say hi and tell them about yourself. Talk about a bad start.

Where if you dress in a nice-looking, fitted suit, you pass the initial test and make your first impression a good one. Dressing well will also give you confidence the rest of the interview and this will come out in your interview answers. This is example one, including the rest of this list, where the little actions add up to make or break your performance.

2. YOU SHOW UP LATE
You'd have to have something wrong inside your head to think showing up late is not a problem— like this girl definitely has a screw loose.

Being tardy is disrespectful to the interviewer's time, displays your poor time management skills, and gives the impression you're not serious about securing the job. Three strikes and you're out. As my friend Evan says, "That's pathetic." The only thing worse than showing up late is not showing up at all.

I don't care if there's an accident, a time change the night before, or some other deterrent, you should plan to show up early so you at least make it on time.

Ways to ensure you're not late are to plan on showing up 15 minutes early, write down the address and know how to get there, and plan ahead for parking if the company doesn't have their own lot. Just don't be late.

3. YOU DON'T BRING YOUR RESUME
Truth is you never know who is going to interview you and if they've seen your interview in advance or not. That's why it's always wise to print off a few extra documents, just in case.

Remember these are busy hiring managers and executives who often don't have time to review your resume before the interview. So many of them will review your resume and ask the questions on the fly. If they don't need your resume or already printed it off, it doesn't hurt to bring it. And if they ask for it, you'll come off as prepared if you have it instead of unprepared if you don't. The only way you lose is if you don't bring it.

4. YOU FORGET TO SMILE
In case you didn't know, smiling is the universal language for kindness. Go to any faraway culture or land, and a smile is the same: a warm welcome and expression of kindness.

Smiling when you first introduce yourself, throughout the interview, and after as you're saying goodbye, sends the message that you're likable and you will get along with the rest of the team if you're hired.

If you forget to smile, you give off the vibe that you're not a happy or friendly person and could have issues working well together with other employees, or (even worse) be unfriendly to clients or customers.

So remember to smile and you'll improve your interview success rate.

5. YOU'RE CLEARLY UNDERPREPARED
Not doing your homework will come out during the course of any interview. You may struggle to answer why you want to work for the company or what you know about the company. And you will struggle to cater your interview answers to their specific needs and wants.

Why not come prepared and rock the interview? Spend an hour or two to research the company. Then go a few more hours to prepare your interview answers and consider how you'd respond to different questions they might ask. You'd study more than a few hours for a college exam, I'd hope, and this job interview is far more important. Treat it as such.

Show you truly want the job or you won't get the job. It's that simple in the hiring process.

6. YOU HAVE WEAK EYE CONTACT
This is as much a social skill as it's a career skill. Eye contact communicates confidence, trustworthiness, and focus on the task at hand. Whereas scattered eyes sends the message that you're either unsure of yourself, untrustworthy in your interview answers, or unfocused. None of these signals will help your cause for landing this job.

A few ways to improve your eye contact are to:

Focus looking at one eye
Look long enough to discover the interviewer's eye color before you look away
Break your eye contact by nodding your head, making a hand gesture, or smiling
Make eye contact while you talk and listen
Too much eye contact can be awkward, so find a happy medium.

7. YOU TALK WITH FLUFF AND GENERALITIES
So you say you're extremely hard working, passionate, and organized? Cool, so are 99% of the other candidates. Generalities don't persuade any interviewer that you can perform for their company and provide value.

The only way you're going to separate yourself from the pack is if you don't answer their questions with fluff. Your answers need to include specific, concrete stories of where you performed and made a difference in your previous work experiences. That's how you convince them that you're a winning candidate.

If you don't know how to respond with powerful interview answers that knock these questions out of the park, you need to check out my book The Golden Resume or the course Master The Resume.

8. YOU'RE ARROGANT
Want to know the best way to piss off an interviewer and lose the job? Act like you're better than the job, interviewer, or the company. Even if you're far more skilled and experienced than all of the other candidates, nobody likes a jerk. And you need the interviewer to like you because they're the ones who give feedback to their superiors on whether you go forward or get rejected. Plus, since company culture is increasingly important, companies would rather have a kid who is coachable than a know-it-all who doesn't play nice with others.

To be clear, I'm a big advocate for selling yourself to get the job. But be confident and poised, not cocky and annoying.

9. YOU BAD MOUTH YOUR OLD BOSS OR COMPANY
Ripping on your old manager or company doesn't make you stand out. And it could cause you a lot of harm.

Because they're going to secretly think something like, "There are always two sides to every story, what did you do to cause this?" Or, "If we hire them, it's only a matter of time before this bad apple turns sour on us." And the interviewer could very well side with your old manager when you present the situation. That's another issue you avoid if you never bring it up in the first place.

Stay professional and polished. Don't sling your old employer in the mud or you'll get dirty too.

10. YOU DON'T ASK QUESTIONS (OR GOOD QUESTIONS)
It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. – Eugene Ionesco

I doubt Eugene used this in reference to how to interview well, but he nailed this idea.

It's a major red flag to not ask any questions. That means you're not educated enough about the company to ask or you just don't care about getting the job. And while most applicants give cookie cutter questions, successful job candidates will separate themselves by asking great questions. These questions will indirectly advance the thought that you're a quality candidate who is serious about getting this job. That means you're winning half the battle already.

If you have an interview coming or you're interested in what to ask, read 15 questions to ask interviewers. The questions in that article are sure to impress and lead to valuable feedback.

11. YOU FORGET TO TAKE NOTE OF THEIR NAME AND EMAIL
How can you write a solid thank you letter to the interviewer if you don't grab their name and email? That's the point, you can't. So what could have been a cherry on top of your performance—by thanking them for their time and reiterating your interest in the position—is another missed opportunity.

And CareerBuilder did a study that found 33% of hiring managers think less of applicants who don't send thank you notes. Meaning there is a real benefit in sending one. By now I've made this clear multiple times, since job searches are extremely competitive, if you get lazy in any area then it will show up and cost you.

Let's not have that happen to you. Just ask for their business card to get their name and email, and then send the email after the interview.

Execute The Interview Like A Pro

Some of these little mistakes on this list wouldn't cost you if you were one of five candidates interviewing for the position. However the average corporate job attracts 250 resumes according to this Glassdoor finding. This means you have to be diligent to the tee if you want this job offer.

So how do you win the company over? Doing the opposite of the mistakes above is the bare minimum to stay in consideration. This won't set you apart from the good candidates. That's why you also need to go on the offensive to separate from the pack and win over interviewers. Your strategy and execution is what convinces them to hire you.

How do you strategize? It all starts with preparation. You have to first know what job you want and why you want it before you every craft your resume, apply, or interview. Though this takes more work than blasting off 100 applications on Monster, it will save you from wasting time down the road from working at jobs that you don't enjoy.

Once you know the type of job and companies you want to work for, it's time to start researching them. This preparation is critical because you'll pick up valuable insights on what it is their company is precisely about and how employees succeed there. All of this preparation will be used to write a specific resume, create your cover letter, and answer interview questions.

Speaking of what to say in the actual interview, here's my biggest tip: Remember it's all about what you can do for the company, not what the company can do for you.

Don't Let A Job Interview

It's easy to give away so much good advice on a job interview that your hiring manager decides they don't need to hire you.

They can simply implement the tremendous ideas you shared with them.

How can you avoid giving away too much free advice at a job interview? Here's how.

Your goal is not to prove you're smart and capable by answering interview questions or telling your hiring manager how to solve their problems.

It's easy to give away so much good advice on a job interview that your hiring manager decides they don't need to hire you.

They can simply implement the tremendous ideas you shared with them.

How can you avoid giving away too much free advice at a job interview? Here's how.

Your goal is not to prove you're smart and capable by answering interview questions or telling your hiring manager how to solve their problems.

Your goal is to ask questions about the manager's Business Pain.

Asking questions about your manager's Business Pain accomplishes a lot!

1. Your questions about your hiring manager's  Business Pain make it clear that you understand the subject matter and that you've researched the organization carefully.

2. Your expertise, judgment and insight show more clearly through your Business Pain questions than they ever could if you were answering traditional interview questions!

3. Your Business Pain questions and your hiring manager's answers will gradually fill you in on what your possible next employer is dealing with — the pain that is keeping them from reaching their goals. Everybody likes to talk themselves. Your hiring manager will be happy to talk about what's keeping him or her up at night if you approach the subject politely.

4. As you and your manager discuss their Business Pain, your manager will slip into brainstorming mode with you naturally. That's what you want! If they don't, ask yourself whether this manager is someone you want to spend countless working hours with.

Your goal on interview with a hiring manager is to get that manager's brain working.

Like all of us, hiring managers spend much of their work day on auto-pilot. You have to get your interviewer out of auto-pilot mode in order to have a productive interview — one that your manager will remember!

You will get clear on your hiring manager's Business Pain — and then you will tell a Dragon-Slaying Story about a time when you solved a similar kind of pain before.

You will not solve this hiring manager's specific pain in the interview, however!

Here's how the process works.

Manager: So, what did you do at Angry Chocolates, exactly?

You: My title was Senior Buyer/Planner. I was responsible for buying the ingredients and raw materials for Angry's melting chocolates and edible nail polish lines, and I ran inventory and production planning for those two product lines. Since they were our biggest product lines I was always hopping. That job had a lot to do with supply chain management, staying close with vendors and watching for shifts in inventory requirements, because the mix of products we were selling was always changing.

Manager: So, what would you say was your greatest accomplishment in that job?

You (realizing that your manager does not know how to get off the interview script on their own): I'd say that would be re-engineering the purchasing process to take a week off the schedule — that has a huge impact when you're dealing with perishable products like chocolate. Say, can I ask you a question about your Purchasing Manager job? Just so I keep my remarks relevant.

Tips to a Successful Career

Maybe you can't exactly curl up with your career at night, but that career is still rather important, keeping you busy during much of your waking hours and generating the income that keeps the house warm when it's cold outside. While starting and progressing through a successful career can be smooth sailing for some folks, others could use a little help and guidance. Here, then, are 10 tips that can help you get a great job and be successful in your career.

 1: Do the job to get the job
A successful career starts with landing a job in your chosen field. An often effective way to help yourself get hired is to find a way to do the job in order to get the job. This is an idea I ran across from Nick Corcodilos, of Ask the Headhunter fame, who has explained:

Don't behave like a job applicant in the job interview; behave like an employee. Show up ready to do the job in the interview show how you will do the work and contribute to profitability. By defining the work an employer needs done and showing how, exactly, you will apply your skills, you can demonstrate your value.

This approach isn't always easy or possible, but if you can find a way to pull it off, you'll make an impression with your initiative and you'll help the hirers imagine you in the position.

 2: Take feedback seriously, and even seek it out
When performance evaluation time rolls around, take it seriously. Don't dismiss or be annoyed by whatever suggestions are given for how you might improve yourself. Take them on and aim to demonstrate improvement. You might even ask peers and superiors how you could do even better in the job. This is especially useful if you're having trouble with some aspect of your work. Show initiative in wanting to improve and solicit advice instead of ignoring the problem and hoping it will resolve itself.

 3: Make your boss look good
Many people focus on promoting themselves in their workplace. It can be more effective, though, to focus on making your boss look good. By supporting your boss, you might help boost his or her career, and you'll probably end up with a more powerful advocate with an interest in keeping you around. It's good to make your coworkers look good, too, because much of your success is reflected by your team's success. In general, be nice, neat, polite, and a pleasant co-worker.

 4: Dress and act professional
The old saying suggests that you dress for the job you want, not the one you have. If it's cool for you to stick with a dress casual attire at work but those in levels above you are mostly wearing suits, it might be smart to wear suits, too. That way, people can more easily visualize you working at higher levels. Go beyond just your wardrobe, though. Be professional in meetings and when interacting with those above and below you -- and show a real dedication to the job and the company.

 5: Don't rely on email or phones too much
Taking care of business via email or phone calls can be effective, but it's also good to be interacting in person with colleagues and superiors. This can help strengthen your relationships, and some issues, questions, and suggestions can be handled best via discussion. Participate at meetings, too, offering ideas and information and asking helpful questions.

 6: Develop your network when you don't need it
If you're suddenly looking for a new gig and have to turn to your network of contacts, it's best if it's not the first time they're hearing from you in several years. Keeping in touch a little, perhaps by sending occasional articles or items of interest or by sharing occasional meals, can make people think more of you and even keep you in mind should opportunities arise. The best networks feature people who actually know you to some degree and like you, and aren't just people you met here or there

7: Say yes a lot
Try to say yes when presented with opportunities (a new position, the chance to give a big presentation, a major business trip), even if they seem scary. Getting out of your comfort zone can help you develop new skills or experiences. Say yes when colleagues ask for help, too. If you're known as someone who steps up, you'll be seen as valuable.

8: Find a mentor
Think of some superiors whom you greatly admire and see if one would be willing to be your mentor. The two of you might meet regularly to review your goals and accomplishments, and your mentor can help groom you for advancement -- and maybe advocate for you, too.

Less formally, you might apply the advice of Warren Buffett, to your workplace. Buffett suggested:

Ben Franklin did this, and my old boss Ben Graham did this at early ages in their young teens. Ben Graham looked around and he said, "Who do I admire?" And he wanted to be admired himself and he said, "Why do I admire these other people?" And he said, "If I admire them for these reasons, maybe other people would admire me if I behave in a similar manner." And he decided what kind of a person he wanted to be.

 9: Make lemonade out of lemons
If your workplace is chaotic or has gone through some trouble, there might be more opportunity than ever for you to make a noticeable difference. If you can improve productivity or morale, it will reflect well on you, your abilities, and your commitment to the company. If possible, say yes to big and small things, from a new position to a request to be a mentor. You never know what good things will come from each of these experiences.

 10: Keep learning
You never know how the world or your profession will evolve over time, so it's smart to keep learning. You might drill down to become more of an expert in your field, but you might also branch out, learning about tangential fields or developing issues -- or perhaps acquiring new skills. You want to remain valuable to your employer and valuable to other potential employers, too. Remember that learning doesn't have to be through books. You might learn a lot simply by making a point to have lunch with lots of different people at work, asking about what they do, or by spending time talking with people you can learn from.

These are just some of many possible ways you can make your career more successful. See how many you can put to use.

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Few of Things You NeverTo Say in a Job Interview

When you're searching for a job, landing an interview can feel like a huge success -- and it is, but for most open positions, the interview is only one step in a long hiring process. For some jobs, dozens of people may be interviewed, and the competition will be fierce.

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1. What sort of perks do you offer? 
Save talk about benefits and perks for the negotiation stage -- that is, after you've gotten a job offer -- or until the interviewer raises the issue. (A recruiter for a large computer manufacturer relates that many interviewees ask about how many free products they’ll get after they’re hired. But if you ask this question, you'll never get hired.)

2. What does your company do? 

Believe it or not, recruiters and hiring managers say they get asked this question all the time. Before you go into your job interview, research what the company does, and come up with some specific ways you can help it do whatever it does better.

3. My last boss was a real 

Complaining about your last job only reflects badly on you. Even if you're telling the truth, it makes you look like a complainer and poor sport (exactly the type of person no one wants to work with). It's great to talk about challenges you faced, but the focus should be on the positive results you achieved.

4. I love your glasses. 

Never compliment interviewers on their physical appearance -- doing so can come off as inappropriate or just plain creepy. Paying compliments is fine, but they should be related to the professional realm. For instance, you might want to praise a recent success the company or interviewer has had.

5. My feet are killing me!

Complaining about physical discomfort will be perceived as negativity -- or as you making excuses for not performing well in the interview. (An HR manager in Silicon Valley tells of a candidate who complained of a headache caused by partying too hard last night. Needless to say, this candidate didn't get the job.)

6. I got fired from my last position. 

You never want to lie in a job interview -- but there are more graceful ways to explain that you were fired. My boss and I had very different ideas about what our department should be focusing on, and it soon became clear that I'd be happier in a new role -- like this one. Keep the focus on what you learned from the past, and bring the focus back to why the job you're interviewing for is the right one for you.

7. I just want a job -- any job! 

This may very well be true, but desperation is not appealing. The interviewer needs to know that you want the particular job you're interviewing for -- and that you're a great fit for it.

8. I don't know. 

If you really don't know the answer to an interview question about you or your background, try I'll find out and get back to you by the end of the day. But if the question is about what you'd do in a hypothetical workplace situation -- or is an off-the-wall or brainteaser question such as How many golf balls would it take to fill this room? -- your response should show your thought process. Go ahead and think aloud: First, I'd have to determine the volume of the room. Then I'd have to subtract the volume of the furniture.… And so on.

9. My biggest weakness is that I work too hard.

Your interviewer knows this answer is a bunch of malarkey. So how do you answer the what's your biggest weakness question? Choose something not directly related to the role you're applying for that you've made positive efforts to improve. For example, you could say, I can be nervous about speaking in front of large groups -- so I enrolled in Toastmasters and then volunteered to present some seminars at my former employer. So that's becoming less and less of a problem for me.

Ways You Can Bring Success in Your Career

Once you enter the professional life, it's a tough competitive world out there. Sailing through it smoothly is easy, but often one feels there's no guarantee that you will step up the ladder faster than others

That's not true. There are a few everyday habits that will make every moment of your hardwork count and make you successful earlier than your peers:


Be Mr Dependable 
Make people believe you're the one who can get them what they need, especially your boss. You want everyone to think you're the most dependable person around.

Let your work speak for you 
The more quiet you are about your efforts, the more surprised people will be on seeing the results, and the more they're going to talk about you.

Listen more, speak less 
The less you speak, the lesser are the chances of you uttering something stupid. It will also make you come across as an intelligent person. You want people to literally wait to hear what you have to say.

Keep your goals in focus 
Keep a sight on the ultimate dream but also plan out short-term targets. It's the best way of ensuring that you're always on the move, and not stagnating. Make every day count.

Work on people skills 
Know how to deal with people the right way. Try to solve conflicts without turning them into fights. Building a good rapport with people despite all disagreements and arguments will take you a long way.

Value every contact you make 
Wherever you go, build contacts. You have no idea whom you'd need when in life. Be the guy everybody remembers. Be the guy everyone wants to work with.

Spot opportunities before others 
Do what nobody else can, or nobody else already has. Give this world something it has never seen before and you'll be the one true hero in no time.

Have a mentor 

It pays to have a mentor and a guide who can do some handholding, especially in the early part of your career.