4 Mental Blocks Preventing You From Landing Your Dream Job (and How To Get Over Them)

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In today’s ever-changing economy, searching for a job is hard work. The number of jobs, types of jobs, and even pathways into jobs are transforming at a pace that can feel impossible to keep up with. Add the desire to find a career that feels meaningful and fulfilling, and the job search can becoming a maddening task.

The path to a successful job search often starts with your own mindset. Consider how you think about yourself, your options, and the process to landing a job. These answers will help you form the foundation for the results you can achieve.

As a coach, educator, and practitioner, I work with clients to help them overcome common mental hang-ups that may be preventing them from landing their dream job.

Below are four of the negative mindsets that I see most often, and strategies you can use to overcome them.

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Four Ways Studying Abroad Can Advance Your Career

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If you’re a high school or college student interested in studying abroad, you’re probably familiar with the more obvious “pros.” You’ll have the opportunity to explore a new place and culture, of course, and it’s easy to see how broadening your horizon would lead to a wider, valuable new perspective. But did you realize that studying abroad could also help to advance your career?

More and more employers are recognizing the benefits of studying abroad and are actively seeking out candidates with study abroad experience. Here are four reasons why studying abroad can help advance your career.

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5 Key Steps to Learning From Failure

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learn from failure

When we hear or say the words “fail” or “failure” in relation to all things tech, we generally conjure up images of locked doors, garage sales of office supplies, empty chairs and desks, and a battle for the best developers who are now on the job market. But there’s more to it than that, and in every startup failure, there are more details than most of us will ever know about because we weren’t there. We can only watch from the sidelines and make armchair quarterback calls about what we would have done differently.

But how do we actually learn from failure? It’s too often a platitude like “we only learn when we fail,” but that doesn’t help the person or startup that just failed. What we need is a tangible process or exercise to walk through – painstakingly – to make sure that we do indeed learn from each and every failure, regardless of how small or how epic. That process is outlined below. Continue reading →

How to Say “No” to Your CEO’s Random Product Ideas

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how to say no to your boss's idea

Here is how it happens. You see the CEO in the hallway and he stops you. He then says, “I was thinking about this the other day—I have a great new idea for a feature.” You nod politely and walk back to your desk—feeling sick to your stomach along the way.
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Top 10 Blogs For User Experience Designers

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best ux design blogs

User experience is an industry that is constantly evolving. Whether you’re a new practitioner or a seasoned veteran it’s important stay up-to-date on the latest conversations and ideas happening in the industry. So how do you stay updated and relevant? Here’s a clue: you’re doing it right now. Reading blogs is a quick and easy way to remain current. Below you’ll find some of my all-time favorite user experience design blogs; including established industry leaders as well as niche blogs discussing innovative topics.

With no further ado and in no particular order, find our top 10 user experience design blogs:  Continue reading →

20-Year-Old Entrepreneur Is Using Data to Retune The Music Industry

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Raffi Khatchadourian, COO of indify

Raffi Khatchadourian is a Mathematical Economics major and incoming junior at Colgate University. A self-starter and talented entrepreneur, Raffi has established himself as the COO of indify, an emerging music startup, before many of his peers have even declared their major. Back in January, Raffi attended GA’s week-long Business Accelerator program in partnership with Colgate University. Since then, he and his co-founders have gone on to win $10,000 in funding from Colgate University’s Entrepreneur Weekend Shark Tank and $15,000 from Colgate University’s Entrepreneurs Fund. Read on to learn how this young entrepreneur transformed his passion for music and data into a successful early-stage startup.

Follow Raffi @DeadliestKhatch and his startup at @_indify. Continue reading →

3 Ways TripAdvisor Stays Ahead of Customer Needs

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Due to the rapid evolution in consumer behavior when browsing travel destinations online, TripAdvisor is a brand that is constantly working to stay on top of their customers’ desires, expectations, and digital behavior.

In the video above, Ravi Meta, VP of core consumer product at TripAdvisor, highlights three key methods for staying ahead of customers through both quantitative and qualitative feedback: Continue reading →

Your Ulitmate Checklist for Planning a Successful Hackathon

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DeathtoStock_Wired6Companies across the globe have added hackathons to their roster of annual events to strengthen their corporate community and foster innovation in an engaging and cost-effective way. For employees, participation not only affords them unlimited snacks and beverages throughout the event, but it also bridges the gap between departments, sparks creativity and allows them to work on projects outside of their daily workflow.

Tech companies have begun hosting annual global hackathons and have reaped the benefits of the innovations created—Facebook’s chat feature and OneTravel’s latest groundbreaking mobile feature, Opal, to name a few.

If your company has been toying with the idea of an internal team hackathon, but has no clue where to start, begin with this list of the top five hackathon planning items that every organizer should have on their to-do list. Continue reading →

How To Have an Awesome Product Launch

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It feels invigorating to build awesome products. If you are a product manager, you have the unique chance to lead an idea from conception through completion. This opportunity inspires product managers to get out of bed excited each day.

A major achievement for any PM comes on the day that they launch their product. This is the day when months of hard work is placed into customers’ hands. There is little more rewarding than watching an idea come to life for end users.

But make no mistake — product launches are stressful. Product managers are pulled in several directions at once and have endless people to please. In the lead-up to launch, this can cause burnout.

Before you get in over your head, take a moment to step back and reevaluate. Product launches are most successful when you plan ahead for them from the start — well before your product goes to market. Continue reading →