Work at Home

Chocolate company brews up fresh jobs with aid of SBA

Blake Lempriere — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:07:52 +0000

What do you get when you mix entrepreneurial panache and chocolate? A startup that is growing at a feverish pace to keep up with the demands of sweet-toothed consumers.

Crio, a company that offers healthy and unique chocolate products, has watched its new product, Crio Bru, go from obscure tasty treat to fad in a matter of months. This company said today that it continues to expand, hiring three full-time employees and three part-time employees to keep pace with sales and production.

Crio Bru is a drink made out of roasted and ground cocoa beans brewed like coffee. Making the beverage involves a slow, painstaking process.

Grinding the cocoa beans was a very manual process, says Eric Durtschi, the creator of Crio Bru.

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Business-Plan Contests Take a Practical Turn

Imogen Wiggins — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:06:37 +0000

Less planning, more legwork. That’s the formula some business schools are using to overhaul the competitions they conduct each year to test their students’ mettle as entrepreneurs.

The contests, which have been an academic rite of passage for decades, typically involve teams of students submitting written business plans, then following up with a short presentation to a panel of judges. The winner might receive a cash prize of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars and even the chance to mingle with potential investors.

But most of the business plans emerging from these competitions never become full-fledged businesses. Critics say that’s because the competitions don’t encourage budding entrepreneurs, they just reward a well-written plan.

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“…If You’ll Just Smile…”

Ben Corser — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:51:32 +0000

A happy career and personal life from smiling?

Smiling engages at least three muscle groups, increasing bloodflow, and boosts circulation of immune cells.

What if youre not the smiley type? Fake it! Believe it or not, it fools your body into thinking youre happy about somethinglifting mood, and immune system function.

How easy is this? Its free, will boost your career, personal relationships, and you can do it any time! And if you walk around campus smiling, people will wonder whats going onand probably smile back.

Job Hunting Tricks For Veterans

Blake Lempriere — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:23:29 +0000

Job Hunting for Veterans is very different than it is for civilians. Veterans face misunderstanding and suspicion in their search for work. Translating military experience into something a civilian boss can understand is a unique challenge.

The United States Military is a land unto itself. It’s a place where the language is a sub-dialect of English focused on the specific tasks and realities of military life. It’s hard to overestimate the difference between being inside and being a civilian.

Hiring Now Search All Job Listings New York Jobs Los Angeles Jobs Chicago Jobs Philadelphia Jobs

At about $1 trillion in annual budget outlays, the first layer of Defense spending is over 4% of the economy.

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Global work: Getting paid like the locals

Ben Corser — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:18:07 +0000

It costs money to have a global workforce, and the way to offset that cost, writes Mercer, the huge human consultancy, is to try to “localize” compensation. In other words, try to get American employees, as much as possible, to accept the same pay, or close to it, as the locals receive (i.e. less).

Today the company put out a list of 12 pointers for expatriate staff. I thought it was interesting. Some issues raised were to consider whether the employee is in the expat assignment to perform critical strategic functions or to prepare for advancement in the company. Compensation for those two categories of workers may follow different philosophies. Mercer also suggests paying attention to how currency fluctuations impact compensation and to how families adjust. A

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Questions You Should NOT Ask in a Job Interview

Imogen Wiggins — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:25:27 +0000

Asking the right questions in an interview can give you a huge strategic advantage. Asking the wrong questions can cost you the job. Following up on our blog about smart questions to ask, here are some things you should not ask, especially in the early stage interviews:

What’s the salary?
Where would my desk/office be?
Would I have to work overtime?
Can I work from home?
What’s your vacation policy?
I have an aging parent/new baby. What

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10 Ways to Improve Your Career Over the Holidays

Imogen Wiggins — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:04:21 +0000

Whew! It looks like we may actually survive to the end of 2011 – and its been a brutal year. If youre lucky enough to have a job, youve probably worried about whether youd keep it.

Time to have some great quality time with the family, and refresh for a new year.

Its also a good time to look at the state of your career, and use a little time off to take some action to make 2012 a great year. Heres some ideas:

Refresh your résumé or CV. At the very least, capture examples of your contribution, educational experiences you had this year, and skill improvements. Employers will focus on the most recent and up-to-date information, so make sure you capture it before you forget.
Think through the next stage of your career. Look at what opportunities your employer might give you, but also what direction youd take if you had some freedom. You might just find that 2012 is the year to take the big leap toward that dream youve never had the guts to write down.
Identify five key relationships to develop. We all struggle with relationships that arent working very well – with the boss, with other key influencers, with people who will help our advancement. Write down some actual names, and think through how to approach each person and create the kind of support and cooperation that youd like to have.
Pick two skills you want to improve next year. What are your areas of knowledge that are getting a bit out of date? What would improve your chances for the next job youd like to have?
Examine your financial safety net. Yeah, this is a pain. I understand that youre afraid to find out how badly your savings have been damaged over the last few years. But without knowing, you might be making poor decisions – either too conservative or too risky. Go talk to a financial advisor and get a sense of your true situation.
Research other fields. Im often shocked at how insulated people become: They focus on their own industry, their own job field. Guess what? Creative stuff is happening all over, and theres great things to learn from people youve never heard of. Spend a little time snooping around the great videos on .
Look for people you can help. When you help others, they help you, and the relationship grows. Find others in your company who could benefit from the knowledge you have, and help them out.
Take a fresh look at the larger strategy. Youre employed for a reason: Your job plays an important role in some larger picture. Do you know what that is? Are you able to find opportunities to make a deeper contribution by expanding what you do? If so, youll be more valuable to your boss and the company.
Talk to people you dont normally hang out with. The holidays are a great time to mix in different circles, to find out whats going on in the bigger world. Set up some one-on-one conversations with people who have a little time to spare, and find out what theyre up to. You may just open up some new possibilities youd never thought of.
Relax. Its important to not overwork yourself – humans werent designed to work 247. Maybe youve lost touch a little with your family and friends too. So take a little time to kick back and relate with others and friends and loved ones. Your jobs important, but its not the only thing.

This is your chance to take a fresh look, to rest and rejuvenate, and set some powerful goals for 2012. Where do you want to be a year from now? What one thing would help make a big difference?

Take advantage of the opportunity.

GOP: Economy is Obama’s fault

Ben Corser — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:42:58 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans took the offensive Tuesday and cast President Barack Obama as the culprit for the economy’s persistent frailty, hoping to shift the focus away from his State of the Union address’ theme of economic fairness.

As they awaited the president’s election season speech to the nation Tuesday night, Republicans in the Capitol and on the campaign trail accused Obama of three years of higher spending, bigger government and tax increases that have left the economy stuck in a ditch.

“If the president wants someone to blame for this economy, he should start with himself,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “

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How School Choice Became an Explosive Issue

Blake Lempriere — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:56:27 +0000

Bill Cosby and Dick Morris presumably disagree about most things, so it’s instructive to note that both have officially endorsed “School Choice Week,” which began yesterday with a series of rallies and events around the country celebrating the idea of parents being able to decide where their children go to school. Indeed, school choice seems like such an obviously good idea that the most interesting thing about School Choice Week is why it exists at all.

That school choice is valuable is beyond dispute. That’s why there’s a multi-billion dollar private school industry serving millions of students. And it’s why there is a much larger system of school choice embedded in the American real estate market.

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Employment Screening Trends for 2012 Reviewed in Webcast

Ben Corser — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:48:54 +0000

For the past five years, ESR – ‘The Background Check Authority’ and nationwide background screening company accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners – has compiled a list featuring emerging and influential trends in employment screening background checks selected by Rosen. The fif

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Job Search: It’s Hard, But It’s Good

Blake Lempriere — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:31:36 +0000

In fact, he made some compelling arguments that many things are good because theyre hard. And that if they werent hard, they wouldnt be particularly good. Its because of the hard things we go through in life that we grow, learn, become stronger, develop character, endurance, and resilience. We dont grow much when things are going smooth, and easy and were not challenged. Those times may be relaxing or enjoyable in some ways, however, we dont develop much in those circumstances.

The same is true in a job search. Its not a set of circumstances that anyone wants to be thrown into. Its very uncomfortable, stressful, and awkward for most people.

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Why I Deserve A Raise

Imogen Wiggins — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:15:27 +0000

Get noticed and get promoted 1) during annual reviews, 2) when a chance for a promotion pops up, or even 3) when a review process doesn’t formally exist.

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How To Destroy Your Career

Ben Corser — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:28:00 +0000

The seven deadly sins of career building:

Laziness

Carelessness

Lying

Stealing

Arrogance

Cynicism

Self-pity

There’s more of course, but that list is a really good start.

Here’s the thing. You never intended for those sins to show up in your personal brand, but those exact things may be popping up before our eyes.

How? We see you!

On laziness and carelessness

We see what you are doing and what you are not doing. Bel

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Two Families, Two Takes on Virtual Schooling

Imogen Wiggins — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:15:08 +0000

With all the talk about online education lately, it’s clear that the vision evoked by the words “home schooling” is changing. The image of Mom and kids sitting at the kitchen table has given way to a child logging onto a virtual class from the home office.

The number of students in kindergarten through 12th grade enrolled in virtual schools nationwide has grown to 225,000 from 50,000 a decade ago—and 30% year over year since 2001, says Susan Patrick, chief executive of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a nonprofit advocacy group. Some parents choose virtual schooling to accommodate a heavy schedule of extracurricular classes or interests; others feel their children’s needs are better served outside a traditional classroom. H

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Lockheed Martin cuts 1500 jobs

Blake Lempriere — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:13:20 +0000

Lockheed Martin Corp., a company engaged in the research, design, and production of advanced technology, said today it must cut 1500 jobs in anticipation of defense spending cuts.

The jobs eliminated will be in the Aeronautics unit, a move that is expected to reduce costs and offer better pricing to customers.

Since the majority of Lockheed Martins business is with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. federal government agencies, President Barack Obamas goal of reducing defense spending by $400 million is expected to hit the company hard.

The Aeronautics unit has 28,000 employees, spread out across Texas, California, and Georgia, among others.

Those who have a higher ranking at the larger facilities will be the most susceptible, the company said.

AllHeadLineNews reports that orders for space satellites have declined.

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