Desktop Snacks

Your choice of snacks affects your diet in a significant way, more than you can imagine, even. You may be mindful of what you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but your vendo tips can be ruining your healthy lifestyle.

Blame it on the hectic schedule in the office, or on the accessibility of junk food (around twenty steps to the vendo), but unhealthy snacking is prevalent in most workplaces. It's common among those in executive jobs as much as it is among those in the rank and file positions. Accountant jobs, IT jobs, we all need healthier choices. There is no excuse to compromising health, so start revolutionizing your workplace snacking with the following healthy alternatives: 

• Fruits. If you are prone to getting hungry in between breakfast and lunch, or lunch and dinner, grab a couple of fruits on your way to work. Change it up and make it interesting by bringing a different fruit every day. If you stick to bananas, you might get bored and you might feel that you are punishing yourself through your snacks. Fruits are packed with the necessary calories that can sustain you till the next meal. What’s more important, they are undeniably more nutritious than that colorful and attractive bag of chips.

• Whole wheat crackers and jam. Or peanut butter! Combine your favorite jam, marmalade or dip with any whole wheat cracker, and you instantly get healthy goodness without compromising taste. Foods made with whole wheat are filling, yet low on the calories and on unhealthy ingredients.

• Nuts. If you can’t resist crunch, go for nuts instead of chips. Nuts are rich in heart-friendly nutrients and are also filling on the tummy. Almonds are the best ones when it comes to nutrients such as calcium and potassium, and are also very tasty. Look for organic nuts in shops, for optimum quality.

• Popcorn with parmesan cheese. Buy any plain popcorn and add parmesan cheese to it to achieve a tasty and nutritious office snack. Instead of using processed and powdered cheese flavoring, parmesan has fewer calories and is more nutritious. It also tastes more posh, so if you want some gourmet taste on your snacks, go for this treat.

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Wise Moves to Boost Your Career Part 2

In the previous entry, we listed some wise moves that you can do to ensure that your career is safe no matter what happens. In this follow-up entry, we continue with the tips and encourage you to be conscious in safeguarding your career. These tips apply to both those who are looking for a career change and to executives who are happily comfortable in their current job. Take note also that these can be used for both financial jobs and banking jobs, even to those who are doing contractual work. So take your notes and boost your career now:

• Strengthen your online brand. If you are in a position where you think you will stay for quite a long time, then now is the best time for you to build your online brand. This is because you will be focused on whatever you’re doing right now, and you can reflect it on your online presence. You’ll never know when your Facebook or LinkedIn profile will be seen by a recruiter who will give you the best offer of your career.

• Revise your resume. If you are a contented executive, your resume may have been sitting stagnant for a very long time. Update it with your recent accomplishments, even for just the purpose of saving all your career milestones. Just like what was mentioned above, you’ll never know when opportunity will come knocking at your door, so you better be ready with a resume that is up to date and usable. And isn’t it much better to update your resume while you continue to accomplish great things in your current position, rather than creating it when you’re out of a job?
• Look for ways to be known in your industry. Networking is one of the buzzwords in the job market today, and for obvious reasons. It is now easier than ever to build a group of contacts that you can tap. Sure, you can have a thriving network online, but you can actually go beyond it. Why not contribute to a magazine or a newsletter? Attend corporate events such as conferences and celebration parties.

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Wise Moves to Boost Your Career Part 1

It is wrong to think that only those who are dissatisfied and looking for a executive job should undertake steps that will help them have a better career. The best thing to do is to stay aware of where you are in your career and consistently do things to ensure that you are firmly planted on the ground. Sure, you may have the most satisfying accounting job today, but you can never tell how your circumstances will change. Here are some wise things that you can do to keep your happy employment running and your career as safe as it can be:

• Return phone calls from recruiters. Never mind that you’re not looking for a job right now. It is just right to show respect to recruiters who see you fit for a certain job. Moreover, it would not hurt to know some opportunities available for you. And if you have a friend looking for a job, you can refer the recruiter to them – plus points in networking for you.

• Have lunch with contacts. They may be friends from your college or colleagues from your previous job. It’s refreshing to catch up with acquaintances, and it is also a very effective way to strengthen your network.
• Have someone mentor you. Again and again you see this advice, and for good reason. A lot of people miss out on a lot of benefits that there is to getting a mentor. What sets apart a successful executive is his thirst for more knowledge and his never-ending desire for growth. Being around people who are successful in what they do can do a great deal in your development. You don’t have to spend every day with them; quick coffee breaks with them once in a while are definitely better than no mentoring at all.
• Mentor somebody. Pay it forward, so they say. Learn and acquire more by teaching somebody what you already know. You will surely find fulfillment in it, and you will definitely be of help to up and coming executives. The people you mentor may be the ones who will help you achieve success.

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Maximize Your Social Network

By now, you should know that networking plays a very important part in an executive’s career life, regardless of what industry you are in. You may be handlingfinance jobs or banking jobs, and need networking as much as managers do. And perhaps one of the easiest and also most misused networking tools is social media. Here are some tips that can help you make the most out of your social networking strategy.

Type of network

This will all depend on your preference. Do you want to build a closed network, where only those whom you know personally will be added to your group of contacts? Or do you want an open network, a freer group where you can add those whom you think can contribute to your career growth, regardless of whether you have met them personally or not.

Tip: Naturally, a more open network will invite in more contacts and will increase your opportunities.

Network strategy

Aside from the type of network, you also need to come up with how you will package yourself. Think of it as a brand. What are you and why do you deserve to be referred, hired? Is it because you have garnered awards, or is it because you work for the best company in the industry? Highlight one specific area, be it experience, skills or recognitions.

Another important aspect that you need to make cohesive is the time and effort that you want to give to your social networking efforts. Will you check it once a week; update it with a blog post? Or is it simply an area where you will interact with others on a day-to-day basis.

Tip: The more time you allot to social networking, the better your online reputation will be. The key is being visible.

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Questions You Should Ask the Interviewer

One of the most overlooked things in an executive job interview is the last part where the interviewer asks the applicant “Do you have questions for us?” How many times did you answer with a “Yes” to that question? Not a lot, I suppose. But having a handful of questions for your interviewer will help you a great deal in evaluating whether or not the position is really right for you. Moreover, it will improve the interviewer’s perception of you! Talk about plus points. So here are important questions that you should ask an interviewer:

What are the biggest responsibilities in this job?

Get to know what you will have to handle if you get the position by asking about the huge responsibilities that will be in your hands. For instance, not all accounting jobs are the same. You need more details, so ask away. This will also give you an idea of how pivotal your position is, both with regards to your career and to the company that you’re joining.

What are the most important skills or qualities needed for this job?

This will give you an idea of whether or not you have a high chance of getting the job. if the interviewer answers with the skills that you’re excellent in, then you can be more hopeful about getting hired. However, if what they mention are those that you haven’t quite mastered yet, you won’t set your expectations too high.

What will the first task be?

The first task will give you a peek into what your day to day activities would be. If the first task is a full-on project that needs to be started right away, you would already know that they are in need of someone to fill in the position, and that your first days I the company will be super busy. However, if tasks are part of a routine that repeats every month or so, then you need to think about your disposition. Will you not get bored in such a kind of work?

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Career Enhancers

No matter what season you are in your career, and regardless of whether you have a banking job or a finance job, it is essential that you enrich yourself in other areas of your life. And this is important not because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, it’s because almost everything that you do outside work has some effect on how you conduct yourself at work. Your next big idea can even come from an activity you do on the weekend!

So get off your seat and take action to actively enhance your career through activities outside work:

• Eat out with friends and colleagues. Organize a lunch-out with your college friends who work in the same area as yours. Taking a break with people you don’t work with can be a breath of fresh air, giving you much more energy and enthusiasm when you get back to work in the afternoon. Another advantage of this is that you might get referrals from friends and colleagues who work in other companies. Reconnecting with old co-workers can translate to reconnecting with future co-workers.

• Join a professional organization. Or a couple of professional organizations, if you have the time to attend meetings and gatherings. These organizations exist to promote camaraderie among professionals in the same industry or line of work, so it may do you some good to be encouraged by being reminded that you are in a good position and what you’re doing is something worthwhile. Again, this is a good networking strategy, but more than that, it will enrich you and your career life.
• Accept freelance jobs. Why not? If you have the time to take on a project or more, go ahead! It will add to your portfolio and will hone your skills as a professional. More importantly, it will of course turn in more cash to the bank, so again, why not? Just make sure that your freelance work will not negatively affect your day job. If you can a lot an hour or more for it, then it’s okay to accept freelance jobs. You should also pad your time well so that deadlines are realistic and even loose.

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Stick to Your Sweet Spot

If you have been working for quite a while now in the Singapore jobs market, you know for sure what you’re good at and what your weaknesses are. Naturally, you’d veer away from jobs that will require you to exercise your seemingly non-existent skills. But what if you were offered a high level job, but you’d have to leave your sweet spot and try much harder to do something you’re not good at?

What is the sweet spot anyway? It is where your strengths, weaknesses, differences and passions all seem to meet in a perfect point. As a result, you work much more excellently, you perform better, you excel without much effort, and you are happy. Most of the time, maybe because of circumstance but usually due to lack of career planning, executives end up in jobs that are far away from their sweet spot and conduct a Singapore job search aimlessly. As a result, professionals are burnt out and tired of coming and going to the office.

So how can you make sure that your career path is on the right track, that is, along the lines of your sweet spot? How can you guarantee yourself and your career life that you will never be in the dilemma of accepting an irresistible offer of working a high-paying and high-level position that you know will not make you happy?

• Go ahead and learn, but go back to your sweet spot. Sure, you need to get out of your comfort zone from time to time, just so that you can learn and stretch your limits, but that does not mean that you need to spend majority of your time outside of your sweet spot.
• Stay humble. Your ego will definitely be boosted if you’re offered a job that is one or two notches higher than your current position, both in terms of leadership position and of salary or compensation. The usual response would be to accept the offer, but if you think about it, doing so may even be a detour from the right career path. Whenever you are presented with such an opportunity, learn to take a step back and look at the whole picture, in relation to the career direction that suits your skills, expertise and competence. Will taking an attractive job offer help in accelerating your way to the top? Is it really all about position? Set your ego aside and study your options well.

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