Entries by First Sun Team

Your #Career : 5 Reasons You’re Not Hearing Back from #Recruiters (Prospective Company)……There is So Much About the Recruitment Process that is Beyond Any of your Control. Control the Parts of the Process that you Can, and Take the Rest in Stride!

Not hearing back from recruiters can chip away at our confidence and motivation to continue a job search. Rather than getting discouraged, let’s look at some common reasons recruiters might not be calling you back and discuss your possible course of action to see better results.  1. Your Resume Your resume is the first critical step to […]

Your #Career : 7 Ways To Make It Easier For #Recruiters To Skim Your #Resume …Recruiters Rarely Read your Resume from Start to Finish. Follow these Tips in Order to Grab their Attention Right Away.

It’s easy to think that after all the work you’ve put into perfecting your resume, recruiters will at least spend the time thoroughly reading it from start to finish. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case. Recruiters are generally very busy.  Resume-writing blogger and long-time recruiter Steve Wang says, “During my more busy weeks, sometimes I […]

#Leadership : #WorkBalance – I Did a 30-Day Decluttering of my Online Life — and It Made me Much More #Productive ….The Three most Important Lessons I Learned & some Brief, Practical Tips for How to Apply Them to your Own Life.

Over the last 30 days, I participated in Cal Newport’s 30-Day Digital Declutter Experiment. Nick Wignall attempted to cut back on his phone usage for 30 days. The experiment led to higher productivity and more creative thoughts. By deleting certain apps off his phone, Nick realized that he didn’t miss social media. The aim was to omit […]

#Leadership : How I Learned To Worry Productively ….You’re Not Going to Stop Worrying, So you Might as Well Learn How to Make it Work for You.

We’re in a golden age of tracking: We track our steps, our sleep, our time on Facebook, and other sites we deem “productivity killers” (looking at you, Instagram). But one thing we still don’t track or think about much: the amount of time we spend worrying. It makes sense–it’s not like a wrist tracker or Google […]

Your #Career : 4 Things Every #JobSeeker Worries About (And What To Do About Them)…Every #JobSearch is Different, but Most are Stressful for the same Reasons. Here’s How to Keep your Cool and Think Strategically No Matter What.

Kicking off a job search? Or still slogging through one? Until you’ve got an offer in hand, you’ll probably be nursing a few worries and concerns. Dealing with uncertainty is one of the main challenges of any job search, and sometimes it can even derail one. Knowing how to cope with some of the most persistent […]

Your #Career : Do This To Write A More #EmotionallyIntelligent #LinkedInProfile ….Don’t just List Out Skills Associated with Emotional Intelligence. Here’s How to Adapt a Technique from Psychology to appear More Approachable on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a great place to network and look for jobs, but a lot of people’s profiles feel stiff and standoffish–at least compared with other social media platforms. We talk all the time about the rising value of emotional intelligence in the workforce, and there’s lots of advice on how to show it off on a job interview. […]

Your #Career : The Emotionally Intelligent Way To Cold-Email People (If You Must)…People Don’t Love being Contacted Out of the Blue. So you Need an Opening Line that Puts your Recipient Front and Center. Here are Five Ways to Craft One.

I get about 10 cold emails a day. Most are from PR firms who know I’m a Fast Company contributor and want me to write about their clients. If the first line fails to draw me in, I hit delete; if I like the sound of it, I’ll read on. Same goes for cold phone calls from organizations […]

#Leadership : Work Smart- The Smartest Ways to Use Email at Work…What Research Tells us about Taming your Inbox, When to Use All Caps, Whether to use Emoticons, how Quickly to Respond to Messages—and much More.

Email has become so ingrained in our workday life that we rarely give it a second thought. Perhaps we should. Researchers have been putting a laser focus on how we can be smarter about using email at work, and they have come up with surprising insights—from the best way to tame an overflowing inbox to […]

Your #Career : How To Ask Someone To Refer You For A Job (And Not Irritate Them)…Sometimes you Don’t Have any Insider Connections to your Dream Company. Don’t Let that Stop You from Asking for a Referral.

You probably know that referrals are the best way to get jobs.  As someone who works with a lot of students going through the job search, I’ve collected more data points on what types of messages work well, and what messages don’t when you’re asking for a referral. Let’s talk about the cold message–when you […]

Your #Career : 3 Signs It’s Time To Ask Your #Boss For That #Promotion …The Timing of your Ask is as Important as How you Ask. Here’s a Checklist to Know if the Moment is Ripe.

You already know why you want a promotion: It will confirm what you’ve already accomplished in your role, validate your work and work ethic, and open paths for bigger and better projects. Ideally, it’ll also mean more pay. But there’s a difference between wanting a promotion and being ready for it. In order to put your […]