Non-capitalized subject lines, an improper greeting, the use of “LOL” or any other form of Internet/text message slang, emoticons, lack of punctuation, attachments with no content in the email body, and mass marketing emails that try to be personal but fall flat.

OK, I have been guilty of doing all of the above once or twice, but 99.9 percent of the time I avoid making these mistakes that would lead my colleagues to believe I’m either lazy or just plain uneducated. While I’ve been working with the same people for more than a year now, I am still pretty low on the totem pole and should show my true professionalism at every opportunity.

So why do I get emails from colleagues positioned below and above me, or from people whom I’ve never met, that say “Hey – here you go” or “Thanks times a billion gajillion :).” I may be wrong, but the last time I checked “gajillion” wasn’t a word. And following the use of a fake word with a series of emoticons is just embarrassing, for you and me.

I’m starting to think that technology is making it too easy for us Millenials to forget we are indeed working professionals. Just because it’s OK to text a friend saying, “Hey girl, see ya in an hour,” doesn’t mean that’s also a good way to remind your client that you will meet them for coffee later.

Here are a few rules I keep in mind when sending emails to colleagues:

1. Write a subject line that actually relates to the content of the email.
2. Include a greeting. The reader’s name followed by a comma is fine and “Hi [reader’s name],” is acceptable for a more friendly tone.
3. Keep the body content short and concise.
4. When in doubt, use “Thanks, [your name]” or “Best, [your name]” to end your email. Simply leaving your email signature as a stand-alone sign off can be seen as unfriendly.
5. Before sending, read the email as if you’d received it. Delete any content that could be seen as rude or abrupt, even if that’s not your intent.
6. Be aware when you “reply all”. Does everyone on the chain need to read your response?
7. Remember that writing in all-caps is seen as yelling. If your email is important, use the high-priority button.
8. Never, ever use Internet/text slang or an emoticon. It’s like begging for someone to think of you as an uneducated, technology-consumed Millennial.

What do you think? Are my rules on point or too strict? If you have email pet-peeves, let us know!

The post Career Confession: I HATE Unprofessional Emails appeared first on Ms. Career Girl.

 Fancy sports cars. Expensive gym memberships. Messy divorces. A midlife crisis usually gets a bad rap for impulsive decisions like these.   But one of the controversial midlife crisis decisions is that of making a career change in the prime of life, or later. Nothing feels more liberating yet risky in the moment than abandoning a job you’ve responsibly held for years, if not decades, for something completely new and different.

 While the naysayers will say that it’s all well and good until you lose your health insurance coverage, the truth is that a career change late in life can be more than just an impulse – in fact, it could lead to a real breakthrough in your happiness.

 Here’s five signs that a career change later in life won’t be a Hollywood cliché for you, but perhaps the best decision of your life.

 You Bring Your Negative Work Attitude Home With You

One of the typical midlife frustrations center around intimacy issues. Yes, this can mean problems in the bedroom, but it can also mean struggling to have a meaningful conversation with your partner or spouse. This problem can even extend to children, as you try to remain relevant in their lives.

 Instead of this being a problem of age, it could actually be a problem of career choice. The attitude you carry in your work life do spill over into home life, no matter how hard you try to separate them. If you find yourself stressed out, anxious, or depressed while at work, chances are good that it’s showing up when you return to your family.

 This is a case where a career change isn’t a knee-jerk reaction but what you need to find balance and harmony at home.

 Someone Else Decided Your Career For You

Your parents don’t just influence your beliefs about the world. They can also literally set the career path that you choose to take. Maybe your father ran his own small business, and the business world felt like the only viable career option. Maybe both of your parents worked in the same career, doubling the chances of you following in their footsteps.

 Whatever it is, that influence can be hard to shake. You may not have even realized you chose that career path because of your parents until just now. That’s just how subconscious some of these major life decisions can become.

 The good news is that it’s never too late to take that step of personal freedom. In this instance, a career change could mean you finally coming out of the shadow of outside expectations.

 A Career Change Has Always Been Your Secret Passion

We all have at least one secret dream in life. It’s the one thing we won’t tell our co-worker friends, spouse, or children. Yet we carry that dream around in our minds like it’s a piece of precious jewelry, extremely fragile and liable to break at any criticism.

 If that secret dream involves a career other than the one you have, this is a sign that a new type of job is much more than a midlife refresh. A career change could finally mean giving yourself permission to have the life you always secretly believed you deserved.

 When People Ask You “How’s Work?”, You Say…

 According to a CNBC/Survey Monkey Happiness Index, 85% of people are at least somewhat satisfied with their jobs. The problem? About 30% of the incoming workforce will change jobs every 12 months, and change careers five to seven times.

 There seems to be a disconnect there. How happy can you be about a job or career if you want a new one so many times? It ultimately comes down to the difference between what we say and what we mean.

 If you find yourself putting on a good face when asked about your job but inside know that you’re telling a lie (or at least not the whole truth), then a career change could be a fundamental desire of yours.

 This is also about the time in your life when your kids are becoming adults of their own. They look to you as an example, and part of a midlife crisis can be falling under that pressure.

 Don’t you want to be able to look someone in the eye and say you what actually mean about the work you do?

 That’s what the power of a career change.

 You’ve Been Looking For Happiness A Lot Longer Than Just Now

 If the type of deep reflection and desire to improve your job situation usually reserved for middle age has been hanging with you for months or years now, then you’re looking for something much deeper than a momentary buzz.

 The longer you yearn for something more in life, and the longer you wait to get it, the harder it can be to actually believe you deserve it.

 There is a way to turn it around though. A career change could be the start, but there’s something more fundamental you can do at the same time. It is a simple daily, three-step process called the Deserving Process. It is the result of proven, observational studies around people throughout the world who found true lasting happiness – and what made the switch.

 “You Deserve It: The Missing Answer To The Life You Want” outlines the exact steps of The Deserving Process and provides online access to the free audio download of The Deserving Process too.

 Remember – you don’t have the life you deserve, you have the life you believe you deserve.

This guest post was authored by Josh Wagner

DR. JOSH WAGNER is a mindset coach, international speaker and consultant to renowned doctors and their staffs around the world. After building a successful private practice in New York City, Dr. Wagner began to shift his focus to help others achieve their goals to have richer and better lives through his revolutionary Deserving Process.

He has traveled the world helping people in over 18 countries transform personally and professionally. Dr. Wagner’s purpose is that the more people experience joy and peace of mind in their lives, the better they will influence their families, communities and the world. 

To learn more about Dr. Josh Wagner, please visit www.drjoshwagner.com.

The post Career Change – 5 Signs That it May Be More Than Just A Midlife Crisis appeared first on Ms. Career Girl.

We all have a similar goal. We want success to feel meaningful, we want our work to matter.

But it doesn’t.  And we feel stuck.  No matter how hard we hustle and grind toward success, or how much we achieve it. That’s because the problem isn’t how we achieve success, it’s how we define success. We spend our lives positioning ourselves just so, reaching for the right college, the right internship, the right company, the right promotion, the right job.  We fill all the right check boxes on all the right paths to all the right and generally accepted, externally definitions of success, and we still feel like something is missing. But sometimes it’s much more than that.

What’s Missing?

Years ago, I found myself sitting in a corner offer with a beautiful view of the park and a fancy title.  I had gotten myself to the top. But, I found myself asking, “The top of what?”

I had done all the right things.  I had wrangled my way to the fast track, I had demanded the spotlight, I had put myself smack dab in the center of the deal flow, and I had done it early enough in my career that the dividends would pay for years to come.  And I had leaned in!

I was successful.  But I wasn’t happy.

Whose Definition of Success Are You Following?

I was at the top of someone else’s definition of success.  And that’s the problem.  You can’t be insatiably hungry, or deeply inspired, or happily fulfilled by someone else’s goals. In order for your working life to feel right for you, it has to actually be right for you. Being limitless comes not from achieving externally defined success, but achieving consonance, where what you do matches who you are (or want to be).

That requires doing something different.  The first step in becoming limitless is to ignore everyone else’s definitions of success and create your own, owning how much importance you place on, and from where you derive, the four elements of calling, connection, contribution, and control. Once you know that, you can decide whether you need to change your career, change your workplace, or change yourself.

Calling

Calling is a gravitational pull towards a goal larger than yourself—a business you want to build, a leader who inspires you, a societal ill you wish to remedy, a cause you wish to serve.

Connection

Connection gives you sightlines into how your everyday work serves that calling by solving the problem at hand, growing the company’s bottom line, or reaching that goal.

Contribution

Contribution is an understanding of  how this job, this brand, this paycheck contributes to the community you want to belong, the person you want to be, or the lifestyle you’d like to live.

Control

Control reflects how you are able to influence your connection to that calling in order to have some say in the assignment of projects, deadlines, colleagues, and clients; offer input into shared goals; and do work that contributes to your career trajectory and earnings.

You can think of it in this way: until we are able to control how our connection and our contribution influence and are influenced by our calling, we will continue to be limited in the confidence we have in the choices we make and the chances we take. Understanding how these elements align for you, personally and professionally, will allow you to determine whether you need to change your career, change your workplace, or change yourself in order to become limitless.

This guest post was authored by Laura Gassner Otting

Laura Gassner Otting is the author of Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life.  Want to live a limitless life?  Take her quick quiz at https://www.LimitlessAssessment.com/ to see what’s holding you back, and what you can do about it.

The post How to Be Limitless in Your Life and Career appeared first on Ms. Career Girl.

I recently read an article in the New York Times about a woman who was trolled on Twitter for making reference to her PhD. (“Women, Own Your Dr. Titles” by Julia Baird.) The comments were so hostile she decided to add “Dr.” to her handle. Just to rub it in. The abuse intensified. Her advice, finally, was if you’ve got it, use it. In this case, use your “Dr.”  academic credential letters.

That got me thinking. I’ve had my PhD in English literature for years. But once I stopped teaching, I pretty much stopped using it and the Dr. title outside the classroom.

Why? It took me awhile to sort through the reasons.

1. My academic career—and title—have nothing to do with my writing.
2. Using titles is not only irrelevant, it’s vain.
3. Using a title is off-putting to potential readers.
4. It’s a needless distraction.

That about sums it up.

But the more I looked at my list, the more perplexed I became. Had I not worked years to add those three letters to my name? What about all those classes, the exams, the dissertation? How could I so easily dismiss them as “irrelevant,” “vain,” “off-putting,” a “distraction”?

I had to wonder if the woman who wrote the New York Times article was right. There is gender bias at work here. Women are not rewarded for using their titles whereas men generally are.

Did I stop using my title for that reason?

I do remember an incident that occurred shortly after I began working at a major telecommunications company. My PhD was certainly an advantage when I was hired in the education and training department, but a respected and well-established vice president soon made it clear that my PhD wouldn’t help my advancement. “Don’t think that’s going to impress anyone,” he said. “It just makes people think you don’t have real world experience.” I used to get that a lot in those days, a kind of education backlash. I managed to “advance” in spite of my education, but I did downplay the PhD, never used Dr., and in time my advanced degree became three letters tucked away in my personnel file.

Maybe I took that lesson with me when I began writing, publishing, and speaking. Maybe I should take those three letters out of retirement.

Before taking action, I decided to ask sister SWP author (and PhD), Laurie Buchanan about her experiences with her title. She began by telling me that she has never been trolled, if you discount those men who post pictures of themselves looking very reputable who may then begin asking for personal information. “I block this type of activity,” Laurie says.

I then asked if she had ever experienced  “doctorate shaming” which apparently is “a thing,” directed more at women than at men, according to the New York Times. Here Laurie provided some illuminating information: “I have never been disparaged or belittled for using my degree. I have observed that people (both male and female) who use ‘Dr.’ at the beginning of their name, as opposed to ‘PhD’ at the end of their name, are less well received, both online and in person.”

Hmm. I found that to be an interesting observation. According to the article, “Women regularly report being called professor, and even reverend, less than male counterparts, and research has shown that female physicians are called doctor less often than men are. A 2017 analysis of introductions of speakers at medical gatherings found that about half of the time a man introduced a woman to the group, he did not use her title, but used it for men more than 70 percent of the time.”

These are pretty significant statistics, so I put the question to Laurie, who noted that while she has had no such personal experience, she has witnessed it.

When I told Laurie the author’s conclusion is for women to use their hard-won titles, saying, “Sometimes authority should be worn lightly. But sometimes it should be brandished like a torch,” she had this response: “…while I don’t brandish my degree like a sword, I definitely use it. It’s on the cover of my books and it’s in my byline for the periodicals I write for. In my experience, credentials (for both men and women) lend credibility.

She concluded with this pearl: “Aside from gender, academics, race, economics, politics—anything—the bottom line is respect for other human beings.”

I would expect no less from Laurie Buchanan, PhD, who is a teacher and student of purposeful living and who writes about “offloading emotional baggage.” It’s pretty clear then that she has strategies for reclaiming your life—and your title.

To learn more, visit her at “Tuesdays with Laurie” where you’ll learn, “Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.”

So my conclusion? If I’m carrying around baggage from a job I held years ago, it’s time to unload. But do I need to “brandish my degree like a sword?” Maybe not, but I can certainly use it with pride whenever the choice presents itself.

Thank you, Laurie Buchanan, PhD.

# # #

This guest post was authored by Jean P. Moore.

Jean P. Moore grew up in Miami, Florida. She began her professional career as a high school English teacher and worked for a number of years as executive director of workforce development. Jean has since returned to her first loves: the study of literature and writing. Her novel Water on the Moon was published in June 2014 and is the winner of the 2015 Independent Publisher Book Award for contemporary fiction. Her poetry chapbook, Time’s Tyranny, was published in the fall of 2017 by Finishing Line Press, and her latest novel, Tilda’s Promise, publishes on Sept 25, 2018 by She Writes Press.

The post Is There A Dr. in Your House? appeared first on Ms. Career Girl.

Knowing for sure whether you’ve outstayed a job or not can be a confusing and terrifying thought process. Is taking a new job worth the risk? Will you move and wish you were back where you are now? Do you even know what direction you’d head in if you were to start looking for a new job?

The “ifs” and “buts” are something everyone experiences when considering to look elsewhere. Here are a few ways, however, to determine whether moving jobs is a good move for you.

Well, you’re thinking about a new job already

If you’ve thought about it seriously just once, it’s probably a sign you’ve outstayed a job. And if you’ve thought about it more than once, you’ve almost definitely outstayed your job. Daydreaming about being elsewhere─more so than simply thinking about golden sands and blue skies─is a pretty loud warning bell. If you no longer feel inspired where you are and you’re longing to escape to another role, your time there is up.

The “cons” outweigh the “pros”

The old-school method of drawing up a “pros” and “cons” list is often helpful when considering heading somewhere new. If the result show more “cons” than “pros,” you probably have a good indication of what your answer is. Although every worker has to accept at least a few “cons” when it comes to their job and the company they work for, too many threatens your every day; especially if particular “cons” are detrimental to a workers’ happiness and comfort.

You no longer feel stimulated by your work

Often, feeling challenged and excited by your work is an important characteristic of a role for workers. If you no longer look forward to your work or see yourself ever looking forward to it again, it’s a good idea to have a look for jobs that’ll keep you motivated and charged in the workplace.

You’re not respected in the workplace

It’s time to move on if you’re not listened to or respected at work. Maybe your concerns aren’t addressed appropriately or you feel uncomfortable because of a co-worker or boss. Alternatively, maybe your suggestions and work ideas are ignored and you’re pushed out of work that should involve you. If you feel this way, it’s likely you should look out for a company that promises to respect you and your goals. It’s also a good idea to make this a clear priority throughout the interview process.

There is no room for progression

If you’re looking to stay at a company where at least somewhere in the future promises room for progression, warning bells that suggest this will never happen should be acknowledged. Having room to grow and a chance to land a new role and a better salary is important to a lot of workers. If it’s pretty clear this job won’t provide that for you, look for a new job where you’ll definitely have chance to move up the ladder.

Your company has unethical practices

Do you find that your employer doesn’t hide that it has unethical, shady, or even illegal business practices? If so, it might be time to consider leaving and working for a company that cares about how it treats other people.

For example, your employer might constantly flounder its legal obligations to its customers or staff and isn’t a stranger to dealing with a breach of contract lawyer because of that fact. It may even claim to do things when, in reality, it has no intention of honoring such promises.

You’re ultimately unhappy

Even if you feel stimulated, respected and as though you can flourish within a company, if you’re unhappy, you’ve outstayed your job. Your career and job shouldn’t compromise your happiness and if you feel uninspired or even miserable at the thought of your 9-5, it’s time to quit feeling unhappy. No million good things about a job can top trump the feeling of unease and unhappiness.

Quitting or even thinking about quitting a job should never be taken lightly.   Knowing for sure what the best course is can be challenging.  It’s a decision, however, that’s inevitable if you have worries about the job you’re working and they can’t be resolved.

Kathryn Terry writes for Inspiring Interns, which specialises in sourcing candidates for internships and graduate jobs.

The post How to Know When You Have Outstayed a Job appeared first on Ms. Career Girl.

If you’ve ever had a bad day at work – you know, one of those awful days where everything is getting on your nerves, the idea of just quitting might pop into your head. And if you work in an especially toxic environment, day in and day out, then this desire to quit will grow to the point of becoming the obvious thing you should do. But quitting a job is also a big decision. It shouldn’t be taken lightly. And it especially shouldn’t be based on a particularly bad day or a strong, knee-jerk reaction.

Look at the bigger picture. Has your job ultimately been serving your career development in a positive way? What is it currently offering you? Do the benefits of quitting outweigh the negatives? And what does your future in this role and in this company look like?

To help you answer these questions, here are three signs you should quit your job.  Or at least consider your options.

Your boss is bringing you down

 There’s nothing worse than a boss who micromanages, who constantly checks up on what you’re doing and directs everything that you do. With a boss like this, it can be hard to find breathing space and periods of uninterrupted quiet where you can really focus without distraction.

Also, the fact that you’re not trusted to work independently might affect your self-esteem in the workplace. No one wants to feel like a machine just taking orders. When you don’t have control over your work, when your autonomy, creativity, and initiative are ignored, your job can become stifling.

In addition, you may have a boss who is always unfairly criticising you, yet never giving you praise when it’s deserved. If they’re angry a lot of the time, this is especially difficult to handle.

When your boss – and management in general – is making your job a living hell, then is it worth sticking around?

You can’t stand your co-workers

 We can’t like each and every one of our co-workers, just as we can’t get on with everyone we meet outside of work. In some jobs, we find ourselves surrounded by easy-going people. Yet in others, the complete opposite holds true. And if you can’t find a single co-worker who you can connect with, who helps to keep you sane, then your job becomes very tiring and frustrating.

Toxic co-workers are those who love to gossip, talking about people in a negative light, and making snide remarks about them. You may also have co-workers who are hyper-competitive, rather than co-operative, who will do anything they can to elevate themselves and put others down. Some people feel comfortable with this kind of office politics. But if you can’t stand it, then you shouldn’t have to.

You’re being asked to do too much

Whenever you apply for a job, you should read the job description in detail.  Find out as much as you can about the role in the interview. Then, when you get an offer, it’s important to read your contract thoroughly.  Be sure you understand exactly what your responsibilities and duties are.

If you’re happy with what’s being offered, then it will seem like the job is a great fit. But sometimes, reality turns out to be very different from our expectations. Your hours might officially be 9 to 5, yet you are consistently being forced to work well into the evening. You may also be doing all of this overtime without getting paid for it.

Even when you head home or leave the office with a spring in your step on a Friday, your boss still expects you to respond to emails. This might apply when you’re on holiday as well. So you can never really switch off and relax.

You may also have to do a whole bunch of tasks that were not advertised. Which isn’t necessarily something to complain about, since this is actually quite normal. However, if you’re being overburdened with new and unexpected responsibilities, this can be extremely stressful. Be honest with yourself about whether a job like this is sustainable for you.

The prospect of leaving a job can undoubtedly be a source of self-doubt and anxiety. This is why it helps to have a game plan – and preferably a new job lined up – before quitting. The best thing about doing a job you hate?  It motivates you to find a job that you love.

Sam Woolfe writes for Inspiring Interns, which specialises in sourcing candidates for internships and graduate jobs. You can find more of his work at www.samwoolfe.com.

The post Three Signs You Should Quit Your Job appeared first on Ms. Career Girl.

We all know the saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Well, sometimes motherhood invents a new necessity for moms. In my case, my entire business was inspired by motherhood. Before starting FIT4MOM, I was the General Manager at a multi-million dollar health club. I loved working in the fitness industry but struggled with having to leave my baby each day to go to work. So I created an alternative career path for myself that fit who I wanted to be as a mom and through FIT4MOM, I was fortunate to also be able to pay it forward to 300 other mompreneurs with a business opportunity that supports every stage of motherhood.

Through this journey, I have met hundreds of women who made huge career changes after becoming moms. For some, they realized that the hours and demands didn’t support motherhood. For others, they were inspired to do something different, to make more of an impact.

Here are three stories of incredible women who have also taken a leap of faith and made inspiring pivots in their careers:

 Erin DiNicola, FIT4MOM Franchise Owner in Charleston

 Prior to becoming a FIT4MOM owner in Charleston, SC, Erin was a United States diplomat serving our country overseas in Vietnam and Afghanistan. She served in many posts for the Department of State, including Acting Spokesperson for the Africa Bureau. In this capacity, she spoke to media about the State Department’s position on issues related to Africa, set up press roundtables and arranged high-level interviews for White House and State Department senior officials, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State John Kerry and former President Barack Obama.

 Erin’s path to FIT4MOM ownership started when her dear friend and successor in Afghanistan, Anne, was killed while serving.  On her last day in Afghanistan, Erin was running late to meet the armored convoy that would take her to the airport to return to the U.S.  Erin quickly hugged Anne on her way out and told her that they would catch up when she was also back stateside.  Nine months later, Anne was killed by a suicide bomber at age 25 while delivering books to children. They would never have that chance to catch up and Erin was devastated at the loss of her friend. It was a life changing event.

For years, Erin had been entirely focused on work and on advancing her career. But now she felt called to shift focus from collecting professional accolades to building the family life that she had always wanted, but had put off for so long. Erin married an active duty Army officer, and soon after, she was pregnant. When Erin’s husband received orders from the Army to transfer to a different state, she decided to take a temporary leave of absence from the U.S. Department of State.

Erin discovered FIT4MOM when started taking classes when her son was three months old. She became an instructor and taught Stroller Strides, FIT4BABY and Stroller Barre for FIT4MOM. She decided to pursue FIT4MOM as her full-time career and officially resigned her commission from the State Department. A day later, she purchased FIT4MOM Charleston and she’s never looked back.

 “Women are the backbone of our society and FIT4MOM’s low cost to franchise entry and extensive back-end support ensure that we have the tools and resources that we need to be successful as business owners, women and as moms,” said Erin.

Every morning, Erin wakes up to her family.  She then goes to work where she meets so many beautiful, strong moms and shares her passion for motherhood and fitness. On a daily basis, she is an example of living each day to its fullest and never being afraid to redefine yourself.   

Liz Bentley, founder of Liz Bentley Associates

Liz Bentley is the founder of Liz Bentley Associates, a consulting firm specializing in leadership development programs for both individuals and companies. Drawing upon   her background in psychology, 10 years of experience in sales and management, and as an athlete in competitive sports, Liz has a unique appreciation of mindset and the power it has to change patterns of behavior.

Before her company and before motherhood, Liz worked in television selling advertising. When she had her first child, Teddy, she was working in sales at Conde Nast. It was intense and very stressful. Liz managed 15 offices and had 45 sales people reporting to her. She eventually resigned because it felt like she had two jobs: her “work” job and her “mom” job. She felt strongly that she needed to learn how to do the mom job. So for a while, she chose to stay home and did all the mom things. But after her third baby, she missed being in the professional world. She knew there was something out there that would be the right fit for her new life, but didn’t quite know what it would look like.

“Then my friend told me about how he worked with a coach.  It changed his life and in that moment, everything changed for me. I kept hearing similar stories about these high level executives hiring coaches. As an athlete, I always had coaches and as a psych major, I loved to study human beings. I heard NYU had a great coaching program so I signed up, got my degree and started my coaching business.”

Liz now works with C-Suite corporate executives and entrepreneurs within companies of all sizes, including Microsoft, Hearst, Wells Fargo, PricewaterCoopers, and many more. She helps organizations boost their leadership, transform their culture, plan for leadership succession, and onboard more effectively.

Liz loves the quality of her life as a working mom. She’s out in the world. She has interesting stories. Her kids are are so motivated that two of them want to work for her. She feels that work enhances her ability to be a good parent, and that her example will instill in her children to do what they love. She is now the breadwinner of the family. Lots of women do what they love but many don’t do what they love and financially thrive.

Jill Simonian, TheFabMom®

Before becoming a mom, Jill worked as a full-time entertainment journalist and television host. This included long hours (nights and weekends too) and travel on a moment’s notice. It was a fast-paced lifestyle that required focus and hustle. She loved it and actually freaked out when she discovered she was pregnant because she knew that chapter of her career could not continue (with sanity) with a new baby.

Jill still works in media and television, but on a more manageable scale and on her terms. Now, she is a hybrid of many things she loves to do. She is the founder of The Fab Mom.   She is  a writer for various parenting websites; a TV Personality; and an author. Her debut book for first-time moms was released last year — The FAB Mom’s Guide: How to Get Over the Bump & Bounce Back Fast After Baby.

Jill began her shift into blogging and digital media the month before she delivered her first baby in 2010. She attended digital media conferences and started networking for opportunities.  Eventually she landed her first on-camera job in the online mom niche. From that point on, she blogged during baby’s nap time, ramped up her social media and tried to learn as much as she could about this new industry that was rapidly growing online at the time.

“I love that I get to be at home with my kids in the afternoons, that I can take them to and from school without too much stress about ‘getting to work on time,’ and that I’m  the first one they talk to when they get in the car to come home,” said Jill.

Jill feels her children are thriving and more confident not only because she is available as a mom, but also because she is modeling what a self-made businesswoman looks like — one who is in control of how much she works and when.

Shifting careers is not always easy to do, but these women prove that there is no one path to take. What felt right yesterday may not work today. With 70% of moms working full time, more than ever women are looking to blaze their own trail.  Sometimes that trail needs to take another direction. It’s never too late to make a move. How has your own vision of success shifted as you’ve entered new stages of your life?

This guest post was authored by Lisa Druxman

Lisa is the founder of FIT4MOM, the nation’s leading company for pre and postnatal health, wellness, and fitness programs. FIT4MOM has created business opportunities for moms nationwide, with more than 300 franchisees and 1,000 locations across the U.S.

In addition to leading her team at FIT4MOM, Lisa is a noted speaker, author, podcaster and powerhouse of energy. A self-proclaimed mom boss, Lisa is passionate about paying it forward and empowering other women in life and business.

She has authored The Empowered Mama: How to Reclaim Your Time and Yourself While Raising a Happy, Healthy Family.

Druxman earned her Master’s degree in psychology  from San Diego State University. She created the weight management program, L.E.A.N. Mommy® (Learn Eating Awareness and Nutrition), which is also the name of her first book.

Druxman has written on business for Entrepreneur and on motherhood for magazines such as Fit Pregnancy, Shape and more. Druxman has appeared on the Today Show, CNN, Access Hollywood and Home & Family, to name a few. 

Druxman lives and relishes the FIT4MOM mission statement every day.

“Helping moms make strides in fitness, motherhood and life.”

She resides in San Diego with her husband, son and daughter.

The post Three Women Who Have Made Successful Career Changes appeared first on Ms. Career Girl.

Working remotely is growing in popularity across the nation. In fact, 3.7 million people work at least part-time from home. Since 2005, the number of work-at-home employees has grown by 115 percent.

The option may be available for you too. The volume of employers who allow telecommuting has grown 40 percent over the last five years, although it makes up a very small percentage of employers in the U.S.

If your boss doesn’t allow work from home flexibility, you might think about starting your own business or doing contract work. After all, 86 percent of employees say that they work better when they work from home.

There’s certainly a lot of freedom that comes with working remotely, but it’s not always as simple as you might think. In fact, there’s a dark side to working remotely you should know before jumping in.

You must be self-disciplined and self-motivated.

Although deadlines and time-tracking don’t disappear when you leave the office, there’s no one at home to watch and make sure you accomplish your work. If you don’t have the motivation or self-discipline to stay focused, working from home will be a challenge.

“People who do it well are entrepreneurial,” says Gary Swart, chief executive at the online work site oDesk. “They work well independently. A person who works from home should be someone who understands how to structure their time and knows how to communicate effectively. Since many stay-at-home jobs require regular email/text/phone communication, these jobs are best suited for people who are able to write/speak in a clear and concise manner.”

These habits can be learned, and there’s certainly a learning curve for those working remotely for the first time. However, be prepared for the changes.

Your friends, family, and neighbors might not understand.

Work-life balance will be a struggle, especially when you’re surrounded by people who don’t understand. People might ask you to babysit, run errands in the middle of the day, make appointments, and participate in other unscheduled surprises. Getting people to understand that being home doesn’t mean you’re available is a timeless challenge.

You might wonder where your social life has gone.

No more lunch dates with the office gang or going out for drinks with your co-workers on Friday night. You’ll talk to fewer people, and your work friends might not be there for you.

It’s nothing personal. It simply becomes difficult to connect with people when you don’t see them every day. If your social life is something you love, working from home might not be for you.

It’s easy to get less than 2,000 steps a day.

The average employee who works outside the office will get between 7,000 and 12,000 steps a day, indicating a relatively active lifestyle. When your daily commute consists of 10 steps from your kitchen to your office, you’ll be significantly less active than you were before.

“Not everyone who works from home gains weight, but I did,” says Chonce, a freelance writer and author of the blog My Debt Epiphany. “Working from home can create a sedentary lifestyle, which can lead to health problems now and in the future. Even though I love the work I do, I know it’s not right to lose time and end up sitting at the computer each day. This is why I try to stand when I can, take walks during the day, stay hydrated and head to the gym a few times a week.”

Promotions are more difficult to achieve.

In an MIT Sloan Management Review, researchers found that in-office workers were perceived as more reliable and responsible than those who worked from home. “Those who spent time with management outside of working hours got an even greater benefit, with bosses being 25% more likely to describe them as ‘committed’ and ‘dedicated,’” the report stated.

Since you’re not present, your work might go unnoticed. You might be twice as productive as your in-office coworkers, but your lack of physical presence could stand in the way of a promotion.

You might have to do your own taxes.

Some people become stressed at the idea of taxes. If you become your own boss or do contract work, you’re usually in charge of paying quarterly taxes, which is a big surprise if you weren’t planning for that throughout the year.

Some remote workers also have the challenge of taxes in foreign countries if they work there for any reason. Before you start working remotely in any location, talk to your accountant about preparation to minimize your tax burden.

The post Six Reasons Working from Home Isn’t Always Great appeared first on Ms. Career Girl.

College is finally over after all the heaps of assignments and exams. You managed to scale through in spite of the late night bashes and parties in the spirit of youthful exuberance. Now you’ve gotten a degree and a pretty “nice” job, but like with most things in life, you’re still not satisfied.

Nothing excites you about the job. You live everyday struggling to accomplish your tasks, barely making it through to the next day. There’s no excitement about going to the office. No motivation to carry on your duties. No feeling of fulfilment. And it’s like you’re not well compensated.

You do almost the same thing everyday. You wake up, go to work, come back late, then spend the rest of the day either attending to emails from work, or dreading what the next day will look like.

So, it’s either you’re trapped with a job that you hate or you’re not enjoying work at all. No doubt, you’re working to earn a living, but, it still remains whether you actually have a life to live.

While you ruminate on the idea of turning in your notice, you may also want to understand why you hate work so much.
Is it that your job really sucks or you’re not just cut out for it?

Knowing where the hate is coming from will help you identify the problem and make some needed adjustments. Or better still, it will give you an idea of the kind of job that will be more suitable for you.

With this in mind, here are five reasons why you hate work so much:

You are uninterested

Nothing is more worrying than having a job you don’t like. Though to anyone close, it may look like you’re doing well, but within you, you know there’s nothing interesting about your work. There’s no zeal, no drive, no determination, and absolutely nothing exciting to look forward too.

It seems everyday is the same-nothing new; just the same boring routine that saps life out of you.
There are no new challenges to stir and engage your mind. Just the same initiatives and tasks that you could do even while asleep. The same team, the same department, the same role, the same office, the same everything!
Why wouldn’t you get bored to the marrow?

You are not well compensated

When you are not adequately compensated, it’s becomes harder to cope with your daily activities because you already know your reward is small compared to your input. No one likes to work where they’re not receiving good pay and benefits. Even when they do, the quickly grow to hate the job because the poor remuneration.
It’s even harder when the paycheck is not enough to pay the bills. Still you work your fingers to the bone everyday.
No wonder, you despise your boss so much. Don’t worry, your resentment is justified.

Your boss doesn’t appreciate your effort

It’s also possible you’ve got a boss that doesn’t have the slightest idea of the amount of input you’re putting into the company. You don’t get any feedback for job well done and even when you do, it’s not encouraging. It’s more like you’re merely being used by the company to achieve their goals without any recognition or acknowledgement.

Though your pay is good, you still feel unappreciated because you are not getting the attention you deserve. You don’t receive any kind gestures from your boss. It’s like everyone is too busy to notice the great stuffs you’re doing. Even when you accomplish a difficult task, no one rewards or congratulates you. It feels like you are not even there.

You’ve reached the top of the ladder

Another possible reason why you hate your current job may be that you’ve gone very far in the company. It’s either you’re now occupying a top managerial position and there’s no more step to climb in the ladder. Or it could be that you’ve to wait for a very long while before you get another promotion. Whatever the case may be, you can easily get frustrated with work when reach a block in your career. Since there are no more goals to reach, no heights to climb, no new opportunities to explore, you will begin to see everything as pointless. And soon this leave you feeling unmotivated and unwilling to continue.

You don’t like the job

When passion is absent, motivation becomes a big problem. There’s no way you will like a job that you’re not motivated to do. You won’t have anything to look forward to. It’s just like you go through the same routine everyday, expending all your energy and time. You’ve eventually become displeased with everything and so you hate the work.
Even if your job is not something you would have loved to do, there should be particular aspect that gets you excited or else you will get bored to the mind. If the only reason you’re working is to get a paycheck at the end of every month, then it’s obvious you got no fire in the belly. It’s either you’ve chosen the wrong job or you’ve lost your passion.

This guest post was authored by Rebecca Vaxon.

I have a master’s degree in Economy, but the writing was always my passion.

I’m looking for new inspiration and be glad to bring something interesting and useful in lives of my readers.

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Image Credit.

The post Five Reasons Why You Hate Work appeared first on Ms. Career Girl.

National Boss Day is October 16th, and it’s the perfect moment to highlight female bosses.  But how about a #girlboss who made a career change from courtroom to catwalk?

Lori Riviere runs one of the top fashion PR agencies out of her Manhattan office managing PR for major fashion and accessories labels, including becoming one of the few agencies that manages shows for the official on-site shows at New York Fashion Week. As the owner of an award winning fashion PR agency with offices in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, people are often surprised to find out that Lori Riviere used to be a civil litigation attorney. She proves that you really can make a career change. I sat down with Lori and asked her a few questions about her challenging career path change.

When did you decide that you were going to leave the practice of law?

I knew immediately when I began to practice law that it wasn’t the right career for me. I didn’t fit in with other lawyers and was more excited about planning my outfit for the day than the court appearances I had scheduled. The fashion industry was where I wanted to be, but I didn’t really know where to start, so I started a fashion blog as a creative outlet. This was back before fashion blogging became what it is today and before social media came into play.

Back then, you wrote about the outfits you purchased from your favorite retailers and took selfies in your hallway mirror of your outfit of the day. There weren’t many of us out there and the whole blogging thing was really just in its infancy stages. Blogging itself wasn’t really a career path, but I thought it might give me ideas or open a few doors, and I found that it did.

How did you make the transition from law to fashion PR?

I had volunteered with fashion week, worked for an event planner and put together marketing plans as a freelancer for companies to make extra cash. After college, I worked as a marketing consultant for a consumer products company for a year before law school, so I had some background in PR, marketing and event production, but I had no contacts in fashion.

I had been practicing law for about 4 years, so my resume didn’t put me in a position for someone to offer me the type of job I knew I was capable of doing. Using my blogging platform, I began to freelance and take on small projects to begin to fill my resume and form connections. I worked with local boutiques and big brands alike. I started hosting events and eventually began putting events together for brands from soup to nuts, including PR, and did all of this while still working full time as in house counsel for an insurance company, so I worked 16-18 hour days.

Originally, the goal was to get my resume strong enough to go work for a fashion PR agency, but eventually I realized that my work ethic outmatched most and if I really wanted success, I would need to do my own thing. I tried to negotiate a part time work situation with my legal job, but they didn’t bite and so I started my agency with my laptop on my coffee table in my living room.

How did you grow your agency into what it is today with offices in Miami, New York and Los Angeles?

 I knew when I started the agency that other agencies would look better on paper than me, so I would compete by working harder and creating an agency that could provide answers and services for anything a fashion brand would need from producing a lookbook to working with bloggers. That meant working 18 hour days and working weekends and used any extra time I had to learn more about emerging practices like blogging and celebrity seeding or researching to find the absolute best contacts and not solely relying on the database subscription serves that all PR agencies use.

I was really blessed fairly early on to meet Nicole Doswell.  She is my most senior team member and basically runs the business with me, and I see her as a partner in the business and try to ensure her compensation reflects that. As we grow, I focus my energy on finding really good people who are hard workers, genuinely care about the work and operate with honesty and integrity.

I am also committed to having them share in the success of the business in terms of compensation, and I truly believe that is what sets us apart and will help us continue to grow. The energy you send out comes back ten fold, so I focus on doing amazing work and creating an awesome work environment. I find that with that everything sort of falls into place.

What advice do you have for someone looking to make a career change?

 I think a career change is possible for anyone, but you have to be ready to put in the work emotionally, physically and financially to make it happen. I think emotionally, you need to prepare yourself for rejection and people not believing in you. Often, women who look to make a career change are overachievers who are used to being sought after and at the top of their field, but when you enter a whole new industry you find yourself having to prove yourself in a way you never had to before and that can be hard.

I am thankful that my mom really taught me about the whole idea of positive thinking and sending out good energy because I find it to really propel me forward and make things happen that I absolutely never thought possible. You also need to be prepared to work longer hours and harder than you might have had to before.

I was not in a financial position to just quit my job and pursue my passion in the beginning, so I basically worked two full time jobs until I could afford to focus solely on my fashion PR business and form my agency. No one is going to hand you your dream, you have to work for it, but I think if you are willing to work hard and send out positive energy, you really can do anything.

The post #GIRLBOSS Inspiration For National Boss Day appeared first on Ms. Career Girl.