J.T.: Overcoming the “party” stereotype is going to require a concerted effort. For starters, try to de-emphasize the nightclub aspect of your work and play up the transferable skills, such as sales, customer service, budgeting, operations, hiring and training.

DALE: It isn’t just a matter of those skills being transferable, but of being translatable. You need to spend time with people working in your target jobs to learn their workplace jargon. Further, it isn’t just skills, but style – the look and dress, and etiquette and camaraderie. They all go into the answer to the inevitable question, “Will Jason fit in?”

J.T.: You could benefit from a career coach or other professional help in getting your resume, LinkedIn profile, elevator pitch and other career tools to resonate with corporate America. Further, you might get help mapping out a networking strategy to develop new contacts who can open doors for you and get you the exposure that Dale is talking about. The most successful career changes happen when people leverage their relationships to get recommended for jobs, getting screened in rather than screened out.

DALE: Said another way, it isn’t just a matter of possessing transferable skills, but of you taking hold of those skills, along with your materials and relationships, and reinterpreting them. You can’t expect prospective employers to figure out how they transfer; you have to make the transfer for them.

Feel free to send questions to J.T. and Dale via e-mail at advice@jtanddale.com or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10019.

© 2012 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Transferable skills image from Shutterstock

Is it enough to go to college?

Maybe not if you have to commute, but if it simply meant logging on to your school’s website, you could complete a simple reading assignment in the amount of time to watch a television show. An estimated 6.1 million college take online courses, according to a report by the Babson Survey Research Center. The flexibility of online school has allowed working individuals to rise ahead, procuring a better position at a current company or even transitioning into a better working environment.

Online education has really changed the game for military families and single parents as well. For these students, taking courses over the Internet really saves time and even money.

Students Arrange Their Own Schedules

The major benefit of online courses is you have no strict time to be online for a lecture. Working students consider this to be the real amazing quality of online school. The only deadlines that you really have are when to turn in assignments. However, you can decide when to study and complete your regular class work. Exams will usually have a time limit for completion, or if you are taking a hybrid course, you may to visit a campus to take the exam, which you will know about in advance with a syllabus.

Courses Taught Online Give You More Freedom

In the time it takes you to drive to school and get to a classroom, you could have already completed an assignment online. That’s the major benefit that students see when they first sign up for courses. Online classes take out the commute, adding more time to actually learn. However, classes also focus more on solitary work and learning without an instructor-led lecture. Although it’s becoming increasingly more popular for professors to post lectures online with videos for their online students.  An online instructor may also be more accessible than a professor with office hours at a college. There are also more degrees being added to the online education forum.

(YourDegree.com has an updated list of the bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees that are currently being offered at several schools online.)

You Receive Feedback and Grades Faster With Online Courses

Once you turn in an assignment, such as a quiz, it can be graded immediately and you receive your score, so you know exactly how well you did. In a physical classroom, you’re going to wait a week or two to get back any test or quiz.  Students basically take out the inadequacies of some teachers with online assignments. They can study, turn in homework, and receive a grade simply.  Most online courses come with a simple-to-use interface as well, complete with e-mail, discussion boards, assignment page, profile pages for other students, video tutorials and news updates. Some schools even integrate interfaces with Facebook, so you know exactly when quarter grades are posted or when you have a new assignment.

You’re in charge of doing the work, so you have to be self-motivated and organized. This will save you more time as you continue to work online. Students need to set up a planner and keep separate folders on a computer for online classes to hold assignments, quiz grades, syllabi and other important documents. You are also in charge of asking for help if you do not understand an assignment or reading, so make sure that you can talk to your professor when you have time.

One of the drawbacks for online school is if you do not have your own computer or stable Internet connection. You won’t save as much as time if you do not have your own online access at home. However, even if you take your classes at a cyber café or public library, you can still create your own schedule. There are many online schools that will also offer financial aid to help pay for a laptop.

Many institutions are adding new online courses and degree programs, finally understanding the plight of working students. Online courses have attributed to higher enrollments with 65.5 percent of chief academic officers calling online education “critical” to an institution’s long-term strategy. As more colleges recognize the needs of their student body, working students can take advantage of their free time and earn a degree.

Online education benefits image from Shutterstock

In fact, according to a white paper recently released by Kenan-Flagler Business School’s MBA@UNC, a groundbreaking program which delivers their MBA online to students globally, virtual teams average 10 to 43 percent more productivity than co-located groups. But virtual teams function differently than co-located groups, and they need effective management to realize those productivity statistics.

Here are five tips that can help you lead your virtual team to victory:

1. Choose Your Team Carefully

It takes a particular type of individual to rise to the challenge of working in a virtual team, according to MBA@UNC’s white paper. Those who demonstrate a flair for independence, consistently take initiative and communicate well with others will excel on a virtual team. People who lack those qualities may become distracted from their work or may fail to overcome the challenges of long-distance communication with their team. Choosing individuals who have already demonstrated these qualities will ensure the whole team’s productivity.

2. Use Technology Appropriately

A sophisticated and quickly evolving set of tools for online communication offers endless possibilities for collaboration. However, matching the right tool to the right job is vital to harnessing the power of each technology. Utilizing a mixture of synchronous technologies (video conferencing, chat rooms) and asynchronous technologies (email, message boards) will allow team members to work on different schedules while being well prepared for online meetings. It also helps to remember while groundbreaking advances in technology can profoundly change the way we do business, older technologies need not be forgotten.

While your team will surely benefit from eight-way video conferencing, an old fashion phone call will sometimes be an easier and more direct way to answer a question.

3. Train Your Virtual Team

How do you ensure that every member of your virtual team will know the right tools for each task and how to use them? Provide each team member with specialized training on working in a virtual team.

The fast pace of technological advancement requires that team members stay up to date on how to use the technologies appropriate to their particular tasks, understand productive organizational structures and are familiar with established team processes. Training that addresses the most relevant cultural differences, such as differing norms in group decision-making processes, can also prevent communication problems before they arise.

4. Establish Formal Collaborative Roles and Processes

Because of cultural differences and the particular challenges of online collaboration, it is necessary to explicitly formalize certain processes that you might not regulate in a traditional office. Establishing a uniform decision-making process, clearly defining distinct roles for each team member and creating a clear schedule of deadlines are all doubly important for managing virtual teams. These measures will help to prevent misunderstandings and build trust among team members.

5. Respect Geographical and Cultural Differences

Collaboration between team members in different countries on different continents can lead to obstacles if individuals do not approach each other with respect, understanding and particular pieces of basic information. Some of these differences are obvious, while some are more nuanced.

For example, it is common courtesy for team members to consider each other’s time zones when scheduling video conferences. Cultural differences in group decision making processes may also require greater subtlety to navigate, as some business cultures tend to make decisions during informal pre-meeting conversations, while others tend to practice a long-term consensus building process.

This article was written by Social Media Outreach Coordinator Harrison Kratz on behalf of CAREEREALISM-Approved Partner, 2tor — an education technology company that partners with institutions of higher education such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to deliver their accredited MBA program online.

Virtual team leader image from Shutterstock

They are because of my teeth. I constantly have cavities and have been without dental insurance. I do not have the cash to pay for work I need. Because of 1800s-looking teeth, I do not like to smile. We all know that employers judge based on a person’s looks, so what can I do? - Sarah

J.T.: You are wise to be concerned. Looks do matter. BUT confidence and personality matter more. I don’t expect you to flash a grin, but have a good closed-lip smile, make good eye contact and make sure your eyes are smiling. Let hiring managers see that you’ll be an enthusiastic, upbeat employee.

DALE: I’d like to join in on that pep talk, I really would. But if I understand what you mean by “1800s teeth,” a good attitude is not enough. Assuming you’re competing for jobs at a level a master’s degree would suggest, the organization is going to see you as representing the company to customers and suppliers, and they’ll care about the impression you make.

So I’d urge you to find a dentist who can offer a temporary solution, or find a payment plan that will cover enough work to let you show a confident smile. Otherwise, you’ll severely limit your options, and that would be so unfortunate.

J.T.: Of course the best option would be to get some work done. Given the statistics on how much more attractive people are paid, it even would be a good investment. But if that’s not possible, you can still go into the interview happy and positive.

DALE: If so, one way to keep from being self-conscious is to focus on one thing: making the interviewer smile.

Feel free to send questions to J.T. and Dale via e-mail at advice@jtanddale.com or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10019.

© 2012 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Appearance matters interviewer image from Shutterstock

J.T.: All it takes to build a bond is the slightest connection. I once worked with a woman who was my polar opposite. Every time we were together, I got an uneasy feeling. Then, one day, a book fell out of her bag. I had just read the book and loved it. “So,” I cautiously inquired, “what do you think of the book so far?” She responded: “I love it. I’m reading it for the second time.” I immediately launched into a conversation with her, and from that day forward our relationship changed. She became one of my closest colleagues, and we are still in touch today, years later.

Dale: Those outside-of-work interests are helpful, but what’s unique about your situation, Chris, is social media is something that actually can be directly useful to your work and career. I urge you not to say, “It takes all kinds,” and shrug off the most important cultural trend of recent years. Instead, explore where your interests overlap with social media, perhaps finding a blog or Facebook pages on, say, hiking that would start to pull you in.

J.T.: Here’s a thought: You could turn it around and ask your new colleagues to help you. They’ll appreciate your openness and your desire to get their input, and you’ll be on your way to forming new and better relationships.

Feel free to send questions to J.T. and Dale via e-mail at advice@jtanddale.com or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10019.

© 2012 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

3D men carrying social media text image from Shutterstock

Is it enough to go to college?

Maybe not if you have to commute, but if it simply meant logging on to your school’s website, you could complete a simple reading assignment in the amount of time to watch a television show.

An estimated 6.1 million colleges take online courses, according to a report by the Babson Survey Research Center. The flexibility of online school has allowed working individuals to rise ahead, procuring a better position at a current company or even transitioning into a better working environment. Online education has really changed the game for military families and single parents as well. For these students, taking courses over the Internet really saves time and even money.

Students arrange their own schedules.

The major benefit of online courses is that you have no strict time to be online for a lecture. Working students consider this to be the real amazing quality of online school. The only deadlines that you really have are when to turn in assignments. However, you can decide when to study and complete your regular class work. Exams will usually have a time limit for completion, or if you are taking a hybrid course, you may to visit a campus to take the exam, which you will know about in advance with a syllabus.

Courses taught online give you more freedom.

In the time that it takes you to drive to school and get to a classroom, you could have already completed an assignment online. That’s the major benefit that students see when they first sign up for courses. Online classes take out the commute, adding more time to actually learn.

However, classes also focus more on solitary work and learning without an instructor-led lecture. Although it’s becoming increasingly more popular for professors to post lectures online with videos for their online students.  An online instructor may also be more accessible than a professor with office hours at a college. There are also more degrees being added to the online education forum.

YourDegree.com has an updated list of the bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees that are currently being offered at several schools online.

You receive feedback and grades faster with online courses.

Once you turn in an assignment, such as a quiz, it can be graded immediately and you receive your score, so you know exactly how well you did. In a physical classroom, you’re going to wait a week or two to get back any test or quiz. Students basically take out the inadequacies of some teachers with online assignments. They can study, turn in homework, and receive a grade simply.

Most online courses come with a simple-to-use interface as well, complete with e-mail, discussion boards, assignment page, profile pages for other students, video tutorials and news updates. Some schools even integrate interfaces with Facebook, so you know exactly when quarter grades are posted or when you have a new assignment.

You’re in charge of doing the work, so you have to be self-motivated and organized. This will save you more time as you continue to work online. Students need to set up a planner and keep separate folders on a computer for online classes to hold assignments, quiz grades, syllabi and other important documents. You are also in charge of asking for help if you do not understand an assignment or reading, so make sure that you can talk to your professor when you have time.

One of the drawbacks for online school is if you do not have your own computer or stable Internet connection. You won’t save as much as time if you do not have your own online access at home. However, even if you take your classes at a cyber café or public library, you can still create your own schedule. There are many online schools that will also offer financial aid to help pay for a laptop.

Many institutions are adding new online courses and degree programs, finally understanding the plight of working students. Online courses have attributed to higher enrollments with 65.5 percent of chief academic officers calling online education “critical” to an institution’s long-term strategy. As more colleges recognize the needs of their student body, working students can take advantage of their free time and earn a degree.

Online courses professionals image from Shutterstock

After we get a rejection letter and recover our balance the tendency is to shy away from that company, those people and maybe even that type of job. It can and often does, change our behavior and often not in a way that serves us well. Don’t let that be you.

Let’s look at a rejection letter first and then what your actions and behavior should be following a rejection letter.

What does a rejection letter really mean?

If you made it through all of the screening process as a candidate, you are obviously well qualified for the position you pursued.

It also means you’re doing a lot of things right in your job search to get this far. Keep doing the right things.

A rejection doesn’t mean you were a poor candidate, it means they felt more aligned with someone else.

You never know how difficult the decision may have been between you and someone else. They had to make a decision and it could have come to something like a coin toss simply so they could move forward. They had to pick someone.

It means they thought well of you and despite any negative thoughts you might have about them, they’re feeling just fine about you.

The door on future opportunities is not closed. In fact, now that they know you so well, you could be considered for other openings. It’s more productive to utilize the applicant flow you have rather than dumping all the resumes and interview information than to start over again the next time.

The fact that the company went so far as to send you a rejection letter is a sign of a well run company.

So often these days, the job search is a black hole of communications. If they thought enough of their candidates to do this level of follow up, you want to keep them on your radar.

What should your behavior be?

If you loved the position, hiring manager, and company then keep working at getting hired for a position.

Just because they rejected you for this position doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be perfect for the next one. It’s not a door closer.

You now have a list of “insider” contacts that you can use to your advantage.

After you let the dust settle for a while, circle back around with your contacts and let them know you want to be considered for other positions now or in the future. Showing some spunk and confidence is alluring and memorable.

Keep your perspective about what this means.

A rejection letter shouldn’t cause you to change what you are doing unless this letter makes it a cool dozen you’ve received. If you have repeatedly got to the final round of interviews and not chosen, then rethink how you might be presenting yourself.

Sure, you’re going to feel rejected for a while after you get a rejection letter. Go indulge and yourself today then get over it and keep doing all the right things that got you this far.

Rejection letter image from Shutterstock

In all, that lasted 30 months. I then returned to look for work in 2008, just when the job market hit rock bottom. Since then I have been unable to find work. I would like your advice on how best to word this in my resume. -Tony

DALE: Well, Tony, I hate to say it, but we need to face facts: There is no best way. No unsolicited resume showing you’ve been out of the work force since 2005 is going to make it into the “To Be Interviewed” stack.

In IT, perhaps more than any other field, being out of the work force for even half a year can be a major concern for employers. They worry your knowledge and skills will have fallen behind.

And that is no idle concern – I just looked at a chronology of tech events and saw the last year you were employed, 2005, was the year that the first YouTube video was uploaded and Pandora was launched.

You already were out of the work force when the first tweet was tweeted and when the HD DVD, the iPhone and the Wii were introduced. And I’m looking at just consumer products, not all the deeper IT transformations that were going on.

J.T.: I hate to say it, but even if you’ve been keeping current, hiring managers are going to have doubts, and you are going to have to sell against negative assumptions.

The answer, as it is so often, is networking. The more conversations you can have about current technology, the better the chances they’ll see you are up to speed and are capable of handling the job.

I suggest you start by going back to former employers. Reconnect with managers and peers to see what they’re working on now.

DALE: You may be able to re-immerse yourself by doing project work, or helping out friends or co-workers. Being able to list current experience on your resume will bridge the experience gap while giving you recent work to talk about during your job search conversations.

J.T.: Make it a goal in those conversations to find out what the latest hot topics/projects are. As you become able to converse knowledgeably about the latest changes, you can position yourself as up-to-date in spite of your hiatus from the IT world.

Feel free to send questions to J.T. and Dale via e-mail at advice@jtanddale.com or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10019.

© 2012 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Career break key image from Shutterstock

J.T.: You’ll have to be honest and say you were let go because you were upset about a transfer you didn’t want.

DALE: And there you’ll be, telling your story and feeling good about how honest and candid you are, and meanwhile the hiring manager is hearing an alarm go off and a voice cry: “WARNING: TROUBLE AHEAD! PROBLEM EMPLOYEE! ABORT INTERVIEW!”

J.T.: No, before that alarm goes off, you add: “I learned a valuable lesson from that experience. I shouldn’t have been upset when they proposed the transfer. Instead, I should have found a way to share my desire not to be transferred in a calm and positive way. I realize now that there’s a better way to deal with these issues.” That way, they’ll hear that you have grown from the experience and are capable of learning from your mistakes.

DALE: Carry a stopwatch, Allen, because I want to know how fast they end your interview. Unless, that is, you are in a position to be very choosy about employers and can afford to wait for one that has a policy to never transfer employees without their consent.

You could try screening for such employers by saying something like, “I want to find a place that respects employees and would include them in decisions like transfers.” Even in that situation, I see no reason to confess that you had a meltdown or tantrum or whatever it was. Just say that you opposed a transfer.

Perhaps you even can find a positive side of it, saying that you were part of a team you were really committed to, or that the other store was a place where you couldn’t do great work.

J.T.: Well, Allen, I have more faith in hiring managers than Dale, but I agree that there are many versions of any event. One is how much you learned from what happened. If you can devise multiple versions of events, test them against this goal: to make a hiring manager respect you and want you on the team.

Feel free to send questions to J.T. and Dale via e-mail at advice@jtanddale.com or write to them in care of King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10019.

© 2012 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Fired image from Shutterstock

Success Tweet: Act. Feel the fear and do it anyway. That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self-confidence.

I subscribe to Sharon Melnick’s online newsletter. In a recent post, she made several interesting points about confidence.

• Confidence with help you be flexible. You will consider all alternatives and options.
• Confidence will help you follow through on ideas that you might otherwise talk yourself out of.
• Confidence will help you be persistent – and hold on you your vision for your life.

She’s right. Confidence is the foundation of all success. Without it, you will have a difficult time succeeding.

To build your self confidence, you have to be optimistic, face your fears and surround yourself with positive people.

Fear is a great confidence and success killer. “A Message to Garcia,” written by Elbert Hubbard, is one of the best essays on personal responsibility ever written. Hubbard has some great things to say about facing your fears.

“The greatest mistake you can make is continually fearing that you will make one.”

Read that again. Those 14 words are powerful! They are some fundamental career advice.

If you let your fear of making a mistake stop you from taking action, you will never take any action and your fear will ruin your life and any chance of creating the career success you want and deserve.

In 1988 I was ready to start my career success coach and speaking business. I was afraid. I was worried that I wouldn’t succeed. I had always worked for large companies. I wasn’t sure I knew exactly what to do to run a successful career success coach business.

Nevertheless, I looked my fear in the eye, quit my job and moved forward. Twenty-two years later, I’m still at it. My fears were unfounded – but they were real. I’m glad I faced them and acted.

Fear is persistent. It doesn’t go away. It will wait for one of your weak moments and then it will strike. If you let it get the best of you, you’ll never move forward.

Fear most often manifests itself in procrastination. When I find myself procrastinating, I always ask myself, “What are you afraid of here, Bud?” Identifying what I fear always help me defeat it. Once I identify what I am afraid of, I can take positive steps to move forward through my fear and on to success.

Make a list of your doubts and fears. Decide what you can do to overcome them. Then act. Take at least one positive action – not matter how small — every day to overcome your doubts and fears. Even if these actions don’t work out as well as you hope, you will be on the road to overcoming your fears and creating the life and career success you want and deserve.

Remember procrastination feeds fear; and action cures it. The choice is up to you. I choose action. My best career advice says you should too.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are self confident. Self confident people don’t let their fears get in the way of their success.

They follow the career advice in Tweet 47 in Success Tweets, “Act. Feel the fear and do it anyways. That’s the definition of courage, and a great way to build your self confidence.”

Identify your fears, and then do what you need to do to move past them. Action is the great antidote to fear. It puts inertia on your side. Once you are moving forward, you are likely to continue moving forward.

It’s the first step that is the hardest – and scariest. If you want to beat your fears, you need to take the first step — act, and then keep on going.

Use fear build self confidence image from Shutterstock