Four Tips for Finding a Job After Law School

/in /by

You were accepted to one of the nation’s top law schools, made it through all of your classes and passed the bar exam. The hard part is over, right? Not so fast.

Even though the job outlook for lawyers has improved in recent years, finding a job after law school isn’t as simple as you might think. You need to make your applications stand out and increase your chances of finding a job soon after graduation. Follow these four tips to do just that.

  1. Highlight Your Skill Set
    Law firms might get hundreds of applications for a position, and you need to make sure your resume highlights skills that others might not have. In addition to listing your internships, show off your expertise in other valuable areas.Do you have project management experience or did you oversee your crew club’s budget while an undergraduate? Let potential employers know! Also, list relevant writing projects and published articles that exemplify your ability to write for the lay reader, an important skill set for any new lawyer to have.
  2. Network, Network, Network
    Sometimes the old saying still holds true: It’s not what you know but who you know. Join professional associations, tap into resources from your alumni network, reach out to acquaintances on LinkedIn and ask professors for assistance making connections in your desired field.If you’re applying to a large firm or corporation, take advantage of social media and search Facebook for friends who also might work there — a recommendation can go a long way. Make networking a habit early in your legal career, and it will serve you well long after you’ve landed your first job.
  3. Expand Your Interests
    One of the realities of the changing legal landscape is that new lawyers will often need to wear many hats. While your specialty might be in one area, you could end up working with clients across different niches.The key to being successful is keeping an open mind.Look for ways the different law concentrations intersect and how you can hone your skills — even if you’re not working on the cases you’d like to be. Contract law and marriage law, for example, share similarities and can allow you to flex your recently acquired law school muscles and help your new firm meet its needs.
  4.  Alternate Route
    If you’re not finding your dream job, you might be looking in the wrong place. The traditional path of applying with a firm after graduation is falling by the wayside in some areas.Many young lawyers are expanding their job search past firms. Legal consulting is one avenue many new lawyers are pursuing. Others are discovering the many job alternatives available to those with a Juris Doctor.

 

At Decton Staffing Solutions, we’re always looking for talented legal professionals for temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire positions. Apply today!

Pursue a Job in the Light Industrial Industry?

/in /by
The term “light industry” generally refers to manufacturing processes that produce smaller goods for consumer use. In comparison with heavy industry, light industrial manufacturing processes require fewer amounts of raw materials, relying more on partially processed materials. Examples of goods that are produced via light industrial manufacturing include clothing, consumer electronics and household appliances. What Types of Light Industrial Jobs Are Available? Light industrial jobs are typically found in warehouses, factories and other manufacturing facilities. The types of light industrial jobs can vary greatly from one company to another. Examples include:

  • Picker/Packer — Pickers work in a warehouse environment. The job entails filling orders and packing them for shipping.
  • Shipping/Receiving — This job function involves preparing and loading goods for shipping and processing incoming orders that are shipped from outside suppliers or vendors.
  • Forklift Operators — Forklift drivers operate lift equipment in a warehouse or manufacturing plant, which is used to load and unload goods and transport them around the facility.
  • Production Line — Line workers perform a specific, often repetitive function in a manufacturing process such as assembly.
  • Maintenance — Maintenance workers are responsible for repairing and maintaining equipment and machinery used in the manufacturing process.
  • Quality Control — QC workers inspect finished products prior to packing or shipping to ensure they comply with predetermined quality standards.
  • Palletizing — Palletizing is a material handling process where goods are stacked on wooden platforms called pallets, which are then loaded onto trucks for shipping.

Benefits of a Career in Light Industry

Many light industrial jobs do not require special skills or a college degree, which makes them suitable for individuals who may be entering the workforce for the first time. They also provide the opportunity to develop skills and traits that can lead to career advancement opportunities in the future. For instance, production line workers learn the importance of functioning as part of a team.

Individuals who perform well in light industrial jobs and take training to develop their managerial skills are often able to move into the supervisory ranks as well.

Ideal Characteristics for Light Industrial Workers

When staffing industrial jobs, employers generally prefer candidates who possess the following characteristics:

  • Manual dexterity — Many positions require you to work well with your hands and possess excellent hand-eye coordination.
  • Physical strength — Some jobs require you to lift/move heavy objects.
  • Ability to follow directions — Light industrial workers must be able to take instructions from supervisors.
  • Attention to detail — Light industrial jobs such as assembly and quality control require close attention to detail in order to prevent mistakes that cause defective products.

Decton Staffing Services provides industrial staffing solutions for companies throughout California, Arizona and Nevada. Contact us to learn more about our available light industrial positions, or submit our online application today.

Construction Job Communication Tips

/in /by

Communication Failures on a Construction Jobsite

When the jobsite feels chaotic and disorganized, you can probably pin the blame on this likely culprit––miscommunication. Failure to communicate can ultimately lead to serious jobsite accidents, project rework, and employee problems. The construction industry has established processes for communication over the years, but the various groups involved on a construction site come and go at different times and often have different priorities.

Effective communication is critical for collaborative work. According to Andrew Dainty, high levels of communication are needed to:

  • Achieve coordinated results
  • Manage activity
  • Motivate employees
  • Understand the needs of the workplace

As a contractor, if you are not meeting these goals, you need to determine where communication is breaking down and potentially endangering the project. These are some of the common communication mishaps found on jobsites: 

Not Listening

Can you tell how many workers are actually listening during those daily field crew meetings? If you don’t immediately capture their attention, they disengage until it appears you are finished. Why might that be?

  • They are in a hurry to complete a task
  • They are confused but don’t want to ask questions
  • You don’t give them a chance to ask questions
  • They don’t feel able to speak up about jobsite issues
  • They just can’t hear over the jobsite noise
  • There is a personal conflict

Delayed Notifications or Follow-up

If you don’t tell workers about an issue before it happens, they can’t be proactive. If you say you will look into something and never follow up, workers may stop coming to you.

Communication requires a level of trust; if you state you will take action and fail to do so, you are breaking that trust. You will lose an important element of the line of communication within your group and on the jobsite, which could lead to unreported conditions or ad hoc solutions created outside of the process.

If you don’t tell the site supervisor about the delay in transport for the remaining steel panels, the supervisor can’t reschedule workers to come at another time or work on another area. Everyone ends up waiting around and wasting time.

If the crane operator says people are ignoring the “no-walk” signs and you say you will look into it, someone can get hurt if you don’t follow up on the issue quickly. The crane operator may then decide that it isn’t worth asking you to do anything else and report you to OSHA.

Technological Problems

While email, voicemail, and texting have simplified communications in some ways, these activities have caused communications to become fragmented in others. Private group communications also limit access to information and create silos of activity and information. One group has one mandate, and that puts another out of the loop. Soon collaboration falls apart and everyone works in silos, isolated from others.

To combat this, everyone should have real time access to documents where comments and revisions can be made and viewed by all. There must be one streamlined method of communication that is updated with project information in real time for all to see or these one-off methods of communications become more harmful than helpful to project success.

So, What Happens When Communication Fails?

Employees may misread management decisions or react differently than expected. Managers may not understand employee needs. Both result in lower performance and higher worker turnover. 

Some misunderstandings result in rework, which could range from simply replacing a few lights to breaking up an entire concrete slab and performing a new pour.

Other miscommunication can result in safety violations, accidents, injuries, or death. A worker at height did not learn how to use his harness correctly because he did not understand the trainer. Another misses the message about an active crane area. There are hundreds of ways to get hurt or damage equipment on a construction site if you do not hear the reasons for why you need to be careful.

Solving the Communication Problem

The first step in resolving communication problems is recognizing you have them in the first place. Ask for feedback about what you communicated, especially in face-to-face situations. Have the other person repeat back to you what you said to make sure the information was received correctly. Pay attention to the other person’s reactions and look for indications that they are listening. 

Automate your communications whenever possible to provide real time updates via text or voicemail. Utilize software with version control histories during drawing revisions, and logs of document access and changes. Other good areas for auto-notifications include:

  • Changes in or expectations of severe weather 
  • Delays in shipping and transport of expected materials
  • Scheduling changes due to the unavailability of a particular sub that day

Customize your notifications to go to the right people, depending on the message. Limit them to those who need to know. If workers receive too many notifications, they may start to ignore them. 

The best option for eliminating your communication gaps is to invest in a software platform with a dashboard feature to monitor the status of a variety of areas on a single screen. If needed, you can dig into any details and clarify instructions with the people involved. 

A construction jobsite is no place for misunderstandings––too much is at stake. Clear communication not only reduces rework and mitigates accidents, it can also significantly increase the efficiency of the construction process. 

Figure out your communication failures, learn from them, and devise a way to keep everyone in the loop on everything from changes in deliveries to how the weather will impact the day’s schedule. 

Better communication also builds better teams, and enhances worker retention and attitudes at the jobsite.

Measuring Risk Construction Insight

/in /by

Measuring risk in 2017, Construction insight!

Think of the insurance industry as your personal guide to forecasting the future climate of the construction industry. Tracking the insurance industry’s trends can give us a better understanding of the kinds of changes and risks that are to come in our industry to stay one step ahead of the game. 

On January 25, Marsh, insurance broker and risk management firm, held a webcast covering the risk environment in 2017 for companies and investors. Technology topped the list of areas seeing great change.  

“Tech is going to play a critical role in years to come. We’re going to see advances leading to greater economic productivity, innovative healthcare solutions, climate change solutions, and more,” explained Michael Rodgers, West Zone leader, Marsh Multinational Client Service. 

Areas requiring companies to exercise more diligence include robotics and artificial intelligence. These two technologies will lead to job losses for both blue and white collar workers. They are already raising questions about the liabilities companies will face as their use becomes more mainstream. 

As more of construction’s critical business moves to the cloud, companies should consider their levels of risk if they were disconnected from the Internet, and consider mitigating or insuring. 

Some of these concerns come from the industry’s increasing use of the technologies found in self-driving cars. Construction uses many of the same global positioning systems for placing locations and mapping. It also uses computer vision technology in autonomous or semi-autonomous equipment. These technologies pose unique liabilities that are crucial for construction companies to consider. If, for example, two pieces of autonomous equipment get into an accident, who is liable? Is it the manufacturer? Or is it the software developer who wrote the code?  

While very broad definitions of artificial intelligence could include software that uses algorithms to deduce the best materials for a foundation under specific soil conditions, the AI on the very near horizon comes much closer to human “thinking,” augmented by computing power. 

Examples include:

  • Model-based estimating
  • Energy modeling and prediction
  • Predicting structural damage from seismic events
  • Site and urban planning

As AI continues to interface with the core processes of businesses, it will begin to operate in areas that increase risks to individual privacy, collaboration across teams, recruiting, and daily operations. When AI begins making humanlike judgements that people rely on when making decisions, the risk scenarios expand quickly.

Trending Coverage

Property insurance is staying buyer-friendly, and there are new entrants to the market, said Duncan Ellis, Marsh’s US Property Practice leader. Ellis said he expects the marketplace to remain competitive in 2017, but predicts the rate of reductions will level off. 

Insurers are monitoring terrorist activities across regions looking at past, present, and potential future terrorist activity. In the U.S, property insurers are continuing to offer terrorism policies with broad coverage and competitive pricing. But, policy pricing will reflect a particular area’s exposure to terrorism. 

Ellis said it’s a good time to try to lock in favorable premium prices currently offered in the property insurance market. Look at multi-year aggregated and non-aggregated deals as well as alternative structures such as parametric insurance models.

Inland flooding is also continuing to be a loss leader, so companies should consider their exposures, look at modeling results, and use parametric non-indemnity to cover exposures.

The Cyber Challenge

“Cyber has long been viewed as a third party privacy event, meaning the theft of sensitive information that’s sold or used on the dark web,” said Ellis. “Cyber is moving now to be more viewed as equally important from a first party point of view, especially when looking at time element coverage such as business interruption, and or contingent business interruption…”  

Ellis explained these types of losses are coming without physical events, marking a significant change. Historically, claims were triggered by physical events causing physical damage leading to the business not being able to continue its operations. 

Cyber policies, and balloon cyber policies generally cover malicious network attacks relative to Internet service providers, but do not address third party suppliers of products that get compromised and can’t supply the mission-essential products the insured need to continue operating. There are endorsements for first party issues that can be added to all-risk programs, and some insurers include wording to cover first party cyber events within their policies. 

The cyber insurance market remains favorable for buyers, and is expected to continue in 2017. The greatest risks lie with companies that hold a significant amount of third party data, such as retail and healthcare.

As more of construction’s critical business moves to the cloud, companies should consider their levels of risk if they were disconnected from the Internet, and consider mitigating or insuring.

Workers Compensation 

“With such a competitive landscape insurers are finding it more and more difficult to secure the rate increases that they’d like to get,” said Stephen Kempsey, Marsh’s U.S. Casualty Practice leader. “The growth for the carriers needs to come from new business, so as a result, insurers are continuing to expand their appetite, and even some of the more challenging risks may have multiple suitors vying for their business in 2017.”

He emphasized, however, that factors in each state will affect insureds’ renewals. He cited difficulties stemming from court rulings in Florida as one example. Another factor affecting rates is limited marketplaces which are continuing for:

  • Large employee concentration risks
  • Professional employer organizations
  • Monoline placements
  • Workers compensation risks related to adverse experience

Kempsey also said the changing workforce is capturing more attention of insurers. Remote workers and independent contractor status remain under close watch by insurance companies.

General Liability Stays Favorably Priced

The general liability marketplace remains favorable for people buying insurance. Classes of business that will find challenges in 2017 include construction in New York because of labor law claims, new business models like those in the sharing economy, residential real estate, and companies with wildfire exposure. 

Kempsey also pointed out that insurers are paying closer attention to policy wording related to exclusions. New technologies used in business cause insurers to transfer risk related to unknowns, to other policies. He cited cyber-related exclusion as one example where insurers are transferring those risks to cyber policies instead of leaving them in general liability. Insurers are also excluding drones, production of genetically modified organisms, and traumatic brain injury.  

Auto continues to be the most challenging of the primary general liability lines. The frequency and severity of auto losses mean that insurers are not writing policies for certain risks, like long haul trucking. Better rates are possible by purchasing multiple coverages from one insurer. Sharing economy transportation claims are being looked at more closely to determine when a claim belongs to a personal auto policy or commercial policy. Autonomous vehicle coverage is another gray area in terms of assigning liability.  

While the excess casualty lines are generally favorable for insureds in 2017, there is an exception for very large umbrella policies where some insurers are reducing their exposures. To counter, insureds might need to add new partners to their towers, or change existing structures.    

Regulatory Remains Uncertain

There’s a lot of uncertainty about what a Trump presidency will actually mean, but there are a number of specific issues that unquestionably will have to be addressed,” Spore said. “The bottom line is while we can speculate about Trump’s administration and future direction, the reality is that in many ways the practical consequences in the change of administration remains to be seen.” 

He said there is a strong possibility the judiciary will shift, leading to more conservative outcomes in cases. Besides, the Supreme Court vacancies, there are many vacancies in the federal judiciary. Cabinet appointments and other key administrator appointments will also affect the insurance regulatory landscape. 

Job Site Communication Tips

/in /by

When the job site feels chaotic and disorganized, you can probably pin the blame on this likely culprit––miscommunication. 

Failing with communication on a job site can ultimately lead to serious job site accidents, project rework, and employee problems. The construction industry has established processes for communication over the years, but the various groups involved on a construction site come and go at different times and often have different priorities.

Effective communication is critical for collaborative work. High levels of communication are needed to:

  • Achieve coordinated results
  • Manage activity
  • Motivate employees
  • Understand the needs of the workplace

As a contractor, if you are not meeting these goals, you need to determine where communication is breaking down and potentially endangering the project. These are some of the common communication mishaps found on job sites: 

Not Listening

Can you tell how many workers are actually listening during those daily field crew meetings? If you don’t immediately capture their attention, they disengage until it appears you are finished. Why might that be?

  • They are in a hurry to complete a task
  • They are confused but don’t want to ask questions
  • You don’t give them a chance to ask questions
  • They don’t feel able to speak up about job site issues
  • They just can’t hear over the job site noise
  • There is a personal conflict

Delayed Notifications or Follow-up

If you don’t tell workers about an issue before it happens, they can’t be proactive. If you say you will look into something and never follow up, workers may stop coming to you.

Communication requires a level of trust; if you state you will take action and fail to do so, you are breaking that trust. You will lose an important element of the line of communication within your group and on the job site, which could lead to unreported conditions or ad hoc solutions created outside of the process.

If you don’t tell the site supervisor about the delay in transport for the remaining steel panels, the supervisor can’t reschedule workers to come at another time or work on another area. Everyone ends up waiting around and wasting time.

If the crane operator says people are ignoring the “no-walk” signs and you say you will look into it, someone can get hurt if you don’t follow up on the issue quickly. The crane operator may then decide that it isn’t worth asking you to do anything else and report you to OSHA.

Technological Problems

While email, voicemail, and texting have simplified communications in some ways, these activities have caused communications to become fragmented in others. Private group communications also limit access to information and create silos of activity and information. One group has one mandate, and that puts another out of the loop. Soon collaboration falls apart and everyone works in silos, isolated from others.

To combat this, everyone should have real time access to documents where comments and revisions can be made and viewed by all. There must be one streamlined method of communication that is updated with project information in real time for all to see or these one-off methods of communications become more harmful than helpful to project success.

So, What Happens When Communication Fails?

Employees may misread management decisions or react differently than expected. Managers may not understand employee needs. Both result in lower performance and higher worker turnover. 

Some misunderstandings result in rework, which could range from simply replacing a few lights to breaking up an entire concrete slab and performing a new pour.

Other miscommunication can result in safety violations, accidents, injuries, or death. A worker at height did not learn how to use his harness correctly because he did not understand the trainer. Another misses the message about an active crane area. There are hundreds of ways to get hurt or damage equipment on a construction site if you do not hear the reasons for why you need to be careful.

Solving the Communication Problem

The first step in resolving communication problems is recognizing you have them in the first place. Ask for feedback about what you communicated, especially in face-to-face situations. Have the other person repeat back to you what you said to make sure the information was received correctly. Pay attention to the other person’s reactions and look for indications that they are listening. 

Automate your communications whenever possible to provide real time updates via text or voicemail. Utilize software with version control histories during drawing revisions, and logs of document access and changes. Other good areas for auto-notifications include:

  • Changes in or expectations of severe weather 
  • Delays in shipping and transport of expected materials
  • Scheduling changes due to the unavailability of a particular sub that day

Customize your notifications to go to the right people, depending on the message. Limit them to those who need to know. If workers receive too many notifications, they may start to ignore them. 

The best option for eliminating your communication gaps is to invest in a software platform with a dashboard feature to monitor the status of a variety of areas on a single screen. If needed, you can dig into any details and clarify instructions with the people involved. 

A construction job site is no place for misunderstandings––too much is at stake. Clear communication not only reduces rework and mitigates accidents, it can also significantly increase the efficiency of the construction process. 

Figure out your communication failures, learn from them, and devise a way to keep everyone in the loop on everything from changes in deliveries to how the weather will impact the day’s schedule. 

Better communication also builds better teams, and enhances worker retention and attitudes at the job site.

How to Prepare for a Job Interview

/in /by

WITH MORE AND MORE INTERVIEWS BEING HELD BY A PANEL OF 3 OR 4 PEOPLE, HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR ALL THE QUESTIONS LOBBED AT YOU? HINT: PREPARE

Heading into any job interview can be stressful, but for some candidates, heading into a panel interview can be particularly nerve wracking. Given that panel interviews are here to stay, here are some of my tips to make sure you go in prepared and poised for anything the panel throws at you.

Before the Interview:
Do your homework: A panel interview is like any other interview, so make sure you ask your recruiter for more information on the panelists’ names and titles. Use the company website and LinkedIn to get background on their current role in the organization.
Practice Your Answers: Panel interviews typically focus on behavioral questions along the lines of “Tell me about a time you handled a tough situation?” or “How did you increase sales?” However, as you will have multiple people lobbing questions at you, take time beforehand to tailor your answers to the person asking it. Practice saying those answers out loud to make them as succinct as possible.

During the Interview:
Shake Hands With Everyone: Even though you may be nervous, outwardly project confidence. Shake hands with all the panelists and introduce yourself. If they offer their business cards, read it carefully to make a mental note of who is who on the panel and what function they serve. You can also make a note in your notebook and don’t be shy of taking notes during the interview – employers often appreciate that.

Let Panelists Finish Asking Their Questions: Don’t interrupt the panelists with breathless questions. Panel interviews tend to be more formal and interrupting the panelists becomes very disruptive. Take a deep breath and wait for your turn to answer.
If you Don’t Understand the Question, Ask them to Repeat it: If you’re unsure of what the question is getting at, ask the panelist to repeat the question. If you need more time to think about what you’re going to say, you can also paraphrase the question to frame your answer correctly.

Ditch the Jargon: Your panel may comprise of employees from different divisions, and they may not all be familiar with the technical lingo of your department. So, ditch the jargon and keep the answers simple and easy to understand.
Pay Attention to Body Language: Be mindful that even though you are answering one person, you have to acknowledge the rest of the panel as well. Make sure you maintain eye contact with all the panelists and try and build consensus among them with your answers.
Use the Interview to Showcase Your Cross-Functional Leadership Abilities: A panel interview needs you to make your case to a diverse group so you have to be able to state your achievements confidently and back them up with quantifiable proof. Moreover, as you have to communicate with different members of a group, panel interviews are test cases of how you interact with multiple personalities and perform under pressure.

After the Interview:
Don’t leave the room without making the most of the end of the interview. Make sure you smile, shake hands with the panel and reiterate why you think you’d be great for their open position.
And finally, don’t forget to send a thank-you email or note to all of the panelists. If you know who among them might be your boss – you can send them an individual note thanking them for the opportunity.
Are there any tips that I may be missing? Drop me line here to share your ideas on how to ace panel interviews.

QUESTIONS TO ASK IN AN INTERVIEW

“Do you have any questions for me?” The Answer Should Always Be, “Yes”
A job interview is not only the time for a company to decide whether or not you’re the right candidate for the job, but also to determine whether or not the company is a good fit for you. Interviews are structured so that the interviewer asks the majority of the questions, allowing you, the candidate, to do most of the talking. Working in this way allows you to walk through your resume and qualifications to prove your value and worth for a position. However, at the end of most interviews, the interviewer will often ask if you have any final questions. The answer should always be, “Yes.”
As a Senior Executive Search Consultant with Lucas Group, I have coached a number of candidates through the interview process, and I have compiled a list of suggested questions to ask during an interview:
What is the growth potential with the position?
This is one of the more important questions to ask an interviewer in order to see where he or she thinks the ideal candidate would be with the company in five years. Determine whether there’s a clear career path to follow and if the position would lead to more opportunities within the organization. You want to ensure the position provides vertical movement and would allow you to advance within the company with your tenure and success.
Why is the position open?
Get a clear understanding of why the position is available. Where is the pervious employee now? Did they leave for a better opportunity? Were they promoted? Feel out the interviewer for any red flags.
What would you define as success in the first year in the position?
Understand what goals there would be within the first year in the position and gauge their expectations, making sure they’re realistic.
Get to know your boss.
In some instances, the interviewer will be your manager. In others, it may be another individual. Ask about their management style and listen for any potential issues that may arise that would keep you from performing at your highest potential.
By having a prepared list of questions to ask the interviewer, you’ll be able to gain better insight into the position and whether or not it would be a good career move both personally and professionally. What are other questions you have asked during an interview? We invite your thoughts in the comments below.

Trade School Benefits for Construction Jobs

/in /by

Trade School Benefits for Construction Jobs

One of the biggest benefits to working in the skilled trades is the education required. While there are many positives to going to 4 years of school for a bachelor’s degree, there are also a few big negatives, including cost. Since 1990, tuition costs have risen over 300%, far outpacing the growth of the economy. When costs rise at 7-8% per year, while inflation grows 2-3% per year, you end up with a product that becomes unaffordable. For many folks, though, that unaffordability isn’t standing in the way, because student loans are easy to come by. Because of that, about 2/3 of students with bachelor’s degrees are leaving college with debt that averages $26,000 per student. That’ll make for a $300 monthly payment for a decade. (From experience, it’s a little depressing when your student loan bill is more than your car payment.) All in all, your average bachelor’s degree is likely going to cost you over $100,000 — closer to $150k if completely financed through loans.

The vast majority of training programs for the skilled trades, on the other hand, last from 6 months to 2 years, and will cost just over $30,000. Even if that cost is entirely financed by student loans, you’re looking at a total of $40,000, which is still a savings of at least $110k!
This makes for a huge opportunity cost for those going to 4-year colleges. You’re spending an extra 2-3 years in school, paying tens of thousands per year, while the tradesman is already graduated and earning money (in some cases, making six figures as a 21-year-old).

One final factor is simply that some 18-year-olds aren’t ready for a college environment. You’re thrown off the cliff from your warm and comfortable home life into total independence. It’s not an easy transition for anyone; in fact, about 40% of all undergrad enrollees will drop out before earning a degree.

Trade school offers a nice on-ramp to independence. You’ll often stay close(r) to home, you receive real-world, hands-on training from the get-go, and you aren’t spending every waking moment with folks your same age and in the same position in life (which can make for a difficult social transition once out of college). Again, there are certainly benefits to attending a 4-year university (we’ve outlined the pros and cons here), but the big pros of trade school are that you’ll save a lot on tuition, start being able to make money sooner, and can start taking measurable steps towards adulthood more quickly.

Digital Maintenance Management

/in /by

Preventative Maintenance

Preventive maintenance is the industry standard for digital maintenance management. However, once preventive maintenance becomes the norm, plants can push further and enhance their operations by instituting maintenance as a company-wide responsibility. This extends a plant’s workforce far beyond the handful of dedicated maintenance workers to other departmental staff.

No department sits outside of maintenance needs as an enterprise goal. From engineering to IT to supply chain, all the way up to the C-suite, all employees play an integral part in progressing work orders and positioning proactive and preventive maintenance as a top company priority.

The benefits of a total productive maintenance (TPM) strategy are many. When companies work together, they can increase equipment readiness, reduce costs and unplanned events, boost value-added time and optimize the use of existing resources such as labor, capital and materials.

Increased participation in company-wide maintenance efforts encourages many personal payoffs as well. When all employees see maintenance as a communal responsibility, companies can improve moral and the quality of workmanship by helping all workers take pride in their day-to-day

Admin & Clerical Job Tips

/in /by

Tips for Admin/Clerical

 Don’t Forget the Essential Ingredients of a Good Meeting

Good meetings don’t just happen. They’re planned. And even when you are meeting on Skype or a conference call, the basics of good meetings apply.

• Consider whether you need a meeting in the first place.

• Think through the meeting’s purpose, outcome, and process in advance.

• Invite the right people and no one else.

• Set an agenda that uses your meeting time for discussion, not reporting.

• Plan to end the meeting with clear outcomes and plans for follow-through.

• Limit the meeting time to no more than 90 minutes.

• Start on time (whether or not everyone is there) and end a few minutes early.

 Virtual Meetings Require Iron Fist Facilitation

The biggest challenge of virtual meetings is that people can’t tell when it’s their turn to speak. Even with video, it’s hard to tell when it’s your turn. So again and again, people speak at the same time.

Appoint a facilitator to function as traffic cop, spelling out the rules of engagement and calling on people when it’s their turn. Because people can’t see body cues or the interactions between participants, the facilitator in a virtual meeting plays a forceful role, both making sure that people don’t talk over one another and also ensuring that everyone has a chance to speak.

Special Tips for Combined In-Person/Virtual Meetings

Many meetings today have both people at the table and people on the phone or Internet. Unfortunately, the telephone participants often forget they are a presence in the meeting, and the people in the room forget the phone people are there at all.

Two simple strategies will help in combined meetings.

First, contact those who will be present through the phone beforehand to discuss how they will participate. Warn them explicitly about background noise and not putting the call line on hold. And let them know that they will be called on to participate.

Second, assign someone in the room to be the “bridge facilitator.” His or her role will be to connect the people on the phone or online via a computer with the people in the room, making sure they get called on and acknowledged throughout the meeting.

Find The Right Job Opportunity

/in /by

What Keeps You Interested In Your Job?

Work burnout is a real thing. People get stuck in jobs they don’t like because they need the paycheck and are too scared to go out and find something they love to do. Or maybe they’re just bored and need new projects to feel happy at work again. Many times, being unhappy at work can lead to an unfulfilling career that makes a person dread Mondays and waking up each morning to go into the office. Since we spend so much time at work, it’s important to make sure that you’re happy with your job or else you’ll be miserable each day and life is too short to hate your job. Here are some tips on how to stay interested in your professional in the legal field:
Be productive
If you’re bored at work, maybe you’re just not being productive and efficient with your time, making projects last longer than they need to be. Many of us don’t organize our time at work right and we complain about tasks and how they couldn’t be done on time. To combat this feeling, schedule and organize your day so that you’re always busy doing something, which will make your day go by faster. You’ll feel more satisfied at work knowing that you are managing your time right.

Wake up with a positive mindset

The power of positivity can have huge effects on how your day at work goes. Instead of waking up hating life and work, wake up feeling good and positive so that you’re ready to tackle your day. When you feel good about your day, you’ll time at work will go by fast and you’ll soon see a difference in your interest for work.

Create a boundary between your personal and work life
Thanks to technology, we are never truly cut off from work. Many of us seem to take it home with us so there’s never a break. By creating boundaries, we can unplug from work at the end of the day to enjoy personal time so that you’re not always working.