six principles that transform your work

Are you looking for a transformation in your work situation? Follow these 6 rock solid success principles that summarize what I have learned about building careers or online communities!

Whatever your industry, background or situation, these six principles will help you “Discover Your Passion“, “Do What You Love” or “Take Your Passion To Market“.

The first two (2) principles are designed to help you choose work that matches your strengths, education, training, background, skills, experience, hobbies or interests.

Principle #1 – Choose Work Based On Passion

Work is much easier or more fulfilling when you do something that you are passionate about as opposed to something that stresses you!

On the other hand, when you are not passionate about your work, you will lack the desire to excel or motivation to perform at work!

Some people don’t believe in the “Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow” principle because the picture that comes to their mind is that of starving artists who do what they love and yet cannot pay their bills.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a starving artist because you can actually do what you love and have the money follow you

The first step on this path to success, is choosing work that is at the intersection of something you’re good at, something you care about and something other people in your chosen industry, niche or market need, find useful and are willing to pay for.

Read this article titled: “How The Starving Artist Achieves Career Success Using Social Media“.

Principle #2 – Learn the Most Marketable Skills

Learn the most marketable skills for the work that you have chosen to do.

Your skills are just a means to an end which usually involves meeting the needs of customers in the industry or market.

When it comes to choosing skills that you will learn, be as objective as possible and choose based on facts or data as opposed to emotions or personal opinions.

Remember that the more marketable your skills are, the easier it will be for you to find a new job, earn an income or stay employed.

Read this post titled: learn the most marketable skills

It is easy to learn the marketability of a skill, just count the number of job postings that require that skill!

For your own personal education, after reading this post, “Download the Free Report” below which describes the Top 100, Most Marketable Skills in the Online Employment Industry.

The next two principles described on this post belong to a coaching course titled: “Do What You Love“.

These two principles will take your performance to an advanced level or give you the freedom to do what you love without fear of failure.

Principle #3 – Stay Current In Your Industry

Stay current with the information coming out of your industry by reading a lot of blog posts, articles or books.

Do not neglect to read professional textbooks because the fundamental principles, concepts and techniques are often explained in great details in them.

Subscribe to and read the blog post of the most influential professionals in your industry. Nowadays, the latest, cutting-edge information is often posted in blogs before it makes its way out to industry textbooks.

Invest time and money in learning because ours is a knowledge-based economy and the most valuable currency is your knowledge, skills or experience and not the money saved in your bank account.

In other words, the more you learn and put to work, the more money you will earn … and the less you learn, the more likely you are to lose your income!

Principle #4 – Advance Your Skills By Taking Tests

Study hard but better still, take frequent tests because they improve retention, comprehension and recall and also help you excel at work by sharpening your skills!

Read more about the Benefits of Taking Tests in this post titled: How To Ace Job Interviews Using Practice Tests.

It is important that you become highly skilled because when the economy sheds jobs, the easiest jobs to cut are those employing the least skilled workers and the most likely to get hired again, are the most skilled workers!

In other words, the only safety net for your job is to become highly skilled at your work, career or business!

Remember that you live in a global economy where a job can be outsourced to a professional living in another country simply because that professional is better skilled than you.

An article by Pam Belluck of the New York Times reports a new scientific finding in the “January 2011 Science Journal” which backs up my findings about the importance of taking frequent practice tests.

Click here to read the article titled: “To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test”.

This scientific finding suggests that taking tests is good not only for certification exams or assessing knowledge but for helping people learn new information as well!

The conclusion is that students who read and take a test asking them to recall what they just read perform better than those who use traditional learning techniques!

The next two principles described on this post belong to a online coaching course or web design & web marketing consulting services titled: “Bring Your Passion To Market“.

These last two success principles are important because without marketing your ideas, skills or business, someone else who is less qualified but more visible will take the opportunities meant for you!

Principle #5 – Blog Your Way To Success

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket by depending solely on your resume and online job postings. Learn to market your career with a blog.

Blogging is the process of putting out well-researched, informative or authoritative articles on your industry. When done right, it will keep you visible to a high number of employers.

Blogging can distinguish you in a global, competitive job market by helping you develop and market a unique personal brand, which is something that employers apparently value!

The value of blogging is that it can open the communication doors between you and potential employers or customers.

As you talk or write, yo differentiate yourself from your competitors and potential customers or employers begin to value your expertise.

Principle #6 – Invest In An Online Community

Invest time, effort and money in an online community that incorporates your strengths, your blog posts and your social media networking activities.

Your online community must be built around your passion and your strengths so that members feel energized, inspired, motivated or helped when they interact with you.

If you passionately help out your community members by giving your time and expertise, they will reciprocate the favor by referring customers, employers or new opportunities your way.

Building an online community can only be described as the best publicity or customer relationship management (CRM) tool and in the end all the good work that you do will benefit your reputation, online brand, business or career as well.

Bring Your Passion To Market: regardless of how good your skills are, you must stay visible to employers or potential customers, if you want to get hired.

These six (6) principles are documented in my FREE thirty six (36) page Report titled: “The Survivors Guide To Unemployment” which you can download below.

Click here to discover your passion: or find work that is at the intersection of something you’re good at, something you care about and something other people in your chosen industry, niche or market need, find useful and are willing to pay for.

Or hire our web design & web marketing consulting services: to help you bring your passion (ideas, products, services, skills or business) to market.

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here

ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

Visit our Shopping Cart

Competing on Analytics

Microsoft NET Developers are well compensated IT professionals because the workplace demand for skilled Microsoft.NET programmers outstrips the supply.

On the other hand, being a Microsoft .NET programmer can be tough because of the constant pressure to keep up with new technology!

So, this post addresses the challenges facing a Microsoft .NET Developer moving to Business Intelligence (BI) / Data Warehousing (DW):

Considering a Career Move from .NET Development to Business Intelligence (BI)?

I am currently working as a .net Developer (for the last 4 years mostly on contracting jobs).

The biggest problem I am facing is not being able to keep up with new .net components coming out everyday.

On my last project I developed in .net 2.0. Now for new positions, everyone is asking for .NET 3.5 (while 4.0 is looming on ahead).

I have a friend who is working as a Business Objects Consultant, and I am thinking of switching toward Datawarehousing / BI.

Would that be a good career move from my side. I think they get paid more and also do not need to keep reading like crazy.

However I am not sure of how will be the future of Business Objects and is there any chance beyond a report developer.

Hopefully, when the economy is better, I will be able to get a fulltime job and settled in one place.

The Career Outlook for Business Intelligence (BI) / Data Warehousing (DW)

1. High Demand: The demand for Microsoft .NET Programmers is driven by Microsoft’s sheer marketing muscle and corporations customizing various Microsoft software products (like SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Office) for Collaboration, Marketing and Sales. etc.

2. Steep Learning Curve: Microsoft .NET development has a steep learning curve, so you are not alone in feeling overwhelmed.

   .NET programmers have to keep up with multiple versions including .NET 1.0, .NET 1.1, .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0 in the works … and perhaps another sequel to .NET 4.0 in some secret Microsoft lab!

   As a Microsoft .NET programmer, you are also expected to keep up with multiple related technologies including HTML, XHTML, CSS, SQL SERVER, JAVASCRIPT, XML and more!

So, what is one to do? On one hand, you have a well compensated .NET programming career and on the other hand, you feel enslaved to the technology because you always have to be learning!

Considering all these, making a career change from Microsoft .NET Development to Business Intelligence / Data Warehousing may be in your long-term interests.

So, the question is, what are the career prospects or job outlook for business intelligence and data warehousing professionals like?

1. Competing on Data: Organizations facing increasing marketplace pressures are turning to business intelligence (BI) projects for solutions.

   Better data and better analytics are needed for faster, more-informed decision making and that is where business intelligence and data warehousing professionals step in to help!

2. Job Outlook for Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Warehousing Professionals: Leading industry analysts including Gartner and Forrester Research rank Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Warehousing (DW) as top technology priorities for Chief Information Officers (CIOs).

3. In plain words, there is gold in business intelligence and data warehousing careers and you can tap into it!

4. How to become a Business Intelligence (BI) or Data Warehousing (DW) professional: Changing careers from Microsoft .NET Development to Business Intelligence shouldn’t be too hard for you.

   Data Warehousing is built on the backbone of strong relational database design, database development and SQL skills and Business Intelligence integrates analytics, database technology and yes, some Microsoft .NET programming.

5. Leverage existing skills; If you decide on a Microsoft BI / DW Career Path, you can still build customized BI and DW projects using your familiar Microsoft .NET Programming and SQL Server Database Development skills and if you go with other vendors, you can learn their particular Business Intelligence (BI) programming / scripting tools and their database technology, too!

The good news for you, is that you can leverage or reuse your Microsoft .NET Programming background and your SQL Server database development skills in the BI / DW Market.

I recommend that you stop looking at business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing (DW) as a reporting job because it is more than that … get a copy of the book titled Competing on Analytics, ok?

Competing on Analytics

This post answers a challenge facing a .NET Developer changing careers to business intelligence and data warehousing.

If you have a question or a challenge facing your career, post it as a comment on this page and I will answer it for you!

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here

ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

Visit our Shopping Cart

Volunteers Wanted

Michael Surkan a former Microsoft Senior Product Planner and Program Manager is looking for Volunteer Software Testers and Project Managers for an on-line customer relationship management (CRM) and business management software service project.

While at Microsoft, Michael conducted customer, industry and research to help make decisions for future versions of the Windows operating system.

Michael’s work includes using surveys, focus groups, and customer interviews as part of research strategies and synthesized all the data into conclusions and recommendations for senior managers.

Michael is obsessed with making sure that the products that companies make are the RIGHT ones and that they meet the needs of their customers and the broader market place.

Michael has spent years as a program manager actually building the guts of the Windows operating system and now spends his days doing customer and market research to help those very same Program Managers have the data and insights they need to make good product decisions.

About This Opportunity

This offer is for volunteer software testers and volunteer project managers who are willing to make a serious commitment to using Michael’s product for managing a significant project.

The volunteers won’t be charged for using this product for at least a year because the motivation is to get some good showcases of how this product is used in the real-world.

So far, Michael has signed-up real-estate developers, cabinet manufacturers and event planners and is now looking for sign-ups from the software industry!

About The Online Project Or Process Management Service

Michael’s online project or process management software service is looking for volunteers interested in finding a way to manage software development projects while improving communications, efficiency, and timeliness

The online CRM tool is a fantastic tool for outsourced projects. It helps keep everyone in synch and the work on track.

Volunteer Software Testers or Project Managers may use this on-line service without any payment for up to a year (which normally sells for $40,000 a year) in exchange for help with testing the software and (more importantly) building the templates needed to manage their work.

The online software service has already proven itself as a great help to one small distributed web software development team with team members in places as diverse as the Philippines, Canada, and Russia.

Here is additional information on the online project management or CRM software service:

1. You can track entire projects, including e-mails, customer requirements, and specifications from the beginning to end of project. Everyone on the project stays on the same page.

2. You get complete versioning and history on every document in the system (can easily revert back to whatever previous version you wish).

3. You can handle project and task management, automatically determine delivery dates and assign tasks to the appropriate people. You can easy to tell when things are falling behind (and automatically re-adjusting schedules in real-time) before they get out of hand.

4. You get a completely web-based architecture that doesn’t require any local software, and can be easily used by an team-members wherever they are in the world.

5. You can use it as core component of your own public web site, allowing you to automatically turn any document into public web pages.

6. You get Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Services as an integral part of the product.

Michael recommends this online project or CRM software service for managing any business. So even if you are not in software and you want to be a volunteer tester, you can sign-up to test and use this service

Click here to Contact Michael:

What Is The Toughest Challenge Facing Your Career?

Visit the Shopping Cart, Click Here

ABOUT TRAINING & COACHING COURSES

• Business Analyst Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Business Analyst Video Training


• SQL Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, SQL + RDBMS Video Training


• Software Developer Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Software Developer Video Training


• Data Analysts Boot Camp - Online, Web Based, Instructor Led, Hands On, Data Analyst Video Training


• Get Hired Fast - Online, Web Based, Resume + Job Search + Interview Video Training


• Become A Leader Coaching - Develop hands-on experience, gain domain expertise, solve industry problems, Stand Up and Be Noticed, market your career using PULL instead of PUSH techniques!

Visit our Shopping Cart