Knowledge Sharing is important.
If you are the only one that can do a job, guess what? You’ll be doing it forever.

It may be tempting to try to become the office expert in a particular area and try to clinch to that position. Career wise it may not be the best thing if you want to advance to new challenges when nobody else can fill the position you have.

A sharing culture benefits all, you will learn something new and others will learn something. We are not all experts on everything. If you never give anything you can not expect anybody else to take the initiative for knowledge sharing.

Ideas can improve as they are discussed, you can get new inputs that makes you see things from a new angle.

From the business perspective a culture of Knowledge Sharing is important also
Increasing turn over of staff. People don’t take a job for life any more. When someone leaves an organization their knowledge walks out of the door with them.

A bunch of Job Interview Mistakes:

• You dress inappropriate on the job interview.
• You are talking constantly on the job interview.
• You are too self involved on the job interview.
• You don’t know enough about the company.
• You are asking questions that you could easily have found out on your own.
• You are late for the job interview.
• You are talking badly about former companies, colleagues and bosses.
• Your phone is ringing in the middle of the job interview.
• You often interrupt the person asking questions on the job interview.
• You bring up discussions about your salary at the first job interview.
• You pay little attention to the person doing the interview and have little eye contact.
• You show bad manners.

How to gain power
The image consultant’s advice for how you can make a good impression and appear important:

• A powerful person is hard to get a hold of in person, he must always be contacted through a secretary that can screen phone calls.
• Hire an assistant, this frees up more time you can spend on really important matters.
• Have a busy schedule, think of yourself as a trendy night club that is hard to get into.
• Be at important events. Be at the places where the important stuff happens this includes seminars, dinners and shows. It is a good opportunity to build a network.
• Be well connected. Important people knows other important people.
• Be selective on the projects you will be working on. Have a hunch for the really good ideas.
• Have an impressive office. It should be big and beautiful. Have a big desk in some exclusive wood and a leather chair. Have pictures of your self on the walls where you are meeting other important people.
• Dress to impress. You are how you dress.
• Do not talk a lot. The more you talk the more you risk giving away that you lack knowledge about something. Talk concise.
• Drive a big car, a personal driver would impress.
• Don’t do the dirty jobs, let other people deal with them.
• Be confident and don’t hesitate. Take some risks. When you believe in yourself other will also believe in you.
• Routines are boring. Surprise people with positive initiative.
• Be laid back and act as everything comes naturally.

Treat all people nicely
It is a great thing to treat all people around you nice. It is not enough to only suck up for bosses and people that are upwards on the corporate ladder. If you treat all people nice you will leave a good impression, and you never know when you might have to do some project, need help or a favor from this person sometime in the future. If you behave like a jerk they will remember that.

Also succeeding in the workplace is by being able to keep positive relations with people around you. The result of projects and work will be much better if the chemistry between people is good.

Smile
The flight attendants have special courses where they learn to always smile. They smile even if they have a crappy day. It is pleasant to see other people that smile. If everybody that is around you looks grumpy you will soon start to feel grumpy yourself.

Nobody really wants to deal with grumpy people. If you have a job where you can lock yourself in an office for a whole day it do not matter if you look grumpy, but as soon as anybody pops their head trough the door you should flash those teeth.

A smile will give off a sign that you are confident and friendly.

Have you ever wondered if it is you or your boss there is something wrong with?

Hallmarks of a poor boss

1. The boss ignores human factors such as: support, co-operation, personal development and conflicts.
2. Critiques or ignores your ideas.
3. Takes credit for your ideas when they are complimented by others.
4. Lacks the required knowledge and experience in the profession you are working in.
5. Ignores or worsen important problems.
6. The boss measures only results from things that can be measured.
7. The boss hires unqualified workers or contractors that don’t do the work properly.
8. The boss does all the details and wants to have full control of things done.
9. The boss makes fun of you, comes with negative comments when you speak, harasses you or yells at you.
10. The boss expect you to agree with his ideas.
11. The boss misinforms you.
12. The boss talks bad about you to other colleagues, or tries to make conflicts or internal competition.
13. The boss do not follow the corporation’s goals, but pretends he wants the best for the company.
14. The boss seams to have different personalities he changes between on good and bad days.

Parties in the corporate world
Everybody likes to take off when they are on a party. Parties that are with all your colleagues and bosses are a place where one should tone it down.

It is not a good idea to strip or take five stiff drinks and tell your boss what you really think about him.

Some tips for the corporate party

1. Be there. The party may be a drag, but it looks bad boycotting the years big happening.
2. Think and behave as being on the job, even if it is a party.
3. Don’t take any big chances with your clothes and dress nice (the way in an important meeting)
4. Too much alcohol is a common mistake. Free bar can be a temptation if you are bored.
5. Don’t eat too much. It is hard to keep up on conversations if you are constantly eating.
6. Don’t do too much crazy stuff on the dance floor.
7. Don’t just talk shop, it is a nice setting to possibly tell something about yourself. Talk about interesting things and have a bit of fun.
8. If your partner is coming a long, prepare him/she who is your colleagues and your boss. Make sure the work gossip stays between you and your partner.
9. Leave the party with style, make sure you stay at least 1.5 hours. Make sure you thank your boss and whoever paid for the party.

Source

Advice on Paying for Children’s Education
Some advice for parents saving for their kid’s college education, the advice is to not try to save anything for your children’s college education before you have paid for your own retirement and paid off any debt.

College can be financed trough loans
There are plenty of loans both children and parents can get. There are no loans that will help you finance your retirement.

But are there really a lot of people that are not wealthy that sends their kids to Harvard in the first place?

Here are 20 ways to impress your boss:

1. Carry a briefcase: It will look as you are hard working, even if it only contains your lunch.
2. Have a straight back: A good body posture gives off a confident look.
3. Be on time: not too early or too late, just right on time.
4. Keep your private life away from work: Drop long phone calls with your girlfriend.
5. Be happy: The more happy you are the harder it will be to fire you.
6. Look good, smell good: It is easy to judge people on first appearance.
7. Keep your workplace tidy: It shows you are well organized.
8. Know what you are talking about: Keep up to date on the current news and what is going on with the company you are working at.
9. Gesticulate: It will make you look less stiff
10. Have a joke ready: You don’t want to be the office clown, but show some humor once in a while.
11. Keep away from gossip.
12. Learn when to keep your mouth shut.
13. Nobody likes a show off: Don’t brag too much about yourself.
14. Make your boss notice you are a work iron.
15. Never date an office colleague. If you have to break this rule; choose a temporarily employed, or someone in another department.
16. Keep cool, even how much is going on around you.
17. Be cautious when you are surfing the web during work hours, stay away from shady websites.
18. Be kind to your colleagues, remember birthdays.
19. Be a leader; take initiative organize social events.
20. Respect the office rules, like cleaning the coffee machine.

This article points out some interesting points:

People with low education gets replaced by machines
Automatic machinery such as ATM, automated customer service lines, self-serve gas, online bill paying, automated package tracking removes the need for people to do these tedious tasks. And these tasks were normally done by people with low education.

The numbers
quote article: “For college-educated men, the median weekly wage rose 20 percent in real purchasing power from 1979 to 2002. Women with college degrees did even better — up 34 percent”. For high school drop outs: “Down 27 percent — meaning that over a 23-year period of relatively robust economic growth, low-skilled workers have seen more than a quarter of their purchasing power disappear and are now significantly worse off than they were in 1979″.

quote article: “Technology replaces far, far more low-skill jobs than foreign workers do”.

Takeing care of one self is important to be happy and also perform optimally in the work situation.

The first steps to getting healthier and happier:

1. Eat healthier, try to eat some fruit during the day.
2. Exercise, or if going to the gym is too much of a hassle, skip the elevator and use the stairs or try to walk at least 30 minutes after work.
3. Get your own mug, possible with something inspiring or funny printed on it. Use it whenever you have something to drink. Anything tastes better out of porcelain, plastic cups taste … plastic.
4. Try not to get too emotionally involved with anybody working around you, aggravate yourself over your boss, or the moron in the next cubicle.