Career Tips Guides

Have you ever thought about becoming a wedding planner? Are you a romantic at heart? Do you love weddings? If you have said yes to these questions, and you possess excellent communication and organization skills, taking some wedding planner courses is your next step to launching your own business as a wedding planner.

Formal training in the field of wedding planning is crucial if you truly want your business to thrive. Brides and grooms are not going to entrust their wedding plans to just anyone. They will search for a professional wedding planner to organize and handle the most important day of their lives. They will want someone with knowledge and skills as well as a resume that includes wedding planner courses.

During the wedding planner courses, you will learn about running your own business, marketing and advertising. You will learn about how to deal with suppliers and contractors and how to build a good reputation with those contacts. Any wedding planner courses worth taking will show you the steps to take to build your portfolio as well, so you will have something to showcase to your clients.

Some of the things you will learn during the wedding planner courses:

1) How to organize and religious ceremony

2) How to organize a civil wedding ceremony

3) How to choose the location for the reception

4) Organizing everyone from the caterer, photographer, florist, and entertainers

5) How to organize both a bridal shower and a bachelor party

6) How to help the bride and groom choose their wedding rings, grooms men gifts, bridesmaids gifts, flowers, and decorations

7) How to stay within the budget set by the bride and groom, but still give them the wedding they have always wanted

Understand typical problems that may arise before, during and after the wedding day

9) How to put together a wedding planner emergency kit that may save the day

Most people have heard the expression, experience is the best teacher. Wedding planner courses are an essential part of your education. However, in order to best understand how things behind the scenes work, it would also be in your best interest to have first hand experience in several areas.

Take the opportunity to work side by side with a professional caterer who is working a wedding. Work with a florist to put together arrangements for a wedding. Spend a day with a wedding photographer. You will walk away with a working knowledge of how you can best serve your clients. You will also have some contacts made with people you will likely be calling on in the future to help you plan a wedding!

Of course, during or following your wedding planner courses, the most ideal experience you can gain is by working with a successful wedding planner. Find out if there is a way that a wedding planner, (preferably not one with whom you will be competing), willing to take on an apprentice as it were. Work out the details of your arrangement and then get to work! Take note of everything they do and say, and ask a lot of questions.

Once you have completed your wedding planner courses and have your diploma in hand, you are ready to get started with your business.

Learn how a bride saved over $10,000 on her wedding using simple tricks that anyone can easily do.

Plus, learn how you can get a cheap wedding planning but still get an amazing wedding of all time.

Check out http://weddingplanningcenter.blogspot.com for more information and details.

Most of us get nervous before an interview, no matter how many we have had! However, it does not have to be as terrifying an experience as you might believe. Below, I have written a few tips for overcoming job interview nerves and giving yourself the best chance over the competition.

Showing confidence is extremely important. Employers want to see that the applicant believes they can do the job, as well as have the required skills and experience. Confident employees make good staff members because they are usually trainable, and resourceful, with initiative and good leadership skills. These qualities will benefit the company in the future.

However, do not confuse confidence with arrogance. The exaggerated claims and boasting of an arrogant presentation has nothing to do with confidence, and is actually due to lack of self belief. True confidence has no need for exaggeration, and an arrogant interviewee is likely to do himself far more harm than good, so make sure your confidence is genuine.

There are a few simple things you can do before and during your interview which will build your confidence. If you follow these steps you will find that you will feel more confident when you are in front of the interviewer.

1. Research the company.

Find out as much as you can about the company by looking at their website or looking them up in a business directory. What particular skills and knowledge do you have that will be useful for them? How will you be of value to this company?

When you know the company’s function and philosophy, you will understand their needs and be able to present yourself as someone who can fulfil those needs. The employer will also be impressed by your interest and you are off to a good start. Your initiative will go down well with any interviewer.

2. Dress appropriately and professionally.

The clothes you wear give an instant impression of who you are, and they also have a psychological effect on you. Dress carelessly sloppily, and you will act carelessly and sloppily. Dress smartly and you will feel smart. Look good and you will feel good.

3. Check Your Posture

Make sure that you have a good posture when facing the interviewer. This doesn’t mean you have to sit as though you have a rod up your back, but by sitting straight and not slouching you will not only be able to breathe more easily (which will enable you to relax), you will feel more confident. Your answers will then come out more freely and easily.

4. Make eye contact

Bear in mind that the interviewer is just another person, like you. Do not be afraid to look straight into his or her eyes during the interview.

One benefit of this is that you will be able to gauge the interviewer’s feelings. You will be able to tell if he is interested in what you are saying, or whether he is getting bored.

On the other hand, don’t stare or make eye contact all the time. This could come across as confrontational and scary! On the other end of the scale, avoiding eye contact completely could look as though you are hiding something. When you look into someone’s eyes as you give your answers they will be reassured that what you are saying is the truth.

5. Listen.

When we are nervous, we often make the mistake of listening to our own thoughts too much, and then answering the question that we thought we heard! When you actively listen to the interviewer, this has two benefits. Firstly, it will turn off the stuff going on inside your head, and secondly, you will be able to answer the correct question! This active listening will calm your nerves and make you feel more confident because you will understand exactly what is expected of you.

6. Make clear and direct answers.

If you have listened properly, you will be in the position to tell the interviewer exactly what he wants to know. Respond with straight and honest answers. If you waffle you will only show that you are not sure of yourself. Be brief and to the point. Offer appropriate information, but don’t go off at a tangent, as you will lose focus and concentration. If you don’t understand the question, don’t try to bluff it; ask for clarification. Interviewers will respect you more for this.

7. Ask questions.

Before your interview, write down a few things you would like to know about the company. Showing an interest by asking questions is very beneficial. However, try not to just ask about things that only concern you, such as what is the starting salary, or what fringe benefits they give. Ask questions about how you can be of service to the company, perhaps how a particular skill of yours might be of use. By doing this, both of you will know whether you are right for the job.

If you follow these steps you will see your confidence increase and your nerves decrease. Above all, it is important that you believe that you are capable for the job. Without this self belief you will not appear confident to your interviewer, whatever you do.

Ros is a career coach with a background in teaching career development.

For professional career coaching and confidence development, go to Professional Coaching for Your Change of Career

When Robin Williams told his father about his desire to become an actor, his dad advised him to study welding — “just in case.” My own parents urged me to become a teacher, but it wasn’t because they noticed the early signs of a gifted educator. My parents’ dreams for me were far more practical. Going into teaching was a Plan B — in case something happened to my future husband, I’d have something to “fall back on.”

Most of the time my parents did get it right. But everything I learned about achieving career bliss I learned by actually ignoring my well-meaning but cautious parents. That’s because, if you aspire to find work that you truly love, some of what your parents taught you could actually work against you.

Here are three childhood lessons every adult career changer should ignore as well as some exercises to help you achieve your goal.

Old Advice: Grow up
New Advice: Don’t

If you were still throwing tantrums at 12, be thankful your parents told you to “grow up.” But, if you want to recapture the experience of getting deliriously lost in a favorite pastime, growing up isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Lots of people, director Steven Spielberg among them, knew from a young age what they wanted to do when they grew up. Your own childhood may well contain clues to a new career direction.

Make a list of all the things you were really into as a kid. Did you love to build forts? Sing? Compete in science fairs? Draw? Do magic tricks? Learn about dinosaurs? Tell jokes? Watch scary movies? Play sports? Play dress-up? Play video games? Play school?

What do your answers tell you? How might you build on these childhood interests today?

Old Advice: Follow the straight and narrow road
New Advice: Wind your way to happiness

You probably got the message growing up to always follow the straight and narrow road. Good advice for staying on the right side of authority, bad advice for coming up with “outside the box” career options. That’s because it is often the wide road with lots of detours that lead to the most interesting places. Say you wanted to turn your love of astronomy into your vocation, what career destination would you most likely wind up at, if, vocationally-speaking, you took the straight and narrow road? Astronomer. Right? A fine occupation, but it is just one of many options.

Here’s where what Patrick Combs calls his “Super-Simple, Unique & Weird Job Idea Jogger” can help. Even though his book, Major In Success, is aimed at college students, his idea jogging exercise can help anyone looking to chart a new course.

To start, fill in the blanks in the following sentence: A great job would be [verb] in the [your interest] field. The astronomy-lover who also enjoys reading would write: A great job would be reading in the astronomy field. This might lead to such off-the-beaten-path careers as: Editor of an astronomy magazine, NASA researcher or author of books about the latest astronomy developments. Change the verb to drawing, says Combs, and see what ideas get jogged. You could: Illustrate astronomy books. Design observatories. Map star systems. Create science fiction paintings, murals, or coloring books.

Old Advice: Never talk to strangers
New Advice: Talk to lots and lots of strangers

“Never talk to strangers” is good advice if you’re approached in a dark alley, bad advice if you need encouragement to quit your programming job to become a park ranger. In fact, if the choice is to seek out support from a group of total strangers or from your own family, go with the strangers. The reason, says career counselor Barbara Sher, is that “almost any stranger would respect your dreams more easily than our family does.” To prove it, try this assignment from her book I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was.

Tell a group of strangers the most offbeat dream you can think of — like raising Dalmatians in the Himalayas. Tell them, however, that you don’t yet have any contacts in Tibet. Not only will they be interested, says Sher, “they’ll even try to solve your problem.”

Now, she says, try the same experiment with your family by announcing that you’re going to quit your corporate job and sign on as crew on a clam boat off Rhode Island [or the reverse]. Observe whether they “drop their forks before or after they scramble to talk you out of your ‘folly’.”

If you’re ready for a big career change, maybe it’s time you actually do get bigger than your career confining britches. It can be as simple as re-igniting your childhood passions, exploring a more creative career search path, and seeking out the right people to encourage your dreams.

Oh, on the wearing clean underwear thing in case you’re ever in an accident — your mom was right.

Valerie Young abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at Changing Course, a career change website for people who want be their own boss and work at what they love. Her career tips have been cited in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Woman’s Day, MSN, CareerBuilder, and iVillage. Go to http://ChangingCourse.com/work.htm for a free report on how you can make a career change that gives you the freedom to do work you love.

When you want to submit an application for a job as a flight attendant, you not only have to complete a questionnaire from the airline, but you have to submit a resume and a cover letter. The cover letter is designed to give the employer a brief snapshot of what you have included in your resume and highlight your best points. You have to take your time in writing this cover letter because if it doesn’t stand out, the employer may never even bother to read your resume, especially if there are many applicants for the position. For this reason, you should find a sample flight attendant cover letter to help you in this task. A simple online search will give you many such cover letters that you can read.

When you find the sample letter that really appeals to you, you are not permitted to copy it directly. You have to make it your own so that your individual personality comes through in your application. There are some basic hints to help you in writing the letter. For example, you should always use the same kind of paper for your cover letter as you do for your resume. White business paper made of 100% cotton is the type of paper than experts recommend you use for a cover letter and resume for any job.

From the sample letter, you will see where you should place your name and contact information. This should be front and center at the heading of the letter. Make sure you include your home and cell telephone number information and your email address so that the employer does not have to waste time getting in contact with you should you be called for an interview.

The cover letter should take the form of a business letter. Once you have your contact information in place, move to the left hand side of the page and write the date. Next you include the contact information of the person to whom you are sending the cover letter and resume, exactly as it is written in the job posting. You should always keep the salutation formal and use a colon for the punctuation.

The body of your cover letter should not be any longer than one page. You should be able to condense everything about you in three or four paragraphs that highlight the qualifications and skills you want the employer to notice and look for in your resume. When you complete this body, the closing should consist of one word ?incerely? This makes it formal. Leave a space between the closing and your typed name so that you have room to personally sign the letter.

In your cover letter, you should not beg for an interview. Simply stating that you will be available for an interview is sufficient. You should never mention what salary you expect to receive, but if this is mentioned in the job posting the best way to cover it is to say that salary is negotiable. Don’t give suggestions for the company in your cover letter and don’t mention your references. These are included in your resume.

For a free sample flight attendant cover letter as well as information on the flight attendant hiring process and flight attendant openings visit http://www.CorporateFlyer.net

Since most airlines have their own training facilities for training flight attendants, the only main requirement in terms of education for this career is to hold a high school graduations diploma. However, today most airlines are delving deeper into the applications they receive for available positions and prefer college and university graduates in the flight attendant hiring process. One of the main things that airlines look for in the number of applications they receive is applicants who demonstrate a high level of customer service. This is because as a flight attendant, you would be interacting with customers (passengers) on a daily basis because in the position, you provide service to these people for the duration of the flight.

In order to submit an application for a job as a flight attendant, the first thing you have to do is find out which airlines are hiring. Once you know that a specific airline is posting ads for flight attendant jobs, then it is time to do your research. You have to read the ad thoroughly to find out what documents you must submit with your cover letter. You have to make sure you gather all the documents you need. Then you have to write a cover letter that will really stand out among the many submitted, so it is not a chore you should take lightly. If your cover letter doesn’t do a good job of giving the employer an adequate look at how you can be an asset to the airline, the person reading the letter may not even bother to read the rest of your resume.

Once you have everything in place and you write the best possible cover letter to submit with your application, you cross your fingers and hope to get a call for an interview. Airlines usually hire ten or more flight attendants at the same time because they want to have enough students for a class. They usually have their own training facilities to train those selected through the interviewing process. It is important to realize, though, that even while you may be selected to complete the flight attendant training, you will not be officially hired in this position until you pass the training with a score of at least 90%.

Along with the book work, assignments and tests, you will also have to go through several modules of on-the-job training. This involves taking part in mock evacuations so that you will be prepared for dealing with emergencies on board the plane. Your instructors will act as passengers and you will act as the flight attendant as part of the evaluation to determine your customer service skills. The training that you do have to go through is gruelling, but it is worth it when you get the job.

You have to demonstrate that when you are on the job, your focus is solely on the safety and security of the passengers. You do need to have an outgoing personality, but you will also need to exercise diplomacy and tact in many situations. This is what the examiners will be looking for in the hands-on parts of the training.

For more information on the flight attendant hiring process,flight attendant openings and sample flight attendant cover letters visit http://www.CorporateFlyer.net

When you are looking for a job as a flight attendant, there are several places you can look to find flight attendant openings. Since the major employers in the air transportation business are airlines, you can check the websites of the airlines to see if they do have a need for flight attendants and are hiring. Some large corporations with private jets also have need for flight attendants from time to time and they may post the ads in magazines related to their business or to air travel. There are also job search sites on the Internet where you can find postings for flight attendant jobs. If you post your resume and cover letter to these sites, when an opening comes up you will get an email alerting you to the posting.

In order to determine whether or not you qualify for a flight attendant opening when it is posted, you do have to read the ad to find the qualifications that the employer is looking for in the applicants. The minimum level of education required by all airlines is a high school diploma, but this is just the minimum. Most of the flight attendants that are hired today have a college or university degree. Even though this education does not give you the training you need to work as a flight attendant, it shows the employer that you are willing to work hard in school to better yourself.

One of the major qualifications that you will need to be successful in obtaining a position as a flight attendant is exceptional customer service skills. You don’t necessarily need to have experience in this area because it will come with practice once you start the training for the job. However, if you do have experience and have a good reference to attest to this, you have a better chance of getting the job. Many people don’t even realize that they do have this experience and never put it on their resume because they think they should only list the skills that are related to other aspects of air travel. If you worked in any area in which you dealt with the public, you should list this on your resume as customer service.

Fluency in more than one language is one of the qualifications that will really make your application for the job stand out. Airlines fly all over the world and deal with customers that speak many different languages. Fluency in English is a requirement and unless you are fluent in English you will not get a job as a flight attendant in any English speaking country.

You do need to have a passport because of the different countries you will be flying into. You must also be neat in appearance, with no tattoos, visible body piercings or wear offensive jewellery. You must also be willing to relocate in some cases when you apply for one of the openings for flight attendants and of course, you must be willing to work shifts that will require you to be away from home for short periods of time.

For more information on flight attendant openings,the process airlines use for hiring flight attendants as well as a free sample cover letter for flight attendant jobs;visit http://www.CorporateFlyer.net