My Life

You may look good on paper or in your suit, but if you’re looking to nail your big interview, looks aren’t everything. How you sound is often more important. But many job seekers let careless speech habits sink their chances of landing that plum job, common language mistakes and how to keep them from sabotaging …

Do you need to be a better net worker? Do you know enough people who could give or refer work to you? Do you know your prospective clients better than your competitors? Are you great at following up contracts from events you attend? Are you an excellent host at your own business or social functions? Do you know the secrets of making a real impact on those you meet? If the answer to any of these questions is no, this is the book for you “Network Your Way to Success: Discover the Secrets of the World’s Top Connectors” by John Timperley’s. Any expert will tell you that networking is one of the best ways to advance your career, and it’s also a good source of support for everyday job concerns. Employers, especially those with good diversity programs, also recognize the value of networking, and there are official as well as …

If you’re 40 or younger, it’s tough to predict how much money you might need when retirement is decades away. A few key calculations, however, can help you make sure your savings plan is on track. Saving Depends on Life Stage Rebecca Pace, a Cincinnati-based financial planner and CPA, recommends putting aside at least 10 percent of your income when you’re in your 20s and 30s – and even more if you’re single. “I wouldn’t expect they could continue to add a lot to it while they’re raising a family, but if they’ve put something aside early, it should continue to work for them until they can save again,” she says. Another good reason to save aggressively now: The younger you are when you start, the longer your money will have time to grow. This means you’ll need to set aside a lot less to reach the same goal than …

Having been a non-employee for about 14 years now, I’ve made my share of stupid business mistakes. I’ve also coached a number of people to start their own businesses, and I’ve seen many of them make similar mistakes. This advice is geared towards small business owners, particularly people who are just starting (or about to start) their own business. Selling to the wrong people While sales are important to the survival of any business, you don’t need to push your business on everyone you meet, including friends and family. Furthermore, it’s a waste of time to try selling to people who simply don’t need what you’re offering. Selling to the wrong people includes trying to sell to everyone. Some customers are much easier to sell to than others. For example, my wife does web consulting for small businesses, and she’s learned that some clients are much harder to work with …

Many recruiters say there are more open positions than they can fill, Suffice it to say, the market for IT talent is hot, but only if you have the right skills. If you want to be part of the wave, take a look at what eight experts,  including recruiters, curriculum developers, computer science professors and other industry observers — say are the hottest skills of the near future. Machine learning As companies work to build software such as collaborative filtering, spam filtering and fraud-detection applications that seek patterns in jumbo-size data sets, some observers are seeing a rapid increase in the need for people with machine-learning knowledge, or the ability to design and develop algorithms and techniques to improve computers’ performance. It’s not just the case for Google, There are lots of applications that have big, big, big data sizes, which creates a fundamental problem of how you organize the data …