Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom Project Managers Waste Money - and Lots of It!

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom Project Managers Waste Money - and Lots of It! The Project Management Institute’s 2016 study shows that organizations around the world waste an average of $122 million for every $1 billion spent on projects as a result of poor project management practices. Poor project management practices are costing us big time, says the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) 2016Pulse of the Profession ®: The High Cost of Low Performancestudy. Wasting $122 million for every $1 billion spent represents an increase of 12 percent over last year. The 2016 studyfeatures feedback and insights from 2,428 project management practitioners, 192 senior executives and 282 Project Management Office (PMO) directors from a range of industries including government, financial services, information technology, telecom, energy, manufacturing, healthcare and construction. It also includes insights from eight corporate leaders and 10 PMO directors and directors of project management. The global totals in the report represent feedback from North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region. Of the geographic regions covered in the report, the Middle East reported the lowest average monetary waste on spending projects: $99 million per $1 billion spent. Brazil reported the highest average waste on project spending: $202 million for every $1 billion spent. North America came in under the global average, wasting on average $119 million for every $1 billion spent. Of the industries included in the study, government agencies had the lowest average monetary waste on spending projects: $108 per $1 billion spent (does this surprise anyone else as much as it surprises me?). Financial services reported the highest average waste on project spending: $149 million per $1 billion spent. PMI speculates that the following factors are influential in the amount of project management waste a company might incur. Value: Just over half of organizations fully understand the value of project management, a number that has remained the same over the past five years. PMO: The percentage of organizations with a PMO has also remained the same for five consecutive years, with nearly seven in ten having a PMO. Furthermore, the types of PMOs in organizations have remained unchanged since PMI began tracking them six years ago; two-thirds of organizations report having a department-specific, regional, or divisional PMO(s), and nearly half of organizations report having an EPMO. Practices: Nearly six out of ten organizations use standardized project management practices throughout most or all of the enterprise. But only one in four uses standardized project management practices organization-wide, a decline of three percentage points from one year ago. Training and Development: The percentage of organizations providing project management training on tools, competency development, and a defined career path remains unchanged since 2012. Just under half of organizations report having a formal knowledge transfer process â€" a decline of five percent since last year. This leads to stressed outand ineffective PMs. Executive Sponsors: The average percentage of an organization’s projects with active sponsors declined compared to last year: only 59 percent of projects on average have actively engaged executive sponsors. Strategy Alignment: Less than half of organizations report high alignment of projects to organizational strategy, a number that has been fairly constant for the past three years. And, organizations report that, compared to last year, fewer of their projects are strategic initiatives (an average of 48 percent of projects, down from 54 percent in 2015). Maturity: The percentage of organizations with high project management maturity has not changed for the past six years. Program and portfolio management are equally established in organizations, with only one in six reporting the high maturity of each. Benefits Realization: The percentage of organizations reporting high benefits realization maturity is at 17 percent, static for the past three years. And, the percentage of organizations reporting low maturity in benefits realization is trending upwardâ€"nearly four in ten now report low maturity. For more, read the rest of the post at the QuickBase Fast Track blog.

Big Lies about your First Job

Big Lies about your First Job Ever feel like you’re too smart to be doing the mundane tasks required of your day job?   Ever start to question the value of your college degree at work?   Did you assume you would be thanked and taught by your boss the way you were by your professors in college? Michael Ball’s “You’re Too Smart For This: Beating the 100 Big Lies about Your First Job” is a simple and short book that brings recent grads back down to reality with short answers to each of the 100 big “lies.” What assumptions did you have about your first few jobs? For example, “lie #33: You’re One-of-a-Kind to the Company.”   You worked hard in college, you have a totally “unique” personality and you are the apple of your parents’ eye.   That transfers over into the real world, right? Michael Ball compares entry-level grads to commodities (read: a dime a dozen).   Many of us have been wined and dined by large companies, and told that our individual personalities and successes  are so important to them.   Then we signed our cheesy pre-made offer letter and became a number in our tiny cubicle hoping to stand out. As much as we’d like to be seen as “the one” by our employer, we are often seen as low priced, indistinguishable and undervalued worker bees.   Ball compares this to a college hook up. Don’t get discouraged, you can turn  this  bleak portrait around!   Moving from an employers random hook up  to that special someone will require consistently producing  high quality work and building your personal brand among co-workers. I highly recommend Youre Too Smart for This as a resource to leave on your bookshelf in times of need.   The book takes a realistic look at a lot of myths and gives you a new perspective on how to handle them.

How to Write a Cover Letter That Stands Out 3 Steps - Career Sidekick

How to Write a Cover Letter That Stands Out 3 Steps - Career Sidekick How to Write a Cover Letter That Stands Out: 3 Steps Cover Letters / https://www.edenscott.com/blog People have a love-hate relationship with cover letters. Most hate writing them. When it comes to hiring managers, some love them and some loathe them. But if you want to make a good impression, you NEED a cover letter that stands out.In my experience, cover letters get read about half the time when they are not required and 100% of the time when they are.So its definitely important to spend time writing a cover letter that stands out and gets you noticed.So in this article, Im going article will walk you the 3 parts you need to write a cover letter that stands out.How to Write a Cover Letter That Stands Out and Gets You InterviewsA stand-out cover letter contains 3 essential sections, designed to show the reader youre ideally suited for the role.Lets start with the first section for how to write a cover letter that stands out, then well move on to the remaining two sections.Step 1: Verbalize the PainUse the cover letter to show the reader that you und erstand the company’s challenges, struggles, etc., and how you are the perfect candidate to solve these issues. In other words, show them that you understand the pain and can make it better.Pain takes many shapes and forms, from seamless project execution in order to not disrupt business, to building or growing a team to capture market share, launching a new product or service to elevate the brand, to saving money by introducing process efficiencies and automation.In order to do this, youll need to research the company and put yourself in their shoes. Read the job description and think about what they seem to need help with.That leads us perfectly into the second step of how to write a stand-out cover letterStep 2: Examples that Show Pain SolvingOnce you’ve effectively shown the reader you understand the challenge or the pain, the next step is to convince them that you are the person who can mitigate it.If it says they need someone who can work in a fast-paced environment and ha ndle a high workload, then they probably have too much work coming in and are stressed/overwhelmed. Show them that you can ease this burden.If they say they need someone who can make a great impression on clients to help them grow their business, the best way to write a stand out cover letter is talk about how you can do this or better yet how youve done this in the past for other employers.This should NOT be accomplished by describing yourself with adjectives, but by sharing career highlights that quickly show how you’ve solved similar problems in past roles.You need to give them real accomplishments, and the more detail, the better. Give facts, statistics, numbers, and results. This is really important when you get to the interview too, so dont forget this.(If this is your first job search and you have no past accomplishments you can talk about, read this article on writing a cover letter with no experience).Step 3: Moving Past the PainPart 3 of a stand-out cover letter should recap your skills and how they can contribute to not just solving pain, but to moving forward to achieve a company’s higher mission, vision or goal.You need to pull the two previous pieces of your argument together and make your conclusion.Tell them how their company will improve by having you. What will happen when these problems are solved? Get them excited about a future with you as a part of the company and show them youre excited to do the work as well!The Secret Weapon to End Your Stand-Out Cover LetterAfter youve followed the 3 steps above, you have the main body of your cover letter, and youve written it in a way that will stand out to employers and get you interviewed.But theres one more thing you should do to stand out furtherYou want to finish your cover letter by directly asking for the interview! This seems obvious, but more than 50% of job seekers dont do this!So give them your contact details and TELL them to contact you to set up a time to talk. Tell them youre lo oking forward to sharing more detail and answering any questions they have about your background, and youd like to schedule an interview with them to talk further.This is the final essential piece for how to write a cover letter that will stand out.Formatting Your Cover Letter Before SendingGenerally speaking, e-notes took the place of cover letters back when it became possible to share their resumesonline or via e-mail.I recommend job seekers cover all their bases by sending out notes via good old fashioned snail mail as well as electronically. However, while e-notes and cover letters share the same basic parts, some pieces have changed or must appear in a different location.So lets walk through what to do if you want to write your cover letter for an electronic format.#1 Contact InformationUnlike a cover letter where your contact details must appear at the top, on an e-note this info should be located below your name in the form of an e-mail signature. Make sure at the very least you include your full name, contact number, email, address and a LinkedInURL.#2 Reference LineReference Lines telling the reader the role you are targeting appear below the “Dear Hiring Manager” line. However, in an e-note this information must appear in the subject matter line to begin the email.#3 Screen v. Print ReadsReading online is a whole different ballgame than print reading. In fact, it is much harder. This is in large part due to the fact that our eyes have a tough time digesting dense blocks of text (large paragraphs, long lists of bullets) on a screen.To ensure smooth online reading of your e-note, aim for paragraphs that are two to three lines maximum.Keep this in mind on when you format your resume too, if you expect it to be read in an online format.A Stand-Out Cover Letter Can be the Difference Between an Interview and RejectionNot every hiring manager puts a lot of weight on cover letters, but some do! And when hiring managers require it, then theres a high prob ability that they care a lot and use it to decide who to interview.If you follow the steps above for how to write a cover letter that stands out to employers, youll get more interviews and find a job faster.About this guest author:In need of some career advice, a refreshed resume or rebranded LinkedIn?Asthe founder and chief writer atVirginia Franco Resumes, I offer customized executive resume and LinkedIn profile writing services for the 21st century job seeker. I would be happy to chat!

Resident Assistant Cover Letter Sample - Algrim.co

Resident Assistant Cover Letter Sample - Algrim.co Resident Assistant Cover Letter Template Download our cover letter template in Word format. Instant download. No email required. Download Template Related Hiring Resources Resident Assistant Job Description Sample

Changing Industries to Smart Grid - Career Pivot

Changing Industries to Smart Grid - Career Pivot Changing Industries to Smart Grid Many of you have expressed an interest to follow your passion and change industries. This post is about the story of Daniel Elizalde. Daniel has never been a client of mine, but he has followed many of my methods. About ten years ago, Daniel realized he wanted to be in cleantech. He believed it was one of the biggest challenges of this century, and he wanted to be part of it! As with most of us, he did not do much about it for five years. It wasn’t until his product manager job at VI Technologies was coming to an end that he started to pursue his dream. However, he had a problem. He applied to a couple of companies, and he did not get a job. He was not clear what he wanted or how his skills applied. Key Point â€"When changing industries, you have to be able to clearly map your current skills to the new industry. This has to be abundantly clear to get anyone in order for you to be taken seriously. What is Cleantech? Cleantech is one of nebulous umbrella terms that relate to many technologies. He had to start by learning whatcleantech encompasses before he could focus on companies or roles to target. Was it wind, solar, smart grid, fuel cells, electric vehicles, batteries, or something else that he should focus on? Daniel did a lot of research online. He also started to network more and found a number of local groups to join. He was out asking for AIR (Advice, Insights and Recommendations). The magic is he asked for advice. Niche Area When changing industries, you really need to niche yourself. Find the area within an industry where your skills map the best. Daniel is a Software Product Manager. He learned that Smart Grid was the area ofcleantech that could leverage his skills the best. Daniel got very specific on the niche he would pursue. He continued to research the area with a passion. He read everything he could get his hands on and talked to anyone he could, asking for AIR. Listen to the most recent episode As he talked to companies, he realized his skills were not an exact fit. By asking for AIR, he discovered that some of the main trends in Smart Grid are UX and Cloud, where he fit the best (again, moving down into a smaller niche). He also learned that energy companies usually require domain knowledge, which he didn’t have. As I wrote in my previous post on changing industries, most companies are looking for the purple cow (the perfect job applicant), and want you to have ideal business AND domain skills. Key Point â€" You need to ask for a lot of AIR (Advice, Insights and Recommendations). Domain Skills Daniel then made a career pivot. He first took a job in the UX arena and then took another job in the Software As A Service(SaaS), or Cloud industry. He gained experience in both areas. Taking these jobs was part of the plan to get the skills that Daniel needed to join the energy industry. They were great jobs, but he approached them as stepping-stones towards his dream job. Now he needed some Smart Grid experience. This is where Daniel did something that was brilliant. Daniel started interviewing key Smart Grid thought leaders and other key professionals with great industry connections on his blog TechProductManagement.com. During the interviews, he focused on the skills that he had and the problem he could solve for them, as opposed to his lack of domain knowledge in the energy industry. This was key. Through the blog, he met many of the key players and became a known player. Key Point â€" Through his blog, Daniel demonstrated enough expertise in the new domain world and in Product Management as a whole, that people started talking with him. Location All of the companies that Daniel was interested in working for were in California. Daniel lived in Austin, Texas. He could get interviews but they went nowhere. He finally decided to move to the San Francisco Bay area. In preparation for his move, he made a couple of trips to San Francisco to network and ask for AIR in person. Once companies knew he was serious about moving, they started taking him seriously. Within a month of his move, he was hired. Daniel is now a Senior Product Manager for Stem Inc. Hewill tell you that changing industries was a marathon and not a sprint. Daniel showed an amazing amount of determination and stamina. What about you? Have you changed industries? Tell us your story! Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...