by Solange Lopes | Sep 19, 2014 | Career
As you may have been able to tell (or not), I kinda like blogging. Maybe even a little bit more than shoes, or hazelnut chocolate (ok maybe not hazelnut chocolate)…Seriously, in a world where 43.7 million new posts are published every month, is the work we’re putting forth as bloggers making a difference in our careers?
The answer is, it does…In todays’ crowded market, standing out professionally involves doing a little (even a lot) more than having a great Linked In profile and/or outstanding resume. Actually, blogging can take your career through levels you may not have thought of before, and even get you a brand new career and/or business.
Read more on: 4 simple steps to create your WordPress blog with Bluehost
Here are a few ways blogging can help catapult your career:
Blogging Improves Your Professional Image!
If you plan on starting a blog related to your current industry, or to the industry/business you plan on entering, it will certainly improve your professional profile. It’s a great way to show hiring managers what you know, how you can help them, and what a difference you can make for them and their organizations.
You don’t need to have a lot of experience either. Being able to research and solve problems inherent to your industry or business will do wonders to establish your brand. It will also show your motivation, consistency and passion, as well as how well you’re acquainted with your niche.
Blogging Gives You Unique Exposure!
The unique digital footprint and online exposure that blogging gives you is truly unmatched! How else would you have the opportunity to publish a blog post, have it shared on mainstream social media and elite newsletters, thereby attracting the attention of leaders in your field? This means that large hiring companies, major decision makers, and influential people could notice and contact you much faster than traditionally.
For me, it’s translated into opportunities to guest post on influential sites and blogs, as well as to make great contacts in the blogging world that have opened even more doors for me. It’s also how I met amazing mentors who have been providing me with precious insights, advice and connections.
Blogging Enriches Your Network
You’ve heard the phrase: “Your network is your net worth!” By letting you establish your digital footprint, blogging also expands and enriches your network in unique ways. People can find you more easily through a blog, and reach out to you through your social media contact (please make sure to include it on your blog).
Networking is crucial to growing your career. However, it does require much time and effort, both of which can be minimized through a strong blogging presence!
Blogging makes you know yourself better!
Writing about just about anything brings you back to yourself. First, because we all are somewhat selfish. And second, because you will first look at anything through the lens of your own experience. And that’s how you realize how much you’ve learnt in that same corporate gig you loathe, and how you, yes you, can start making a difference right where you are…
Blogging turns you into a lifelong learner!
Our new work environments force us to learn on a continuous basis. So does blogging. From personal introspection to research skills and others, blogging will foster a thirst for information that can only help you as a professional.
Some of the valuable skills you can acquire through blogging include:
- Writing
- Social Media
- Use of CMS like WordPress
- Using analytical tools like Google
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Most of these skills are much valued by employers, and can help put you on the map!
Blogging Shows Leadership!
Every time you create content, share solutions, advice and tools with others, you help them! Helping people is one of the most important pre-requesites to effective leadership. It establishes you as an expert and an authority figure in your niche, in a way that very few traditional career accomplishments could ever do.
This is also one of the qualities that is very much valued by business and employers.
Blogging IS Entrepreneurship!
We all have entrepreneurship muscles (most of them dormant), eager to be exercised in our careers. Whether in our current career or the one we are building, blogging will definitely exercise this muscle… a lot!
Your blog can be the platform through which you grow your business, become a freelancer, and even get contacted to write a blog. Just look at blogger and best-selling author Luvvie Ajayi’s success story: from her successful blog came the opportunity to publish her first best-selling book!
Read more on: 4 simple steps to create your WordPress blog with Bluehost
Do you plan on starting a blog? How has blogging changed your career?
To Your Success,
The Corporate Sis
by Solange Lopes | Sep 18, 2014 | Career
Keyboard Memo Pad – $8.75 – Photo credit: http://www.muji.us/store
I was just saying the other day if I didn’t have my head screwed on, I would need a reminder to put it on…And I know I’m not alone…
For all the other kings and queens of reminders, phone alerts, sticky notes, these keyboard memo pads has just made its way on our list of must-haves. These keyboard memos with symbols of Call, Email or Urgent are to be folded and placed right there between your computer keyboard!
I could use many of these, and I’m sure you could. These are $8.75, and come 25 sheets per symbol (or 75 sheets per set). Now I’m going to need a sticky note to remember to get these…
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 18, 2014 | Career
Structured Pullover – $98 – anntaylor.com
‘Tis sweater season! I was positively struck by this stylish, structured pullover from Ann Taylor. Loving the balance between relaxed and refined on this everyday piece that can go from casual to ooh-la-la! The relaxed crew neck shape is nicely complemented by the rounded drop shoulders.
I could see myself wearing this week-round, from work to after-hours and the week-end. For work, I would probably merchandise it a bit with medium-sized hoops or pear earrings, or push the limits a bit with a nice, oversized necklace like this one, or even this one.
This oh so cute and versatile sweater is $98 at Ann Taylor. Psstt….use code STOCKUP for 30% off one one item, 40% off on 2 items, and 50% off on 3 items or more…
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 18, 2014 | Career |
Parenting principles for work – Photo credit: http://www.humptybumptykids.com
From what you can read in the media, motherhood and a successful career don’t exactly go hand in hand. Actually, there is even what is called a “motherhood penalty” at work for working mothers, which apparently takes us right back to the way things were in 1977. Yes, 1977, that was before I (and many among us) was born, or could count the dollars and cents that would make up this perennial wage gap penalty….
Yes, just as motherhood is for many of us an integral part of who we are, it’s also virtually impossible to separate our careers from it.
Actually and even better, I’ve found working at being a better mother (because it is also a career all on its own, if not one of the most difficult careers) helps me be a better career woman. Not in the quantity of hours I put in the office (which has been proved to be one of the worst barometers of career success), but in the quality of the vision, thought and actual work provided.
How could this be, when as professional moms, we are said to be torn between our motherly and career duties? When this whole work-life balance seems to elude us more and more by the day? How do we even begin to garner enough resources to walk on that thin line?
Well, maybe it’s less of a matter of performing a difficult balancing act than leveraging all the resources we actually have. Maybe motherhood, and parenting in general, instead of being the anti-thesis of career success, is actually one of its best allies:
1.It’s about what you put in, not just what you get out of it. There’s no work more rewarding than caring for children. Yet, in no other area of life, is the reward less quantifiable. Neither do we seek to quantify it. What if we applied the same altruistic approach to work? Aren’t the best leaders those who put the interests of their life’s work ahead of themselves?
2. It’s about learning first, then teaching! Today’s economy requires us to be lifelong learners, apt at transmuting and evolving our skills at the drop of a hat (or the newest Apple i-product). What else do we do as parents? We continuously learn, mostly about ourselves, and we constantly evolve. After all, who’d ever think we’d get to learning the difference between chocolate and poop?
3. It’s about realizing the work is never, ever, ever finished…I remember waking up every 2 hours to feed my baby daughter, and asking my mom when this grueling motherhood business would be over. “Never, baby, never!” If more of us realized our lives’ and career work is never, ever, ever done, maybe we could take it all in stride and learn to do better, not just more…
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 17, 2014 | Career
Swear Jar – Photo credit: thehonestmommy.com
I’ve had the pleasure to work with some of the pottiest mouths in my line of work (don’t get any idea, this is Accounting we’re talking about, not pole dancing). I have to say, our days were as productive as they were filled with some of the funniest expletive words and phrases one could think about (by then, I had let go of my inner professional good girl). And truth is, although we were all some pretty buttoned-up professionals, Ann taylor dresses and Brooks Brothers non-iron dress shirts, it was OK…Actually, it was best…
Apparently, and this according to a study by British researchers Yehuda Baruch and Stuart Jenkins, swearing at work is not only OK, it’s highly recommended. Not only does it largely improve morale, swearing also releases a great deal of stress (well, I could have told you the latter). Yet, really, is swearing at work a great way to build good rapport with your co-workers, or does it make you look like an inappropriate douchepurse?
My $0.05: when it comes to casually swearing at work, one word of advice: KNOW YOUR OFFICE! And know your office culture! You may work in a casual, permissive environment that allows (or even fosters) language liberties. Or you may work in a very conservative setting when only a few co-workers casually swear in between themselves. In any case, look around and gage your environment first. Build a rapport with people first before getting overly casual with them. And NEVER address clients or upper management with lesser than your most curated vocabulary!
Or you can always get the department’s swear jar out:
What do you think? Do you use casual swear words at work?
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 17, 2014 | Career
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Flare Tweed Dress – $69.95 – nyandcompany.com
Nothing says Fall like tweed, and in this case, a flare tweed dress like this one from NY&Co. I love tweed for its preppy look and the warmth of its fabric (as you can tell by my previous picks here, and here too). And when it’s combined with a flattering flare silhouette for a season-perfect and stylish take on work fashion, all the better!
Loving the faux leather inserts at the waist and the shoulders for an edgy yet professional look. I would wear this dress just as is, or layered under this brown cherry jacket for maximum work fashion impact! This dress is $69.95 at NY&Co.
Seen a great fashion pick you’d like me to feature on the blog? Please leave a comment or email me at thecorporatesister@gmail.com!
The Corporate Sis.
by Solange Lopes | Sep 17, 2014 | Career
Photo credit: pinterest.com
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So this past week-end, I took dear daughter to the Disney on Ice Frozen show. And while my baby girl was belting out the tunes of the Frozen song (that I’ve only heard about a zillion times and one so far), one lyric in particular struck me. That would be when Elsa proudly declares “the perfect girl is gone”. Of course, as my daughter’s eyes were lit from wonder and amazement, my eyes were ready to pop as I made the oh so unconventional (yet oh so very me) connection between a kids’ show and…feminism!
Don’t get me wrong, I like Elsa. I think Elsa in all her glittering cartoon cuteness, is a feminist. What’s even better, her budding, revolutionary feminism is born on-screen before our very eyes, as she decides to let go of that perfect girl inside and assume her ice power queen self. And if Elsa had a corporate job, she’d be the revered, quirky leader of a company with products targeted to independent, strong, kick-ass women.
And why, or how, could that be? Because at some point, it clicked in Elsa’s head, as it should in all our pretty, independent, driven women’s heads, that our inner good girls gotta go! That in order to fulfill our potential, we must not only take stock of ourselves, but also of our careers. That we must accept that our unconventional traits, different leadership styles, right down to our weirdest habits (or powers for that matter) are also our strongest assets. After all, hasn’t weirdness become a pre-requisite of leadership these days (think Facebook’s Zuckerberg or Zappo’s Tony Hsieh, now that’s effective weirdness).
Bottom line: if you want to be successful on your own terms (is there any other way to be successful), you must silence the quiet, self-compromising, people-pleasing inner good girl and awaken your true self. You know, the one who can turn anything into gleaming ice, and bring success out of anything she puts her mind to…So go ahead and be weird all you can…
Oh and as for me, I’m going to wait a bit to give dear daughter the whole spiel on Elsa…I can hear it already: “What’s a feminist, Mommy?”
“You’ll see, baby, you’ll see…”
The Corporate Sis.
