www.ZhouWenhan.com » writing http://zhouwenhan.com About Zhou Wenhan Wed, 03 Aug 2011 10:15:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 10 Steps to get a Great Reference for your Next Job http://zhouwenhan.com/2007/06/10-steps-to-get-a-great-reference-for-your-next-job/ http://zhouwenhan.com/2007/06/10-steps-to-get-a-great-reference-for-your-next-job/#comments Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:15:00 +0000 Wenhan http://zhouwenhan.com/?p=72 Employers check references because they need a second opinion on their potential hire. Everyone should have references. But how do you get a great references that will outshine the others? Here is a simple 10 Step tutorial to get consistent and presentable references from your previous colleagues.

  1. Find a suitable referee. They are generally people whom have work with you in a professional capacity. Examples can include direct manager, peers or clients.
  2. Arrange for a meeting or phone conversation with your referee. Review questions that may be asked
  3. Tell your referee about the kind of job you are seeking. Ask if he is comfortable recommending you for such a position. Give hi a copy of your resume, clarify your accomplishments and answer questions he may have
  4. Suggest to our referee that you would appreciate strong recommendations in the key areas and traits mentioned above
  5. Ask the referee what he thinks about your weaknesses or developmental areas, for example:” May I ask you what you think my developmental needs are, so that you and I are consistent?”
  6. With former bosses, clarify reasons for leaving. Tell them what you are saying and ask if they are comfortable saying that as wel. You are not asking your referee to lie. You merely need a congruent story as reasons for leaving may be vague at times
  7. Write a summary so your referee can refer to it. The summary should consist of key points raised during your conversation and the traits and strengths, developmental needs and reasons for leaving
  8. Tell your referee who will be getting in touch with him so he is not surpired when the call comes. Even better, schedule the call yourself if possible
  9. Gain your referee’s commitment to call you if anyone contacts him
  10. Keep your referee posted on your job search.

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]]> http://zhouwenhan.com/2007/06/10-steps-to-get-a-great-reference-for-your-next-job/feed/ 0 10 Things I Learnt From Blogging http://zhouwenhan.com/2007/05/10-things-i-learnt-from-blogging/ http://zhouwenhan.com/2007/05/10-things-i-learnt-from-blogging/#comments Thu, 03 May 2007 02:00:00 +0000 Wenhan http://zhouwenhan.com/?p=59 1. Traffic Peaks On Weekdays
Weekdays are the times when my blog gets most of the traffic. Weekends are really slow with traffic dropping by 25%. Before I started blogging, I thought that the opposite was true. I guess many people do surf the Internet while they should be at work.

2. Blogger Is Great But WordPress Is Better
For all the aspiring bloggers out there, I would highly recommending using WordPress. Compared to Blogger, WordPress has more 3rd party widgets that can expand the functionality of your blog. However on WordPress, you cannot use a custom domain name unless you pay a fee.

3. It Is Hard To Write Content
Quality content takes up a considerable time to write. At the start, I had no idea that blogging will take the amount of time I have invested into TodaysTen . However I still think it is worth while to maintain my blog as I am able to effectively share my knowledge with anyone interested.

4. You Can Run Out Of Things To Write
When I started, I figure a post a day isn’t that hard. However 3 months into my first blogging attempt, TodaysTen has fifty-one posts of which forty which are entirely self written. I have shared so much of my knowledge that I have almost given out everything that I know. Everyday I wake up and wonder what I should write about today.

5. 100 pple = $1
After studying my Ad revenue and reading about what other typical blogs make, I have come to learn that 100 visitors translates to about $1 in advertisement revenue. As they say, have another 100 blogs and you will get a pretty decent income.

6. It Is Addictive To Watch Your Stat Counter
Blogging becomes like a game with an addiction. At the start when TodaysTen was young, I was constantly checking my sitemeter to see where and how much traffic was streaming in. Seeing your page views shoot up is akin to the satisfaction achieved from leveling in World of Warcraft. Like most addictions, the high wears off after a while. Now I refresh my Adsense page more than the sitemeter page instead.

7. The Rush You Get When You Get Linked
A sense of excitement sweeps you when you get linked by sites with substantially more visitors than you get. My first experience was on thestreet.com. TheStreet is a site I read everyday and I was so moved that I got onto their blogwatch column. The second was by an Australian newspaper. They sent me almost 2000 visitors in 1 day doubling the Page views I had at the point of time.

8. People Translate Your Stuff And Put It On Their Site
I got some of my post translated to Italian and Spanish. Even though they give me credit at the end of the article, I am not completely comfortable with them copying my entire text. This is pretty much a gray area. I cannot do anything anyway so I just let it be and be honored that someone took the effort to translate my article.

9. It Took 2 Months For Google To Start Sending People To TodaysTen
2 months! It took 2 months before I noticed Google sending me readers who were using their search engine. Bloggers call it the “Google Chasm”. Today I get 70-90 people from Google going mainly to articles that are more than a week old. If you intend to run a blog, do have some patience as it will take time before you have enough content to be picked up by the search engines. I haven’t been picked up by Yahoo or other search engines. I wonder if it is because I am using blogger.

10. Associated Content Is Great To Get Started
Adsense really does not cut it for small blogs like mine. The revenue is glacially slow to say the least. Associated content has made me more money than Adsense so far. It is a great service where you get paid for content you write. Great for small time bloggers as the return is the highest you can get from writing content. (ps: if you want to sign up, please do use my ref link :Associated Content- Sign Up)

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