Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom Why Finance Pros Are Turning to Automation

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom Why Finance Pros Are Turning to Automation Arefinancialexperts afraid of automation? Not exactly. If you talk to many of them, you’ll hear that technology has actually changed their jobs for the better and has positively impactedhow they work in their organizationby eliminating manual processes, increasing accuracy and efficiency, and facilitating valuable customer interactions. I rounded up some of the best thoughts on automation from big timers in the industry. Here’s what they had to say. “Automation will change how we insure property, loan money, invest money, deliver technology, write research reports, and what professionals in financial services do every day. Every week in the news we read about a new application for artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks, or robots â€" whether it is self-driving cars, AI assistants, predictive models, robots building (or printing) hardware, or how to invest our money. Put these all in the category of automation â€" and that is what will impact finance the most in the next decade.”David Reilly, CTO of Bank of America, as told to Tina Wadhwa,Business Insider. “Open digital technologies will continue to support finance transformation. Transformation is accelerating in terms of companies and people needing investment decisions, as well as the development and implementation of new business models. This will require increased automation and simplification to drive process efficiencies, increased analytics to provide high-speed business insight to drive better business decision-making, and, finally, better collaboration so business connects in a much more seamless way.” Richard McLean, regional CFO, Asia-Pacific and Japan, SAP, as shared on theSAP blog. “We developed a chatbot named Eno, an automated program that can communicate with the bank’s customers via text message to give them information on their accounts and help them make credit card payments from their smartphone. The gender-neutral virtual assistant uses artificial intelligence to respond to natural language text messages from users about their money. For example, customers might ask Eno to show them their recent account balances or pay off a credit card bill.”Ken Dodelin, vice president of digital product development, Capital One, as told to Anne Irrera,Reuters. For more insights from finance professionals, check out the full post on the QuickBase Fast Track blog.

Five Ways Volunteering Can Help Your Career - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Five Ways Volunteering Can Help Your Career - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career “It’s easy to make a buck. It’s tougher to make a difference.” â€" Tom Brokaw, journalist Volunteering for a good cause changes lives and doesn’t just benefit the people you’re helping. Beyond the obvious benefits of helping out in the community and making a difference, volunteering can both further your career and improve your life. Everybody wins. Here’s how volunteering can help boost your career and your personal branding in ways you might not have expected. It’s a Chance to Network By volunteering, you’ll meet people you otherwise never would have met. The bonds formed between volunteers are strong, and friendships quickly form. These friendships could be a big benefit by expanding your network of contacts. It’s a nice side effect of the work you’ll be doing. You Could Discover Your Passion Barbara Abbot was out of work for almost a decade when she decided to start working again. Instead of focusing on corporate management again, she volunteered at the San Francisco Food Bank. Her diligent work lead to a full-time position. She never expected that to happen. “The first day I volunteered here, I never thought I’d end up with a full-time job,” she told Monster.com. “Looking back, though, it seems that was a sensible way to make an impression and get in.” Abbot’s story isn’t uncommon. There are countless examples of people who have turned their volunteer experience into a satisfying job. Hiring Managers Value Volunteers Even if your volunteer work is unrelated to your desired job, hiring managers take notice. A LinkedIn survey found 41 percent of hiring managers view volunteer work as equal to a paid job.  This is especially beneficial to anyone who has been unemployed but volunteered while searching for a job. More importantly, potential employees who volunteer have a 27 percent better chance of being hired than people who don’t volunteer, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service. There’s a disconnect between applicants and hiring managers based on how they value volunteering. Eighty-one percent of hiring managers feel volunteer experience is valuable, according to the Deloitte Volunteer Impact Survey. Despite that, only 46 percent of college students felt volunteering would help them land a job. It turns out volunteers aren’t sharing their experience in their resumes. Another LinkedIn survey found 89 percent of people volunteered, yet only 45 percent listed it on their resume. Talk about a missed opportunity. You’ll Learn New Skills Employers also value volunteering efforts because they engage employees and help them build new skills. There are no shortages of nonprofit organizations in any city, and their missions can range from education to advocacy to animals. With many nonprofits short-staffed and lacking resources, there are a number of potential tasks out there. You could work on the website, track donations using special products or organize large-scale events. If you’re interested in trying anything, local organizations will welcome you on board. Every new skill you pick up is a chance to improve and expand your personal branding. You won’t be paid, but you’ll receive valuable hands-on experience that you can take ownership in. You’ll Grow as a Person It’s a proven fact volunteering makes most people happier in life and improves their mental health. A study found volunteers have a 20 percent lower risk of death than people who don’t volunteer. Being happier in life can have a huge impact in your “real” job and ensure you don’t get burnt out. Your disposition and energy levels will improve, while the risk of burnout decreases. Happiness makes the day-to-day work more enjoyable. Self-confidence goes a long way in furthering your career, and volunteering provides the outlet to improve this valuable trait. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing as long as it gives you a sense of purpose and satisfaction. Make Volunteering Work The most important thing when choosing how and where to volunteer is to find something you’re passionate about. Keep an eye on Facebook and check with your friends about any volunteering opportunities. Sites like Idealist.org can also lead you to some promising volunteering options. When you find something you enjoy doing, all the above benefits will come to fruition. Now go out there and find what you love.

Finally, a new blog design. Im very excited.

Finally, a new blog design. Im very excited. I was thinking that a new blog design would be frivolous, and I should just write good posts. But then I ran the post about my new headshots, and the comments section was filled with people saying how much they hate the photo on my blog masthead. That photo is from a time when I was just getting my big writing jobsat Yahoo Finance and the Boston Globeand my book was coming out. And the headshot was all about making me look older and wiser than people maybe thought I was. But, really, I am not big on authority. Im more about conversation. And I think its way more interesting to look a little off-kilter and ask good questions, than it is to look perfect and act like I have all the answers. So I knew it was time to change my photo. Then I started getting excited about trying lots of new things on my blog. Then I did what I do best: Found great people to work with. The first person I chose was Jessi Pervola. She does the design work for my company, Brazen Careerist, and she is super fun because she thinks of new features and fun layouts that make people want to do more. So I thought maybe shed do that for my blog. Of course, all top-flight designers do what Jessi does, on some level. But the other thing that made me choose Jessi is that I love her blog. I love that the design is weirdwith tons of white space that would scare most people. And I love that the first things you see when you go to her blog are these two links: Whats my problem? and The full list. It makes me laugh. And I think she must be really, really pulled together because she actually knows the number of problems she has. The other person who worked on my blog is Clay Collins. He is the crazy, night-owl SEO guy who I have to stay up til 2am to talk to. But he is always worth the phone call, even though I usually consume 2000 calories in sugar-enhanced bread products in order to stay up that late. Clay has ideas like the poll. Or maybe that was Jessis idea. But thats what is great about picking people who are great. They dont bicker about whose ideas are whose. They dont step on each others toes. They just come up with amazing stuff. So here are some of the things that are new, and if you look around the site, youll find a bunch more: My twitter feed is back. And for those of you who worry that I write too much snark about investors, you will be happy to read this twitter: An investor tells me dont stop writing about investors. It makes you differentiated, he says. And he says, Would that be a good pickup line? There is a poll. It will change every week. Maybe every Tuesday if I can stick to a schedule. There are so many things I want to ask you guys. Todays question is about sex with your boss. But only because I wanted to ask if you thought I should change my photo all the time, but my editoryes, now I guess I have a poll editorsaid the sex one is more interesting. The header is different. The queen of branding herself has a branding problem: I sold Brazen Careerist to my company, so I dont actually own it anymore. So I really need to separate myself from the Brazen Careerist brand. I dont quite know how to do it. Maybe Penelopes Blog. Like Seths Blog? Or maybe I am too full of myself and I will never be Seth. (After all, Seth keeps getting book contracts to republish his posts, and when I tried to do that, my editor nearly canceled my contract.) So the header will probably change a lotlike, every night at 10pm when I have branding panic and call Jessi to make changes to the art. It is no coincidence that Im launching a new blog the week of Thanksgiving. Thank you so much, each of you, for being part of a community that makes finding success at the intersection of work and life a much less lonely process. I like that we all do this together. This has been a tough year for me. Divorce, farmer tumult, funding a company in an economic crisis. And all of you have been a great reality check for me about what is going right and what isnt and what we can expect from life. You have also helped me to see that its been a great year. My blog allowed me to start my company, and my company allows me to have big, fun job and still pick my kids up after school. And believe it or not, I actually still have a fun dating life . . . but youll have to come back here to find out about that.

Four Benefits of Offering Better Guest WiFi

Four Benefits of Offering Better Guest WiFi It’ll come as no surprise that businesses all over the world are offering free WiFi to their customers. In fact, if you’ve visited a leisure business within the past few months, there’s a high chance that you have connected to free guest WiFi yourself. From restaurants to hotels, offering guest WiFi is now considered a fundamental factor for visitors to your business. However, you may not have realised the benefits that your company can experience by offering a better connection. In this guide, we’ve shared four reasons why you should improve the free guest WiFi that you offer your customers, as well as the tactics that you can use to get the most out of the network: Why should I improve my guest WiFi? One key reason for improving the connection that your business offers, is to increase the number of visitors using the service. For example, let’s say that your hotel offers free WiFi for customers but the connection is slow. This is likely to mean that people will opt to use their own mobile data instead of your free WiFi. However, offering faster and higher quality hotel WiFi will encourage more people to use the free network as opposed to their private data, even if they have to pay for it. Once you’ve got a large pool of people using your free guest WiFi connection, you can use the following methods to enhance, grow and further fund your business: Marketing your business Once you’ve encouraged more customers to use your free WiFi, you can exploit this platform and use it to market your business. One great ideas is to display your company promotions and deals to customers through personalising the splash page â€" the page that a customer lands on when connecting to your WiFi. This is often referred to as WiFi marketing. You’ve also got the opportunity to use the splash page to show customers any offers that they might be unaware of, as well as promote any special events to existing customers. New revenue streams As soon as the volume of people using your better WiFi increases, you can opt to use the space on your splash page to advertise your business’ other services to your customers. Acting as your own platform to reach a targeted pool of people who are already interested in your brand, this works especially well with hotel WiFi as you can use your own online advertising space to show your existing customers other products; acting as a form of up-selling and increasing revenue. Collecting customer details Another benefit of improving your free guest WiFi is that you can integrate a sign-up system to collect key details about your customers. By getting customers to enter their email addresses or social platform details to connect to your free WiFi network, your business can use these details for future marketing activities such as SMS or email. You can use the location services embedded within your free WiFi network to learn more about your customers’ habits. By finding the popular hotspots where your customers use the WiFi, you’re able to learn more about guest activity and use these details to improve your service. As you can see, offering better guest WiFi can provide your business with many exciting opportunities whilst improving customer satisfaction. Now, it’s up to you to upgrade your network and experience the benefits for yourself!

How to Write Resumes For Jobs in the Philippines

How to Write Resumes For Jobs in the PhilippinesIf you're interested in getting the job of your dreams and providing yourself with a quality resume, then you need to learn how to write resumes for jobs in the Philippines. Getting a job in the Philippines is easier than you might think, and the internet has many resources that can help you get started. These two factors will be the backbone of your resume, as they relate to your prospective employer.Employers are very busy people. The best candidates get hired the most often. A good resume is just one of the things that helps you get the job you want. By using the Internet, you can easily find a resume writing job in the Philippines and quickly apply for one.There are many different places where you can find a resume writing job. The two basic types of job-a temporary job, and a full-time position-are also commonly offered online. Either way, you'll be using the resume you'll need to secure your dream job.Before you start sending out your resume to the Philippines, you have to find a company that offers these services. To do this, you'll need to take a few minutes and browse the Internet. The main thing you'll want to find out is where you can find a resume writing job that's specific to the Philippines.Once you know where you can find a resume writing job that is specific to the Philippines, you can begin to search for a company that will offer you this service. Be sure that you check out a few of the resume writing companies before you settle on one. You may want to use a reputable resume writing company if you're looking for professional services, but you want to be sure you're getting the best possible job for your resume.When you find a resume writing company that you trust, the next step is to get a copy of your resume. You can either get it online or have it professionally printed. Most companies will have samples of your resume writing, so you'll have a sample to work from when submitting your resume. On ce you have a resume, and a company that offers resume writing jobs in the Philippines, you'll need to begin to refine it.It's important to put all of the important details on your resume. You should include your contact information, your contact information for the company, and any other important details. This will help ensure that you're getting the job you want. If you don't include the correct information on your resume, you'll likely end up getting a job that doesn't require the skills you've put on your resume.Once you're finished writing your resume, the next step is to submit it to the company you've chosen. The most important thing to remember when you submit your resume is to make sure that you have a current and valid email address for the company you're applying to. This is one of the most important pieces of information for the resume. If you don't include your email address on your resume, it may be harder to get your resume read and considered for employment.

How Many Americans Are Happy at Work

How Many Americans Are Happy at Work According to a recent survey of close to 2,400 US employees conducted by Mercer, half of US employees are not happy in their jobs. Here are some other interesting stats from the survey:Thirty-two percent of  US workers are currently considering leaving their organization, up from 23% in 2005.Twenty-one percent are not looking to leave but view their employers unfavorably and have low scores on key measures of engagement.Only 43% of US employees believe they are doing enough to financially prepare for retirement â€" down from 47% in 2005, and just 41% believe their employers are doing enough to help them prepare, up slightly from 38%.Sixty-eight percent of employees rate their overall benefits program as good or very good, down from 76% in 2005, while 59% say they are satisfied with their health care benefits, down from 66%. US workers show lower satisfaction with base pay (53% satisfied, down from 58% in 2005).Forty-two percent of employees believe promotions go to the most qualifie d employees in their organization, up from 29% in 2005, and 46% agree that their organization does an adequate job of matching pay to performance, up from 33%.The youngest workers are most likely to leave their companies â€" 40% of employees age 25â€"34 and 44% of employees 24 and younger.Which half are you in at work? The happy half or the unhappy half?

A Whole Lotta Thank-Yous - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

A Whole Lotta Thank-Yous - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog As the year wraps up, its a natural time to think back and be grateful. And I have more than ever to be grateful for. In fact, there is one thing I want to say. To the 500.000 people who have visited my blog this year for giving me impetus and a drive to blog more and better. To the thousands of people who have commented on posts for giving me feedback, ideas, questions and challenges. To the hundreds of people who have given me feedback on my book for helping me make it so good. To my wonderful girlfriend and my amazing family for loving me. To my clients for paying me to do what I love. To everyone whos read and/or bought my book for giving the book a reason to exist. To my playmates all over the world for playing. To everyone whos contributed, given me advice and helped me out for confirming what we all should know: That the world is a wonderful place and people are amazingly generous. To all of you, I want to say: A Million Thank-Yous. Click that link and countem. I wish you an amazingly happy 2007! Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related