Lasting happiness comes from habits, not hacks

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For enduring happiness changes, you need habits, not hacks. And by habits, I don’t mean mindless routines; I mean mindful, daily practices to strengthen your relationships, deepen your wisdom, and uncover meaning in your life. Happiness hacking tends to trivialize happiness as little more than a feeling, but this is an error. Happy feelings are evidence of happiness, which is a combination of enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose.

Arthur C. Brooks writing in The Atlantic

Formatting your Resume

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Formats for Resumes:

1. Chronological
Possible Headings: Experience, Education, Activities and Skills (computer, language),

2. Functional or Skills
Possible Headings: Experience, Education, Skills (computer, language),

Professionnal experience

  • A resume should begin with the job candidate’s experience in the field in which they are applying, especially jobs, internships or work for student media or the college rather than the candidate’s education.

  • All experience that reflects the career goals, whether paid or unpaid.

  • Internships and assigned responsibilities.

  • Paid volunteer positions that reflect interests and skills, especially when it included a title.

Education

  • GPA if 3.5 or above

  • Coursework and papers can be highlighted as a special subsection under “Education.” For instance, one candidate was helped getting a position at CNN by taking Media Ethics and Media Law. For formal academic papers related to the field, include a one-sentence description of the length, focus, and scope of the paper or project. For instance, “Analyzed and compared journalistic styles in the Washington Post, Washingtonian magazine and Washington Business Journal.”

  • Awards and scholarships including the Dean’s List, etc.

  • If your education was self-financed or you paid a large percentage of your college expenses.

  • Conferences or special meetings you've attended having to do with the area of the job for which you are applying.

  • If you worked while attending college.

International Experience

International experience, including semesters abroad and other significant travel. Living in another country or having spent time overseas, shows a broad range of life history, the ability to adapt and experience with diverse groups.

Skills

A list of computer programs you are proficient using that are not assumed. For instance, an ability to use Microsoft Word or Google Docs would be assumed but not experience with Adobe Premiere Pro.

Activities (or interests)

If you have any odd skills or abilities, you might consider adding them under "interests" or a similar title. For instance, winning a chess tournament. While it might not directly relate to the job, including it suggests the candidate is smart, has diverse interests and self-displiined.

References

The cliché "references available upon request" is not worth including. If they want references, they will ask. Just be ready to present them. Including a list of references will take up vital real estate on resume, especially when it's just one page. Besides, when you are asked for references, it's an alert that you are truly being considered in the final batch for hire. Otherwise, you might not know that you are under serious consideration or a finalist.

If you decide to include references, make a courtesy call and ask each person for permission to use them as a reference. Tell them who might be calling and which of your skills you’d like them to emphasize. Include their relationship to you, such as “former supervisor.” It’s good to have a letter of recommendation on file in case you are asked by prospective employers to provide them on short notice.

More Job Tips

Do optimists really live longer?

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A number of studies have shown that optimists enjoy higher levels of well-being, better sleep, lower stress and even better cardiovascular health and immune function. And now, a study links being an optimist to a longer life. What makes these findings especially impressive is that the results remained even after accounting for other factors known to predict a long life.

Optimism is typically viewed by researchers as a relatively stable personality trait that is determined by both genetic and early childhood influences (such as having a secure and warm relationship with your parents or caregivers). But if you’re not naturally prone to seeing the glass as half full, there are some ways you can increase your capacity to be optimistic. 

For example, visualising and then writing about your “best possible self” (a future version of yourself who has accomplished your goals) is a technique that studies have found can significantly increase optimism, at least temporarily. But for best results, the goals need to be both positive and reasonable, rather than just wishful thinking. Similarly, simply thinking about positive future events can also be effective for boosting optimism. 

Fuschia Sirois writing in The Conversation

 

Finding Sorrow

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When you get depressed, it’s comforting to remember that deep inside you is a well of pain. This pain can help you. It’s a reservoir of self-knowledge and nourishment. When you’re able to welcome this pain, it can carry you out of depression into sorrow.

When depressed, you are merely numb and listless. But in sorrow, you feel the fine-grained texture of loss. Whereas depression diminishes our world, sorrow teaches you the true value of the things you mourn. Sorrow is the other side of joy—a dark, moist cradle of grief that slowly nourishes you, a solemn vigil that honors what you love. So the next time you are ensnared in darkness, cut through the gray armor of depression straight to the dark heart of sorrow.

Lost in depression, I am found in sorrow.

Andrew Boyd, Daily Afflictions

Metaverse Manipulation

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The metaverse will usher in a new age of mass customization of influence and manipulation.

A political candidate is giving a speech to millions of people. While each viewer thinks they are seeing the same version of the candidate, in virtual reality they are actually each seeing a slightly different version. For each and every viewer, the candidate’s face has been subtly modified to resemble the viewer. This is done by blending features of each viewer’s face into the candidate’s face. The viewers are unaware of any manipulation of the image. Yet they are strongly influenced by it.

Rand Waltzman writing in the New York Times

Empathy at Work

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One recommendation that executive coach Keith Ferrazzi gives clients is to conduct “energy check-ins” at the start of meetings, asking others to rate their energy level on a 0-5 scale. A low score is a chance to ask: Is there anything we or I can do for you?"

Empathy can easily be misinterpreted, says Kim Scott, a CEO coach and former Google executive whose book “Radical Candor” advocates for direct communications at work. Managers sometimes mistakenly assume they should ask a lot of questions about staffers’ lives outside work in a way that can feel intrusive.

Too much focus on empathy can cause some leaders to hold off on tough feedback. It’s counterproductive “when empathy begins to paralyze us to ‘I’m so aware of how you might feel that I’m afraid to talk to you,’ ” she says.

Ray A Smith writing in the Wall Street Journal

 

 

Tuesday Tech Tools: 52 Social Media Tools

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Account Killer
Shows how to completely close any social media account, not just disable them.

Agorapulse
Twitter and Facebook AND Instagram management tool. Receive instant email notification every time one of your automated moderation rules applies to a post or comment. Discover your most engaged fans based on interaction with your page. Coordinates contests and promotions. Accounts start at $29 a month.

Bit.ly
URL shortening and bookmarking service that also offers real time-analytics as well as click tracking. Works with Twitter and Facebook. Free.

Bottle Nose
Track news and trends across social networks.

BrandYourself
Manage and take ownership of your search results. Helps to make sure search engines find the real you and put your relevant results at the top.

Buffer*
Popular social media scheduling service for posting to multiple sites at one time: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+. Can schedule for later. Analytics. providedFree, however, $10 (and up) a month gives you unlimited scheduling so you can plan your content ahead of time.

BuzzSumo
Dashboard showing hot social media topics from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+.  A few free searches each day or unlimited if you sign up for an account with an email address. Alternative to Uprise.io.

Carma
Analytic insights for PR. Paid.

Cision
Large public relations software firm that merged with Vocus. Focused on executing and measuring influencer-oriented media campaigns. Large media and blogger database, distributes press releases, manages influencer outreach, and measure social media activities.

Clear
App that finds and flags your potentially inappropriate past social media posts and tweets.

Crimson Hexagon
In-depth sentiment metrics for planning social strategies. No mobile app. Paid.

Crowdfire
(Formerly JustUnfollow) This app shows your Twitter followers, unfollowers, inactive users, nearby followers, people who don't follow back and people and more all at one time--works with Instagram as well.

Crowd Booster*
Pulls together your Facebook and Twitter info (time most people look at your images or video uploads, your total reach, engagement, etc.). Helpful for devising a social media strategy. At a glance analytics recommendations on timing as well as audience insights. Starting at $9 a month.

Crowdtangle*
A "social listening device" that locates well-performing Facebook posts in a given area of content and shows them in a dashboard. If applicable to a client then users are able to either re-post the trending post or take that concept and make it useful to the specific audience. Called the secret behind UpWorthy’s success.  Formally a monthly subscription cost but purchased by Facebook in 2016 and now free though there is a vetting process.

Dataminr
Tool for catching what's news on Twitter before it trends.

EveryPost
Post to Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, all at one time. Free.

Feedient
Aggregation of social media feeds (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr) into one scrollable dashboard.  Free.

Foursquare
Geolocation search.

GeoFeedia* 
Search social media in real-time by location. Find photos, tweets, and other user generated content. For a cost, GeoFeedia will set up a geofence for a particular place.  Draw a circle around any area on a map to see all the content being posted by users within that area in real-time. Around a store so management can see what people are saying while browsing or a news organization can build a fence around a place where news is happening. $1,450 a month for up to five users.

Gephi
Popular social networking analysis tool. Interactive visualization and exploration platform for all kinds of networks and complex systems, dynamic and hierarchical Graphs. steep learning curve. Watch a video introduction to an older version here.

Glisser
Glisser "makes presentations social"  by making slides sharableto audience phones and laptops. Live polling, Twitter feeds and other audience interaction. Free but a paid subscription offers more options.

Google Trends
Info on what people are searching for in google, find trends, etc.

Hashtags
A real-time tracker of Twitter hashtags (like a tag for tweets, describing the content or nature of the tweet).

HootSuite*
Probably the most popular social media dashboard. Manage multiple accounts across multiple social networks: execute campaigns, schedule messages, track mentions and traffic.  Monitor your data in scrollable columns from up to five social networks for free.  Pro versions (starting at $8.99 per month).

Iconosquare*
Metrics for Instagram including top photos, which filters you use the most, most engaged followers, etc. Many different types of data nicely displayed with visualizations. Free.

IFTTT*
Stands for "If This Then That." Power tool for setting up automatic responses to Tweets, FB posts etc. Creates what programmers call conditional expressions. Such as sending a Tweet each time you make a blog post. Integrates well with HootSuit and Buffer. Samples.

Instagram*
The photo and video sharing app owned by Facebook is also a polling tool. Will accommodate single question polls with two answers (yes no) and a guessing game type of polls with up to four answers. While it has limited options, it’s free and can reach a large audience.

Instatrack
App that tells you about your Instagram followers.

Knowem
Allows you to check for the use of your name, brand, product, or username in more than 500 social media websites to see if it already taken and to secure it if it is not.

Kurrently
Search engine for Facebook and Twitter.

Later*
Social media scheduler especially for Instagram posts but also handles Twitter, Facebook, etc. Requires an image to post so the focus is on the visual. Lets you store your graphic images in a Media Library. There is a free version that is useful (though it limits certain dimensions or file sizes) while the paid option (starting at $9 a month) gives you manage comments and such.

LiveBlog Pro
Liveblog Pro is a liveblogging platform built by journalists, for journalists. Free to use for individuals, with a paid-for service offering multiple users.

Mention
Tracks social media mentions of key words you selection.block URLs out of searches and other features. 14 day free trial. Then accounts starting at $29 a month.

PhotoFeeler
Feedback on how you are being perceived in your profile photos. Add a photo in one of three categories – Business, Social or Dating. Vote on photos of other people to get credits or purchase credits with real money. Each credit allows one person to vote on your photo.

PostPlanner
Web post management tool for Facebook and Twitter.  You can indicate which type of content (photos, text, etc) you want shared at what times. Allows you to re-send content multiple times.  Includes a search tool to find more content related to your niche.  $7 a month.

Quora
Crowdsourced questions and answers.

RebelMouse
Platform for curating and aggregating social media content. It pulls from user's Twitter and Facebook feeds (among others) to create a page that showcases social content or organizes content around a single topic or user. Can be hosted by RebelMouse or integrated with a site built with WordPress. Here's a sample.

Reddit User & Lookup History
A search tool to find posts by a particular poster.

SalesForce Marketing Cloud
Formally Radian6, it provides social media insights and reports. Relatively easy to use, and empowers companies to clearly understand their place in social. Paid.

Snapchat Stories
Collections of daily moments from users in cities around the world.

Social Flow*
Designed to makes sure your message goes out at the most optimum time by letting watch real-time conversations and expand audience engagement. Analyzes data to determine when money should be spent on Promoted Tweets, Sponsored Stories and Promoted Posts. Used by some major publishers like The Washington Post and Mashable. Starting at $99 a month.

SocialOomph*
App that schedules tweets (and other social media), auto-follow new followers, tracking keywords, and monitor social media activity (such as mentions and retweets).  Free version and pro version.

SproutSocial*
A popular social media management tool in which you can schedule social media posts, get snapshot metrics, and monitor messages. A single stream inbox with monitoring tools and robust analytics. Not free or as cheap as HootSuite, but can be customized in ways that HootSuite cannot be customized. Free trial, Packages from $39, $59 or $99 per month. 

Storyluxe
This iOS app will help to create Instagram Stories with many free options. More info here.

Meltwater (formally Sysomos)
Social media tracking analysis creating by capturing social media mentions. Reports are not detailed or indepth as rivals Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Radian6) or Crimson Hexagon. Best when only skimming mentions is your goal. Video explanation here. Easy to use for quick monitoring a company's brand. No mobile app. Paid.

Tailwind*
A Pinterest scheduler with analytics and features like a draft mode. Free trial then $119 a year.

Talkwalker Alert
Like Google alerts, tracks keyword mentions on the web--such as your own name, your family, friends, company, etc. Get email notices when the phrase or name comes up on the Web. Free.

Traackr
Find and follow people who are influential in your industry. See how social media leaders are responding and contributing to your content. Target authorities to help your social media campaigns get off the ground and track the results.

Skyword (formally TrackMaven)
Audience insights in real-time which are compared against peers. Focused on big brands and enterprise marketers. Paid.

Trackur
Social media monitoring tools and measurements.

WhoPostedWhat
Intended for investigative journalists, this site will provide a keyword search on specific dates for Facebook posts. Free.

Zapier
Tools for connecting over 1,000 web services (such as Evernote, Gmail, and Dropbox). Works like IFTTT. So you can create recipes like “if I receive an email with an attachment, automatically save the attachment to Google Drive”. Automated Twitter posts, archived Twitter posts, easy analysis.  Up to 100 tasks each month for free.  More of paid subscription starting at $15 per month.

Also see Twitter Tech Tools

10 Articles about Job Seeking in Public Relations

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How Many Friends Do You Really Need?

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If your goal is simply to mitigate the harmful impact loneliness can have on your health, what matters most is having at least one important person in your life — whether that’s a partner, a parent, a friend or someone else, said Jeffrey Hall, a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas. 

The best-known theory of how many friends people can (though not necessarily should) have comes from British psychologist and anthropologist Robin Dunbar. What has come to be known as Dunbar’s number contends that humans are only cognitively able to maintain about 150 connections at once (subsequent research has put the number higher). That includes an inner circle of about five close friends, followed by larger concentric circles of more casual types of friends.

The amount of time you actually spend with your friends matters, too. Dr. Hall’s research suggests that on average, very close friendships tend to take around 200 hours to develop. Quantity and quality go hand-in-hand.

Catherine Pearson writing in the New York Times

7 free webinars related to media & journalism

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7 free webinars: The growth mindset, thriving in uncertainty, the mental health crisis, effective storytelling, media law, women's voices in the news, and covering climate   

Tues, Aug 23 - Growing Readers with a Growth Mindset

What: This session will review growth mindset research and introduce strategies to grow a growth

mindset. 

When: Noon, Mountain

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Colorado State Library

More info (no registration needed)

 

Tues, Aug 23 - How to Navigate and Thrive Through Uncertainty

What: Nathan and Susannah Furr will share insights from their research on innovators and changemakers who have thrived amid uncertainty. They will describe:  What they learned about resilience and tolerance for ambiguity; Principles that can help navigate uncertainty; Tools for seeing and seizing the upside in uncertainty; How to develop a vision for succeeding through uncertainty.

Who: Nathan Furr and Susannah Harmon Furr, coauthors of The Upside of Uncertainty: A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown. Nathan is a professor of strategy and innovation at INSEAD in Paris. Susannah is an entrepreneur, designer, art historian, and contrarian.

When: Noon, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Harvard Business Review

More info

 

Wed, Aug 24 - The Youth Mental Health Crisis

What: U.S. children and teens have struggled with increasing rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal behavior for much of the past decade. This webinar will look at the systemic causes and policy failures that have accelerated the crisis and its inequitable impact, as well as promising community-driven approaches and evidence-based practices.

Who: Julie Kaplow is the executive vice president of trauma and grief programs and policy at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. She is the executive director of the Trauma and Grief Centers at The Hackett Center for Mental Health in Houston and the Children’s Hospital New Orleans, and a professor of psychiatry at Tulane University School of Medicine.

When: 11:30 Pacific

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: USC Center for Health Journalism

More info

Thu, Sept 8 - The 7 Components of Effective Campaign Storytelling

What: In this webinar, you will learn how to communicate your story to supporters in a way that is both authentic and engaging. 

Who: Shannon Reeb, Digital fundraising strategist and writer  

When: 11 AM, Pacific

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The Nonprofit Learning Lab

More info

Mon, Sept 12 - Media Law Office Hours

What: This session allows journalists with legal questions to help find answers on issues related to the First Amendment, Freedom of Information, copyright, defamation, or other media law matters.

Who: Attorney Matthew Leish

When: 5 pm, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free but registration required

Sponsor:  New York’s Deadline Club

More info

 

Tue, Sept 13 – Women’s Voices in the news

What: A wide-ranging conversation about how women’s voices have been silenced and spotlighted in newsrooms and in the public square, and how we can ensure that journalism raises up a diversity of women’s perspectives in the future.

Who: Soraya Chemaly, award-winning author of “Rage Becomes Her,” co-founder of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project; Deborah Douglas, co-editor-in-chief of The Emancipator; Allison Gilbert, journalist and co-author of “Listen, World!”; Dana Rubin, author of “Speaking While Female”; Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, novelist, professor

When: 11:30 AM, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The National Press Club Journalism Institute

More info

 

Thu, Sept 15 – Covering Climate 101

What: You’ll learn how to quickly access media-trained scientists and where to find (and even make) visuals to illustrate your work.  

Who: Panelists include Google’s Mary Nahorniak, Climate Central’s Shari Bell, and SciLine’s Rick Weiss.

When: 11:30 AM, Pacific

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

More info

Making Better Decisions

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For many of us, the main concern over decision-making is practical — how can we make better decisions? Neuroscientist Paul Glimcher said that his research has helped him develop specific strategies. “Rather than pick what I hope is the best, instead I now always start by eliminating the worst element from a choice set,” he said, reducing the number of options to something manageable, like three. “I find that this really works, and it derives from our study of the math. Sometimes you learn something simple from the most complex stuff, and it really can improve your decision-making.”   

Emily Singer writing in Quanta Magazine

The Order of the Soul

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The function of man is an activity in accordance with a certain arrangement or order in the soul (according to Aristotle). That is why Aristotle can conclude that the human good is an activity of soul in accordance with virtue: for virtue is a certain organization of the soul. How this order is instilled in man’s soul is a central issue of ethics. Of course, the exercise of the virtues will often involve man’s practical reason. But if the practical reasoning did not flow from a certain organization of the soul, it would be empty. In fact It is because a man’s life has a certain order that he is able to reason about it: the logos (or rational principle) in his mind will reflect the logos in his soul.

Jonathan Lear, Aristotle: The Desire to Know