From Food to Psychology and Teaching

From Food to Psychology and Teaching Success Story > From: Job To: Portfolio career From Food to Psychology and Teaching “When my wife and I had our son, I realised that I was never going to see him unless I made a change.” * From Food to Psychology and Teaching William Teasley was uninspired by his job and fed up with the long hours he worked. So, now he's rebooting his career in a completely different, happier direction. Here's his story. What work were you doing previously? I was a chef. What are you doing now? I'm now in my final term of a psychology degree at Sussex University. I've been accepted to the Sussex Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme to train as a maths teacher (I realised I had a love for the subject after having to take a maths exam to make it into Sussex). I couldn't be happier and feel that I'm absolutely doing the right thing. In the meantime, I still have to finish my psychology degree! I'm also running the Sussex Street Crime Project, which looks at the reaction to the way crimes are reported in the UK media. I'm mainly looking at effects on black British populations. Why did you change? When my wife and I had our son, I realised that I was never going to see him unless I made a change. He's much more important to me than a career as a chef, so I chose accordingly. That being said, my career had taken a few steps back, after moving from San Francisco to Brighton. Regardless of your contacts and CV, you always have to work your way up a bit in the food world. I was making half of what I made in San Francisco, and was feeling relatively uninspired. I'd been thinking about going back to university in the States, but there was no possible way I could afford it. After looking into things here in the UK, I realised that it was a much more feasible option here. When was the moment you decided to make the change? There was a particularly bad Christmas season at the restaurant I was working at; we had half of our staff bail out just before the busiest time of the year. I was working more than 80 hours a week, which made my salary translate into a very low hourly wage. I'd had enough with restaurants. Are you happy with the change? Incredibly happy. I've relished my time here at university, and found the transition to be much easier than I'd anticipated. What do you miss and what don't you miss? I miss the rhythm of the kitchen. I know that may sound strange, but I mean the slow start to the day (getting things on in the morning and prepping for lunch), then the gradual rise in tempo leading up to the insanity of dinner service. By the end of the day, you've made so many things that have been enjoyed (or hated!) by so many people. It’s all very tangible and rewarding. How did you go about making the shift? The first thing was to see if I was even eligible to do it. I visited the University of Sussex a couple of times and had discussions with the admissions tutors. They all seemed very accommodating and positive, but all let me know that I would need to complete an access course. So, then I went to City College, Brighton and Hove, to have a discussion with their admissions tutors. It all seemed feasible, but I would need £1,500 up front. I signed up for a credit card and and had just enough of a credit limit to max it out and be able to cover the tuition. I applied and found out that psychology was an oversubscribed area of study, so I was delighted when I was invited to an interview. I was incredibly nervous at the interview, but felt that I'd said what I needed to say about my motivations and goals. Shortly thereafter I was accepted! Life couldn't have been better at that moment: I was actually making the change! The access course was a joy. I made excellent grades, enjoyed my teachers, and learned a lot about living in the UK. The next step was the university application. In the end, my first choice came through and I came to Sussex. It all seems so normal now, but thinking back to three years ago makes me incredibly grateful to have been given this opportunity. My initial plan when returning to education was to stay in for as long as I could, doing something at postgraduate level after the first degree was complete. I thought about putting together a PhD proposal. In the meantime, I always had the 'fallback' idea of becoming a teacher. Last summer, I won a grant to conduct a piece of research at Sussex as a Junior Research Associate (JRA). While working on this project, I met Jenny Paterson, who was working on the Sussex Hate Crime Project, a Leverhulme-funded project exploring the extended effects of hate crime in the UK. She asked me for help administering an experimental portion of the project to a few secondary schools in London. We made a couple of trips and spoke with classes about the project, as well as university experience. I was immediately taken by the energy of the schools. It was such a buzz being in the classroom. I enjoyed discussing things with the teachers, fielding questions from students, and being in front of the class. This really opened my eyes further to that old 'fallback' idea of being a teacher. When it was time to submit applications for postgraduate study, I was really torn about which path to take. I decided to just put applications in for all of my choices and see what happened. I would write my PhD proposals, as well as submitting an application for PGCE training. In the meantime, I lined up a few more school observations. I felt the same then as I did when visiting the schools with Jenny. Teaching jumped out and took me. The choice was made. I have now, wholeheartedly put all of my energies into this goal. What didn't go well? What 'wrong turns' did you take? My wrong turns were made well before this career shift. Everything has gone wonderfully. I really can't complain about anything. How did you handle your finances to make your change possible? To make ends meet I taught English as a foreign language, via homestay booking websites, as well as working a few shifts in the kitchen and catering. Mainly, however, this opportunity was given to me by my amazing wife who worked to give the main support to the family while I studied. What was the most difficult thing about changing? The fear of the unknown! My wife was incredibly supportive, and told me that I was going to be amazing, but of course I feared the worst. My first attempt at university had gone horribly wrong, so I worried that I was uprooting my life to pursue something that wasn't going to work. What help did you get? I had discussions with my in-laws, my wife, and many other people that I met through functions organised by the charity Spark + Mettle. It was mainly moral and motivational support that was needed (well, that and monetary support!). What have you learnt in the process? To try things and see what they're like for myself. I never imagined that I would fit so well with academia. I mean, I'm not an amazing student, but I am very comfortable doing this sort of thing, which is quite a change from being a chef! What do you wish you'd done differently? Nothing really. Seriously. What would you advise others to do in the same situation? Try not to get caught up in stereotypical ideas of what a 'university-material' person is or isn't. Education (despite the test scores, administration, etc.) is a creative and nurturing process that will benefit anyone who goes into it wholeheartedly and with a curious mind. What resources would you recommend to others? University websites â€" read what the researchers at the university produce, in order to see what sort of work you may be doing. If you would like to participate in William's street crime project, please visit www.sussexstreetcrimeproject.wordpress.com What lessons could you take from WIlliam's story to use in your own career change? Let us know in the comments below. Plus, if you know someone who's made a successful shift into work they love, we want to hear from you. Drop us a line to hello@careershifters.org and you could win a £25 voucher to spend at Amazon!

The State of Independents

The State of Independents The 6th Annual MBO Partners State of Independence study maps the attitudes and sentiments of a large, multi-faceted and economically powerful segment of the American workforce. Independents are adult Americans of all ages, skill, and income levels who turn to consulting, freelancing, contract work, temporary assignments or on-call work regularly each week for income, opportunity and satisfaction. The MBO Partners State of Independence report is the industry’s longest running end-to-end study of the American Independent workforce. This year, it found that the robust, maturing, and vital independent job market continues to be driven by powerful cyclical and structural forces. Against the backdrop of 5% unemployment, 5.8 million job openings, and an economy that added 2.74 million payroll jobs in the past year, the total number of self-employed (full- and part-time combined) aged 21 over in 2016 remained close to 40 million. The number of full-time independents fell by 5%, or 800,000, to 16.9 million. With a robust payroll jobs market, it is clear that some of those who were not satisfied with independent work returned to traditional employment. The number of people working part-time in independent work (fewer than 15 hours per week) remained steady at 12.4 million. Two thirds, or 65 percent of the independent workforce rate their job satisfaction at least an 8 out of 10, and a full 22 percent rate it a solid 10. Access the full report here. courtesy: MBO Partners

5 Essential Exercises For a Healthy Pregnancy - Classy Career Girl

5 Essential Exercises For a Healthy Pregnancy No mother enters pregnancy saying she hopes to gain all the weight, have gestational diabetes, suffer from preeclampsia, or receive an unplanned, preventable c-section due to a complication. While genetics plays a part, a healthy lifestyle can override many preventable issues that commonly arise during pregnancy.   Our society is the heaviest and unhealthiest it has ever been; this includes pregnant women.   Maternal and fetal death rates are too high, more children than ever are suffering from autism, cancers, and chronic illnesses.   It is time for a change, and the change starts with us. 5 Essential Exercises For a Healthy Pregnancy Healthy living is no longer a trend but a lifestyle choice for so many within the childbearing age bracket now.   A great divide is occurring that is placing people in the know when it comes to foods, toxins, and healing ourselves naturally.   There are many who will choose ignorance, choose to continue leading their lives in booths at unhealthy restaurants, sitting all day, and filling their bodies and air with harmful chemicals.   But, the numbers are shifting, and more people are walking away from the ignorance. More people are aiming at bettering their lives and the lives of their children. It starts in utero, this ‘bettering’ of a child’s life.   A mother has the ability to help her growing child by consuming the highest quality foods, keeping toxins out, and by allowing highly oxygenated blood flow into her fetus.   Foods, lifestyle choices, and exercise are the key components to supporting the healthiest pregnancy possible. While eating well and ending bad habits are easily accepted, exercise, it seems, tends to scare many mothers. But why?   The most common misconceptions of exercising while pregnant include: “I wasn’t working out before, I can’t start now.” “Working out will cause a miscarriage.” “I’ll overheat the baby.” “A high heart rate can cause problems.” “I’ll hurt the baby.” All of the above is untrue.   Exercise is not only safe  but incredibly important while pregnant. Prenatal exercise: Reduces back pain Eases constipation Provides richer oxygenated blood from the heart through the body and to the placenta Decreases the risk of gestational diabetes Decreases the risk of preeclampsia Decreases the risk of cesarean delivery Promotes a healthy weight gain during pregnancy Strengthens the heart and blood vessels Increases probability of making it to full term Helps you to lose the baby weight after your baby is born Decreases the chances of depression Reduces stress levels Allows for better sleep Prepares the body for labor and birth Reduces anxiety Lowers blood pressure Boosts brain development in fetus Lowers the heart rate of the baby in utero, which allows the heart to be stronger during labor Lowers risk of childhood obesity and other chronic diseases The key is to listen to your body.   The body is able to workout throughout pregnancy, but each woman may require different exercises or variations to meet her body’s needs.   Always talk to your birth team if you have any concerns or questions. [RELATED: 5 Simple Health Tips We Love] The goal should be a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity a day.   This activity does not include your day-to-day normal routine  but means an EXTRA 30 minutes when the heart rate is elevated and the body is working. Running, walking with vigor, biking, hiking, yoga, aerobic classes, sports, and dancing are all wonderful examples.   Pregnancy is not an illness or an excuse, but a reason â€" a reason to do more and be better.   You can start slow if exercising is foreign to you.   Five-minute increments throughout the day will build to longer sessions quickly. The ‘FitMom’ hashtags and photos are everywhere.   So we know that pregnancy is not slowing women down.   You can continue your current exercise program without alterations if you are comfortable with it, but keep in mind that your body will change  and typically that means the workouts will too.   Pay attention to form while performing your workout, and listen to the body as it recovers.   Rest well and often, and always stay hydrated. There are several pregnancy-specific exercises that mothers should include daily to prepare for labor and healing afterward: 1. Cat/Cow Helping to guide the baby into an ideal birthing position, this common yoga exercise is performed on all fours as you round the back upward and then arch it toward the ground and look toward the sky. 2. Pelvic Rocks Helping to engage the baby, pelvic rocks can be done while standing or while on all fours.   The pelvis is simply rocked forward and back while keeping the abdomen tight and belly sucked in. 3. Squats Squatting shortens the birth canal and helps baby drop into the lowest possible birthing position. Shoulders stay back, abs stay pulled in tight, legs are wide, and the weight shifts to the heels as you squat low. 4. Kegels This muscle resembles a hammock that stretches below the uterus.   It is responsible for keeping the bladder strong during and after pregnancy.   Kegel exercises can be done anywhere and at any time.   The key is to do them right.   As you pee, pay attention to the muscle you use to stop and restart the flow of urine. That is the kegel muscle.   Work on squeezing that muscle throughout the day. 5. Meditation/Relaxation Life is stressful, parenthood is stressful, pregnancy can be hard, and labor can be intimidating.   Take the time each day to refocus on yourself as a host to this baby.   Re-center your emotions to connect with the life you are growing.   Relaxation will help throughout labor, but it is also the key to balancing everything. As a lifelong fitness lover, and a mother to 4 little ones, I will leave you with this: You begin being a role model the moment you start growing a baby.   Let your journey to fitness be one that you take together.

How to Be an Intrapreneur - VocationVillage

How to Be an Intrapreneur - VocationVillage If you Google, How to be an intrapreneur, Google will inquire, “Did you mean, How to be an entrepreneur? In writing up notes for this blog post, Microsoft Word flagged the word intrapreneur as a spelling error; TextEdit on my Mac actually changed intrapreneurship to “entrepreneurship” in an unwanted attempt to help me. Intrapreneurship is still not well-known, which is unfortunate because millions of people can likely benefit from learning about intrapreneurship and applying intrapreneurial concepts into their career management.While popular culture hasn’t caught up yet, the word intrapreneur has been in dictionaries since the 1990s. I like Wiktionary’s definition: “the practice of applying entrepreneurial skills and approaches within an established company; being creative with ideas and procedures.” Intrapreneurship is a wonderful way for innovative progress to occur in a speedier way than it would otherwise happen in more traditional environments.The advantage of intr apreneurship is that the intrapreneur has the benefit of all the financial support and resources of a large organization. The challenge for the intrapreneur is that business objectives must be met while continuing to navigate the structure and complications inherent within any large organization. (Some writers argue that intrapreneurs can ignore the corporate structure when working to achieve their business goals, but I think that is naïve).So if you want to behave in an intrapreneurial way, here’s how to proceed: Choose a project to launch and implement. The project should have clearly defined objectives and metrics via which you will define success. This project should be congruent with the overall mission and values of the organization that employs you and should be clearly beneficial to your employer if you succeed. At minimum, make sure you have buy-in from your immediate manager and try to find out if your manager’s manager is in agreement with your goals and proposed str ategies to achieve them. Also consider your surrounding colleagues who might be necessary and instrumental in assisting you. Think about how you will persuade them about the value of your project and how you will convince them to be helpful to you or at least stay out of your way if they are not directly involved. Check your ego. If what you really want is to operate unfettered by organizational complexity and you resent any involvement by any corporate employee in what you are doing, ditch intrapreneurship and go start your own company, stat. (Then you’ll get to deal with other types of complexity, but that is a different blog topic). Honestly assess your strengths and find colleagues to complement them. The ideal team is made up of people with a variety of strengths. If you don’t have the luxury of a large team to assist you, then create a plan for how the work will get done given that you are not going to be able to exclusively play to your strengths. Implement. Know that you may fail, and honestly discuss this possibility with the powers-that-be that gave you permission to proceed with your venture. If you succeed, your team might be integrated into the larger organization. This can be experienced as bittersweet for the intrapreneur, so be prepared for some feelings of loss. Choose your next business goals and start again.

Essentials of an Elementary School Teacher Resume

Essentials of an Elementary School Teacher ResumeThere are some fundamentals to a good elementary school teacher resume. A person's resume is a communication tool used by hiring managers to find out about the person's skills and experience. The general style of the resume can dictate the response that you will get when applying for the job.A list of the duties that teachers need to perform should be included on the resume. This is where the information is written down, with the job duties listed in an organized manner. The headings and sub-headings should also be given attention. The headers usually have the area where the basic work is done; they may also state what type of duties that this type of teacher would do. They may also state that they have special projects or supervise projects where the student gets his own project to be done.It is important to make it clear that the resume is only intended for students and not for use for lower grade level, this is another item that mos t teachers are not aware of. The resume is actually for elementary school teachers who are seeking jobs at the middle school or high school. This is because those higher grades are given to teachers who already have a good track record of teaching, especially those who are experienced. If you are applying for a job in a lower grade level, you should not include that in your resume.Information about experiences and qualifications are usually very important for the purpose of gaining employment with good teachers. It can also add credibility to your application. If you do not provide this information, your application might just look like a resume for another job which is something that you would want to avoid.Teaching experience and job duties are the things that the hiring manager is looking for when making a decision to hire a teacher. This is the most important information that a teacher can provide when it comes to a teaching career. That is why if your experience isin an office job, it might not be enough for a teaching position.Having a letter of recommendation from someone who has been a teacher or a former colleague is a very valuable piece of information that the hiring manager should consider before hiring an elementary school teacher. In this case, a letter that is written for you should be able to convince the hiring manager that you have been capable of teaching even though you have had limited experience. It is important that the resume that you submit to the hiring manager is not one that has a general format, this is why you should be very specific with what you should put on your resume.The topic that you are writing about is something that you should think about a lot before submitting a resume to a potential employer as an elementary school teacher. If you are a lay person, then you will want to write about the different aspects of a public school. If you are employed then you will want to use this field as a way to express your love for teac hing. Be sure to include all of the relevant details.If you belong to a professional group, like the National Education Association, then you will want to focus your resume on your career achievements and interests. Be sure to state that you are very passionate about your profession. If you are thinking about the areas that you need to focus on, then this can help you in writing a strong resume.

5 Interviewing Techniques that Every Interviewer Needs to Know About - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

5 Interviewing Techniques that Every Interviewer Needs to Know About Interviews are an essential part of any search process, whether you’re searching for the right person to fill a particular job in your organisation or looking for a credible partner to represent you in your legal or business pursuits. Any interviewer worth his salt knows that they can no longer rely on traditional methods of interviewing whereby the soft skills of a particular candidate are not assessed and the individual’s weaknesses are not fully understood. Add to these the tendency of interviewers to become biased such that the entire process of objectively qualifying a candidate becomes marred with subjectivity. That’s why, if you want to prepare for the 21stcentury of interviewing, then you’ve got to check these 5 techniques that every interviewer simply needs to know about. Soft Skills Assessment Most interviewers only deal with the hard facts that a candidate brings to the table. They look at the educational attainment and work experiences of the person instead of his flexibility, sense of teamwork, and even grit. Ask the great business leadersand they can readily tell you that focusing on the individual’s soft skills can give you an idea of his or her personality. He may have excellent grades but if he clearly doesn’t have the qualities of a leader that your organisation is looking for, he would still be a liability in case you decide to hire him. The good news is that there are now a variety of tools that can help interviewers assess the soft skills of candidates. These can help predict job performance by giving them highly-individualised insights into the personalities of different candidates. This also begets greater diversification of the organisation’s talent pool, allowing for better fit into different roles in the organisation. Job Auditions Interviewees typically come prepared for an interview. They can memorize the lines for the answers to many of the questions of interviewers. This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially considering there are now a lot of online resources that also teach interviewees what questions interviewers will be asking from them and how they should answer those questions. As such, interviewers must also adapt. They must learn to distance themselves from the more traditional way of assessing an individual’s skills. Rather than simply asking an interviewee to describe what he would do in a particular situation, why not get him to demonstrate his skills instead? This is where job auditions can be greatly beneficial. Candidates are placed in the workplace where they get to showcase their skills. Through job auditions, you may realise that the generally-shy candidate who can only manage to answer a few of your interview questions satisfactorily might actually be the person you’re looking for as he may be 10 times more technically-competent than the one who breezed through the traditional interview. Meeting in Casual and Less Formal Settings Did you know that the interview environment can be a really scary venue for interviewees? It’s like being led to the slaughterhouse where they will be demeaned by interviewers. That is why many of those who are really confident but lack the skill necessary for the job always make it through the interview process. The nervous wreck who happens to be more skilful than any other eventually doesn’t make the cut simply because of the jittering effects of a formal office interview environment. This has to change. Conducting interviews in casual settings should help ease the tension and allow the candidate to be in his best. This also lets the person really show his or her personality. Virtual and Augmented Reality Assessments If you’re interviewing Baby Boomers for a particular position, you definitely won’t have any luck using newer, more integrative VR assessments. But if your talent pool is mostly made up of youngsters or at least young adults, then there’s no better way to do it than with virtual and augmented reality assessments. Many of these newer technologies can now be used to assess a candidate’s problem-solving and decision-making skills while engaging candidates in a more fun environment. Plus, there’s no way candidates can lie about their skills. Video Interviews While video interviews are not necessarily new anymore, there’s one way interviewers can improve the technique. There is now such a thing as on-demand video interviews whereby candidates are given a few questions that they need to answer within a given time frame. The good news is that they don’t need to answer right away. They can frame their answers and prepare for it by recording a video of them answering the questions. This technique is especially useful in account management, sales, and even business development where communication and presentation skills are very important. These 5 interviewing techniques help you to easily identify the best candidate for the role that your organisation seeks. You can also use the same techniques for other purposes where you simply need to choose the right individual. About the author: Courtney Lockett, a practicing lawyer, business owner and the principal of Lockett Mccullough Lawyers. Her practice provides legal assistance to a wide range of clients both locally and internationally and specialises in assisting defence force personnel with private legal issues. Visit their website https://lockettmccullough.com.au/  to learn more.

Free Tools For A Better Online Presence

Free Tools For A Better Online Presence 8 Free Tools For  A Better Online Presence In order to create a better  online presence, one of the best things you can do is become more active on social media and create visually interesting updates. Ive compiled this list of tools I use (and recommend) to help you incorporate visuals into your social media updates to build  awareness of your online personal brand- all without spending an enormous amount of time. I spend about 20 minutes a day scheduling social media updates across different platforms. You can do this too! Heres what youll find [updated September 2019]: Tools To Schedule Social Media Updates Tool To Save Articles for Later Tools to Create Visuals for Social Media Places to Find Stock Photos Screenshot Tools Choosing the Correct Size Image to Share Guidelines for  How Often To Share On Social Media Dont Forget About Profile and Banner Images Social Media Stats Data But before I dive in, here are some marketing stats to convince you that you should embrace using visuals in your  social media  updates. Visual content is more than 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. (Source) Tweets with photos are retweeted 35% more than those without (Source) Facebook updates with visuals  get 2.3x more engagement (Source) Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images. (Source) And specifically for job seekers, heres why being active on social media can help your job search. You can read more about the data from CareerBuilders research here. Everything you  share on social media helps convey who you are and whats important to you. Sharing on-brand updates makes it easier for recruiters to find or discover you. It also provides recruiters with some insight as to whether you are a fit for their role/organization. Status Update Ideas If you are befuddled by what to share on social media, here are some ideas: Industry insights News about target companies (or people inside target companies) Job-related tips/hacks Ask questions Quotes Memes Infographics, photos,  videos Upcoming events you will be attending Live updates during an event Re-share updates posted by people in your network To get more details, read this post  10 LinkedIn Status Updates for Job Seekers. It is written to help you figure out what to share on LinkedIn, but the same ideas would work across all the other networks too! 8 Free Tools For  A Better Online Presence Tools To Schedule Social Media Updates When you post  on social media, you want to spread your updates  out over time. By dripping content out, you improve the chances that what you share  will be viewed by a wider audience. So rather than share something when you find it, spread your updates out over time.  I use both Buffer and Hootsuite from my desktop and mobile device. (FYI: I also use the free versions) Buffer You can share any page youre reading to almost any social network, either immediately or in the future. Step 1: sign up for free and link your social media accounts so you can share to them. Step 2: download the app to your phone/mobile device Step 3: download the extension to your web browser. Step 4: find an article, picture or anything on the web and click on the Buffer option (either from your browser or if the post has sharing icons, you can use the Buffer option). As a free user, you have a limited number of updates you can make. This is why I also use Hootsuite. If you want to dive in deeper and learn more about how to use Buffer, start with their Introduction to Buffer.  Hootsuite Hootsuite is a social media dashboard. From their dashboard, which you download to your computer, you can share status updates on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. In short, Hootsuite allows you to schedule when and where you want to share your updates on social media. Step 1: Create a free Hootsuite account. Step 2: Add social networks. Step 3: Download Hootlet for your Chrome browser    Hootsuite mobile app Step 4: Publish/share  updates To learn more about how to use Hootsuite, you can start by reading their Quick Start Guide. Tool To Save Articles for Later Sometimes you just want to save an article. Maybe you want to read it  before you share it or maybe its too good to forget. You can use Pocket to easily save articles  and even better, easily find them  from any device. Bookmarking is so 1990s. Pocket Just click on the bookmarklet/extension from your desktop or from your phone, click on the three dots and select share and scroll down until you see Pocket. You can add a tag to help you categorize/file/search for the article. Tools to Create Visuals for Social Media  Canva If you want more design options, then check out this easy to use tool. Just pick the type of  image you want to create, add an image (or background) and text and download! For more help using Canva, you can view their Graphic Design Tutorials. Pablo  by Buffer Is also very simple. Type in text, use find an image from their library and share to your favorite social network! (Or you can download it to your computer). And yes, you can use Buffer to schedule it to post at another time!  This is probably the fastest tool for creating and sharing directly to social networks. It does have limitations. But if you are looking for fast and easy, Pablo is for you. To  learn more about using Pablo, read:  Engaging Social Media Images in 30 Seconds Flat: Introducing Pablo by Buffer  Adobe Spark Spark also makes creating images for social media pretty easy too. It also comes with free images you can use and various templates. If you want to change the size/dimensions of your image to share it on other social networks, Adobe Spark is probably the easiest tool to use. You can download the image or share it directly to your favorite social network. To learn more, read their See How You Can Create with  Adobe Spark Post. There are many mobile device options for creating memes and text over imagesbut thats another post. Places to Find Stock Photos (free/no attribution  required) If you are looking for stock photos and images you can modify and use without attribution, check out these free resources. Pixabay Pexels StockSnap Unsplash Gratisography Death to the Stock Photo Burst (by Shopify) Tools For Screenshots Dont forget about using screenshots! Using your phones camera or taking a screenshot with your phone works too. If you are looking for a tool to capture an image from your computer try these.  Evernotes Web Clipper It allows you to snip, add text, blur, and more. Plus, you can save your screenshot  to Evernote or your computer. Open Screen Shot Sometimes you want to capture an entire page and add text. This Chrome extension allows you to do both! Choosing the Correct Size Image to Share Every social network has a different size image that works best for a status update. It can be frustrating to keep track. (Ive put the image below on my bulletin board). Buffer keeps an up-to-date list of the image sizes to use for status updates across different social media. All the tools to create images (listed above) have  templates to help you get the right sized image. The Ideal Image Sizes for Your Social Media Posts: Guidelines for All Major Social Networks How Often To Share If you are someone who is ready to create a strong online presence, then these are my recommendations for how often to share status updates on the most popular social networks. Note: you may not be active on all of these social networks. Pick the top 2 and focus on those first. Twitter: 5-8 posts a day Facebook: 1-2  posts a day LinkedIn: 1  post a day Instagram: 1-2 posts a day Pinterest: 3-5  posts a day In order to do this, you are going to need to use a scheduling tool like Buffer or Hootsuite and you will have to find good quality content to share. Read this to help:  Build Your Brand By Sharing Content Dont Forget About Your Profile and Banner Images You also want to make your social media profile images the right size. You can learn how to do that by reading this guest post by Venngage here: How to Create A Cohesive Social Branding Kit And creating infographics is another great visual content strategy.  Want to learn how to create an infographic resume? Check out my book: The Infographic Resume