Orange Is The New Black Friday? Orange Friday #NYC Parking Reminder

Enjoy your Thanksgiving, but don't sleep in on Friday.  Your offices may be closed but parking enforcement is in effect! Feed the meter, move the car--or you may have an "Orange Friday."

Orange Friday refers to those bright orange envelopes used by the City of New York Parking Enforcement that accompany parking violations.  Check alternate side parking, meter rules, and enjoy Orange Friday!

The day after Thanksgiving, Friday, November 24, is not a holiday. Alternate side parking regulations, parking meters, and all other parking regulations will be in effect.

You can always check NYC 311 for parking updates at http://www1.nyc.gov/311/  or on Twitter @NYCASP



This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Read more

Amazon warehouse deals

Heard of Amazon Warehouse?

At the Amazon Warehouse, you can get deep discounts on used and open box merchandise http://amzn.to/2y9K6wW. And in true Amazon style, they have a zillion products. Everything from Wireless Karaoke Microphone to Xenon HID Headlight bulbs to a Fossil Q Wander Gen 2 Smartwatch.

Yes, Amazon sells these open-box and refurbished items with the same return policy as their normal products.

This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Read more

Voice Mail Systems: Our Options Have Changed

Ever notice that every voice mail system tells you to listen to all options because their menu has changed?

No matter if it was your first call to the business or you've been calling for 5 years. The same message. The same options. Press one for xyz, press two for billing, press zero to reach an operator. And so on.

If you really want people to listen to options, change up the menu every few hours. Keep us engaged. Annoyed, sure. But fully engaged.

Disclaimer: This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Read more

Jellyfish stings and what to do if stung

If you get stung by a jellyfish...
The key is to deactivate the jellyfish stingers, called nematocysts, as well as the jellyfish venom. This video explains how, the right way.

Read more

Amazon's digital music. Download tons for free!

Did you know Amazon has a bunch of free downloads for the taking?
A few genres with free tunes: Blues, Classic Rock, Jazz, and Reggae. Look around, sort by price and the free songs pop up first.

This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Read more

Why aren't they hiring (or rejecting) you yet?

So you've crafted your cover letter, tweaked your resume, aced the interviews, sent great follow-up letters. Weeks have passed. Not a word.

As frustrating as the wait is, don't give up on those long forgotten interviews and applications. As an example, today I received an email regarding a job I applied to in mid-November 2016! I read that I've been in the running for the position for the last 4 and a half months. I didn't get the job, but my application has been moving around in the system.

Just because time has lapsed, don't think you are out of the race. Remember that it's not uncommon for companies to have a process where applications get backed up for weeks before the hiring manager gets a list of candidates, and there's another delay after the interviews

If you must send a second follow-up letter, don't make it about you, be topical and mentioned something you've read in the news about the company's latest movements or success story. Most of all, hang in there.

Read more

Online Applications and the Required Salary Field

Don't sell yourself short, but don't price yourself out of a great job either.  Have you heard you are "over qualified" for jobs? This is a euphemism for they can't afford the salary requirements entered on your application.

More and more, software screening tools are kicking out applications before it reaches a human being. Between computerized resume scanners and online applications requiring a valid salary to be processed, many qualified applicants never stand a chance.  The salary field is a tough one, we can't leave it blank and it must be numeric. Putting $1 in the field puts your application at risk of being filtered before a human even sees it.

Career coaches suggest to do a bit of research and use the average salary for the position in the geographic area you are searching. This won't trigger any flags by the screening software. If you get the interview, mention the number and you are seeking a competitive salary and it is negotiable with company perks and great benefits.

You can find salary information on glassdoor.com/Salaries

Steve is a Digital Product Manager based in New York City. Most recently implementing Content Management Systems with customized features for entertainment publishing. He known for solving problems, optimizing product features and creating happy users. Steve is actively interviewing and would like to join an Agile team as a Business Analyst / Product Manager. You can learn more about Steve's skill set and background at http://linkedin.com/in/steveapple​

Read more

Yoga and the brain #BrainAwarenessWeek

It is Brain Awareness Week and I'm posting about the brain-yoga connection related to neurological disorders.  And I'm sharing info on a yoga group a friend is starting up just for people with movement disorders. Please check out Nimbah Yoga's Facebook page for the details.

Movement disorders can be defined as neurologic syndromes in which either an excess of movement or a paucity of voluntary and automatic movements, unrelated to weakness or spasticity. The term movement disorders is used synonymously with basal ganglia or extrapyramidal diseases.

Yoga is a favorite non-medical therapy of many people living with a movement disorder for its functional and psychosocial benefits. Studies suggest modest benefits from yoga for:
Mobility. Yoga can improve functional mobility and how a person with walks.
Balance. Research shows yoga-related improvements in balance (tandem, one-leg) and an associated reduction in fear of falling.
Strength. Gains in lower-body strength occur following yoga practice and are associated with improved postural stability.
Flexibility. Improvements in flexibility and range of motion (ROM) are important since rigidity is a common clinical manifestation. Research shows improvements in flexibility/ROM of the shoulder, hip and spine.
Mood & Sleep. The calming effect of yoga (by enhancing parasympathetic output) may lessen perceived stress, enhance relaxation, and benefit sleep.

Read more:

• This Is Your Brain and Body on Yoga and Meditation: 4 Powerful Scientific Findings
• Sergey Brin’s Search for a Parkinson’s Cure
• Your Brain on Yoga (Harvard Medical School Guides)
• Exercise, nutrition, sleep aid brain

Read more

Facebook Like Overload

I just noticed a jobs section on Facebook. Not sure how long it's been there but it seems to be something new. I'm not too excited about the thought of a social media site where the norm is rant, whine, repost silly photos and say happy birthday to strangers suddenly being mashed up with career data. Just as I say not to turn LinkedIn into Facebook, on the flip-side don't turn Facebook into LinkedIn.  I'm not sure my future employer is interested in what I ate for dinner last night or that I took a walk in Central Park on Saturday.

How effective would a job posting be on Facebook? The site has been saturated with quizzes, politics, photos and chain letter type postings asking for 'likes' and 'shares'.  Due to the magnitude of trivial content being shared, I usually ignore whatever is in my newsfeed which would include missing out on job potential.

That brings me over to LinkedIn where I tend to scroll through what my business associates are reading.  I reliably find great industry articles this way.

So a few weeks back, just as a social experiment, I posted on LinkedIn that my new blog is up.  Well I've posted, shared and liked on social media outlets over the years but have never experienced a response like I have received on LinkedIn.

On Facebook, with their very active membership, the window of opportunity for interaction is so narrow that friends don't get notified. I'm happy if anyone likes or shares my Facebook content.

I was surprised that the article I posted on LinkedIn had immediate response and by the end of the day over 100 views, and people are still reading it weeks later. And recruiters are contacting me about job opportunities.

It's great that a social media site is mastering their niche instead of trying to be all things to all people.

I just hope the content on LinkedIn continues to be about careers and industry news and everyone saves their silly surveys, food  and cute pet photos for Facebook.

Post an article about your industry, a career tip or job opening on LinkedIn because there are business associates ready to view your story.

Steve is a Digital Product Manager based in New York City. Most recently implementing Content Management Systems with customized features for entertainment publishing. He known for solving problems, optimizing product features and creating happy users. Steve is actively interviewing and would like to join an Agile team as a Business Analyst / Product Manager. You can learn more about Steve's skill set and background at http://linkedin.com/in/steveapple​

Read more

Product Management headlines blog

You may have heard me talk about the group of professionals I meet with once or twice a month to discuss business opportunity and strategy. We exchange trending industry ideas from start-ups to corporate moves, how to improve web presence and resume tips. Our diverse group of leadership spans industries from media, design, marketing, human resources and tech. With this cross-section of corporate America we come up with some good ideas

A recent conversation was about "online presence" and how an individual can get more visibility. One suggestion was to write a blog. I've started blogs about various topics before but then I get swamped with a work project and the blog goes stale. So I did a variation on the idea of writing fresh content and created this new blog with aggregated 'product' related articles from around the web. My goal was to have one place for me to scan the latest headlines and provide a resource that others would return to for updates. I've also included product links and product manager job listings. Oh, yes there's a link to my professional bio on LinkedIn. Who knows, the right people may see my bio and want to talk about a great job opportunity.

Take a look at a-product-manager.blogspot.com Remember it's a new blog and will probably need some tweaks in the upcoming weeks.

Send feedback! If there is something product related you feel would fit well on the page, let me know. I'm open to your ideas. Mostly I want this new blog to be product focused and self maintaining. Consider it a convenient place to check out product headlines without a lot of clicking to find product news.

Steve is a Digital Product Manager based in New York City. Most recently implementing Content Management Systems with customized features for entertainment publishing. He known for solving problems, optimizing product features and creating happy users. Steve is actively interviewing and would like to join an Agile team as a Business Analyst / Product Manager. You can learn more about Steve's skill set and background at http://linkedin.com/in/steveapple​

Read more

Automated Application Rejections? Give Your Resume A Binary Personality

More than likely your job applications have never been seen by human eyes. Welcome to the 2017 job search where the task of pre-screening resumes has been outsourced to the company's latest digital resource, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

An ATS reads in a resume, scans for keywords and key phrases, then applies an algorithm to rate the applicant against all others and the top few applications are seen by a human being.

Many qualified candidates are rejected by an ATS because their resume is written or formatted in a way that is not compatible with resume screening software.

KEYWORDS

Add keywords that are in the job listing to your resume. And use phrases from the job description, typically the keywords and phrases in the listing are also used in the ATS.

The ATS may not have acronyms programmed as keywords, include the full phrase along with any acronym you include.

Not sure what keywords to use? Technology vs technology, paste the job listing into a word cloud generator like http://tagcrowd.com/ and see what keywords pop up.

FORMATTING

Remove headers and footers. Remove logos and head shots. Headers and footers can confuse the screening software and it doesn't like images or fancy formats.

Look at the sections of your resume, do you have any creative titles? Get rid of them and stick with the basics like "Professional Experience", "Education", and "Skills".

Don't put your employment dates first. The ATS seems to work best when job history is listed in order of the employers name, your title and date. If you have tables in your resume so everything is aligned nicely, get rid of them. Tables confuse the ATS.

Reformat your paragraphs into concise bullet-ed lists. The ATS can extract keywords and phrases from lists easier than lengthy paragraphs.

Never attach a PDF of your resume to the online application, the ATS doesn't like that format. Upload a Word or text version of your resume and cover letter and save the pretty formatted version for the (hopeful) interview.

Good luck and I hope some of these tips help connect you to the hiring manager.

Are you're a recruiter or hiring manager looking for product people to join your great team?  Check out Steve's LinkedIn bio. 

Steve is a Digital Product Manager based in New York City. Most recently implementing Content Management Systems with customized features for entertainment publishing. He known for solving problems, optimizing product features and creating happy users. Steve is actively interviewing and would like to join an Agile team as a Business Analyst / Product Manager. You can learn more about Steve's skill set and background at http://linkedin.com/in/steveapple​

Read more