Successfully Complete Government Job Applications

Successfully Complete Government Job ApplicationsSuccessfully Complete Government Job ApplicationsThe application process for a government job is full of pitfalls. Follow these tips to help your application get from the big stack of all applicants to the little stack of applicants who will get an interview. Be Thorough Government job application forms tend to be very long. Government organizations often try to pare down their application forms. They are usually unsuccessful. In countless iterations of trying to reduce the information applicants must provide, human resources departments run into situations where hiring managers say they need this piece of information or that one. The result is little change on the application form. You never know which minute piece of information is going to be important to the person hiring you. Be thorough. Fill out every single leer on the application. Explain Time Anomalies If you have a gap in employment or were at a job for only a few mo nths, you need to explain these situations on your application. Employment gaps and short stints are red flags to employers. If they are left unexplained, the hiring manager will assume the worst. Do leid lie about time gaps. If you were fired, explain why, what you learned from it, and why it wont happen again. You may have limited space on the application form to explain, so at a minimum cover why you were fired. If the gap is due to something awful, it is better the employer finds out from you than in a phone call to your former manager. Short stints are usually easy to explain. Perhaps the job was not what you thought it would be. Maybe you were reorganized into a position you did not want. As long as you are up-front, a short employment period should not hurt you. Just dont string them together. Include All Required Attachments Depending on the position, government employers may ask for a resume, cover letter, college transcripts, letters of reference, writing samples, and work product portfolios. If the job posting asks for one or more of these items, you must include them. Neglecting to do so will likely earn your application a spot in the trash can. If you want to include a resume and cover letter with your application when they are not required, it wont hurt to do so. Whether those items will be considered or even read will vary from manager to manager. Some online job portals do not allow attachments. After all, the application is the organizations way of getting you to tell them what they want to know. Most attachments allow you to tell the organization what you want them to know. Cover the KSAs The knowledge, skills, and abilities - commonly referred to as KSAs - for a job are the requirements a candidate must meet in reservierung to be successful at the job. A candidate does not always have to meet all the KSAs, but a candidate who does is more likely to get an interview than one who does not. A common mistake applicants make is not fittin g their experience to the KSAs. They either do not tailor their application to the job at all, or they write in such a way that a hiring manager cannot quickly determine how the candidate lines up with the KSAs. Imagine you are a hiring manager with 100 applications to look through. Are you going to spend time trying to decode one application when you have 99 others to process? Make it easy on the hiring manager. Use the wording from the job posting to show that you meet each KSA. Will this showcase your writing skills? No. Will it give you a better shot at landing an interview? Absolutely. Meet the Application Deadline You must meet the application deadline. Missing the deadline gives the hiring manager a perfectly valid reason to dismiss your application. Again, imagine you are a hiring manager with 100 applications to process. If 10 come in after the deadline, you are perfectly justified in reducing your workload to 90 applications.

Hoping to Walk This Way

Hoping to Walk This Way Hoping to Walk This Way Hoping to Walk This WayAs the school year begins, students may be considering all the challenges that come along with it. Who will be in my class this year? Can I keep up with the homework? Will I like my teacher? What a student probably doesnt have to think about is whether theyll have to endure an invasive surgery and if theyll have the ability to walk from classroom to classroom. For a child with cerebral palsy, this can be their primary concern.You see a lot of variability among individuals trying to figure out the best treatment for them, which is usually different types of surgeries, says Kat Steele, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Washington. But ansicht surgeries can have a difficult and long recovery. It could be lengthening muscles, working with bones, and more.Clinicians have believed that triebwerk control matters in terms of a surgerys success, according to Steele, and that those who ha ve a higher level of control at the outset tend to do better after surgeries, while those with a lower level of control tend to have less success. But they have often decided who has good motor control by observation, she says. Only some who have these surgeries do well, so by being able to more accurately figure out who has good motor control, people can have this information for deciding if they think a surgery is worth it.Enter Walk-DMC, a new motor assessment tool.Walk-DMC relies on electromyography data, which uses electrodes to monitor muscle activity. Image Gillette Childrens Specialty HealthCareUsing electromyography, the thought was to come up with a single score to help tell whether a patient is more or less likely to benefit from surgery. It involved an algorithm called a matrix factorization to help create the score, she explains. Another important strategy of Walk-DMC is that it takes into account muscle synergies instead of just the movement of individual muscles.The t eam found by studying hundreds of children that those with higher Walk-DMC scores did, in fact, have better outcomes from surgery. They also saw that you could have a similar Gait Deviation Index and yet your Walk-DMC could be very different.But while that may possibly help those with high scores, there is more to look at. Questions to ponder, Steele says, revolve around if there are rehabilitation possibilities or other strategies that can change motor control for those with cerebral palsy, or are those synergies actually fixed.Its very invasive what these children go through, it can take more than a year of rehabilitation and its not easy to ask them to endure these things, she says. The goal isnt just to deliver assessment to those who are considering surgery but to look at how many possible solutions there are for all. All the children deserve a chance at improvement and were committed to looking at cerebral palsy from different angles.Steele says they are now testing prospectiv ely to see if Walk-DMC can help and are also now working with a few hospitals to see if they get similar results. This should give us even a better sense of the clinical utility and it will be interesting to see what the data is.Eric Butterman is an independent writer.All the children deserve a chance at improvement and were committed to looking at cerebral palsy from different angles.Prof. Kat Steele, University of Washington

Companies With Incredible Employee Perks

Companies With Incredible Employee PerksCompanies With Incredible Employee PerksStandard benefits, like 401k matching funds and medical and dental insurance, are important benefits that many job candidates look for in a benefits package. Companies With GreatEmployee Perks A number of companies go above and beyond these standard benefits, providing innovative new perks to keep employees happy and productive. Here is a list of fifteen companies (in alphabetical order) that have developed unique benefits for their employees. 3M HeadquartersSt. Paul, Minnesota What they do 3M Company produces a variety of products ranging from adhesives to electronics to medical products. The company includes brands such as Post-it, Scotch, and Ace. Employee Perks 3M offers a variety of perks to keep employees mentally and physically healthy. They offer smoking cessation, weight management, and stress management programs. The office also contains an on-site pharmacy, medical clinic, and a fitness center. Employees can also take advantage of the companys child and elder care consulting services. AOL Headquarters New York, New York What they do AOL is a mass media corporation that develops brands and websites. AOL brands include MapQuest and Moviefone. Employee Perks AOL offers great perks for new parents. The companys WellBaby program provides a number of family benefits to employees, including prenatal instruction and a lactation program. The office includes an on-site care facility for new parents as well. Yahoo HeadquartersSunnyvale, California What they doYahoo is a multinational world wide web corporation known for various applications such as the Yahoo search engine and Yahoo mail. Employee PerksYahoo employees work hard, but they play hard too. Staff can burn off steam in the on-site gym with joga, cardio-kickboxing, and Pilates classes, or relax with regularly scheduled events like concerts and barbecues. To have fun outside the office, Yahoo workers also get discounts at ski resorts and amusement parks. Yahoo employees can also attend the companys Influential Speaker Series, where celebrities and like Tom Cruise and Tom Brokaw come to speak to the company. Boston Consulting Group Headquarters Boston, Massachusetts What they do The Boston Consulting Group is a global management consulting company. Employee Perks Executives at the Boston Consulting Company strive to instill a work-life balance in their employees to combat the high intensity of consulting. The firm issues a Red Zone Report to management when an employee is working too many hours. The firm also allows flexible scheduling, which is ideal for working parents. BCG offers generous leave new moms can extend their unpaid leave up to one year (this includes adoptive mothers as well). Campbell Soup Headquarters Camden, New Jersey What they do Campbell produces canned soups and other related products, which are sold internationally. Employee Perks For employees with young c hildren, Campbell Soup has an on-site kindergarten and after-school programs. The office also has a lactation room for mothers. Other benefits help to keep employees healthy the company offers healthy cooking lessons, subsidized costs on healthy meal options in the cafeteria, and an on-site fitness center. Deloitte Headquarters New York, New York What they do Deloitte is a professional services firm that provides clients with a variety of financial services, including tax, audit, and financial advice. Employee Perks Deloitte offers employees unique sabbatical programs. Employees can take up to four unpaid weeks off for any reason. Workers can also choose to take 3 - 6 months off, partially paid, to pursue a career-enhancing opportunity. Ernst Young Headquarters London, United Kingdom What they do EY is an international professional services firm, providing audit, tax, consulting, and advisory services to companies. Employee Perks EY provides a variety of benefits for workin g parents. The company provides low-cost backup childcare and a parents network that includes seminars and forums (such as a forum for parents of children with special needs). EY was also one of the first big accounting firms to reimburse LGBT employees for the additional federal and state taxes incurred for their same-sex domestic partners medical benefits. Google Headquarters Mountain View, California What they do Best known for their search engine, Google provides a variety of tools and products, including Chrome and Gmail. Employee Perks Google has long been known as a company with a wide variety of perks to keep employees happy and motivated. Google makes it almost unnecessary for workers to leave the office there are free meals, on-site doctors and medical services, yoga classes, massages, and backup childcare. Google even provides employees with a free concierge service to handle errands, such as picking up dry cleaning or taking a car for an oil change. Google also offe rs longer maternity and paternity leave than the average American company dads get six weeks paid leave, and moms can take up to 18 weeks leave. J.M. Smucker Company Headquarters Orrville, Ohio What they do The J.M. Smucker Company produces food products within a wide family of brands, including Smuckers, Jif, and Folgers. Employee Perks J.M. Smucker offers its employees a number of health-related benefits, including on-site wellness opportunities (such as health screenings and education programs) and a financial incentive for employees enrolled in the companys healthy lifestyle program. However, perhaps the most unique perk is that the company reimburses employees for tuition costs up to 100%, with no cap. Medallia Headquarters Palo Alto, California What they do Medallia enables companies to capture and understand customer feedback through a variety of cloud-based services. Employee Perks Medallia offers employees a unique perk a budget for overcoming fears. Employees are g iven money to help them overcome a particular fear, whether personal or professional. People have used this money for everything from stand-up comedy classes (to overcome a fear of public speaking) to singing lessons. SC Johnson Son HeadquartersRacine, Wisconsin What they do SC Johnson Son is an international manufacturer of household products. The company produces brands like Windex, Pledge, Glad, and Ziploc. Employee Perks Being a family company, SC Johnson not surprisingly provides a number of family benefits, including generous maternity and paternity leave and family volunteer events. Employees can also take advantage of the companys concierge service for a variety of chores, including delivering groceries, getting an oil change, and mailing packages. Employees can continue to enjoy some of these perks after retirement. Upon retirement, former employees get a lifetime membership to the company fitness center, which boasts softball fields, volleyball courts, a swimming poo l, and driving range. Scottrade Headquarters St. Louis, Missouri What they do Scottrade is an online investing firm. Employee Perks Do you like your job but wish you could relocate? In an extremely unique perk, Scottrade will consider opening a new branch in an area to which an employee is moving. Scottrade has opened at least 20 offices for employees that have moved. SeatGeek Headquarters New York, New York What they do SeatGeek is a flugschein search engine. It aggregates ticket sellers (StubHub, TicketsNow) to get you the best deal. Employee Perks SeatGeek employs a social planner to arrange bonding activities like ping-pong tournaments and bowling events. Happy hours, catered lunches, and a constant supply of beer and espresso are other ways the company keeps employees happy at the office. SeatGeek also encourages healthy, green employees, offering a free Citi Bike annual membership. Starbucks Headquarters Seattle, Washington What they do Starbucks is a global coffee company and coffeehouse chain. Employee Perks Starbucks is known for offering good perks, particularly to part-time workers. All employees working at least 20 hours a week get benefits. The company also encourages camaraderie through a variety of local community service projects throughout the year. Corporate employees enjoy a number of other perks, including a gym subsidy, a job-sharing program, and on-site childcare. Timberland Headquarters Stratham, New Hampshire What they do Timberland designs, makes and markets a variety of clothing, footwear, and outdoor gear. Employee Perks Timberland employees get even more than just a significant discount on all Timberland gear. Employees have great time-off benefits their Path of Service program gives employees 40 hours of paid time off per year to perform volunteer work in their communities. Some employees are even granted Service Sabbaticals, in which they can provide service for an extended period of time.