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Important Networking Follow-Ups: How to Get Those Job Leads Calling When you leave a networking event, you may be buzzing at the prospects offered by all of those new contacts you made, but soon, the cold reality sets in. How will you be able to convert those contacts you made over a glass of wine into valuable business opportunities for you? Successful networking is all in the follow-up. If you’re looking for a job, following up is all the more crucial. Without touching base after a networking event, you become just another face in the crowd of job hunting hopefuls. The first important rule for following-up with networking contacts is to lay the foundations for the follow-up during the initial meeting. At networking events, there can be a lot of empty promises thrown around. Use that first meeting to convey the message that you haven’t gotten caught up in “networking fever” but instead that you are very serious about exploring the job opportunity that you’re discussing with your new contact. Ask the contact when would be a good time to follow-up with them, and then reiterate the information back to them at the end of your conversation: “I look forward to speaking with you Friday at 2 p.m.” If they don’t give you a specific time, then suggest one to them. This rule holds true even if your contact is giving you a lead on a job not with them but with another contact of their own. Let them know you appreciate the information by saying, “Thanks. I will plan on calling Mary on Monday afternoon at 1 p.m.” Not only will this convey your seriousness about the opportunity presented to you, but it may also get you some handy inside information, as the contact may reply, “Oh, no, Mary will be out of town until Thursday – call her then.” The next important rule to networking follow-ups is to follow up with EVERY lead a contact gives you. If a contact suggests that you call someone whom you know won’t really be able to help you in your job search, call him or her anyway. Otherwise, when your contact finds out you aren’t taking their advice, they may just decide not to give you any more the future and any business person can tell you that you never know from whom the most valuable lead will come some day. Keep the lines of communication open by giving any and all suggestions a whirl. Last but not least, do the actual following-up. Follow up with your contact exactly when you said you would, and in the exact manner you said you would (phone, email, letter, etc). If for some reason you can’t make contact at the arranged time, keep trying. If you haven’t made arrangements for a follow-up with a contact, then the rule of thumb is to follow-up with them as soon as possible after meeting them. Try to at least send an email or letter the next day saying what a pleasure it was to meet and that you look forward to talking more in the future, and then say in that note when you plan to follow-up with your contact by phone. Then, of course, stick to that new follow-up obligation. Even if the promises made by a contact while networking don’t pan out for you on the job front, don’t cross them off of your contact list. Keep them in the loop about your job search and your career goals. While they may not have been able to make if happen for you this time, you never know what they might be able to do for you in the future. Your most promising business contact may be someone you already know.

“To-may-to” “To-mah-to” Does it Matter How You Say it? (second language writing articles) Is it possible for anyone to be a writer? In the United States, it’s easy to believe that anyone can to anything until you start looking more closely at the issues. Not everyone is equipped to be successful. There may be some individuals without any personal wealth that can get scholarships for higher education and therefore enter into better paying jobs. Some might not make it though. When it comes to language, it becomes a big deal sometimes how you talk based on where you live. Writing is the same way. If there is a standard language, it can be very difficult to break into the writing world with less than perfect abilities in that language. If English is your second language, writing articles is still a possibility. The Changing Population and Standardized Language In the United States, the vast majority of the population speaks what is called Standard English. That means that they speak in an agreed upon system of rules and acceptable words. There are many native English speakers that may speak a dialect other than Standard English, but they are able to switch into the most acceptable dialect when the situation calls for it. There are increasing numbers of non-native English speakers in the country though. While there are occasional battles about making some other language acceptable, Standard English continues to win out. The desire is for continuity and a united nation. What that means for non-native speakers is that many job opportunities may not be opportunities. If English is your second language, writing articles may not seem like an option for you. There are some possibilities out there though. Hiring an Editor It is definitely possible for English as a second language writing articles to become acceptable for Standard English publications. Individuals may be able to learn well enough to be able to write well for standard publications. If not, and if the writing is still engaging and good, you may want to hire an editor. You can hire one locally or freelance to help you with your wording so that it fits into a publication’s style and tone. In all reality, even first language English speakers can use the help of an editor in this way. As a second language learner, you will just require different talents from an editor. By employing an expert, you can get your second language writing articles published anywhere that publications are printing. First Language Article Options Standard English publications are not the only ones printing in the United States. Even though there is a push to unify the language all over the country, there is a definite need for publications in other languages. As mentioned earlier, the population is changing. There are increasing numbers of non-native English speakers that live in this country. Many of the people may not speak any English at all. Those people create a market for printed material in their own language. A talented writer who is a native speaker can do a great job in writing articles in their own language. Many publications are also translated which is another interesting job opportunity. If English is your second language, writing articles for various publications is still an option. You can learn to write Standard English, but you don’t necessarily have to. A good editor can turn your writing into something that would be appreciated all over the country. You can also find opportunities writing for those who speak your native language. Language does not have to be a barrier. If anything, communication is getting better and better all the time. You can be a part of the process by writing articles in English or otherwise. In addition to your language skills, you have extensive cultural knowledge that others need to know.

Web Hosting - Managing Disk Space Few things are less exciting than managing the disk space that always seems to be in too short a supply. But few things are more important to the health and well being of your site. The most obvious aspect of managing disk space is the need to have enough. If you have only a few dozen web pages, that's not an issue. But as the amount of information (web pages, database content and more) grows, the quantity of free space goes down. That's important for two reasons. All permanent information on a computer is stored on hard drives. Temporary information is often stored in memory only. The two components are completely separate, though they are sometimes confused with one another. As the amount of free space on the hard drive decreases several effects occur. Here's one way to picture them... Imagine you had a table with a certain area and you lay out playing cards on the table. At first, you lay them out in order, the 2 at the side of the 3, then 4, and so on. But then you pick up one or two cards from the middle and discard them. Then you add some more cards. Pretty soon things look pretty random. Now cover the cards with a big opaque sheet of paper. You want the cards to appear in order when displayed to someone. A special robot could be designed to always pick up the cards from underneath the sheet in order. Or, it could slide a hole in the sheet over the cards to display them in the correct order (2, 3, 4, ...), no matter what order they are really in. That's similar to how the operating system always shows you information in a sensible way, even though it's actually stored randomly. Why should you care? Real files are stored in pieces scattered around the drive wherever there is space for them. The more free space there is, the quicker the operating system can find a place to store a new piece. That means, if you delete the junk you no longer need (and free up more space) the system actually runs quicker. It helps create space you might need, and allows the operating system to store files for you faster. But there's a second effect. As you delete old files or change them, the pieces get more and more scattered. It takes the 'robot' longer and longer to fetch or display the 'cards' in order. Existing files are fetched and put together 'on the fly' (say, when you request a graphical page or a list of names). But, it takes longer to put together the web page when there are more scattered pieces. So, the other aspect of managing disk space is to keep the pieces of the files more or less in order. A utility that does that is called a 'de-fragger' or de-fragmentation program. You can request that a system administrator run it, or if you have the authority, you can run it yourself. That keeps the 'cards' in order and allows for quicker access to them. So, managing disk space involves chiefly three things: (1) keeping enough space to store what you need to store, and also (2) keeping enough free space to make new file storage quick and (3) making old file retrieval fast by keeping things orderly. When only a few files are involved the benefit isn't worth the effort. But as the number and size of the files grow, to thousands of files or several gigabytes of data, the effect becomes more noticeable. Keeping things organized then makes a significant difference in performance. Much of this can be automated using utilities. Some will delete files in a certain folder older than a certain date. A de-fragger can be set to run automatically during times of light usage, or quietly in the background at all times. Discuss the options with your system administrator and help him or her do the job better by keeping your house in order. You'll benefit by having a better performing web site.