Friday, November 29, 2019

10 Mistakes to Avoid When You Hire Millennial Employees

10 Mistakes to Avoid When You Hire Millennial Employees10 Mistakes to Avoid When You Hire Millennial EmployeesMillennials are a difficult bunch, arent they? They seem to have their own ideas about how the corporate world works, and arent afraid to express them. The generational differences can sometimes make hiring difficult. Still, its not a good idea to dismiss them when their resumes land in your inbox. According to LinkedIns 2015 Talent Trends Report, millennials will comprise 50 percent of the workforce by the time 2020 rolls around. Thats a 50 percent mglichkeit of a wide-eyed greenhorn showing up in your interview room. Thats also a 50 percent chance of nabbing a youthful, energetic and talented employee for your company. Here Are 10 Things Not to Do During the Hiring Process- and What to Do Instead. Write Vague Job Offers When you reach out to millennials to offer a job, dont just give them a list of duties and responsibilities. Talk about concrete reasons why you chose t hem in particular and perhaps give them a ballpark salary range as well. Theyd rather you use email to reach them, according to LinkedIns Talent Trends Report- but LinkedIn Mail, phone calls, and text messages are also acceptable.Chart an Unclear Career Path Unlike their predecessors, millennials want to be leaders right off the bat. This desire to lead doesnt mean they want to be promoted as soon as they set foot in the office. Instead, they see a leader as someone whos able to make an impact in the workplace- whether that someone holds a formal leadership title or not. If your company can help its millennial hires plan where they want to be five years from now, youre more likely to retain those hires. Refuse to Offer Flexible Work Arrangements The traditional 9-to-5 setup just doesnt work for millennials anymore. Theyd rather have a job where they have flexible hours, telecommuting options, and extra vacation time. Its not that theyre lazy- its just that this setup makes them more productive.Entice Them Only With Money fruchtwein millennials would rather make a difference than make a ton of money. Compensate them enough for their work, but encourage them to give back to the community as well. You can also hold regular fundraisers, organize trips to impoverished neighborhoods, and do other things that will enable millennials to have a positive impact on the world. Disqualify Those Without the Necessary Skills and Experience Yes, skills and experience help. Most millennials dont have either of theseand have no other means of obtaining them other than through an actual job. Its better to hire the ones who show the most potential, have them learn on the job and make a decision about them from there. After all, thats how Google hires employees- and look where it got them.Use an Excessively Rigorous Hiring Process If your company weeds out high-potential millennials on a regular basis, it might be a good idea to loosen things up a bit. In place of the usual two-th ree-round interviews, you can hold informal professional development classes, conduct informational interviews or show potential candidates around the office. Through these, you can let the candidates decide for themselves whether they fit your companys culture or not. Keep Them Away From Social Media For millennials, a no Facebook rule in the office is a death sentence. One-Third considers social media freedom a higher priority than salary. In a recent survey by web company WebpageFX, 90 percent of teenagers said they use social media more than three times a day. Encourage them to use popular social media sites for their age group- on the condition that they become ambassadors of goodwill for your company through those same sites.Use Corporate Buzzwords to Win Them Over Millennials appreciate it when theyre not bombarded with meaningless phrases like bottom line or take it to the next level. Theyre more likely to gravitate toward a company that speaks to them in simple, yet punchy, language. Go through your job ads targeted towards millennials, clear them of corporate speak and buzzwords, and watch more millennial resumes pour into your inbox. Try Too Hard to Get Millennials If the feed of Twitter user BrandsSayingBae is any indication, millennials can see right through a company that tries too hard to get cute with them. The remedy for this is the same as that in the previous point Express your companys brand through copy that highlights strengths in simple, succinct language.Fail to Provide Post-Interview Feedback According to LinkedIns Talent Trends Report, 95 percent of millennials want to hear what you thought about them after the interview. It might seem a ton of effort to follow up on applicants you rejected, but they need the feedback so they can improve for future interviews- and, perhaps, come back to your company so you can make use of their newly acquired skills and knowledge.These might seem like a lot of concessions to make to millennials. Howev er, its important to note that they just want to keep up with the timesand hope that the company theyll work for will do the same. Avoid the mistakes mentioned above, and youll be rewarded with a vibrant workforce. Sarah Landrum is a freelance journalist specializing in career development. Sarahs work has been featured on noted publications including Forbes, Business Insider, The Muse and Entrepreneur.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

I went on a 30 day food cleanse Heres what I learned

I went on a 30 day food cleanse Heres what I learnedI went on a 30 day food cleanse - Heres what I learnedIn the age of Instagrammers advertising juice cleanses and hearing about one of your cousinsWhole30 excursionduring Thanksgiving dinner, food cleanses can seem to just be the latest in fad diets. But, while many do it for weight loss, some need to because of food sensitivities, myself included. Living with a food sensitivity that you havent figured out can be, to put it lightly, pretty miserable. Some discover food sensitivities they never knew they had after doing a food cleanse, while I embarked on mine to finally figure out exactly what had been bothering me for years.Why I did itFor as long as I can remember, having a horrible stomach has pretty much been a parte of my everyday life. Its something that has controlled me, because I knew that any day could always take a turn for the worst because of my stomach.But, my episodes of sickness (which include my stomach feeling lik e it welches literally being tied into kbedrngniss), seemed so sporadic that I literally felt hopeless in ever knowing exactly what made my stomach upset. It felt daunting to eliminate whole food groups to my diet when it could be a single food.After about a million doctor appointments confirming that I didnt have some kind of virus, my doctor told me some earth-shattering nachrichtensendung that I needed to go on a food cleanse in order to really figure out what sensitivities I have.What is a food cleanse?In order to really figure out whats making you sick, my doctor explained that I needed to give up food groups for at least four weeks, which ensures that everything that youre eating has enough time to completely get out of your system. Then, you gradually add food groups back into your diet week by week to see how each one makes you feel. When you begin eating it again, its like your body is seeing it for the first time, which really allows you to figure out sensitivities and all ergies.My doctor had me do it for two food groups gluten and dairy. For me personally, these were the most likely culprits for my problems, and rather than giving up everything Whole30 style, I choose to focus on just these for the time being. I chose to do it for four weeks, since that seemed the most feasible for me and what Im used to eating.Full disclosure the meals I eat are almost always pretty healthy and home-cooked, but Ive always been a big snacker, which could consist of anything and everything, especially after a long day where I get home and am starving.Week 1At first,cutting dairy from my dietwasnt nearly as hard as I imagined (besides cheese, of course). Besides loving half and half in my morning iced coffee, I pretty much only drink almond milk, and stay away from ice cream because Ive always felt it was a top contender for the things that upset my stomach. Out of everything, Ive always had a hunch the main source of my problems was a lactose intolerance. So the fact that cutting dairy out wasnt too difficult made me super optimistic.Gluten, on the other hand, was a totally different story. I always thought giving up gluten just meant buying a special bread, but I couldnt have been mora wrong. It felt like gluten was in literallyeverything.Crackers, cookies, noodles - every carb that I craved (and unfortunately, if Im not eating carbs, I basically lose the will to eat).During the first week, I didnt know what carbs to eat, so I wasnt eating carbs at all, which in turn made me feel exhausted and horrible all the time. I definitely felt less bloated and a little betterin terms of my stomach as a whole, but it didnt make up for the fact that I was cutting myself off from everything I wanted to eat, and felt tired as a consequence.Week 2At the beginning of week 2, I smartened up and went to the gluten-free aisle of the closest Marianos and stocked up on everything I could find, from almond flour to gluten free muffins.Through this, I found that al though I had always assumed gluten-free alternatives tasted as good as the real thing, that wasnotthe case. A lot of things tasted like cardboard, which once again, made me not want to eat it at all. (Shoutout to everyone that has to be completely gluten-free - I dont know how you do it)While I finally discovered the carbs that still tasted good and that I was allowed to eat, being gluten-free began to change the way that I snacked. Instead of picking up my usual carb-loaded post-work snack, it made me get creative with what I was eating. I started eating healthier things, and incorporated more nuts, fruit, and veggies into my diet.At the end of the day, I kept realizing that I just felt better. My stomach wasnt getting upset nearly as often, so I was feeling hopeful that I was finally going to crack the case. I was only eating three meals and one healthy snack a day, and I was eating higher quality foods so I was staying full for longer. It also helped me be conscious of the small things that I usually snacked on without thinking twice.Week 3After the initial purge from gluten and dairy during weeks 1 and 2, I wasnt craving the things I usually eat as much, and things were much, much easier. It just felt like a part of my daily diet, and I was starting to like eating foods I normally wouldnt.During week 3, I was able to notice that my stomach wasnt getting upset, except for after I was eating salads (which I didnt expect at all). I was able to break it down and figure out what was causing it tomatoes. Every time I ate them, my stomach would be in a ton of pain and I would break out in hives. This was one of the small allergies I had feared, but without eating cleaner, I dont think I ever would have discovered it, because I would have figured it was something bigger.Everything accounted for, I was overall feeling good. More than anything, I was being more creative with meals (hello, zucchini noodles), and finding new things that I really loved eating that wer e still good for me.I also began to find gluten-free alternatives that I actually didnt mind, which made the experience 100x more tolerable.Adding food back inWeek 4 went about as smoothly as week 3 in terms of how challenging eating was. I was happy to have figured out one allergy that was causing my problems, and was curious to see what was going to happen the next week when I added each food group back in (You have to add food groups back in separately. For me, I was adding them back in a week apart).I added dairy back into my diet the next week, and had no problems at all, which I didnt see coming. Gluten had never been on my radargert for what was causing issues for me, but since I was getting sick so frequently, it did add up. I was curious (and a little scared) for the next week.After adding gluten back into my diet, my stomach began getting super upset again. I was bloated, uncomfortable, and feeling sick every day. After a little more time, I discovered that I can handle it in small doses, but when I ate it in excess, I had problems. So, I unfortunately cant sit and devour a whole bread basket at restaurants anymore.While it wasnt exactly the news I was hoping for, figuring out what upsets my stomach has made my day-to-day life infinitely better. For me, this plan worked to figure out what was making me sick, and I was lucky I only needed to eliminate gluten and dairy to do it, because a lot of people need to eliminate more. Not needing to fear that Im going to be stuckverzierung in bed because my stomach hurts so bad is well worth giving up the things that make me feel sick. I only wish I bit the bullet and committed to figuring it out earlier.Tips for doing a food cleanseBefore you start, make sure to stock up on foods that you know you like that fit your rules.Choose a time in your life that allows for a stricter diet. For example, dont start one right before a vacation.Come off your cleanse slowly. For me, I added each food group back in super gra dually to make sure I didnt get super sick. If you gave up dairy, dont celebrate your cleanse being done by drinking four milkshakes.Drink a lot of water.Remember why youre doing it, and remember that youll be back to eating the things you like in no time.This article was originally posted on TheEverygirl.com.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

We designed a jetpack for Mars. (The Story Behind a Resume)

We designed a jetpack for Mars. (The Story Behind a Resume)We designed a jetpack for Mars. (The Story Behind a Resume)Welcome to yet aelendher installment of the Story Behind a Resume. This is where we interview fascinating people with even more fascinating resumesand try to learn their whole story.This month weve interviewed Ivan, a mechanical engineer who just got an internship at Volvo. He also worked on a jetpack for NASAs first mission to Mars and bio-hacked a plant to help it protect itself from those nasty tiny larvae that nobody likes.And he did all of this while still being a student. Because, as if it welchesnt enough, hes also pursuing two different masters in two different countries at the same time. Right now, Ivan is writing his thesis at Volvo where hes trying to find the right algorithms to predict the future. Amazing resume for a student, isnt it? Ivan will tell you about all of ansicht projects and give you some tips if youd also like to start a career while still a t university.Because thats what this interview is mainly about - about the importance of doing internships, working on your own projects, and devoting time and effort to something you find worthwhile.Ivan will tell youWhat he currently does at VolvoAbout his projects for MIT and NASAHow he programmed a social robot for a medical centreThat student activities are a great way start for your careerHow to manage studies and a meaningful jobHow internship can land you a future full-time job right after studiesAnd then some.Who is Ivan Llopis Beltran? (Volvo Mechanical Engineer Internship Resume Sample)Congratulations on getting your internship at Volvo Are you enjoying your time there so far? Yeah, definitely. Ive been here two months already. Volvo employs many smart people, so Im definitely going to learn a lot here.What exactly are you doing at Volvo?Apart from the internship, Im also writing my masters thesis. I really wanted to do it at Volvo because its in Sweden theyre working on many projects that do with artificial intelligence.Im on the strategic team. My job is to help them decide what kind of decisions they want to make and where should they focus their attention in the upcoming years. Im applying artificial intelligence to gather as much useful information as possible.So we search through the internet, and look for new articles and technologies. Afterwards, my work is to apply machine learning algorithms to predict future trends, and determine which ones are going to be useful and which ones not. Hopefully I will be able to contribute to the future of the company.So you want to be able to predict what technologies and things are going to be huge in the future?Exactly. We amass information and filter it, while trying to predict which technologies are here to stay and which ones are going to be short-lived. Take the fidget spinner, for instance. It was huge for a moment. Yet, barely anyone remembers it now. Is this part of your masters thesis?Yes, exact ly. To be more specific, I am doing two masters degrees in parallel. One in Spain and one in Sweden.Oh wow. Isnt one degree enough? No. I wanted more. After my bachelors degree, I realized there are many more things I can learn and discover. So I went to do my first masters. However, then I realized again it could only teach me a small fragment of something bigger and I wanted to do even more. I talked to an advisor on LinkedIn who suggested that I could join a consultancy company, where I would probably learn a lot, or do a PhD. The double degree was a decision I made in buchung to master some fields I definitely wanted to master. But I mean, you can join a consultancy company if you have enough skill, but you need at least one masters to do a PhD. I decided to do two, but I could have gone either way with only one.Ultimately, the double degree helped me acquire the skills necessary to join Volvo Cars. That was actually a risky move because my college only offered two distribution spolitikment positions in Sweden. But I decided to do it anyway and Im glad I did. But I believe that with decisions like these, theres nothing you can loose. You can only gain a lot.You seem to be really convinced about that.Definitely. Its never a waste of time. I always say that if you pour all your effort into something and still fail, its not your fault. You did everything you could. Its only your fault if you know you could have tried harder.Thats a great mindset. But how do you manage the workload for two degrees at the same time? Well, it requires good time management but it helps if youre doing related study programs. The knowledge you gain while studying for one program can help you understand new things for the other.Also, Im doing one of them remotely. I did the most demanding courses beforehand and the rest of the courses I can do remotely. As for the masters thesis, when I schliff this one, I will go to Spain to do another thesis there. Hopefully, I will schliff my stu dies before September, so I can come back to Sweden and start working here full-time.Does it mean youre planning to stay at Volvo after finishing your studies?I would like to. Theyve already told me I could start working here full-time afterwards. This internship as well as working on my masters thesis at Volvo helped me a lot. Its a good start for my future career.Before your internship, you did a lot of cool projects. For example, the one for MIT. Can you tell me about the The Sexy Plant?Sure. iGEM is a worldwide competition in synthetic biology which is organized by MIT every year. They proposed a challenge for students to provide them with something interesting, cool and helpful in their own research. And thanks to them, we did something that has never been done before.I was a bit scared at the beginning because I didnt know a lot about biology. But one of the points was to build a multidisciplinary team. If everyone came from the same background, youd only be able to see the sa me things and couldnt solve bigger problems. So I attended some webinars, student conferences and studied. I had to understand a bit about biology but my job was mainly programming and doing mathematical models.Our approach was to prevent moths from eating the plant. Basically, the male moth looks for a female and when they couple, they create maggots. And as they grow, they feed on the plant. Of course, the first thing that might come to your mind is to kill them. But killing is not considered very nice, so we wanted to avoid it.So what did you do?We thought, what if the moth couple never met? They wouldnt produce the larvae and those, in turn, wouldnt eat the crop. The solution would be to release a large amount of female pheromones into the air. It would trick the male into thinking hes surrounded by a large number of females. He wouldnt be able to find just one.If it sounds a bit confusing, I can give you a simple example. Imagine you go to the beach and want to look for a new b oyfriend or girlfriend. If there is only one or two people you find interesting, you can identify them very quickly. But if you see two thousand boys or girls you like, you get confused. You dont know where to look or who to approach first. Its a bit of a silly example but thats what we did.Technically, the plant saturates the air with pheromones and overwhelms the insects receptors there are only few real female moths, but the male will think there are actually thousands, making it confusing and difficult to find the real ones. Almost like life itself. We created a modified plant that was able to release the pheromone into the air. Theres no other plant in the world that does that. We won a prize and got to present in front of many other people. We also visited MIT, which was amazing.Your CV says you also did a project for NASA. What was that about?That was a bigger project for the global competition called SpaceApps. NASA challenged us to design a solution for the Jet Set Mars Cha llenge. They needed a mobility solution for first operations on Mars. It was back in 2016 when Elon Musk said he wants to go to Mars and colonize it.Our task was to imagine we have a go to Mars and the astronauts have to move around the planet. But how do you do that? The conditions are different, you have a way lighter atmosphere, and, obviously, the place is rather empty. We designed an exoskeleton with a HUD and jet pack for mobility. We also proposed a method for obtaining fuel on-site.We presented our solution and won the prize for best hardware. Then we went on to the global competition and ended up in the top 5 for best hardware and top 25 overall.We got multiple mentions in the media, I featured on radio channels in Spain. It was really cool. We met a lot of interesting people and professionals who supported us.Are they going to use these ideas in the end?I think they just want to hear new ideas and different solutions. They get to see new points of view and can find somethi ng cool to improve their own projects. In some competitions, they contact the winning team further to help them with the development. But that only happens in some competitions, not in this one. In this NASA competition, the winners got to see the launch of their rocket, which is super cool.Later that year, you programmed a social robot for medical centers. How does it work?That was part of my internship in Valencia. In the hospital, they told me that older people require a lot of attention. They need someone to interact with them to keep their mind active. So I came up with the idea of a robot that could do just that. Moreover, it could work with the patients biometric data which hospitals usually store in their information systems.Lets say that patients amount of sugar in the blood would drop to a certain level. The robot would send an alarm to the doctor together with the room number. So, the doctor would come and check on the patient. Doctors then dont have to be in the room the whole time. The robot will do that for them.We equipped him with something like a chatbot, so patients could interact with him. We also wanted to implement facial recognition. However, we lacked time and we didnt manage to do it before the internship ended.Which one of these projects did you find the most interesting?Oh, I really couldnt pick one. Thats a very tricky question. Each project has provided me with a different kind of experience. The MIT project showed me how interdisciplinary teams can work efficiently. The NASA project taught me how to work in a bigger team and how to organize it. The robotics project was completely different. It taught me how to work for a hospital and older people. Also, I could see how people working in health care really care about patients. It reminded me to be humble and care about other people.Since you cant choose, can you at least say what you like the most about working in the field of automation and robotics?Probably the idea that I can pr ovide something worthwhile and useful to someone.The knowledge can be used and applied in many fields, and by many people. Thats something that makes me feel like its worth it.Since when are you so interested in this topic?Since the third grade of my bachelors degree when I discovered automation and all the possibilities it offers. You can control any kind of process, you can predict things or create robots. I thought that its cool and every company will use this in some way - for machines, cameras, security, anything. So I started doing some research and digging. I became so enthralled by it that I decided to do a masters in it. During that time, I discovered machine learning, artificial intelligence and the fact that you can also teach a machine to learn from experience.Just like our parents were teaching us when we were kids. For example, your dad told you this is a truck and this is a car. And he showed you hundreds of examples and then you were able to tell what is a truck and what a car. Machines can do the same. And I thought that was super cool and it will have an enormous impact on the future.Besides at school, did you have to study a lot by yourself?Yes, definitely. I was a member of the students association called Makers UPV where students can put into practice everything theyve learned during lectures. Ive met many passionate people there. Students who stay up programming after midnight, building robots or attending competitions. When you get to talk to them, you realize theyre really smart. Theyre also people who look at things in a different way. Thats something you sometimes cant find in the top classes at school. All of that comes from doing research, reading articles, watching tutorials and discovering. And passion attracts passion. If youre surrounded by people like these, it rubs off on you. In this way, you can gather knowledge about many things that arent part of your studies or you dont have courses about them.You can just open Google, C oursera or YouTube where you have video lectures from MIT or Stanford. And theyre available completely for free. The tools are there and its up to you invest enough time to take advantage of it.Do you find it important to work during studies?Definitely. Working at a company gives you something you wont regret when youll start looking for a real job. Nowadays, numberless people have a degree. Youre just one of the many. What can distinguish you from others is your job experience. That proves that you can do something already during your studies.Its hard to get into at the beginning. But all you have to do is show your passion and willingness to work. Ultimately someone will give you a chance. If you gain this experience during your studies, its much easier for you to find a job afterwards. You learn a lot and it sets you up with professional contacts. It also gives you independence. In the end, youll have many more doors open.It can be hard to combine studies with a meaningful job. D o you have any tips for other students on how to manage it?The main point is to find something you like, then you realize its not a job. Its also important to realize that the hours you invest in it, will be a big plus for once you finish school. Also, I like to remind myself that one can get used to anything. Like when you start running, the first week is super tough but you get used to it. If you commit yourself to something because you want to, not because you have to, you can achieve a lot.Share Your Feedback or Ideas in the Comments