Family Financial Centers’ President and Founder, Paul Eckert, announced today a pilot program with Empire Group of Baltimore, MD, to provide their customers a program that would enable them to secure various needed insurance products through several major insurance carriers.  Paul Eckert went on to state “that many of Family Financial Centers’ customers need these products but don’t have easy access to them.  This is just another example of Family Financial Center’s commitment to being a complete financial services center.  This program is another step in letting our family help our customer’s families with all of their financial needs.”

Paul Eckert Development By: Shanat Kuphur

Meaning of the word “career” has moved out of its regular boundaries as a “money making business” into something more as a culminating edge of human ambitions. Henceforth career development and career development plans conquer their dreams even in a sound sleep – eternal happiness becomes a mirage. Vigilant eyes have to be kept to win back those lost hours of sleep.

Worldly pleasures have always attracted mankind-so is career development. Professionalism has grabbed world in such a spurious manner that education itself is oriented to career development. As world is advancing at the fraction of a second, becoming a professional-a lawyer, doctor, engineer, businessman, scientist-only can satisfy the ambitious students of today. Even after procuring a job, the urge for career development continues- human needs never ends.

In his pursuing for a lofty career, man often turns to be complaining. A dissection of the state of the art clearly reveals an unbiased human mind. Frequent career switching followed by red lines in career graph is the end result. A fretful mentality supplemented with lack of perseverance, determination and confidence is the root cause of these hindrances in the path of career development. Career development goals are set aiming at long-range career growth in the initial years. A lack of motivation and a lack of understanding of the aim throw stones and thorns in the road to the target. Egos and complexes pull their legs further down. A realization of potential becomes impractical and a career break through turns out to be impossible. Blinking eyes at this major issue is paving the way for a cancerous disease of mind. When surveyed for reasons, what commonly found is – setting lame excuses by beating around the bush, searching for heads to put the blame upon – this bird’s eye view makes things worse than the worst.

In order to succeed and have a commendable approach towards your career path, it’s essential that you follow a decided career development path. This need not be someone else’s plan, but just your estimates or goals based upon your personal gauging of the current day scenario. However your career development approach or path may not always get the much-anticipated momentum. The reason being you may be confused or simply not confident about your own achievements. Apart from this you may not be able to foresee and may not really device the best of plans. As such hypnosis for career development can help you see a great change in your monotonous and all too stagnant career graph.

Hypnosis for career management enables you to make a conscious decision and ensures that your sub conscious mind is always working towards this goal. Hypnosis awakens your inner being making it aware of the concerned scenario; you gain a deeper insight into what’s happening and revise your approach accordingly. Through hypnosis you will be able to initiate the process of change.

If you have a tight budget or fancy yourself a wordsmith, you may be hesitant to use professional job search or even resume building advice. But consider the benefits of making such a choice. Like in any other search, when you are looking for a professional in any specialty you want to make sure you find, select and use the best.

How we define the best comes with the territory. But in most cases we want the most experience, high quality and available individual(s). It’s true that sometimes and not always the best may cost a bit more .

Why would you pay more for something you can get for less? Simple quality. If you hire someone that will guide you with a comprehensive process that will yield better and faster results it’s probably more than worth it.

Imagine you hire someone that will help you get a job instead of in two months in one single month. You need to calculate your salary gain of the month. (e.g. If you make anywhere from $2000 to $10000 every month, well if you pay let’s say $1000 more you still made $1000 profit and you avoided over 30 days of job search.

Another point to consider is your resume building ability. Your resume is your calling card and need to be the best representation of your skills, experience and knowledge. Not only that, but some marketing included in the structure of your resume may attract more interested parties than not. As a professional Career Management Consultant (Career Counselor, Career Coach, Executive Career Management Consultant, etc) you had the opportunity to build, oversee and correct thousands of resumes in multiple disciplines and you had also thousands of opportunities to personally see what works and what does not work, it makes you a professional. More people interested in you translates into more job opportunities for you, which translates in more leverage and potentially a higher salary.

That last point brings us to negotiation skills. Let’s see… How often do you negotiate your salary? It’s true that a good negotiator does not wait until last minute to start the process but sets it up from the first interaction, and believe or not it start at the time of first contact. The way your resume has been written your cover letter is developed and the first words you say when an interested employer or recruiter approaches you , is going to dictate the final outcome of your compensation. Just remember that compensation includes many more items besides your future salary.

A good resume professional knows what recruiters want and don’t want to see in a resume. A professional , will know (and include) keywords that will help recruiters find your resume when searching online.

The best way of qualifying a professional is checking references, after all employers do it with us most of the time. Well ask for at least three individuals that have hired your potential new career coach and check what they have to say about their experience with them. When it come to this don’t be shy. Every case will be different but if your pick knows what is doing and has a wealth of experience, it will also make a great difference in your search, which you might be able to measure in dollars and cents.

Paul Eckert ’s Definition By: Ian Christie

Why is this question important?
One of the most important career and life-planning activities you can engage in is finding your own definitions or models of success. This is vitally important for a number of reasons: If you haven’t done this, how do you know what’s best for you? How can you make career decisions if you aren’t crystal clear about how you define success? How can you be happy if you don’t know when you’re successful?

If this question is relevant to you right now…
There is never a bad time to discover and be clear on your definition of success. Today’s economic realities make the timing even better. If your career hasn’t gone according to plan, or even if it has, reexamine what it is you actually want. Doing so can make you a lot happier.

Successful — on Whose Terms?
If you haven’t taken the time to define it, success has already been defined for you. You’re already following models of career and life success. The question is whether they are your own, or ones you inherited. One of your greatest career challenges is identifying goals and definitions of success that are true to you rather than ones you inherited from family, society and other outside forces. Your current model of success may or may not work for you. The important thing is understanding your assumptions and questioning them.

If you follow a path to success that isn’t your own, you may achieve your goals, but when you arrive at your destination, you may not feel successful or fulfilled at all.

Keep in mind that your existing job may hold the key to your happiness. For example, if you were to discover that making your customers happy was the one thing that defines and inspires you, what would that do to your focus and state of mind?

Choose Your Own Definition of Success
You have the power to reaffirm existing models or adopt new models of success. All it takes is some honest thinking, clarity of purpose and the discipline to stay true to your values in the long run.

Accept There Are Always Alternatives. The very fact that so many of us have not questioned the paths we are on speaks to a lack of awareness or acceptance of alternate paths. There have never been more options or valid ways of defining career and life success.

Examine Your Path. Do you love what you do? Do you do fantastic work as a result? Does your work complement your personal and family life or detract from it? Are you excited about your vision of the future? Is this your best use of your precious gifts and time?

Create Some Quiet, Introspective Time. Ask yourself these questions:
What makes me happy? How do I feel? What do I want? And then, answer a question from the coaching school CoachVille.com, “I know how successful I am by how (fill in the blank).” The answers to this question will point you in the right direction. You can have several definitions of success as long as they don’t contradict each other.

Refine Your Responses. Ask yourself “why?” and “is that what I really want?” after each response to the statement until each rings true. For example, if your first response was, “I’ll know I am successful when I am a millionaire,” ask yourself why you want to be a millionaire. You might, for example, find out that success for you is to have the freedom to use your time as you wish, or the ability to travel or be rid of financial worries. This process may lead you to make other decisions in your life that will help you reach your goal.

Paul Eckert Methods of Job Search By: Barbara Safani

There are four core methods of job search and I encourage job seekers to use all of them. When you are in search, looking for a job is your full-time job and you should plan to dedicate 35-40 hours per week to your search or a percentage of that it you are searching while employed. Here’s a quick rundown of the four methods of search.

Job Boards – When using the boards, you need to be as strategic as possible in your approach, because there is an enormous amount of information posted on the boards and employers receive multiple responses for each position they post. One of the best strategies for managing your presence on the job boards is to stick with niche boards that best match your professional level, industry, or job function rather than spending time on a board that claims to be all things to all people. This allows you to be a big fish in a smaller pond and potentially garner more immediate recognition from a hiring authority. For example, a senior-level executive is generally better-off creating a presence on a six-figure job site than on a general job board that posts jobs at all professional levels. Another way to optimize your time spent on the boards is to set up job alerts based on keywords and geographical preferences to streamline the amount of time spent on the boards and optimize the amount of relevant leads.

Recruiters – A recruiter can be a great ally during a search, but keep in mind that recruiters are generally only going to be interested in your candidacy if your skill set matches a position in their current job requisition portfolio. In addition, recruiters can only expose you to the positions from the companies that are willing to pay a recruiter to manage the search process. When you partner with a recruiter, you only get to see a small percentage of the available jobs in the market.

Cold Calling – People in search often find their jobs by cold calling on potential decision makers in companies. By creating a marketing letter that communicates your skills, accomplishments, and value-add, you can attempt to forge relationships with key people in the companies you would like to work for. The goal of the letter is to build a relationship with people in companies where no relationship existed before. If you can create and nurture a relationship before there is a need to fill a position, you are much more likely to be considered as a candidate when there is an opportunity because you are now part of the inner circle of contacts within the company. This method takes work and may not yield immediate results, but if these new relationships are nurtured over time, they can grow into opportunity with the company down the line.

Networking – Networking is the art of exchanging information continuously and graciously with members of your professional and social communities. People are more likely to share information with people they know and trust. Sharing information about job leads comes naturally in networking circles. Attempt to give more than you get and don’t keep tabs on your goodwill versus someone else’s and eventually you will find that you can almost always find a connection for whatever you need…whether it’s a recommendation for a great restaurant, advice on a project, or a tip on a job lead. Paul Eckert Methods of Job Search.

Enlist Paul Eckert Aid By Abhishek Agarwal

Things have changed a lot. Decades ago, you can easily get a job even if you are a teenager. You only have to apply for a job and easy as 1, 2, 3, you get the job. And, if never you don’t get the job, you won’t even have to worry, because your parents will surely be there to cushion you for a while. Those were the days when you need not worry about paying the bills or if you are making enough money, but those days are now over. Once you reach your mid to late twenties there no more buffers and cushions. Its time to get a real job, even a career, if you can. It’s not as easy as 1-2-3 however, and you can’t just enter a store, get an application and you have a job.

Do you want a career? Finding something you want to stay and take on for years is even more difficult. Looking for a job you really want can mean a lot of effort and hardships for you. Many people embark on this kind of job search by themselves, which is quite difficult. The best way is to look and hire a career management company that help people land their dream jobs, with all the benefits and advantages befitting their position. An example is the Global Career Management. This company specializes in placing the people that enlist their services in careers that suits the applicant and the career that they want. A career after all is a life changing decision, as this could be your job for the rest of your working life. Being stuck in a jobs you hate certainly is not the picture you want, especially if you can have one career that pays well and makes you happy. If you want one, then Global Career management is for you, and with them you’ll definitely be in good hands.

But why should you enlist for the help of agencies like Global Career Management? Many of your friends probably found a job on their own and by their own determination. But the question is, how happy are they with their jobs? If asked, you’ll be sure to get some complains. Global Career management knows that a career, no matter how perfect it is for you, is work a job. Working can be stressful and it consumes a lot of your time, so it’s important that you like and enjoy doing your job.

How to Succeed With a Paul Eckert Interview By: Pamela Watson

We all know that a well designed job search requires much more than help with your resume and job interview tips. Usually it’s good to get advice from the experts and career counselors or coaches. But, it is far more important to know yourself and to know where you want to end up. Do you have a picture in your mind of where you’ll be in 5 years..10 years? Can you describe it? Have you written it down ? With this picture or goal in mind, can you now plan for tomorrow’s career strategy? What can you do, tomorrow, that will lead to the better job or the promotion?

Every step you take towards securing a new position, obtaining a highly desired promotion, reaching short-term career plans should be based upon a big picture – - your career vision. It is what provides the pathway for your personal success. It is what keeps you on track during disappointments and in the midst of organizational or personal changes.

As the central character in this strategy, you’re the one who has to articulate your dreams, capture your success stories, devise the steps needed to secure an interview, target desired companies, research each company to ensure they fit your interests and goals, and get the interview. We have to know what it is that we’re seeking to be effective.

Recently, I received an email from a business associate who wanted to proudly share a recent promotion within a major corporation. Since I’ve known this professional for over ten years and have heard him speak of his career goals, I recognized how valuable his stepping stones mean to him. His careful preparation, and planned risk-taking, was leading him to career success that had personal value to him and his family. When necessary he had made adjustments and changed jobs, but he kept focused on achieving the big picture.

The steps to creating your vision are similar to the process of drafting a company mission statement or long term plans. If you’ve ever participated in this process, you will understand the concepts. However, due to the size and functioning of corporations, it can take months – - sometimes years – - to complete a mission statement.

That’s not the case when you create your own personal one; the process is considerably shorter and there’s no need to get an entire management team together to complete it. What’s most important is that yours be based on your “reality” and your “dream.” Between those two areas is a gap of compromise that allows you to create a successful vision of your career. Whether you’re searching for a new job, a promotion, or career satisfaction, it’s important to have a vivid picture in your mind of where you’re heading.

It’s important that your career vision be drawn directly from your personal values, family background, financial desires, geographical limitations, physical limitations, etc. At least 25% of it should deal with your Reality.

The remaining 75% is based upon your dreams – - the bigger the better. Your life long dreams provide the basis of your desires. To connect the conflicting nature of your reality and your desires, it’s important to look for ideal compromises. If you’re able to respect your reality and still pursue your desire, then you’re on the right track. Your career vision should reflect your passionate and strong interests. Most importantly, it should be one that you can vividly capture on paper, verbalize, and be able to see or envision. It does not have to be materialistic – - it should, however, authentically detail your personal long term career goal.

Interviews are designed to compile results of your career-related actions, as well as to determine how well you will fit within the company. These are key measures and important to remember prior to starting your next interview. If you’ve done your homework (self evaluation and company research), then there are no difficult interview questions to answer. There’s only a discussion to take place regarding how well suited you are for the position.

Your vision should serve as the back drop for your career decisions and directly impact the short-terms step of interviewing. Yours should provide the motivation and drive needed for you to succeed within the interview. Each interview provides much needed feedback regarding the extent to which you are dedicated to achieving your dreams. Are you ready to succeed within your career?

Career Branding Strategies from Paul Eckert by Sharon Alexander.

Self Branding or career branding is an often over-looked important party of the job search. The biggest mistake that people make is to assume that their past accomplishments and career experiences will speak for themselves.

Often, job seekers can fail to take a proactive approach to creating and marketing their reputations. Branding is setting yourself apart from other job
seekers. If an employer sees “productive,” or “self-motivated” basically stamped on your forehead he/she is going to stop and take notice. The blame lies entirely on you if you choose not to be active in asserting your reputation.

It is so important to market and manage your reputation in this manner. Start by determining what your strengths and assets are. What have other employers complemented you on? Are you dependable? Do you show good leadership? Or maybe you have good analytical qualities?

Whatever your best feature is, you need to identify it, and then go about highlighting it to potential employers. There are many different ways to market your brand. Begin including your brand in emails and letters. When you describe to people your job functions, include your brand. This can be done effectively and tastefully in a manner such as, “I work for company X to create new software; my work is completed on time and on budget.”

Another example from a manager’s standpoint could be, “I lead others to follow my example and work efficiently without sacrificing quality or integrity.” The first example provided highlights the candidate’s respect for deadlines and good money sense. The second showcases the employee’s leadership qualities and values. Once you establish your brand you can use it in many situations to remind your potential employer what it is that you bring to the table.

The bottom line is that if you don’t brand yourself, others will. Nobody wants to see bad qualities like these present in a potential employee. You might have accidentally given a bad first impression without even knowing it, and words like these might cling to your name.

Much of this could have been avoided had you mentioned in early email correspondence that you have responsibly performed your duties with other employers and that you possess such and such qualities. Obviously if you claim punctuality as a selling point, then are late to an initial interview, your actions discredit your claims. Generally, however, you can shape the opinion that others will take toward you, by effectively marketing your brand.

In today’s economy job interviews are fewer and farther between so when you have one, is there a way to guarantee an offer or at least getting the next interview? The answer is yes and I have proved it. I have had offers on each of my last 5 job interviews. All of those involved multiple interviews for fairly senior positions. I learned that after one set of interviews that turned into a job offer that I was the first interviewee of 32. This article is about how to use some of the concepts that I have used in your own interview process. There are really only three.

People hire people they like. The fact that you have an interview means that your resume opened the door or that you networked into the situation or the recruiter put you in the mix for the position. The chances are very high that you have the skills and experience that they are looking for since you were called in for the interview. Now it is a question of do you fit in to their culture. Do you have similar characteristics as the people interviewing you? Do they like you?

So the question is how do you get people who do not know you to like you when you may have only half an hour to an hour? The answer is that you have to genuinely care about the person that is interviewing you. This gives you the perspective that you are there to help them make a very important decision-who to hire. If the person who is interviewing you gets the sense that you are more interested in helping them make the right decision than you are of getting an offer it helps them accept that you are not just selling them on you. Interviewing is about sales and sales is about having people understand that you are not selling them. The difference is subtle. Yet profound. If you really care about the person would you have them hire you even if you were the wrong person for the job?

How do you actually do this? Number one is that you have to lose the self-concern, nervousness, and anxiety about how you answer their questions. How do you do this? Preparation. This means you have to know what is important to them so you can anticipate their questions. Read the job description carefully, use your network to find out what the company is like, who the hiring manager is and what is her perspective. What does the website tell you about the company. Talk to customers of the company. So doing all of this makes you better prepared for the interview and it gives you confidence. Confidence allows you to calmly listen to the question, respond to the question with your own question when needed and to show some enthusiasm. I was in an interview for a career consulting position and at the end the hiring manager said to me, “I don’t know much about you, but you are my number one candidate”. Hearing that helped me go through the next 4 interviews, do a public workshop and group coaching session before, finally the job offer came through.

The other element of preparation that many people miss is the mental preparation. This is vital. What this involves is taking some minutes to visualize the outcome that you desire. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and see yourself calmly chatting with the interviewer. See the interviewer warming up to you. See her smiling and the rapport build. At the end watch her shake your hand and invite you to the next stage. Involved all of the senses that you can in this visualization as they make it more real. You can do this the night before the interview and right before it as well. If you calmly say to yourself that you are going to get an offer and know this to be the case, this is what will happen. The interview that I mentioned where they were interviewing 32 others, I told myself that I was going to land this position and I saw if happening in my mind clearly before the interview. I was asked to prepare with a role play for the interview and before that started, I asked the interviewers (a panel) if they were prepared to make a decision today. When they said that they weren’t, I stood up and suggested that we do this another time. They immediately said that they were prepared to make a decision. It takes a lot of confidence to threaten to walk out of an interview but it also can create a lot of desire on the part of the interviewer to keep you there. Shortly thereafter I was asked to come for a lunch and was given an offer.

Confidence, preparation and caring are the cornerstones of having a great interview.

7 Paul Eckert Strategies By: Sharon Alexander.

Every time you open a newspaper nowadays, the first thing you see is the current fear of a recession, the credit crunch, the banking crisis and the difficult days ahead with a downturn of the economy. It seems obvious that there will be cost cutting measures within some organizations, which in turn triggers fears of downsizing. Keeping this in mind, it is better to credit crunch proof your career when there is still time. Even if your company is not affected right now, it is necessary that you build up a strategy to safeguard yourself. There are no magic answers or sure shot solutions but these tactics can help to give you confidence and an added edge.

1. Update your skills and learn new skills: Now is the time to invest more in yourself. Update your skills in your current areas of work. Similarly, learn new skills like IT skills. You may take up new courses or trainings that will enhance your resume and can prove to be helpful not just in your current job but also any new opportunities if the need be.

2. Target your resume for specific jobs: Design and develop a resume that is fully targeted for a specific job that you are applying for. It should not be a generic list of your qualifications and experience. If you are unable to do so yourself, invest some time in learning this skill. Only a professionally targeted resume can take you further to an interview level. Your resume should stand out from the rest and should be appealing enough to the employers.

3.Get yourself noticed: At your current job, take efforts to be noticed. Make sure your boss is aware of your achievements. If you are given an opportunity for a new role and responsibility, take it up. If you are involved in a very important project, you may be safer than most.

4. Make yourself indispensable: Be ready to take on new tasks even over and above your usual activities. Volunteering to take on new tasks helps in making you indispensable as a person who can undertake any activity happily. That will help list you out as an important team member not worth losing. Find ways to contribute innovatively to your company. Be an active team player.

5. Start networking: It helps having a good supportive network. Keep in touch with former colleagues in other organizations, you previous bosses etc., which can help you find other job opportunities whenever the need arises. Be equally helpful to your contact as far as possible, as then only can you expect them to return the favor.

6. Plan your finances carefully: Building up your financial reserves is necessary. Even if you may be given a redundancy package it may take some time to come. If you have some financial reserve to last you at least 6 months, you would not go deeper in the trough. Plan you finances carefully with your current job at hand.

7. Don’t hide: Do not make yourself invisible, considering that you would not get axed because of it. Get up and prove yourself so that you become a bit safer. Your clients and boss need to see results now. Try to solve immediate needs.