balance

Sep 26
0

College Students: How to Live in Today and Plan for Tomorrow

By | Classroom to Career | No Comments

From the moment incoming college freshman step onto campus, they enter a world where the expectations are higher. The social scene and comfort zone of high school life are long forgotten, and they must now soak in more information than ever before while laying the groundwork for a successful career post-college.

A U.S. Census report determined that 71 percent of the  19.7 million college undergraduates in the U.S. were working in 2011 and of that number, one in five undergrads were working at least 35 hours a week year-round. Combined with the pressure to have a once-in-a-lifetime college experience, students must quickly learn how to balance it all.

“When you know what you want, you realize that all there is left then is time management. You’ll manage your time to achieve your goals because you clearly know what you’re trying to achieve in your life.”
– Patch Adams

Here are five ways college students can strike a healthy balance between studying, friends and career planning:

  1. Prioritize: You will quickly learn that you can’t do it all, so list in order of importance the items that you need to complete on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Tackle the most important items first to ensure you produce your best quality work.
  2. Manage your calendar: If you didn’t learn this skill in high school, now is the time. Whether it’s a smartphone or a paper calendar, tracking your group meetings, sports practices and internship hours is crucial to staying organized now and in your future career.
  3. Take care of yourself: You’ll likely need to pull an all-nighter at least once, but overall, ensure you’re getting a full night of sleep and eating more than just take-out. When you feel your best, you’ll do your best at work and at school.
  4. Set goals: See your college experience as an opportunity to prepare for the real world in a controlled setting. Set specific and measurable short- and long-term goals, like completing Dardis’ professional training program.
  5. Indulge (within reason): All work and no play will lead to regrets after graduation. Take breaks from studying to cheer at the football game and get a few hours of extra sleep on the weekends, but always keep your focus on your goals for college and beyond.

Living in the present while planning for the future can be a daunting task for any student, but by balancing each aspect of the college experience, young business professionals will enter the real world with the tools they need to succeed.

Photo credit: CollegeDegrees360 via Flickr. 

Mar 28
0

Millennials: The Leaders of Tomorrow

By | Career Advice | No Comments

For years, the Dardis family of companies has been educating future leaders and giving both young adults and experienced professionals the tools to rise above the competition. In the Classroom to Career internship program, we focus our efforts on honing the skills and experience level of college students – young professionals and members of the millennial generation.

This unique and much-analyzed generation bring unique qualities into the business world, and in a recent Huffington Post article, Dr. Tim Elmore, president of the organization Growing Leaders, provides recommendations for these young professionals on how to be successful in the job market:

Balance confidence with teachability.
Research from a variety of employment sources reveal that 76 percent of young employees believe “my boss can learn a lot from me.” That may be true, but any hint of arrogance in the interview may repel a Baby Boomer host. In the interview, know your value and strengths, but communicate a teachable spirit that you want to learn a lot from your potential employer.

Balance creativity with cooperation.
Today, 83 percent of new graduates are looking for a place where “my creativity is valued.” A full two out of three want to “invent their own position at work.” While that is understandable, your new boss may value your helping the company with their current ideas first. Let them know you’ve got ideas, but you’re hungry to help with theirs as well.

Balance listening with initiative.
Spend plenty of time on the organization’s website and learn all you can. Find out who the key leaders are, and greet them by name when you see them. In the job interview, answer questions clearly and candidly, but then, inquire if it is okay to ask the interviewer a few questions, as well. This usually is impressive. Pose questions that show you’ve gotten acquainted with their mission. Ask about the future. Embody the values of the organization if possible, demonstrating you’ll fit right in.

With real world experience from Dardis, millennials have the opportunity to strike the right balance in their careers and evolve into strong leaders that mentor the generations to come.

To read more of Elmore’s recommendations, click here.

Photo credit: itupictures via Flickr

Feb 28
0

Dardis Key to Success: Time and Territory Management

By | The Dardis difference | No Comments

It’s completely invisible, but it drives our day-to-day and long-term plans, including how we prioritize and our perceived level of stress. Time – we usually don’t have enough of it, especially at work. When projects and tasks pile up, one of our first laments usually includes, “If only I had more time.”

Time management is a valuable skill in our personal lives, as well as our careers, making it a true key to success and an important component of the Dardis Academy training program. As future professionals, our interns need to learn how to manage their workday, while focusing on both short-term and long-term goals and objectives. In the world of sales, professionals also need to learn how to best handle their territory, no matter how big or small.

Our program teaches  interns how to effectively allocate their time to get the job done by giving them the freedom to set their own schedules and learn how the quality time they invest directly impacts their success. By selling in their own communities, they also learn during our summer internship program to manage their territory by balancing time with both current and prospective clients.

Time and territory management represents a challenge for even the most seasoned professionals, but with Dardis Academy, our interns gain the foundational skills and experience to effectively manage their time and territory in their future careers.

To start better managing your time today, try these four simple tips from Business Insider:

Make a realistic to-do list:  Create your list the night before, so you’ll have a head start the next day.

Turn off distractions: There are so many possible diversions in today’s technological world. Ignore as many of them as possible, so you can stay focused on completing your tasks.

Learn to say no: Understand what you can and can’t do. If you volunteer or say yes to everything, you won’t be able to complete your own list of responsibilities.

Find a timing system that works for you: Find out what way is best for your goals. Know what the best time is for you to perform most efficiently at different tasks throughout the day.


Photo credit:  blue2likeyou via Flickr

Aug 16
0

The ultimate balancing act

By | Food for thought | No Comments

Have you ever attended a Little League baseball game and seen a parent pacing behind the bleachers on his or her cell phone spouting financials and business updates? Or have you personally rushed through a quick dinner at home to log-in for a webinar with colleagues in Asia-Pacific?

The business world becomes more global every day, requiring employees to stay more connected than ever, often affecting personal commitments and family time.

At Dardis, we regularly interact with business leaders who constantly struggle with maintaining a healthy work-life balance. While professional success requires time and diligence, a burn-out mentality of 14-hour work days and constant travel can have an opposite effect. When work interferes with one’s personal life, relationships can also suffer, leading to lower employee satisfaction and presumably less engagement.

So how can employees – from entry-level positions to the executive level – maintain that elusive work-life balance? To Caryn Seidman Becker, chairman and CEO of CLEAR, employees can have it all. She wrote in a LinkedIn blog post:

“You can ‘have it all,’ but each person needs to define their personal ‘all’ (what makes you happy), because you can’t have everything. For me, my ‘all’ is quality time and focus for my family and my company. A lot gets eliminated—girl dinners, many gym workouts, me time—but I still love my ‘all.’ It is not work-life balance—it is all intertwined. It’s simply life.”

Balancing work and personal commitments is a constant juggling act, but here are five simple steps for moving you closer to a healthier work-life balance:

  1. As Seidman Becker illustrated, prioritize your commitments and define what makes you happy. When you must cut into personal time or eliminate activities, do not cut from this list.
  2. Read those around you. If your spouse consistently complains about your long work hours or if your kids suffer from your absence, it’s time to reevaluate and implement steps to achieving a healthier balance.
  3. Schedule downtime. No one can go full speed non-stop, so make time, even during the workday, for a short walk or lunch.
  4. Identify your go-to people. If you schedule is overloaded, know who you can delegate to, and if you’re on vacation, designate a trusted colleague to fill-in during your absence.
  5. Adapt to your work seasons. Most industries have busy and slow seasons. Take advantage of your slower seasons by dedicating more time to family and friends.

By making a commitment to a healthy work-life balance, you’re already on your way to being successful in the workplace and at home.

 

Photo credit: By KVDP, Shokunin, Aungkarns (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

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