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21 January
Job hunting in digital Ireland with software tips
How Vista, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office can work for you.
by SoftwareGuru
Friday 16th January 2009
As unemployment in Ireland is set to reach 400,000 this year, it's time to change your Windows start up music to The A-Team theme tune and get organised!
Video clips from this week's RTE Prime Time economy special (article + video link) made clear that the new, greener, digital, smart economy is our best hope as a nation for prosperity.
So if you're on the lookout for a new career or simply wish to take control over your online life, here's a few pointers to get you started.
Have Discipline
Firstly, be disciplined! Facebook and Sports / Celebrity Gossip sites will still be there later after you've done something constructive for your career, which will in turn boost your self-confidence.
Focus your mind on what you want, if you can't imagine it in your mind you can't turn it into reality.
Remove clutter from your environment
The next step to getting organised is to clear the PC desktop of junk. Delete all desktop document links and simply file away documents in new folders in your My Documents section. Do the same with your inbox.
Click Start > Recent items
This will give you a list of 15 of your most recently used documents anyway.
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"The Smart Economy"
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"Improve Your Skill Set"
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Create A Weekly Schedule.
Vista users should use Windows Calendar to create a weekly plan of achievable goals.
Windows Calendar is the ultimate to-do list manager, using scheduled pop-up reminders that appear on your desktop.
Schedule your day, give yourself goals and tick them off one by one.
Become Web Savvy
Now that you've organised folders in your 'My Documents' section and cleaned up your desktop, it's time to do the same with Internet Explorer.
Clicking Favourites > Organise Favourites, allows you to create new folders and categorise your links into them.
Create a new job hunt folder and alongside the usual job opportunity sites, book mark websites relevant to your area of job interest or expertise so you can stay up to date with latest industry developments.
It could prove crucial at a future job interview.
You should also take this opportunity to finally learn how to use RSS feeds properly. It'll save you a lot of wasted browsing time.
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Master The Microsoft Office Ribbon.
We covered Word 2007 tutorials last week so we'll simply remind you that it has excellent templates for creating a smart CV.
If you'd like to brush up on other Office software skills such as PowerPoint or Excel, Microsoft have new tutorials for that also.
Express Yourself
For Microsoft Office veterans, perhaps consider adding basic html editing and basic graphic editing to your skill set.
Microsoft Expression Studio 2 is a family of tools that offer a wide variety of functions.
Edit photos, create graphics, build websites, catalogue files, create interactive multimedia, encode flash video for the web - it's the Microsoft equivalent of Adobe Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator and a whole lot more!
Remember: you can find free online tutorials now through search engines which will assist your learning.
You could even take advantage of the free language learning podcasts from iTunes and add a new language to your skill set. Why stay in your comfort zone?
Believe in your own abilities and make it happen.
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"Lack of languages in Ireland"
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Posted by
admin
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10:12
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