Networking means building a list of contacts. Contacts are people you’ve met during your business or social activities. More often than not, such friends and acquaintances will provide you information about job openings, companies and industry leads. Moreover, they’ll introduce you to other so that you can grow your network. Therefore, it is important not only to inform them about your job search, but also give them some résumés.

This list will provide some hints about the people and organizations we should include in our network:

• Relatives
• Friends
• Recruiters
• Former Employers
• Neighbors
• Professional Organizations
• Other Job Seekers
• Academic Contacts (School, University)
• Business Associations
• Merchants

Organizing your Network of Contacts

Please, organize your network. Save information about your contacts in a spreadsheet or a database. Include their names, titles, company, address, phone and fax numbers, and email. It’s also important to register a few notes about the way in which any of your contacts is valuable, for instance, what do they know?, who can they refer you to?, and so on. Further, organize their business cards.

Besides, you should register the dates of communication with your contacts. Don’t be afraid to communicate with your contacts and ask for their help. This way, you’ll be connected to your network of contacts. Occasionally, check the progress. A phone call, SMS or email should suffice.

A few notes about Networking and Job-seeking

• Looking for a job is a job in itself. Develop a strategy, set goals. Look for a job by following a typical work schedule.
• When finishing a relation with an employer, please try to leave the best possible image. Remember that people in your company can be very good contacts. And also, it might happen that your future employer will call your previous company to ask for professional references about you.
• Create an attractive business card. Take your time to produce it, avoid spelling errors and, if required, look for professional advice. The idea is to have a genuine business card presentation.
• Finally, remember to keep your network informed of your progress. After you’ve got a job, remind to thank them for their help. Keep your network alive, as you don’t know when they will prove helpful again. Oh, and remember: you’re also a member of the network of each of your contacts. Share the love.

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• The Art of Saving (9)

you have to research your potential employer beforehand

…that will give you a very important lead. Get as much information as you can about the business, and also about the potential interviewers (you should research their style and attitude… that’s very important). If you know someone who has previously taken an interview in that company, talk with them about their experiences in the interview. Try to extract pure information, i.e., don’t let them to influence you (specially about the job being impossible or, on the contrary, being too easy).

1. First Approach

Remember that you have to dress with a professional look, according to the nature of the job. You are a professional… thereby each and every aspect of you must communicate that fact. Now, during the interview, take into account that Interviewers will ask questions related to their company, for example, why would you like to work for us? They may ask you about your opinion on the company’s products or history. Typically, this information is available on the company’s website, and by knowing it you demonstrate a genuine interest for the job.

2. Virtues and Limitations

Talk about your virtues, but not excessively. In this regards apply balance and good sense. Answer this question presenting your virtues in the context of the requirements of the job you’re applying to, with a clear and concise language. However, other almost granted question they will do is about your defects, thereby you must also be prepared to answer that. Furthermore, the interviewer may ask about your abilities and limitations: prepare an answer beforehand in order to allow you to present your defects as a new opportunity for keep improving.

3. Expect the Unexpected

You have to be ready for anything… a group interview, a forum about some specific problem of the company, a written exam, and so on. Carry any material you think you may need: think of the interview as your first day of work.

When entering to the interview, greet to your interviewer with a smile. Visual contact must also be direct and firm (but not exceedingly). Remember that, no matter the circumstances, you have to act formally instead of dared or zany (refer to your interviewer using his title… Dr., Mr., Engineer, etc.), unless they demand you to treat them informally (but that’s relatively rare; read point 6. Be on the alert). Listen to your interviewer very carefully. Sometimes the applicants are so focused in the things they want to say that forget what they are really being asked about. No answer is good if it does not truly answer the matter asked about.

4. Language

Be careful about the expressions and style you use to communicate your ideas. Don’t use inadequate, informal or excessively colloquial phrases.

5. Gestures

Be careful with your corporal language too. A firm handshake transmit self-confidence. A good posture also reflects confidence. Don’t act disturbed or nervous. Lean sligthly towards your interviewer in order to show interest in his words.

6. Be on the alert

Expert interviewers know human nature very well. An expert interviewer will quickly create a relaxed and trusting atmosphere for you, in order to expose your real behavior and ideas. However, never forget that he is there evaluating you, so no matter the confidence and comradeship he shows, you must always act as a professional. Novice interviewers, on the contrary, often act very arrogantly… fight off their arrogance by showing yourself relaxed and breezy (never answer the interviewer’s arrogance with more arrogance!).

7. Keep your moral high

Regarding this point, I recommend reading the posts The Winner’s Mind and The 7 Attributes of Leadership.

8. Secrets of a Critical Thinking Interviewer

Finally, good interviewers know how to distinguish good prospects from bad ones. They know that two people with the same job title may differ in at least one of the following ways:

• ability to perform the work
• interest in the work
• experience with similar applications
• experience with similar tools
• experience with similar techniques
• experience with similar working environment
• training
• ability to communicate with others
• ability to share responsibility with others
• management skills

Each of these characteristics can affect an individual’s ability to perform productively. These variations help to explain why one employee can complete a particular chore in a day, whereas another requires a week. The differences can be critical, not only to schedule estimation, but also to the entire success of the company’s projects. An expert interviewer knows that.

I wish you good luck on your interview and hope that you get the job!

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Let’s see how recruiters or prospective employers will not put down our résumé.

The Structure of the Résumé

The résumé must have the following organization:

1. Personal information: Name, residential address, contact phone number, e-mail address and date of birth. Sometimes, there is no need to indicate your marital status.
2. Education: It must be structured data about your studies and the titles you hold, in chronological order from top to bottom. Please indicate the study center (school, university, etc.), the town and dates.
3. Training: You must specify the other studies and practices that complement your academic training. It may help if you indicate the number of hours taken in each course. However, include only those courses which are relevant to the job.
4. Professional experience: List your previous jobs, the company’s name, date of start and finish, job title, and your duties and responsibilities. Again, follow a chronological order.
5. Languages: Simply point out the languages you command, and your level. Include proficiency tests’ results, if any.
6. Technical abilities: This section should comprise a brief description or listing of the skills, techniques and tools (e.g., software) that you command and are pertinent to the job.
7. Further details of interest: Driver’s license, availability for traveling, hobbies, and so further. The content of this section really depends on the job’s characteristics.

Often a résumé must be accompanied by a cover letter or covering letter, which simply is a letter of introduction. Cover letters are generally one page at most in length, divided into a header, introduction, body, and closing. The header should include your address and other information, the recipient’s contact information, and the date sent after either yours or the recipient’s address. On its side, the introduction briefly states the specific position desired, and is designed to catch the employer’s immediate interest. The body amplifies on material in the résumé or job application, and explains why you are interested in the job and would be of value to the employer. Finally, the closing summarizes the letter and indicates the next step the applicant expects to take… you can say that you will look forward to hearing from or speaking with the employer.

The Style of the Résumé

Here are a few recommendations for preparing our résumé:

1. The writing style must be direct and positive. Your writing should be in the third person.
2. Use a simple and concise vocabulary. Don’t recur to contrived or rarely used words. Be as clear as possible.
3. Beware of orthographic and grammatical errors… They decrease dramatically the professional feeling of our résumé.
4. Learn to organize your information in sections. Title such sections effectively.
5. Leave out any information unrelated to the job you’re applying to.
6. Don’t use colors. Don’t use “funny” typefaces, or unprofessional mixtures of fonts.
7. Nowadays, if a résumé is not redacted via a word processor then it is considered unprofessional and unacceptable.

Résumé Caveats

• The résumé should not be longer than two full sides of A4 paper.
• Do not write anything pejorative about other persons, businesses or your previous employer.
• Keep in mind that the résumé is a marketing document, not a bibliography, and certainly not a biography.
• If we are applying for a specific position, we must not forget to accompany the résumé by a cover letter explaining one’s suitability.
• Never comment on your economic expectations.
• Do not write about the reasons for this change of job or why you’re not working … reserve such information for the personal interview.
• Include a photo only if they ask to do so.

As always, your opinions on this topic are entirely welcome. Best of lucks with yor résumé.

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That said, I have some friends that abuse their credit cards usage. They charge a lot! They go nuts because they feel like they work pretty hard and should be able to do that sometimes. The problem is not that they cannot afford the payment or cannot pay it off. The problem is that most of their purchases are frivolous things they really don’t need. Surely, they work hard and they deserve to enjoy the fruits of their work. But they are not enjoying anything by acquiring a bunch of unneeded objects. On the contrary, they’re wasting their money. The only thing that such frantic credit card usage satisfies is the desire of material possession. Do we indeed work so hard only to crumble under such lame desire? When we are going to use our credit card we always should examine the actual reason behind the purchase. Review carefully your financial state… are you paying a house, a car, a small loan? Then try not to acquire more debt. Moreover, if we have a short or troubled credit histories we must try to do things right. Pressure of extreme debt is what leads to desperate and dangerous measures such as payday loans, for example. Really dangerous. Calm. Relax. Think. Good sense, remember? Life is beautiful.

If you cannot control your credit cards, I think it’s best that you turn them over to the issuer. Alternatively, give them to your husband/wife, if he/she is more responsible Don’t be afraid to close a card you don’t want. Though closing cards never helps to improving your credit scores (on the contrary, may hurt them), the damage will be relatively minor if the card has little time with you. Now, if you’ve held the card for many years… think it over, as closing it may seriously hurt your scores.

Credit’s origin delves into ancient history. Thanks to credit, we can be granted a loan. But credit also signals the creation of debt. Thanks to the advances of informatics and communications, we are able to use our credit cards almost anywhere, anytime. That’s nice, I think. Some people argue that credit cards are evil instruments that may easily leave you broke. I disagree about the ‘evil’ part, but certainly they’re not ‘god’ instruments They said that lenders hide several dirty tricks behind the cards (soaring rates, huge fees, poor limits, etc.) That’s why I said we have to know well the terms and conditions. Here we have a few remarks:

• In general, we have to go little by little with credit cards and scores. Credit is a mixture of trust, settlement and reputation.
• If a card does not work for you, turn it over. Try to keep older cards, though.
• Some people recommend that we should not carry credit card balances. I disagree. Pay in parts, but always amortizing the debt. Avoid late payments by agreeing to an automatic debit so at least your minimum balance gets paid every month.
• Instead of accepting a new card, ask for higher credit limits on the cards you have.
• Use your card carefully, and learn to use them. Sometimes credit cards represent an opportunity for going to the restaurant with the family, buying gifts for the loved ones, attending emergencies, harnessing a sudden business chance, and so further.
• Apply good sense. Don’t hurt your self-confidence. Enjoy your cards but take the responsibility

Finally, I like to buy some healthy pizzas and some gadgets with my credit cards. That’s what I like the most about them

Compare credit card interest rates to suit your finances.

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1 The Laptop

Albeit my experience with the Toshiba has been good, I think it’s time to go Apple. The problem with the Toshiba is that one is forcefully restricted to Windows environment; we may also install Linux but it would be too cumbersome for my needs. On the contrary, by using an Apple machine I have access to the powerful Mac OS X operating system, and besides I can compile and test some applications originally targeted at Linux, without doing separated installations. The Mac runs all the software I need. Someone may also add that the Mac is stylish, but that really is not my motivation as I prefer functionality over appearance. For example, it is evident that the relatively new Mac Air is very stylish, but it is also evident that it relinquishes an important quota of computing power. Therefore, I think I will choose the Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A, which boosts a display of 15.4″, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, and DVD SuperDrive. Just all I need. I’m aware about the direct relation between big displays and laptop weight (this MacBook weighs 5.4 pounds), but I prefer to reduce any strain on my eyes.

I also like the DVI video output, which would allow connections with the digital projectors I use in meetings and seminars. Additionally, it includes a DVI to VGA adapter to connect with legacy equipment. It also includes many facilities for video conferencing with built-in iSight camera and the required software. The only thing that worries me a bit is the battery life. According to its technical specifications, this MacBook Pro’s battery is able to provide up to 6 hours of untethered work… but with so many add-ons and functions that number is hard to believe.

Overall, I think this is the right laptop. If you have had some experience with it, please share.

2 The Camera

I mostly shoot films, but a good digital camera is nice to have. And I’ve always believed that photos integrate with blogs better than videos do. However, regarding digital cameras I don’t have much experience. Nevertheless, I prefer a photo-quality of at least 7 Megapixels (MP.) A friend of mine has recommended the Canon PowerShot SD750 which, although is somewhat pricey (200 US$), has 7.1-MP quality, 3x zoom, and works fine for both expert and novice photographers (like me.) Besides, she says that the 3″ LCD screen of the camera is very crisp. I’ve had no good experiences with Canon products in the past, but I’ll give this a chance… let’s hope I can find a good discount, though… 200 US$ for a camera… yikes!

3 The Disc Burner

I think it’s also time to replace my DVD burner for a higher storage, modern and HD unit. This time my choice is firmer. I’ll be purchasing the LG GGW-H20L Super Multi Blue, which can burn and read Blu-ray, and also read HD DVD, DVD and CD. Great. I have a lot of things in my hard drive, and it would be nice to backup them in Blu-ray discs, which can hold up to 50 Gb. Finally I can have all my seminars in one disc… one disc to rule them all

4 The Projector

Mandatory tool for meetings and conferences. I love the Viewsonic brand, and of course, I will pick up a projector by Viewsonic. As the budget is already restricted by the above items, I will focus on the ViewSonic PJ503DB DLP projector.

I’ve already used this projector, and its setup is pretty easy and is relatively lightweight. It’s HD compatible, and has a good selection of video input ports. It also boosts excellent display, colors and clarity. The only cons, however are its inability for XGA resolution, and the lack of a zoom lens… things that I really, really don’t need.

I think these 4 items are reasonable companions for the tasks I’m currently developing, and for my upcoming plans. What do you think about my choices?

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Money has to be tightly controlled. We must know where money comes from, and where it goes to. We must strive to know the way our money flows, the paths it travels, and the drains taking most of our income. By closely watching our money’s nature, we’ll learn to control it. Control is a keyword of personal finance. Control refers to checking the errors we are incurring with our money’s management, and to take the corrective action to rectify any deviation from our desired goals. Setting goals is other important requirement for saving, and it answers the question what are we saving for ?

In the following, we’ll review 12 recommendations for a better saving:

1. Register Everything: Write down a (complete and exact) list of your monthly spendings. When the month ends, examine your list, sort all the expenditures and you’ll notice those spots and activities which represent an opportunity for saving. The list will also allow you to see at a glance how consistent you truly were distributing your money. The general idea is to detect new opportunities for saving. You’ll be surprised of the great opportunities that knowing our money’s flow offers. Furthermore, the list is the first step into making a monthly and annual budget. Preparing budgets is also an art, and we have to start to hone our planning skills as soon as possible.
2. Review your Invoices: Please, review all of your services’ invoices. A few decisions or changes may yield miracles. For example, turn off lights when they’re not in use; leaving your lights on when no one is in the room is a huge waste of energy and money. These are simple measures that every member of the family can contribute to. Remember, a penny saved is a penny earned.
3. Tune up your Services: Besides reviewing our invoices, we could benefit from analysis and more drastic actions. Do you really need the long-distance calls service? Do you really watch all the channels included in the platinum subscription of your cable service? Check if your communications provider offers more economic plans, adjusted to your real needs. We should also apply a similar approach to banks’ services: let’s look for financings with lower interests and compare different banks to open a savings account. Additionally, try to save in water and gasoline.
4. Amortize your Credit Card Debt: Decide on the right amount of money you might assign to amortize your credit card balance. Try to lower a bit your nonessential expenses in order to pay more than the defined minimum proportion of the bill. Remember, amortizing your credit card balance may be a wise investment. Other step you may take is that if you have several credit cards, cancel the ones you are actually not needing: this will save you from the fee and other commissions of the credit card, and additionally prevents wrong uses of your credit capacity.
5. Create a Plan of Pensions for the Future: Research if the company where you work offers a contribution retirement plan (e.g., 401(k)). Under such plan, your employer will start “deferring” a portion of your wage. Typically, you also are able to select from a number of investment options (stocks, bonds, etc.) A nice side of this type of retirement plan is that the company does all the bureaucratic steps for you. Needless to say, a retirement plan is a form of saving.
6. Review your Insurance Contracts: Are you paying the right cost for insurance? An insurance coverage is very important for our mental relax. But compare the types of insurance policies, including life, home, disability, health and even those covering small business, and select what you indeed require. And specially, reject insurance policies that are too pricey or that contain too many exclusion clauses.
7. Write a List of the Things You Have to Buy: Next time you go shopping, prepare a list of the things you have to buy. Else, you may yield to compulsive purchases, and acquire things you perhaps don’t need in that moment, such as movies, cellphones, clothes, etc. If you have to purchase a dear item, please research your options thoroughly, compare prices, and choose the offer providing the best relation price/quality.
8. Prefer Automatic Payments: Some financial institutions can arrange for automatic payments to be deducted from the user’s bank accounts, thus avoiding late payment altogether as long as the cardholder has sufficient funds. Take into account that when we have to go out to do payments, we are subject to the business pressures to purchase things we don’t need. And transport also represents an expense, of both money and time. Furthermore, automatic charges prevent us from paying extra commissions for late payment. All your services could also be automatically charged, and by the end of the month, you’ll have saved a lot of money, and avoided plenty of worries. Be careful, though, not to forget to keep the source account with a proper level of funds.
9. Recognize the Impact of Inflation: Inflation results in a rise in the general level of prices over time. Watch out for inflation as it can erode the real value of your savings. Inflation is a hidden risk pressure for those with savings to invest them, rather than have the purchasing power of those savings erode through inflation.
10. Setting goals: For example, a possible long-term goal is “retire at age 60 with a personal net worth of 300,000 US dollars”, and a mid-term one is “buy a house in 5 years paying a monthly mortgage servicing cost that is no more than 23% of my gross income.” Besides retirement and a house, other goals could be related to paying off credit card (as told above), college and university costs, medical expenses, etc. Such financial goals help to direct financial planning.
11. Planning and Executing: After setting the goals, the next step is to define the financial plan, which should describe how to accomplish our goals. Regarding this how-to, we could follow the guidelines stated in the previous points. Now, execution of the personal financial plan often requires discipline and perseverance. Don’t hesitate to look for professional help (accountants, investment advisers, lawyers, etc.) if you have some doubts.
12. Monitoring and Assessment: As time passes, the personal financial plan must be monitored for possible adjustments or reassessments. Try to improve all the suggestions I’ve given above.

Remember that saving is an art, and as such, it requires to be a genius or a lot of practice. The ultimate goal is to combine skill, craft, and wise judgment, in order to distribute our money in the best possible way.

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• Goals (4)

Furthermore, I prefer the democratic (also referred to as participative) leadership style: in this case, the leader offers guidance to the group, but also participates in the group, and promotes feedback from other members. Note that this style is not inconsistent with the view of everyone in a group acting as a leader! The democratic style is also suitable for the modern dynamic environments because it allows dealing with fast-changing circumstances. Other styles, such as authoritarian or delegative leaderships, are very harmful and obsolete.

Concretely, these are the 7 attributes I expect my employees to have:

1. Solidarity: A leader breathes through her group. A true leader knows how to work in groups, and should try to understand the problems of other workers. In sound groups, solidarity among members is a symmetrical relation. Solidarity is the first step a leader should take in order to gain the respect and attention of her teammates. Leaders exhibit strong confidence in the ability of the other members of the group to meet the work’s expectations.

2. Modesty: A leader exerts leadership almost unconsciously, without giving importance to the whole leading concept. Leaders don’t show as leaders… they act as leaders. Leaders keep the participative environment of the group, and always do their work with the idea of participating in a collective project. Group and collective are keywords for leaders. The idea of isolated leaders is an obnoxious fallacy. Any person appointed to a managerial position acquires the power to command and enforce obedience by virtue of the authority of her position. Nevertheless, leaders don’t enforce obedience… they gain it. Modesty keeps the leader from exerting the fake leadership coming from authority of position. The true leadership is NOT associated with positions of authority (but obviously the converse has to be true if the organization is to succeed.)

3. Self-confidence: Leaders know themselves, and exhibit a complete domain over their behavior. Moreover, leaders know which tasks are at their reach, and don’t set unrealistic goals. This way, leaders know what their virtues and limits are, and they don’t hide them. Self-confidence gives the force to be persistent to attain the task and vision. Remember that more often than not, leadership implies defying the established order, the status quo. Therefore, self-confidence is vital to success.

4. Initiative: Leaders are proactive, not reactive. I had a manager that only waited and acted upon receiving orders from his superiors, strictly following the (frequently wrong) boss’ guidelines. Not only this behavior is inefficient for the business, but it harms the role-modeling aspect of leaders. Workers and teammates tend to identify with the values of their superiors, and no company wants this kind of passive attitude to be learned by its workers.

5. Creativity: A true leader is always looking for ways to develop her creativity to its maximum. Here, the vision of the leader is very important. Outstanding leaders articulate:

• a working framework congruent with the values of the other members of the group,
• efficient and effective ways to completing the assigned task,
• and ways to match the sub-activities with the members’ interests and experience.

6. Passion: The leader never stops learning, and displays a high level of consciousness. Leaders’ actions signal the way for their teammates. Leaders take responsibility for each of their choices and decisions without blaming others or looking for lame excuses. Leaders exhibit a passion for their work, and are faithful to their visions and beliefs. They engage in excellent behavior and make outstanding self-sacrifices in the interest of their group, if necessary.

Summarizing these 6 attributes, we will recur to the masterpiece by Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader, which clearly distinguishes between managers (a typical position of authority, but not necessarily occupied by a leader) and real leaders:

• Managers administer, leaders innovate
• Managers ask how and when, leaders ask what and why
• Managers focus on systems, leaders focus on people
• Managers do things right, leaders do the right things
• Managers maintain, leaders develop
• Managers rely on control, leaders inspire trust
• Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have a longer-term perspective
• Managers accept the status-quo, leaders challenge the status-quo
• Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leaders have an eye on the horizon
• Managers imitate, leaders originate
• Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own person
• Managers copy, leaders show originality

7. Symbolism: For me, this is the most important trait, which projects and summarizes all the other attributes. The leader is a symbol. This is the agglomerative attribute of leaders. Albeit leaders are oriented to their work (and not to their self-exaltation), they are a symbol of the group, which may easily mean that they are a symbol of your company. This way, leaders constitute an external (and internal!) representation of your business. And, as I want the best representation, and the best results for my company, I like to accept and work with leaders. True leaders.

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1. The Right Choice: If you are the leader, select the best people for the work. Not necessarily your friends or the nice people, but the best people for undertake all the work at hand. If you yield to the temptation of choosing members solely according to your personal preferences, you are lacking in abilities to be a leader. Try to follow this advice, and you will avoid a lot of headaches later. However, even if you are not the leader of the group, you will probably have some area of the project under your responsibility: therefore, you are also a leader, and you should behave as such.
2. Balance: As a leader, you must behest and grant. That’s the base for responsibility. Then, you should balance the ask/answer messages between members of the group under your care. Besides, you should control the interaction between your group and other groups. As a rule of thumb, do not hesitate to ask firmly for the right things, but remember you must also give your best effort.
3. Positive Competence: Individually, aim to preserve the positive competence of the group. The group must strive for achieving the best results. Nevertheless, if failure rises, do not blame others for your faults, nor destructively criticize the work of your teammates. Your work’s quality may be better than other people’s, but you do not have to brag: believe me, that’s hideous. We are humans, with faults and debilities: respecting your mates is the best way to ask for respect for yourself. In short, the key for positive competence is a mixture of humility, communication and passion for the work.
4. Communication: In respect to communication with your peers or bosses, be honest but not too honest. As a leader, you do not have all the answers, but you know how to find the answers, and how to help others find the answers. Remember, today’s leaders are wise listeners. Additionally, I have a very good tip for you: learn to remember names. Communicating with people remembering their names increases your aura of “I care for everybody in my group”. That’s very important. And finally, if conflict presents, concentrate in your respiration: this way, you will stay calm.
5. Enjoy accomplishments, learn from mistakes: When the group succeeds, recognize that and enjoy your triumphs. That’s a thing too many people forget. Come on, celebrate your milestones. But if the group somehow fails, identify the causes of such failure, and act quickly to cut the root of the problem.
6. Utmost care for detail: Most of projects’ troubles stem from little details. Often, such tiny matters lie underneath an apparently bigger problem. Learn to spot such knots, solve them, and you’ll see the group’s work to advance steadily forward.
7. The process is even more important than its results: As I commented previously, we must never forget that, in life, milestones or stages are not as important as the paths and transits between such stages. Live the path, accept results.
8. Avoid excess of meetings: Meetings are fine for agreeing to very specific points and for reviewing the group’s progress. Obviously, the first activity of the group will be a meeting in which goals are to be set. But restrict further meetings to reviewing and little corrections. If the group is having too much meetings, it means the goals are badly defined and you are wasting your time.
9. Toward the end of the project, everything tends to become rush and problems get harder: Accept it and cope with it. It’s a fact of life. This is were major milestones occur, and stress surges. Specially, remember and apply advices 4-6.
10. After the work is done, review what went fine and what could have been better: Arrive to your conclusions. Detect if you have some skills to master or hone. And continue to the next challenge. The cornerstone of mental health is the ability to “switch the trigger” and opening your thoughts to the new experiences. Past projects,with their good and bad aspects, are that: past.

Finally, help others and ask for help when you feel tired or overwhelmed. Remember that in groups, you’re never alone.

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