New Links!

Just added new links to the sidebar that I just discovered. There is a new Typing Test link that is simple and requires no login. You can practice random phrases everyday to increase your speed. Free books and documents are available at Scribd. Search to find free books and documents to read online. Books that say BUY or have a price are not free. An interesting online desktop, mapping, and collaboration program you might want to try is Thinkature.

Enjoy the links! Let me know if any links are not working. Send questions and comments to

success@lifeworkplan.com.

With Love and Happiness,
Nancy

Free Credit Report

You can access your Free Credit Report from Annualcreditreport.com. Find more information about your free credit report from the Federal Trade Commission. This is the only website that offers a free credit report. Watch for fraudulent or costly websites that offer free reports and give you very little information or charge you for the information you really need. Check your credit report yearly for inaccuracy or fraud. Know what your employer will see if they request a credit report. If you disagree with anything on your credit report, contact the reporting company. Get a free yearly credit report from all three agencies.

Free Stuff

Is anything really free? The question you want to ask yourself is, "Who's paying for this?" Most free stuff is paid for by:

1. Advertisers
2. The government (tax payers)
3. Nonprofits (donations/corporations/government)

Advertisers
When free stuff is paid for by advertisers, whether it is a job site, website, social networking site, email address, or marketing promotions, the advertiser is either actively or passively trying to get you to buy something.

• Marketing promotions can be efforts to get you to by things you don't need. But the best promotions are free samples to let you try the product.
• Job sites such as Career Builder are fine for job search, but may sell your information to the highest bidder if you put your resume online. Know who you are giving your information to, and don't give out personal information about yourself or your references.
• Social networking, emails, blogs, and websites are often a combination of active and passive advertising. Watch for active marketing such as linking your site or email to promotions, other links, and networks. You can usually opt out of the active advertising if you watch for it. Passive advertising just shows advertisements on a site to pay for you to use it.
  
• Get a free dinner, computer, vacation, etc. These sites can take you through a long list of questions and then require that you buy something to get your free stuff.
• Work-at-home schemes often require you to pay money to sell a product. This is another scheme to sell their product when you think you are getting a job.

Government

• Government programs provide a service paid partially or completely by tax payers.
• These programs are for the purpose of helping the greater community one person at a time.
• Assistance should be used when needed to provide basic services, employment information, opportunities, and training.
  
• You will be paying for these services when you get a job.

Nonprofits

• Provide services to benefit the individual and the community
• Nonprofits provide an opportunity to receive services when needed and then give back by donating or volunteering.
  

Hours and Services

When visiting drop-in centers for services or any business you are not familiar with, it is a good idea to call ahead. Not all hours and services are correctly identified on community services lists or advertisements. In the current economic climate businesses and nonprofits frequently change their services. It's a good time to save, use our dollars wisely and share with others in need. Check the Community Resources links to find places to give, volunteer, and receive services when needed.

Addiction Hurts Everyone

They'll Eat You Alive

Pop inhale or drive a needle in your veins. Drink eat ingest. Limbs whittled away and a heart invaded. No room for friends, family, or feelings. This stump of a man who was once my brother, eaten and regurgitated a sprawling mass of a man. Slumped up and wheeled around, he was once a flirt and ladies man. Girls winked and drooled over a handsome young man with a baritone voice. Passing communion and eyeing the blonde on the third row. Who could resist his charms?

Kicking and fighting, handing out pills. Fat boy looking through striking brown eyes. Where did it come from? This abusive father abandoning his daughter for drugs. His stern respected father who took the command literally lest he spare the rod and spoil the child. The rod child yelled and screamed and soothed himself with libation.

Kind father with the big stick now gone. The young man grown old. Whittled away before he knew how to live and love. What to do with these pieces of my life. Memories in the shadows of late night drinks and cocaine. Left with only a sting and a brother eaten alive by drugs.

Anonymous

Stay Centered

Prayer and Meditation Keeps You Centered

There's a reason why every spiritual tradition in history urges prayer and meditation -- it's an antidote to the confusions of life. Protect your personal boundaries and respect those of others. Pay attention to where you stop and others begin. Stay centered.

by Tom Hoobyar Planning Director, NLP Comprehensive

Attitude Assessment

Currently many employers place more value on a positive attitude than experience and education. Education and experience are highly valued and necessary for many occupations, but valuing yourself, knowing your strengths and understanding how you express happiness and overcome sad moods are also necessary. Take a moment to take the depression survey CES-D Questionnaire. While depression is a serious medical condition that needs to be treated immediately by a medical doctor, it is possible to have a negative attitude or appear depressed on a survey due to circumstances or personality traits. These surveys will give you an idea of what an employer might be looking for. This is an assessment of how positive you are feeling today. You can change your state of happiness or temporary sad mood through learning gratitude, positive thinking and resiliency. Talk with a doctor, crisis line counselor or career coach if you feel sad or less happy after taking this assessment.

Employers today are testing your positive attitude through online or written assessments and watching your body language. Learning your strengths and how to express them will help you show a positive attitude and give you words to describe yourself on your resume and in interviews. Try not to think too long about your answers. Trust your first response. Each assessment takes approximately 10-20 minutes. You will need an email address to take the assessments. You can access assessments at: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/.

Fordyce Emotions Questionnaire - measures current happiness

Brief Strengths Test - measure 24 character strengths

Have fun and share your results. These assessments are meant to give you words to describe yourself and and idea of how you might come across to an employer on an assessment. This is not telling you who you are or diagnosing an emotional or medical condition.

Make $500

Don't Fall for Online Scams Dressed Up as Job Postings
March 27, 2007
Amy Baldwin -- The Charlotte Observer

Looking for a job? If you're searching online, you should beware of scam offers aimed at stealing your money or personal information, according to a nationwide warning issued recently by the Better Business Bureau.

Online employment scams come dressed up as real job postings on well-known sites, such as Monster and Yahoo! Hot jobs, according to the BBB.

Often, the jobs involve part-time or work-from-home posts, but the professions are wide-ranging - from information technology and accounting to quality control.

"It's popping up all over the country," said Tom Bartholomy, president of the Charlotte, N.C.-area Better Business Bureau. "They are utilizing the technology that is available now. Five years ago, you would see the signs on telephone poles. 'Work from home.

Make $500.' " Bartholomy related two recent complaints involving online job scams. In one, a woman was hired for a job as a secret shopper, someone who evaluates a company's product or customer service so the company knows how it needs to improve. She was asked to deposit a $2,700 check into her account and then wire money to someone in Canada. She called the BBB instead and found out that the "employer" was trying to bilk her out of her own money.

Another woman was hired to ship electronics to Eastern Europe. She didn't know the items had been stolen until federal agents showed up at her door, Bartholomy said. Bartholomy said the bureau gets thousands of calls each year about job fraud and that calls are increasing because the Internet makes it easier to fool consumers.

The fact that the scams appear on popular job sites "give them an air of legitimacy," he said. Bartholomy didn't have an exact number of complaints. Sometimes consumers contact the bureau before they become victims and so they don't actually file a complaint.

According to the BBB, job seekers should refuse employment that involves:

-Your personal bank account. Never agree to deposit checks or money orders or to have money wired into your bank account.

-Don't forward money from your account to another account, even if you are promised reimbursement. The checks or money orders likely will be counterfeit and the wire transfers will eventually be rescinded, leaving you out that amount of cash.

-Money out of your pocket. You shouldn't have to pay a fee to learn the details of a job or for so-called background or identity screenings.

-Reshipping products. Victims spend their own money to reship products and are "reimbursed" with bogus checks or money orders.

-Cross-border action. Offers from entities outside the United States and Canada are typically suspect. It is difficult for bureaus in the U.S. and Canada to investigate companies in other countries.

To further guard against identity theft, the BBB recommends job seekers omit personal information, such as Social Security numbers and even college graduation dates, from resumes posted online.

Job hunters should also consider providing an e-mail address as their primary contact instead of a home address or phone number.

Job seekers can check out prospective employers, placement firms and recruiters with the BBB. Go to www.bbb.org.

- Amy Baldwin covers money-related topics for 20- and 30-somethings in "Out of the Red." Have a question about your personal finances? Contact her at (704) 358-5179 or abaldwin@charlotteobserver.com. Leave your name and daytime phone number.

Source: (c) 2007, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.). Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.
Copyright © 2007 HireDiversity.com