Development Officer - Aberdeen Arts Centre

Closing date for applications Monday 8th November.

This vibrant arts facility in central Aberdeen is offering an exciting opportunity for a self starting and focused individual to contribute to the overall development of the Centre.

The successful candidate will have a proven track record in fundraising, marketing and communications.  This post is guaranteed for one year with the intention of two further years subject to funding.

Salary, flexible working and hours to be negotiated.

Informal enquiries to – Paula Gibson, 01224 635208

Application in writing plus CV to be sent to -

Paula Gibson

Venue Manager

Aberdeen Arts Centre

33 King Street

Aberdeen

AB24 5AA

website: www.aberdeenartscentre.org.uk

Interviews will be held in late November.

Can a Fool's Words Have Merit? A Study in Job

I’ve always struggled with Job.

While I consider God’s admonition in the last chapters of the book my second-favorite Scripture passage, I am never quite sure what to do with the rest of the lengthy chapters.

If you’re not familiar with the biblical Book of Job, the short version is that Satan asks God for permission to afflict Job with many painful situations after God cites that Job is His most faithful servant on earth. So God allows it. Job’s children are all killed, all his riches taken away, and his body inflicted with boils from head to toe. Wearily, he sits on his doorstep and scrapes at his boils with broken pottery.

That’s when his three buddies come to visit. Over the course of many chapters, they try to convince him of all kinds of crazyness. Then in the end God swoops in, reprimands Job and his dumb friends, and then restores everything to Job. Of the friends, God says, “I am angry with you … you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has” (42:7).

So here’s what I’ve always battled with: is there any merit in the words of Job’s friends throughout the Book of Job? Can we quote those passages out of context as Truth?

It seems to me that they do say some insightful things:

“See how happy the man is God corrects; so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty” (5:17).

“We were born only yesterday and know nothing. Our days on earth are but a shadow” (8:9).

“It is impossible for God to do wrong and for the Almighty to act unjustly” (34:10).

Working in the world of Bible studies, I know we HAVE done exactly this, taken the friends’ words for the wisdom they seem to be. But God Himself said the friends were fools? It’s a strange dichotomy.

I believe that everything in Scripture is there for a reason. Certainly there are many truths that can be scraped from the falsehoods in this text. It’s a life lesson not to let even your most trusted friends draw you away from what you know to be true. A perfect example of standing up for what you believe in and remaining pure in heart.

But still, I wonder. Can we quote the words of fools as good, as Truth?

What do you think?

Staying Positive "Unemployment 1yr 3 mos"

I was talking to a friend the other day when he said something to me had to address. He asked me “why arent you completely depressed by now when youve have been out of work so long?” He then ended his question with “how do you stay so positive?”  I was happy to answer him.

First off, I told him, was that you can make two choices in life when confronted with adversity. One is to curl up in a ball and hope it all goes away, to give up on the world and feel sorry for yourself. That little “pity party” might help you in the short run, but it doesnt solve the problem. The second option is to keep moving forward despite the setbacks, despite the naysayers. To keep throwing whatever you can up against the wall until something sticks. I told him that I choose the latter.

The next thing I said, that I do stay positive is to stay active, to feel like you matter. Sitting at home allows you to think about your situation too much, you succumb to cabin fever and start to move toward inertia. I choose to be out in the world. Sure, Im not employed, but that doesnt mean I dont matter. It doesnt mean I dont have value. I chose to stay in aviation by volunteering in the Civil Air Patrol, to help others find work by assisting with the “Pink Slip Parties” that bring job seekers and recruiters together. I continue to get out and network like crazy, to reach out and talk to people because it’s always been my philosophy that you never know where your next job is coming from. When I am not volunteering I am out with my wife, enjoying the day or a free sporting event, or even just a walk.  Just that little bit of activity can completely change your outlook.

I told my friend that I chose to look on the optimistic side of things. When confronted with a challenge, a setback, I just work twice as hard. Zig Ziglar, a motivational speaker and legendary salesperson, often says that those who are most successful are the most persaverent. Many people can directly tie their success to the fact that they NEVER gave up. Think about it, if you really want to be a pilot did you let anything stop you? If you are flying now the answer is no. Its that perseverance that got you were you are. I look at it the same way with my job search, if you just keep pushing forward, eventually something has got to give and that “something” is employment. I treat each morning as a new opportunity and a fresh start. Thats where my “Todays  the Day” mantra cames from.

Lastly, I told him that I believe strongly that reflecting a positive attitude is more likely to get you hired. If you go around disgruntled and disheartened what kind of image are you giving to others? Are you the kind of person people would want around them? This is also true for networking, I find that others feed off positive energy and are repelled by negative attitudes. Much of the networking assistance I have gotten so far has been a result of this attitude. Yes, times are tough, but you keep the faith that “this too shall pass” 

I know its hard for many to be positive when the bills are mounting up, when the leads end in dead ends, but you have to keep going no matter what. Thats what I told my friend and I think he found solace in it.

At the end of the conversation, I just smiled and repeated to him what I say every morning  “Todays the Day” because one day it WILL BE.

Last day of fencing before the tournament!

So I got to work again today. It was really slow at the beginning, no one got there until just before seven. I did have to download and print some attachments for Jerry, and one of them was not cooperating. It was a .docx document, and it was opening in code. I think Donna and Jerry eventually figured it out, but I didn’t feel very happy about that happening anyway.

Jerry gave my epee lesson tonight, there were no other coaches. He combined my class with the lower level class and one of his private students, Jacob. We did footwork drills to music. We were supposed to find the beat of the song and then do footwork combinations to it. Some of the songs were really difficult to do that to. Jerry did say later, after I was finished with all of my bouts, that I did well though, so that’s good. I didn’t think I was doing that well. Jacob, on the other hand, was absolutely brilliant.

After that, I had a short break, indulged in some raspberry tea, before I started bouting. I started with Dave. It wasn’t a real bout though, which kind of made me sad, but a teaching one again. It was useful though. Then I went up against Wally and lost 5-1. After Wally, I fenced Warren twice, won both, the first 15-9 and the second 15-11. Then I fenced Wally again, still lost, but 5-4 this time, so I was finally warmed up. After that, I only fenced Matt. I eventually lost track, but I think I fenced him 9 times, and lost all of them, but about half of them were really good bouts, and one was absolutely spectacular. I started off slow, losing by more that I’m comfortable with, but then things started to pick up and I was back to my normal against him, i.e. 15-6 or 15-7. I actually did better than that once and went 15-9. Then we had a water break. When we went back to fencing again, I did extremely poorly. I actually lost 15-0! It was terrible. Then I went 15-2. After that bout was my extraordinary, absolutely amazing one. I still lost, but it was only by two points! I actually scored 13 points on Matt, the most I’ve ever done! It was just amazing. We were tied for most of the bout, but  I was actually beating him most of the time until we got to 13-13, then Matt scored twice in a row and won, but it didn’t really matter because I was just feeling great about myself anyway. It completely made up for losing 15-0.

We had another break. Jerry asked if we were finished, and I said one more (because Matt was like “That’s up to her,”), but one more turned into three more… I lost all of them fairly badly (15-1), (15-2), and (15-4), but I think I was also getting pretty tired, even though it didn’t feel like I was. By the last one though, I knew. Plus it was past 10.

In the way of bruises, I acquired a few new ones on my legs. Thankfully, my already painfully bruised arm was avoided and no one beat up on me again. I have the tournament on Saturday, I do not want my arm to be out of commission. I’d be very upset.

Vous n'avez pas peur aux yeux...alors essayez le "recrutement B2B"!

En business to business, difficile d’entrer en contact avec un décisionnaire auquel vous n’avez pas accès directement ? Il choisit, et évalue les idées ou les propositions mais s’appuie sur le travail réalisé en amont avec ses équipes, sans que vous puissiez argumenter directement auprès de lui. Et ce filtre peut vous empêcher de présenter votre projet comme vous le voulez…

Et puis un jour par hasard, vous croisez ce décideur dans l’ascenseur, au restaurant, lors d’un cocktail… La rencontre est furtive. Pour bien saisir l’opportunité, vous ne disposez que de quelques secondes pour éveiller son intérêt. Que lui dire ? Comment ne pas rater cette opportunité et savoir rebondir ? A ce moment précis la technique de l’accroche de l’ascenseur peut vous permettre de faire mouche.

Elle se déroule en trois étapes : Accroche, présentation flash et demande de rendez-vous. Elle repose sur une bonne préparation et un entrainement, car tout se joue en 10 secondes. Comme un spot publicitaire, si vous voulez faire mouche, il faut aller droit au but.

Comment font les publicitaires ? Ils nous vantent les bienfaits que leurs produits vont nous apporter. Il faut faire comme eux. Parlez des bénéfices que votre idée, produit ou projet peut apporter au décideur (lui ou l’entreprise).

Mettez vous à sa place. Il ne connaît pas le détail de votre proposition, il ne sait pas qui vous êtes, et à ce moment précis il n’est pas concentré sur votre projet, il pense même sans doute à tout autre chose. Par ailleurs, il a l’habitude d’être importuné par de nombreux interlocuteurs et sait très bien les éconduire poliment, en renvoyant à ses services.

Votre première phrase est déterminante. C’est l’accroche. Elle consiste à présenter en quelques mots votre idée ou vos projets formulés en bénéfices pour le décideur. Parler en bénéfices est très important, avec ses mots habituels. Il doit vous comprendre tout de suite. Visualisez ou quantifiez vos arguments pour qu’ils soient le plus explicites possible. Montrez lui que vous connaissez son entreprise ou sa problématique.

Attention, ne faites pas de fausses promesses, elles seraient vite démasquées. Ne parlez des bénéfices que vous pouvez démontrer.

« Mon entreprise peut vous faire gagner 10.000 euros » ; « Je viens vous proposer d’augmenter de 15% la fidélité de vos clients » ; « Je représente un produit qui vous permettra d’élargir vos gammes vers… » ; « Je peux améliorer la performance de votre équipe de… ».

Votre accroche est immédiatement suivie d’une présentation Flash. Si vous avez éveillé l’intérêt de ce décideur, il doit savoir qui est en face de lui. Dites-en peu sur vous, vous avez peu de temps. Donnez votre nom, le nom de votre produit ou de votre entreprise, et dites-lui avec qui vous travaillez chez lui. Il peut ainsi comprendre de quel projet vous parlez.

Indiquer nominativement quels sont vos interlocuteurs habituels est très important. Un décideur ne contourne pas ses collaborateurs sans connaître un dossier.

« Je suis Jean Dupont, de l’entreprise Durand. Je travaille avec le service de François Dubois ».

Laissez ensuite un court instant de silence, afin de permettre à votre interlocuteur reprendre la parole. Dans ce moment, le silence est une forme de question. Gardez les yeux posés sur lui, avec sérénité. Il peut ainsi réagir à votre accroche et votre présentation.

Il ne répond pas, ou refuse d’aller plus loin. Vous aurez créé un contact furtif qui peut-être sera utile plus tard si vous le recroisez. N’insistez surtout pas, et respectez son choix de clore la discussion. Réfléchissez néanmoins à la qualité de votre accroche qui n’aura peut être pas été assez percutante.

S’il marque un doute sur votre accroche, proposez-lui de l’en convaincre par une démonstration étayée. « Vous en doutez, voulez-vous que je vous le démontre ? ». Sa réponse précisera sa position. Ne forcez surtout pas son choix.

Il vous demande d’en dire plus, proposez lui un rendez-vous en présence de votre interlocuteur habituel dans l’entreprise. De toutes les façons, il n’aura pas le temps d’en écouter beaucoup plus tout de suite, et il pourrait être gêné d’intervenir directement dans les dossiers de ses collaborateurs. Sur le champ, vous risquez de développer un argumentaire non adapté au moment.

Enfin prenez congé, avec une poignée de main franche, les yeux dans les yeux, en lui disant « à bientôt ».

Même si vous ne savez pas quand vous en aurez besoin, une accroche de l’ascenseur ne s’improvise pas, vous n’aurez pas le temps lorsque vous croiserez ce décideur. Entraînez-vous à vous présenter en quelques mots, formulez vos propositions en bénéfices clients. Soyez prêt, le décideur que vous voulez croiser prend peut –être l’ascenseur aujourd’hui. Vous disposerez de 10 secondes…

http://www.lexpansion.com/carriere/pour-seduire-un-decideur-pratiquez-l-accroche-de-l-ascenseur_199842.html?XTOR=EPR-178

My Progress

While I was out and about this weekend, a couple of people asked me how everything is going with my writing. Since I haven’t given an update in a while and the main point of this blog was to document my transition into the freelance writing world. So for those of you who are wondering here we go:

Clients
I have done pretty good getting new clients. I am still applying for 5-10 writing projects a day, although I have to admit that it gets a little old sometimes. I have managed to get quite a few projects this way and a couple of times lately, I have had so much work, that I haven’t had time to apply for jobs every day. Just last week I signed a contract with a new client that will keep me pretty busy through December which is exciting!

Financials
My money situation is better than I thought it would be at this point. That being said, I am only making about half of what I was making in my full-time job. One of the reasons for this is that I’ve taken some lower paying jobs, just to have something to fill my time and bring in some form of income. Now that I am having a lot more work come my way, I am trying to narrow some of the lower paying jobs down and only take higher paying gigs so I can hopefully bring my income level up.

Published Work
A while back I said that I was going to start sending queries to more magazines. That is still hit or miss for me. I feel like querying magazines takes a long time. It’s something that is worth it, but it’s certainly not paying my bills right now. However, I’m happy to announce I do have an article that will be published in November in a local publication. To see my name in actual print again will be awesome and I can’t wait!

Overall, I am finding my weeks more and more full –I even have some projects lined up for the future which is great! I am definitely becoming more comfortable telling people what I do, giving my rates to clients and in general with running my own business. I even have business cards now! Most days I really feel like I am on my way to success and that right there is an accomplishment.

Why Do You Have a Job? Five False Beliefs That Lead People Into Jobs They Hate

If you acquisition yourself ashore in a job that you don’t adore or in a aggregation that isn’t fun to plan for, the aboriginal footfall to authoritative a change is allurement yourself, “How did I get here?” Your accepting actuality at this time in your activity is not a accidental event. You accept fabricated choices and decisions forth the way to get here. Your alone adventure has led you to this exact point.
And you are not broken. You don’t charge to be fixed. No one is to blame. You accept fabricated choices based aloft behavior that you accept held. And behavior are annihilation added than anticipation habits. They are account that you accept anticipation over and over afresh until they became a belief. Like an old record, you may be ashore in a canal or a acceptance that no best works for you.
So, afore you adjudge to leave your job or aggregation or accomplish any change, it is a admired exercise to abeyance for a moment and appraise your beliefs. If you don’t yield the time to do this, you will accomplish choices based aloft old behavior and end up in the aforementioned place.
In alive with my apprenticeship clients, I acquisition that there are 5 key behavior that advance humans into a job that does not accompany them joy. I will outline them here.
Belief #1: Money: Accepting a accumulated job is the best way to accomplish money. We are all conditioned to accept that accepting a job is the best way to accomplish money by our parents, teachers, and abounding well-meaning adults. There is a systemic acceptance in our association that a job is the best aisle to wealth. It is artlessly not true. You will never accomplish cogent abundance (of the retire early, be absolutely financially free, abridgement of money doesn’t adviser my decisions blazon of wealth) by traveling to a 9 to 5 job.
I generally apprehend acceptance in boilerplate magazines of humans who retire aboriginal by accepting two assets earners in the family, active acutely frugally, and extenuative about all of their balance for retirement. Not a absolutely fun way to reside in my estimation!
I would rather acquire lots of money accomplishing what I adulation on my own time agenda and not cat-and-mouse until I retire to accept fun. Can I do this in a approved job? I couldn’t. I was authoritative a six-figure assets alive batty hours and traveling constantly. I fabricated beneath money aboriginal in my career accomplishing the 8:30 to 5:30 bullwork but I wasn’t accepting any fun and I spent every dollar that I earned.
Why can’t you acceptable accomplish money in a job? First, alone the top bulk of workers accomplish over $100,000. The arrangement is set up this way – as a pyramid. The accumulated pyramid has lots of low-paid artisan bees and alone a few high-paid executives. Second, you are burdened heavily on becoming income. The tax arrangement is advised to account corporations. Third, you don’t get any balance assets – already you stop working, the dollars stop coming. You aren’t architecture up any acquiescent assets streams. You may architecture a artefact or software for your aggregation – but the aggregation gets the acquiescent or balance assets from your efforts.
Equity = wealth. All disinterestedness goes to the shareholders. It is abundant to plan in a aggregation that offers its advisers an buying pale – in actuality I wouldn’t accede alive for one that doesn’t. The alone downside is that you don’t accept ascendancy of a lot of of the decisions accepting made. I apperceive abounding humans who accept been downsized out of tech companies because the administration aggregation fabricated bad decisions.
Belief #2: Responsibility: I should get a accumulated job – it is what a amenable developed does. Already again, this is a acceptance that is drummed into you early. It goes something like this – abstraction harder in school, get acceptable grades, get into a acceptable college, maybe get a alum degree, get a celebrated job and the money and success will breeze to you. This is the aisle that amenable humans choose.
I accept this path. Did able-bodied in school, B.A. from University of Virginia, MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. Money and success did breeze to me. But I was overworked, bromidic and accepting austere out and depressed. Is accepting at plan all the time, accepting austere out, and depressed what a amenable developed does? I don’t anticipate so! Yes, I accept a albatross to accommodate for my ancestors – but if there is a way that I can do this after sacrificing my angelic ancestors time and accord of apperception – don’t I accept a albatross to chase that path?
Belief #3: Importance: If I get a high-paying job and an absorbing title, I will be important. Interview 100 acknowledged humans and acquisition if money and appellation absolutely fabricated them feel important inside. You ability acquisition 1 or 2 who will say yes, but this is a apocryphal belief. We are important because we are here.
We all accept the aforementioned bulk of antecedent activity central of us. Call it “God”, or “energy” or “goodness” – whatever resonates with you. I accept that as concrete beings, we are on the arch bend of alertness and our job is to create. We actualize by accepting in blow with our antecedent and allotment accomplishments in alignment with our joy. The alone affair that you will yield with you if you cantankerous over into the airy apple is your amplification of consciousness. You will not yield any concrete ascendancy or appellation or award. You will alone yield your body and the acumen it has acquired during this concrete manifestation.
Belief #5: Security: I will be defended if I accept a good-paying job. If you apperceive anyone that has been fired, laid-off, or downsized you apperceive that this is not true. Yet, so abounding of us wish to play it safe. We let our fears adviser our decisions rather than demography risks and afterward our bliss. If you accept a job, you are at the benevolence of your employer. You may be abandoned with your absolute administration or accursed because a aloft doesn’t like you. It will be accidental and out of your control. Accurate aegis comes from accepting your own boss.
Belief #4: Enjoyment: I will adore alive in the accumulated world. I chose a in activity consulting because I was apathetic with all of my added s – both in the accessible and clandestine sectors. I anticipation – now this is something that will claiming me. To get a in consulting I bare to get an MBA – so I did. But I did not adore activity consulting. It was intellectually arduous but I didn’t adore the accumulated environment. It seemed too bogus – not real. I couldn’t be my accurate cocky – I could alone acknowledge the smart, analytic and adult part. I wasn’t accepting fun putting on my accumulated bold face and arena the game. It is accessible to adore a accumulated if the plan and ambiance are in alignment with your accurate calling. Unfortunately, it is rare.
Take a moment to reflect aloft the aloft beliefs. How did you accept a accumulated ? Were you afterward a acceptance or several beliefs? Or were you afterward your affection and intuition? Do you still accept this acceptance or accept your behavior afflicted but your affairs not changed?
Before you yield action, plan on replacing your old behavior with new, absolute ones that serve you better. Meditation, journaling, and absolute affirmations are acceptable means to ascendancy your acceptance system.
Find out how to breach chargeless from the accumulated world. Debra Thorsen is a blessed accumulated escapee who helps individuals actualize absolute abundance and beatitude after 9 to 5 s. Visit Fearless Guides for chargeless tips on career change.