Predicting Success In Jobs & Careers - Statistics Help

Scientific studies have been done on careers and personality types for schools, university students, the armed services, the emergency services and more.

They show that in some professions certain types predominate. (Others suit a variety of personality types.)

They show that if you have certain skills or habits, certain careers are options, and some on the list may be new to you, or have lower entry requirements than the more crowded careers or popular university courses.

Statistical relevance varies. 

You can use systems which are more accurate, nearer 100%. They are more costly to administer and harder to understand. 

For example, recruiting for emergency services and the army, 

They spend a long time with paper and real life testing how you behave normally and how you behave in a crisis. (Fight or flight, calm or panic-stricken, whether you follow orders or make up your own mind.)

Sometimes as little as 10% can be useful. Many catalogue companies and most on line dating agencies are profitable if they convert as little as under 15 or 10 per cent of readers into buyers. They have to know that group - the elderly with low income wanting comfortable cushions, or the businessman who must be on time needing a watch or a diary. 

My son worked in recruitment where the company only wanted 10% for his shortlist for a job. For example - being on time and teetotaller and honest answers would be vital or advantageous for a pilot, or indeed a bus driver. 

Good spelling is helpful for a secretary. Incidentally, recent news of a survey finding that a high number of people applying for jobs as teachers can't spell explains a lot.

To find whether honeymoon couples expect the man or woman to make the hotel booking, whether he goes for price or romance, etc, can make the difference between the hotel or hotel group's profit and loss, and means keeping the market researcher employed because he has increased sales by 10%.

PR - Event organizer what your subject line should say

To all the PR people who send me press releases and invitations:

Thanks for the info. I get half a dozen press releases an hour and can't read them all. I scan them for the date and time and USP. Sometimes I move into a Pending file everything not needed this week. then on Sunday or Monday I scan down the subject matter for an event that looks fun - worth the efffort of two hours travelling - and good for networking. I'm not in central London. What exactly is this event and do I need to spend two hours travelling to your event?

I get dozens of invites about unknown companies and file them and usually miss them, two dozen from some people repeating information, others all headed Next Meeting which don't distinguish last month's, this month's and next month's dates. Also events in the USA when I'm in the UK, annoying call girls - even worse could be scams.

It would help if you put in subject matter the date and time (eg Monday lunch, last Friday in November till midnight, all day event, or ends by 9.30 pm). And location/ tube station (2 minutes from Piccadilly Circus tube, opposite Hamleys / free car park, free parking after 8 pm.)

In the subject matter, add USP (eg free lunch, review restaurant, photograph yourself with chef, free samples, network with editors, Meet PR Co, Meet MD, meet designer, get footballer's autograph, meet professor, photo opportunity, new shop, January sale preview, try slimming product).

Then I could scan down my emails and immediately locate useful diary dates and events for the week ahead.

If it's just picking up heavy press releases please send them by post or email. If I can't combine two events in one trip, can you post items, photos, amusing quotations from company staff, or email them?

More Lost & Found Tips

Cameras

Take a photo of your business card at the start of each film. Then if your camera is lost and somebody develops the film they can find you. 

Taxis

Always get a receipt from a taxi.

Then if you lose anything, you can phone the taxi company.

FINDING LOST ITEMS

Finding A Lost Camera

A good friend of mine recently lost his camera on a busy day whilst travelling around a city in cars, taxis, tour buses and visiting museums.

I don't think the camera was in the taxi - though the taxi was very dark. I looked back as we got out to see nothing was left behind. It is my policy to always look back when leaving a bus or taxi or train. And on planes I check under the seat, and around the seat cushion and in the pocket on the back of the seat in front. 

Guarding Possessions On Planes

I don't leave loose items such as umbrellas and duty free goods in overhead compartments. If I do, I note the number of items. 

Better still, I put the smaller items inside the larger ones - duty free goods inside my carry-on bag. Or I tie the handles of one bag to the other. 

Watching Bags & Coats in Restaurants

In restaurants I never let the waiter take away a jacket or coat. I keep it on the back of my chair. First I empty the pockets. We have lost wallets and sunglasses from jackets in restaurants hanging on the backs of chairs. It happened to us on holiday in the Czech Republic.

Other friends have had bags stolen from the floor under a large table for ten people. I keep my ankle inside any bag on the ground to prevent it being forgotten. Or anybody pulling it away. (They could still cut the bag handle.)

In restaurants I keep my bag under my coat. Between myself and the wall - not between myself and somebody else on a banquette.  I try to pick a table against a wall so I can sit shielding my possessions from other people. Before leaving I check under seats and on tables. Then you know nothing is left behind and can eliminate the venue from a phone-around. 

Conference Carrier Bags

In public places such as conferences often everybody has identical bags. So it is easy to forget yours, take the wrong one, or find yours has been taken deliberately or accidentally. 

You might forget it because as you glance around when leaving nothing identifies it as yours . I have even rescued my goodie bag which was being picked up by cleaners who were going around the press office every hour throwing away abandoned carrier bags. 

You can distinguish your bag by tying on a piece of coloured ribbon or string. Or use a highlighter to write your name across the top of the bag. Draw a coloured line across the top under the handle or mark the handle. 

Hotel Bedrooms

What have I heard of being lost? A child's teddy bear left in a cot or bed. A child's toy which, unknown to the parents, he had put in a wardrobe.  

In the adult's bed, night clothes, underwear and socks. Contraceptives under the pillow. One of a pair of shoes, or slippers, left under the bed. 

A dressing gown left behind the bathroom door. A man's sports clothes in a drawer. 

A last minute check of the bathroom which we'd already cleared on more than one occasion has produced my toothbrush. Everything else had been packed but that was left out. 

Once a friend left behind what we in England would call track suit bottoms. The Americans would say sweat pants. 

It is rather alarming at checkout to hear an American say, 'I've lost my red pants'. In the UK we say trousers. Pants to us are what Americans call underpants. 

I had visions of the man's transvestite gear, ladies' garments. The Americans do say trousers but these are part of a formal dark suit.

If you've lost something, it's important to describe it in words that local people understand. I always ask if they can open the drawer or room where lost items are kept. They then suspect that I want to claim an item which is not mine. 

Sometimes they ask which day you lost the item. Or where you lost it. If your goods have your name on them, there's no doubt.

Checking Hotel Bedrooms
On leaving hotels, we should have done a double room check. Not a check of a double room. A check of the bedroom by two people.  

A French family I know says that the father insists that the parents and children all check the room. So three or four of them all look. With two of you, both parties could take turns holding the door open whilst the other one checks everywhere, including behind the doors for coats and dressing gowns and behind bathroom shower curtains for clothes hanging up to dry. 

Hotel Suitcases

If you have several suitcases and bags, it is easy to leave behind the last one. It is also easy to check. 

The porters (called bell hops in the US) might take the big suitcases but leave behind the handbags and carrier bags. If you have a black bag, put some distinguishing mark on it, such as a coloured strap. 

On a couple of occasions I've asked a hotel reception for my bag and been told they don't have it. So then I've asked if I can look for it in the left luggage room. We had to wait for somebody to bring the key to the luggage room. I waited. I was not leaving the hotel without my luggage.

I remember peering in and there were dozens of suitcases. I looked at two or three of the nearest bags. The porter insisted, 'It's not there'.  

So many bags - lots of black ones. But I spotted it in a distant corner because of the yellow strap! 

He said, 'All the bags at the back are from two days ago.' He pulled it out and asked suspiciously, 'Are you sure it's yours?' I showed him my address label.

Mobile Phones & Chargers
A white or gold or coloured address label on a mobile phone is good. This loss of a camera has prompted me to check my mobile camera-phone. I just labelled the latest phone. I stuck a fresh label on the old phone over the old label which was dirty and unreadable.

I temporarily lost my mobile phone the week before I went to the US on a business trip. The phone turned up 'under' the seat of the car. I had felt under both front seats late at night in the dark. Later in the daylight I found it between the front seats.

Phone Chargers

A hotel in the USA had a box full of mobile phone chargers which guests had left behind. The receptionist told me that guests find it quicker to buy a new charger, and cheaper than paying the postage. Your black charger looks like a piece of hotel equipment and is almost invisible as you glance around the room. Again, the trick to noticing it is to tie on a coloured ribbon or address tag.

I also paint plugs with nail varnish. You can buy nail varnish in red, orange, pink, green, silver and gold.

Shoes

How do you find your shoes which you are obliged to leave at the door of a temple? You arrive and you are first off the coach. Your one pair of shoes is on the right. When you return, two hundred pairs have been placed on top of yours. Or the attendant has moved all shoes left on the ground into 500 pigeon holes. Your coach is honking and about to drive off without you.

Bags At Buffets

I've left  an item behind in a hotel. That happens so often. You get up to go to the buffet for dessert. You come back and it looks as though another diner has taken your bag. No, it's the staff who think you have finished your meal and gone off without it. The item has disappeared to lost property. When they say nothing has been handed in, ask them to open the lost property drawer and check. Maybe somebody else has put the item in whilst they were busy. 

Maybe what you call a bag, they call a purse. Maybe they don't have your umbrella, but it's inside the carrier bag you left. Either you put it inside the bag or the waiter did so.

At a Singapore club the receptionist opens the lost items drawer and regretfully tells me that no item matching my description has been left. But I can see it! What I think is black, he calls grey. (Or vice versa).  

I hadn't had time to add a label. But I'd already marked the shop's price ticket with a highlighter with my initials. That was a precaution in case I left the item behind in the shop whilst my friends continued browsing. I am delighted to be reunited with my purchase.

May you be reunited with all your lost items. Better still, may you never lose anything.

Internet social site tips

How to find your sort of people? If you are gregarious and promoting something you go onto a social networking site such as Facebook. If you want to restrict your site to kindred spirits, you form a specialized group for members. 

So you can start any group. It could be rich tennis players or poor owners of second-hand sewing machines or mothers with cross-eyed toddlers or women who wear only black or men who've just bought a computer who want advice but don't want anybody to know they don't know how to operate it.

If you want large numbers of business contacts you could go onto Linked-in. Very handy to have lots of contacts if you have a product or service needing that, for example if you have a new brand of home made chocolates or tee shirts or work in recruitment. 

Lots of people advise you to get out of your home and join groups. But they have to be your sort of groups, and eliminate the contacts which won't connect with you. If you have a jobyou make friends with colleagues. If you have children at school you meet other parents.

Stranded in a new city, an overseas country, without a job is harder. For example, when I first went to live overseas I joined the social clubs for ex-pat women, yet they kept being posted overseas. On once occasion I was enjoying a lunch with a new friend I'd just met when she was phoned by her husband and told she was moving. When I made friends who lived permanently in the country, I had a base of people to call.

I found myself chatting to women who were keen tennis players or had babies. Their lifestyles did not fit mine. To them reading books was impractical, irrelevant, time-wasting second-hand living. It took weeks to discover that I got on better with women at book clubs who were empty-nesters or had family overseas and time for ladies who lunch and afternoon movies. 

I needed a mixed age group, no point being the only granny with pearl bracelets, ming china and silk chairs in a group of young mothers wearing jeans and stained teeshirts with  boisterous toddlers and dribbling babies. Nor the only active youngster who wanted to talk about a skiing holiday nor the only one who could climb stairs, and lived in a block of flats with stairs, amid a circle of bridge-playing pensioners with stiff knees and walking sticks.  

As a young married I'd formed friendships with couples and lost all my single friends. So when I was left alone I was the spare third. 

For me Toastmasters International has been wonderful. I can even accompany a family member - or lover - I should be so lucky - on a conference, check a website and go along to dinner with a group of people who welcome strangers and have a lot in common with me.  I did this in Singapore, Shanghai and Thailand. 

You would be have to be very lucky to meet anybody in a gym or even a hotel exercise class. But if you join an international sports group - such as the Hash Harriers runners, you can go to meetings all over the world. You know the structure of the meetings, you have the stamina or skills, the correct clothing, and you even know the international personalities if you go to an international conference or check out the websites.

Now, let's look at the social networks and dating sites. With dating sites, as with clubs, you may strike lucky first time, or you may hop about trying one after another, or join the lot straight away to see which works best. 

What are the problems with dating sites? Complaints are: 

a) That the people aren't real, just scams

b) That you get those who want to be too close - stalkers 

c) Or those who never turn up at all 

d) People aren't the stated age or whatever they claim

e) They don't really want to meet - just doing it for a laugh.

f) Nutters and weirdos

g) Nothing in common

h) Too time-wasting

Let's deal with each in turn.

a) You need a recent photo to show it's not a computer, nor somebody married man, nor somebody twenty years older. 

b) You need an understanding of what you will do if it doesn't work out.

c) You could try asking the other person if they've ever not met up and why. They may not turn up because they misunderstood the day, time or venue, could not find it, got delayed and could not contact you, had a work or family crisis and could not contact you, decided against it and were too afraid to upset you because you seem controlling and angry and threatening. An effective way of ending a relationship is to threaten somebody who is undecided, cautious or nervous. (I'm being humorous and ironic as well as truthful.)

f) You could be on the wrong site. You could be unwittingly attracting the wrong type. A man wrote a profile in which he included what he thought was a standard joke: 'My job is so top secret that if I told you what it was I'd have to kill you.'  He was astonished to be contacted by a woman who wanted him to kill her. 

He didn't notice the connection. Neither did I - until I'd been thinking about this for several weeks. He'd actually advertised himself as a killer, and of all the women who read his profile, one suicidal or nutty woman was actually looking for that. 

I am always astonished by the number of people who walk into airport security and joke,' I've got a bomb!' and wonder why they get arrested. Equally, huge numbers of men joke about how dangerous they are - the wonder why the reader or listener is wary. 

I'll tell you why. It's because people listening think many a true word spoken in jest.

Other readers think that it expresses the writer's underlying fantasy. It's a not adequately disguised hostility. 

Plus a self-centred lack of consideration for the reader or other party. 

And when you are on line, nobody knows much more about you than what you say. If you write ten sentences and one is hostile, that's ten percent hostile. Even if you wrote a hundred sentences and one was suspect, the reader looking for a red flag, or a reason to say yes or no, has a cross in the no column.

If you didn't want to meet the unemployed, or the mean, you would avoid free sites and stick to those which charged money, or people who were premium members, or sites attached to magazines or newspapers read by certain industries, or read by the affluent, or read by the educated.

Distance lends enchantment to the view they say, and you may be dreaming that your ideal match is somewhere on the other side of the world.

However, if you want a date in the next week, you are better off contacting a dozen people in your home area and hoping one of them will be free to meet.

You have to consider whether to go for quality or quantity. One view says that you need a huge number of sites, and profiles, to get the right one, and a huge number of meetings to find the right one - and one who likes you as much as you like them.

Of course it depends how picky you are. If you are so lonely that you will take anybody who likes you, the choice is much easier. You just have to be sure that your quarry intends to stay, not to chop and change and move on. 

LOSING DRAFT EMAILS - THE SOLUTION

A PROBLEM WITH EMAILS Somebody just emailed me: '' I've just spent over half an hour writing a long detailed and well thought through message to you in answer to your question, only to be told at the sending stage that it was too long and had been deleted before allowing me to reduce it. All was lost. I'm cross! And it's a further nail in the coffin for continuing with intenet communications in my ideal future.'' MY No 1 SOLUTION - PHONE CALLS That's why I prefer the phone. You know your message has got through. You can alter and adapt your conversation according to the other person's reaction. My No 2 SOLUTION SAVE EMAIL DRAFT FIRST I forget drafting and saving elsewhere frequently. Usually I log on, see an email and start typing a reply. Of course it's your longest emails which took so much time and trouble which get lost. Sometimes the server times out. Sometimes the site shuts down to protect you because they think no saving text means you walked away from a computer in a public place forgetting to sign out and some passer-by could cause trouble to you or the site. Let me remind myself and you of the solution. Draft your reply to emails in a Word document. Save every time you reach the end of a paragraph. (I know you're scared of filling up the memory - but it's better than losing your email.) Then copy into the site. Does anybody agree? Disagree? Have a better suggestion?

How to write positive profiles and emails? Be positive.

I receive a lot of emails to which I don't reply because it would take me half an hour just to send them simple rejections. I would rather spend half an hour sending a positive reply to the one man who sounds like he has qualities which appeal to me. But as a courtesy to those who have not received enough replies, here are some handy hints as to what might increase your response rate. Reading through profiles I see what attracts me. Bright and cheerful profiles and emails. From a confident person. Especially as women may expect the man to do the running. Confident image? This can be achieved by focus on your good qualities. Praise yourself or the other person. The man who knows where he is going will get a response. What might go wrong? Re-read your profile and email. Cut out all negatives, doubts, uncertainties. Consider these sentences: 1 'I don't know what to say ... ' (Conveys the impression that the writer can't make up their mind. A woman wants somebody who is a great email correspondent or good to chat to on the phone and courageous enough to invite her out. So leave out this sentence or change it to something positive.) 2 'I'm not ...' (Here's another negative. Would anybody write a job application listing all the things they are not? Would you approach a bank for a loan listing what you cannot do? ) (Think positively. You must have some good qualities.) 3 'List of reasons why our relationship might not work: a) You are too far away. b) My previous partner left me unexpectedly.' (On first reading the recipient might think you are being honest and interesting. They might rush to reassure you that the barrier of distance will be overcome. That if they commit, they won't suddenly disappear.) (But on second reading, on second thoughts, the recipient of a 'I'm not sure this will work' email might feel the whole thing of reassuring somebody else who is half-hearted is just too much hard work. No wonder the previous partner or lover ran off with somebody who was more fun. This writer is having doubts and we haven't yet answered their first email. How would you feel receiving an email about everything which went wrong before? Better to focus on what was good in previous relationships.) (All talk of previous partners is risky. 'I was abandoned' portrays you as a loser and as somebody who is pessimistic when what you want to convey is that you are worthwhile longterm.) Don't worry about your past emails. It's all a learning experience. Think of the greater success you will have in future and how much progress you have made. But from now on make sure you are always bright and enthusiastic. Somebody who would be fun to meet. I hope this helps. Good luck in your search.

Don't Lose It - How To Find It

I just read a restaurant review by somebody who believes he had left a mobile phone behind on a restaurant table. The restaurant which was just closing denied all knowledge of the phone five minutes later.

First I shall look at how to prevent this happening again. If you have had one bad experience, or many, losing a specific item, here are some alternatives.

1 Replace with a cheaper or more easily replaced item eg a phone with top up cards so no thief can run up big bills on your phone. 

2 Have a very visible item. eg a pink or red phone. Then you cannot assume that it is somebody else's. It is very visible to you and bystanders.

3 Check whenever you leave anywhere, a train seat, a plane seat, a restaurant seat. Check the seat, under the seat, the table, the nearby floor, items left hanging on nearby wall hooks, items pushed out of the way against the wall.  If you later lose an item at least you will know where you did not leave it. 

4 I take the address card of a restaurant where I have dined. It's useful for repeat bookings. Once granny left her handbag behind a toilet door. 

Keep the phone number of the place you visited so you can call back immediately. I am assuming that you think the manager is more honest and more concerned about customers than staff and will look carefully and prevent the item being kept by junior staff or taken by other customers.  

Useful if the item left behind could be taken by junior or temporary staff, or other customers. 

Leave your phone number just in case the missing item is found later by the cleaners.

Though if you notice at once you might prefer to dash back yourself before anybody else finds it. And the manager might look on the table but not spot it on the next table or floor.

5 Practice the fingertip check as you leave a place. You might recall the old joke about Catholics who make the sign of the cross. The joke goes that they are actually checking hat, wallet ... and so on. Before taking a journey a plane journey or sitting down I count the number of suitcases and bags and umbrellas and coats and hats. I also do this going through security. I put hats in pockets and attach umbrellas through the label on the coat or the sleeve. I put phones not in use inside an inner jacket pocket. 

6

Remove items from jacket pockets even when the jacket is on the back of your chair. A passer by could jolt out something such as your car keys. Or take your sunglasses, door keys or wallet.  

7

The waiter might suggest moving your coat to a cupboard. Somebody with a similar black coat might take yours accidentally or deliberately.

8

Handbags left on the back of a chair or on the floor can disappear. You could keep your foot through the bag handle or your feet on the bag. It's dirty. It would be preferable to keep your bag on a chair beside you within sight and reach and out of the way of passers by. You might tuck your coat around it. If you are sharing a banquette keep your bag on your side away from others, or with the opening towards you and a coat around the bag and secured under you.  

9

Take a photo on your mobile phone of any coat or bag which goes into storage so you can show the hotel management or insurance company if the item goes missing. You could photograph the item in the storage room before you leave so they cannot deny ever having it. 

Note items in your bag before leaving home. Remove keys or credit cards and membership cards you don't need and don't want to risk losing because of the time and cost of replacing them. You could photograph the contents of the bag. I once had a bag stolen on holiday. I had a hard job proving to police which items in a recovered car had come from my upturned bag. I was amazed to find that in making the police report, which would later be used for insurance, I had forgotten half the items in my bag. The cost of replacing items I forgot to mention, the swimming costume, towel, sunglasses, diary, and make-up was far higher than I imagined.  

Prevention is better than cure.

Keep a list of places where you frequently lose items.

Lost glasses - look beside the bed.

Lost keys - look under the car seat.

Lost phone - check table before leaving restaurant.

Next meeting - guess who, what, where, when?

NEXT MEETING – GUESS WHO? GOSH I KNOW WHO YOU ARE

My inbox has dozens of emails headed:

Our meeting

Our next meeting

Important meeting

Committee Meeting

Date of Meeting

I do not have time to file them all. If I do, I have six messages for every meeting. I could sort them by date order. Then I have a dozen this month about meetings months ahead. The meeting held this week was first announced two months ago. The date has been changed three times. By the time I find the time and venue and whether it has been cancelled and changed, if it is on today I'll have missed it.

When I come to the next toastmasters meeting in Harrow I can’t find it because I have similarly headed emails regarding the last three months meetings, plus notifications from 20 London clubs where I have been a member or General Evaluator, my readers' groups, all sports activities, and friends visiting from abroad.

Plus all the newsletters which have conferences in Florida this month. And the people from Linked In and Facebook.

If I missed your meeting I’m sorry.

Next time please include in the Subject the group name, city, date and time of the meeting.

Even Next toastmasters or Next book club isn’t enough. The one in Singapore, or Shanghai or London?

What if the server is down? At least with titles telling all I get the date reinforced every time I scan down. I can copy the date and time into my diary whilst I’m waiting for the server to appear or the phone to answer or while I’m on the phone.

URGENT MESSAGES

Incidentally, most of the emails headed Urgent message are from fictitous people in Nigeria with fictional dying daughters demanding that I send money.

Others are trying to sell me courses in learning languages and learning the guitar, last discount offer for today, property finance and how to win lovers, influence customers, and become a millionaire before next weekend and the next Urgent Meeting.

URGENT MEETING?

Progammers - please allow overseas addresses

I am constantly having trouble with sites which want me to choose a US state for my location. This is a real nuisance. I'm currently typing this in the UK. I've also lived in the Far East. And a relative of mine is working in Europe for a few months. He might want to order from there. I might want to send him a birthday present.

For example, you are allowed to give your country when registering on a book ordering site.They give you postage rates for your overseas destination. Then when you fill in the recipients address, if different, you are asked to choose a US state and if you don't, the whole system crashes and you can't just retype that page, you have to start all over again with the book title, author, number, postage selected - a real waste of time.

The internet is worldwide and I'm in London, in the UK. It would be helpful to have 'other' under location. I put Maryland because that's where I used to live and in case the system won't let me comment unless I chose a US state and city.

Dating sites often insist that I chose a US state in searches. They allow me to register as being in the UK. Yet I can't search for anybody in the UK. Ridiculous.

Because up come 15 pages of people around the world. I have to read three pages of people before finding one in the UK.

I might end up being listed as living in the USA, although elsewhere in their system the questionnaire allows you to choose from a long list of countries anywhere in the world.

Often the comment and contact systems won't let you tell them about this problem. You can only ask or comment or report if you have on of their chosen list of subjects such as another member being abusive.

Occasionally I type in a comment in a space for other on another subject entirely
If you are a reader, please comment on this whenever you find a system which makes you choose USA. The sites take your money and want your business and more readers or participants.

I don't know whether the programmers don't have the time or are juniors in their first job or simply haven't noticed that they have provision for overseas readers on one page but not another.

If you do page setups, perhaps you can explain to me why this happens.

I might be happy to have a pen-pal on the opposite side of the world. I might be happy to meet somebody travelling to my current location.

However, I want a dinner date or a steady boyfriend. What's more, if I contact people in other countries, a high proportion of them will write back and say I sound delightful but even if I would be willing to locate, they want a local relationship.

They are looking for a date this weekend. Not somebody who will be writing for six months. Besides, by that time one of us may have found somebody else.

If you or the other members are looking for a local relationship, being matched with somebody in the same country in your first search is enormously helpful.