Decisions, changes and improvement in your work and private life. Read about tips you can use yourself or contact a professional coach.

Your work environment includes all sorts of formal characteristics such as company size, geographical location and security level of contracts, but also informal features that describe how things are typically made and done at the workplace.

A classic, full-time, 9-to-5 job might sometimes be difficult to get or might simply not suit your needs. So what are the career alternatives?

The typical way to introduce yourself is to say your name and then what your job is: „I work as...“ or „I am... “. There is nothing incorrect about it, yet it does not say much.

The tip to making your introduction more interesting is to insert one more sentence, between your name and the job. The sentence will describe one benefit you bring. This structure is referred to as an elevator pitch. Use this article to prepare yours in such a way that it sounds natural to you and easy to use.

Creating an annual career plan for yourself is an excellent opportunity to figure out what you want to do with your working life in the coming year.

A good career plan will help you to use this year to move on towards your long-term objectives, to progress on the right track.

The following approach can be used no matter whether you are employed, seeking a job, or running your own business.

Do you sometimes wonder how you can be so different from “typical” representatives of your professional area? Congratulations: that means you have extra leverage in your career. You have at least three ways to use it, all three pretty good.

It works. Re-formulate your intentions and desires into goals, and your life will start changing.  Expect the following:

Small talk, professional or private, is meant here as a short conversation with someone you don´t know well. It can have different purposes such as “killing” the time, introducing yourself to someone, getting to know each other, sharing opinions, finding out answers to your questions.

By its nature, small talk involves building some mutual connection that can help both sides to feel more comfortable in the situation.

How do you become better at small talk?

Over half of European employees seem to be checking their work e-mails while on vacation*. Are you going to check yours?

This article describes the main trends related to (dis)connecting during holidays. It also offers tips to base your decision on, and how to talk about the topic with your employer.