Why You Need to Network

Article no. 017

Networking As a Career Advancement Tool

By Pior Gabby

What is Networking?

Networking involves individuals forming mutually supportive relationships. People form networks for a variety of purposes, including career advancement. Networking can help you you in a variety of ways as you begin and grow your career.

How Networking Can Help You With Career Advancement

Networking is not merely a way to get jobs, as commonly believed. While networking may eventually lead you to job opportunities, there are other ways your career can benefit from it.

• Learn about an occupation by conducting information interviews with members of your network.
• Get recommendations when you are looking for new employees to hire.
• Research an area or subject with which you are unfamiliar for a work project.
• Get information about a potential employer before you go on an interview.
• Get information about a client.

Who Should Be In Your Network?

Your network can be made up of almost anyone you've ever met. Of course not everyone is part of your active network, but each person can be welcomed into your network at some point. In turn, each person in your network has the potential of leading you to other contacts who may then become part of your network. The relations within your network are bi-directional. In other words, one hand washes the other. Don't hesitate to offer support as well as ask for it.

How to Make The Most of Your Professional Contacts

Experts have long stressed the importance of maintaining a strong career network. Through networking we can learn about job opportunities particularly those we wouldn't have had access to otherwise. However job searching should not be the primary focus of your efforts. Your network can prove to be a very useful tool when it comes to other aspects of your career. Your contacts can give you advice and provide information. Follow these rules to help you maximize the benefits of networking.

Everyone You Know is a Potential Member of Your Network

When it comes to networking everyone you know can be a useful contact. While someone may not be directly involved in your field, he or she may know another person who is.

Be Willing to Ask for Help

In order to get help you have to ask for it. Don't be shy. If you need advice call someone in your network.

Be Willing to Give Help

Your network doesn't exist only for your benefit. You should be willing to offer your help to others as well. So, if someone in your network asks you to speak to his nephew about your job, you must be willing to do it. If you hear news that someone in your network can benefit from take the time to share it.

Don't Use Your Network Only for Job Hunting

Many people have the misconception that networking is only for job hunting. They attempt to utilize it only when looking for work. Well, guess what? If you only get in touch with your contacts when you are looking for work, your network may dry up. Not only that — your contacts may come to know you as "that person who's always looking for a job."

Keep in Touch With Your Network Contacts

Check in with your contacts every now and then. Find out what they're up to and let them know what is happening with your career. It will be much easier to track someone down after not talking to them for a couple of months than it will be after being out of touch for a year or longer.

Thank Your Contacts for Their Help

When one of your contacts gives you advice or provides you with a job lead don't forget to send her a thank you note. You can use email to do this.

Techniques for Visual Communication

Article no. 015

See What I Mean: The Power of both Visual Learning and Entertaining

By Pior Gabby

You probably have watched a 3D picture first popped into view and you can recall the amazing rush you felt when you saw the image with your own eyes, suddenly overcame any disbelief you’d held up until then. Visual communication can be like that, too. Visuals improve the message delivery process and quicken your ability to make connections. As Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot by just watching’’.

Likewise, you have the opportunity to be a better educator and more refined communicator when you use the strength of graphics at image presentation. We each possess separate cognitive systems for processing visual and verbal material. Our capacity for meaningful learning increases when we tap into the power of both.

Even if you have no artistic flair, you can use sketches, illustrations, photographs, symbols, graphs, and diagrams. Good images don’t just decorate; they add meaning to your message. They can make a point, connect the dots, and help people understand. And when you convey your meaning quickly, you win.

There are several approaches that improve your time to meaning and your strength to inform.

Informal Conversations 

You’ve probably chatted over lunch with a colleague when one of you pulls out a pen and begins drawing on a napkin. Then the other person says, “Yes, that’s it, and if we add…?? Together you begin conversing around the sketch, modifying as you talk. The shared visual fundamentally transforms the interaction as well as your exchange.

Whenever you want to turn an informal conversation into an ad hoc learning collaboration, seek out a napkin or pad of paper and start drawing. Create a simple diagram to represent what you want to convey. Then hand the pen over and ask your colleagues to draw all over your draft. Collectively capture what’s on your mind. Likewise if you intend to use the sketch in further projects, illustrate the idea then you can handover to the expert.

Public Materials

With so much information competing for your time and attention, everything that comes across your desk or monitor first needs to pass an unsaid barrier: “Am I going to read this? Am I going to learn anything useful? Is it going to be more valuable than the other umpteen ways I could spend my time??

Think about your own documents, Websites, blogs, social media accounts, whatever. Ask yourself if they easily convey your intended meaning and if an image might help express your message quicker. If you work for a company with a professional graphics department, seek their help. Sometimes corporate designers long for opportunities to tell a rich story with an illustration. If the field of infographics is new to them, suggest they check out the work of Xplane [2], Idiagram [3], or Clement Mok [4]. If you can’t find graphics help, consider investing in a good iconographics package such Task Force Image Gallery or those produced by Ultimate Symbols.

An alternative approach is to follow in the path of “The Big Picture. It graphically shows how the story you’re reading relates to other tidbits in the news and which of those reports are huge news or mere hot flashes.

Through a series of bubbles, each representing a related article, topic or company, your mind’s eye makes important connections.

Formal Workshops

For more learner-friendly presentations, consider dropping 90% of the written words from your overheads. To borrow a line from Seth Godin, “Why would you use words on the screen when they do just fine in your mouth??? This isn’t a cheep gimmick or a way around figuring out what you’ll say.

You can narrate a picture slide with a title or no text at all. If there are statistics and details you need to deliver, create a handout.

Think of everything you display on the screen as a roadside billboard, a message that must transfer instantly at 65 miles per hour. Engaging photographs can connect emotionally with your audience and convey your meaning through metaphors (picture this: “Building a career is like building a house.)

Cognitive research shows that people learn twice as well when words are narrated rather than when extraneous words are presented onscreen. High-quality pictures are now easily available online through designs houses and government offices like Municipals, TANAPA, EPZ, Film Board etc.

Mixed Messages

I also have a confession: I came late to the visual-learning party because I sometimes find pictures more attention-getting than meaningful, providing unnecessary visual noise and distracting me from what I try to read. Think of Websites with flashing banners, presentations with wild swooping fly-ins, or images with so many labels they take a week to digest. I encourage you to avoid all of those, instead using graphics to direct attention and guide people through what might seem overly complex if explained in text.

And one more caution: Diagrams that oversimplify a process can be just as harmful to the learning process as going without. Like optical illusions, images can play on expectations, and trick people into believing they completely understand nuance and implications because they grasp the nut in view.

What real matters?

What message you want to convey?  How do you want to convey it? Who is your target? Those are what matters as long as you are the only one who knows the answers, then you can provide the answer to the designer or producer to display.

Here the producer’s responsibility is to shape the idea, to make sure the message will be clear and understood. The Producer/Director or Designer may advice you on some additions like Models, Locations and other objects depending on the project. These projects are such as Music Videos, TV programs, Ads, Magazine cover, Event coverage, Documentaries, Films, Visual learning etc.

Not a Graphic designer, Video producer, Director, Photographer or Screenwriter that has all the ideas beside he works for many people, for many design to have your unique design. When you want to shoot a music video, an ad or design any Visual Aid it’s you who knows what you want to say about your work. You should have a specific message you want to convey, may be you already know how you want it to be and then the pro can help you putting your idea in design. You might have to argue, to discuss to get what’s the best and that’s part of the job.

Being able to finance or having an idea it’s not enough, you must know the process and how it works to come out with the best. Don’t get me wrong this doesn’t mean there are no talented experts with brilliant ideas and designs, they are to do their job and you are to choose the best and the best is that fits your goals. For example I am not a graphic or Fashion designer but when it comes to what I want I don’t choose from the list, I think of the idea and submit it for development and designing. There is a time to let expert do it but it’s you who asks what service you want, how you want it, when you want it and more?

While we all will benefit from seeing with our brains, let’s use that gray matter for good.

Can I Be a Model?

Article no. 014

New models often ask themselves whether they have what it takes to become a model

By Pior Gabriel

You are likely to hear that to be a model you need to be beautiful, tall and slender with perfect proportions. Now this is certainly true for high fashion models, where designers want one type of model that they feel shows off their designs in the best way.

However, if you do not fit this criteria, don’t despair as there are many other areas that you can work in successfully and lucratively as a model. The modeling industry needs all different shapes and sizes. It ranges from the models who are required for the runways to those being seen in the background of TV commercials. You need to find the right fit for you and your place in the industry. To help you with this we have listed the different types of modeling work that’s available and the criteria for each, and as with most things in life there are always exceptions.

High Fashion

When you see the incredibly tall and lean figures that grace the runways and editorials for the leading fashion houses and designers, these are the High Fashion models. They are generally required to be between 172cm to 180cm (5”8 to 5”11), with a dress size of 4-6 US (6-8 UK), with a typical bust size of 34. The age range can be from 14 to 25. For guys the age range is more flexible and they can start from the age of 16 until their late 40’s. They need to be between 180cm to 188cm (5”11 to 6”2), with an excellent physique and a chest size of 94cm to 106cm (37” to 42”) and 76cm to 81cm (30” to 32”) waist. Guys tend to have longer careers if they look after themselves.

Editorial Print

This is modeling for magazine editorials and covers such as Vogue, Elle etc. The standard requirements for these models are similar to those in High Fashion and you must be very photogenic Quite often the same models will work in both Editorial Print and High Fashion. These editorials provide great exposure for models even though the fees earned are sometimes relatively low. This is normal and it can take a few years to gain the experience needed to get the bigger paying jobs.

Commercial Print

A huge market that encompasses every kind of print advertising. This can range from advertising in magazines to products on supermarket shelves to billboards. The benefit of working in Commercial Print as a model is that the target audience of the advertisers varies considerably. Naturally the brands want to attract and represent the people that will buy their products, so there are many opportunities here if you are not the High Fashion type.

Catalogue Modeling

Companies create catalogues (print or online) to sell their latest clothing lines or various others products, and it’s the models job to make them look good. Here you will find many great opportunities for different model types, as the model is chosen to represent the target audience of the different companies. With the increasing number of websites that require models to promote their goods online, this is very lucrative for many models.

Plus Size Modeling

Modeling for the larger body type, this type of modeling is on the increase and a relatively new phenomenon. If you’re confident, with great attributes and you are between the sizes of 12-16 US (14-18 UK) then this could be for you. More and more advertisers are using Plus Size Models to promote their products in a bid to appeal to a broader demographic. As a Plus Size model you will still need to have great skin, teeth and hair and have that something special about you. For High Fashion Plus Sized Models the height requirements remain at a minimum of 172cm (5”8).

Glamour Modeling

Is modeling that emphasises a models sexuality. Glamour Modeling can range from lingerie and swimwear shoots, to artistic and nude photography to men’s magazines. You will need to be beautiful, sexy and confident, with an extremely outgoing personality. Height restrictions tend not to apply, which is the great attraction to many models. If you are considering this area of modeling, take care as there are many dishonest people that take advantage of young models who are eager to get into modeling. If you are interested in Glamour Modeling it’s advisable to have a reputable agency looking out for your best interests.

 

Body Parts Models

An area not usually thought about for newcomers, but it is a very relevant sector of the industry. The most common body parts tend to be hair, eyes, lips, hands, legs and feet, which are used to promote many products in print and TV. You will need to have exceptionally well proportioned body parts and know how to look after them. This is definitely an area within modeling that’s worth considering as it can prove to be surprisingly profitable.

TV Commercials

Modeling in TV commercials does not have any overall criteria for height, size and age, as each commercial requires someone different and specific to that job. It is usually necessary to have some acting ability, but this can be natural ability or learned. There are many different types of TV commercials, ranging from the highly stylised photographic, to the performance led reality style. The great advantage in TV commercials for a model is that brands are continuously seeking models, which the general public can easily identify with. This opens up the doors to almost everyone, who feels that they have what it takes to work in this sector. Typically those represented by a model or actors agency have a better chance of appearing in TV commercials.

Real Life Models (People Models) and TV/Film Extras

If you like the idea of modeling, but do not fit into the above categories, then this could be for you. Real life models are used in advertising or corporate campaigns, when companies are looking to represent the everyday person. As a TV/Film Extra you will generally be non-featured (no speaking parts) and in the background of a scene. This can be fun and interesting to be part of, but it can also be long hours with lots of waiting around. The benefits are that if you are flexible with your days, it can be a good way to supplement your income.

Keep in mind modeling is a very competitive business and it is not easy to break into. fameidentity blog cannot guarantee that you will get signed by a modeling agency or get modeling work from your exposure on fameidentity blog Your success will depend a lot on your looks, stats (height, weight, etc..) and your personality. The Participating Agencies using Fame Talent Management represent almost every category of models, including fitness, commercial, real-people, fashion/editorial and plus size.