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Time: Your Greatest Asset
What is the one thing we all want more of, but cannot buy it, earn it, or save it? The one thing that when it passes us by, it can never ever be regained? Time! No matter who we are, or what we do, we only have 1440 minutes in a day. We all start our days with those same…
Every Day Can Be Independence Day
Most freelancers are freelancing by choice and happy about it. There is more flexibility than in a permanent job. They can choose their own schedule. It does take a lot of self-discipline, though, to be a successful freelancer and wearing your PJ’s all day isn’t part of it. If you want the independence, here are some tips to help you…
Boost Your Summer Creativity
Do you feel more or less creative in the summer months? High temperatures and humidity can seem to leach energy and productivity right out of our day. There are, however, some special things about the summer season that we can use to boost creativity if we let them: Time with family From K through college, kids are home for the…
Coffee Shop Etiquette
Even if you work from a home office, it’s nice to get away on occasion. If you need internet access, a coffee shop with wifi is the logical choice for many freelancers. These establishments expect to have some customers bring their laptops along and stake out a claim, but some people take advantage of the conveniences and think of coffee…
How Does Technology Impact Your Life?
I’m currently reading and implementing some of Shawn Achor’s The Happiness Advantage Principles. One best practice is to write down your daily gratitudes. My gratitude for today is Technology. That one thing we are all so reliant on–it does everything from opening up car doors to turning on the lights. When Artisan started over 25 years ago, it was the…
Is Recruitment the Career for Me?
Moving from agency to recruitment Have you ever noticed there are a lot of creative recruiters who used to work in agencies? Perhaps you’re working in AdLand and have entertained the idea of moving into recruitment? Chuck Palahniuk once said “Find joy in everything that you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home. It’s your responsibility to love it, or…
A Summer Job Search
A persistent job search myth: No one hires in the summer. The truth is most companies hire at about the same rate in summer as they do the rest of the year and summer can be the best time to look for a new role. If you spend your time wisely, you still might be able to fit a couple…
Tips for Successful Video Meetings
When was the last time you had to conduct a Skype interview or had a FaceTime meeting? How was your experience? In today’s global environment with multiple offices across numerous time zones, the virtual office space makes conducting video meetings and interviews a necessary daily activity. In 2009, we at Artisan Creative decided that the benefits of a successful virtual…
Your First "Real" Job Interview
Although you probably have had jobs during your high school and college years, if you are graduating from college in the next few weeks, you may be having your first “real” job interview in the near future. We hope our job search tips for graduates helped you land that interview. Here are our tips for your first time sitting across…
Fun in Freelancing
There are lots of positives about being a freelance creative, but one that often gets overlooked is the fun of starting something new in a new place more often than people with permanent jobs. If you can look beyond the anxiety inherent in lots of “first days,” you can appreciate the great things about new starts: Make connections–Like to make…
5 Job Search Tips for Graduates
Getting graduation announcements in the mail these days? All of those newly-minted diploma holders are about to enter the workforce in droves and the job search environment is still in a tenuous recovery. Here are some of our tips for landing that first job after graduation: Think long-term: Your short-term goal is to get a job, but don’t neglect to…
Freelancing and Sick Days
Illness comes upon us all on occasion. No matter how we eat or exercise or how many times a day we wash our hands, we get sick. But for freelancers, getting sick has an added bonus: no paid sick days. Many freelancers will work on days they would take off if they worked in corporate jobs. Missed deadlines and unhappy…
Distractions Can Be a Good Thing
Are you easily distracted? Distractions can work for us–or against us, depending on what we are trying to accomplish and what kind of distractions they are. Here are some pros and cons of distractions and some ways to use them to your advantage: Your Smartphone: Notifications interrupt you all day long–Facebook messages, emails from co-workers, texts from your spouse, requests…
Coming in Second
Does coming in second feel like failure? It shouldn’t–but sometimes it does. Psychology Today recently wrote about how people react to getting a Silver Medal in the Olympics and I spent last weekend in Nashville, Tennessee with over a hundred teenage performers who ended the weekend as First Runners Up with remarkable nonchalance. There are many people, however, who torment…
Spring Cleaning Your LinkedIn Profile
Spring is here even in colder climates and it’s time to clean out your LinkedIn Profile as well as your closet. You should be revising your resume every quarter, listing new accomplishments and adding job responsibilities, volunteer experience, and of course proofreading again. Your LinkedIn Profile could probably also use a fresh eye. Summary Make sure your summary reflects what…
Tax Tips for Freelancers in 2014
More and more of us are freelancing in 2014 and the numbers are expected to go up dramatically in the next few years. Freelancing brings its own tax challenges that some may have not encountered before. We are not tax experts or CPA’s at Artisan Creative, but we do keep track of tax issues for freelancers and there have been some…
3 Tips for Odd Interview Questions
We’ve all heard stories of strange interview questions and we’ve come up with some of our own on the Artisan Blog. Glassdoor recently published their list of 2014’s Oddest Interview Questions and some of them were definitely off the wall. Here’s our take on a few favorites: Are you more a hunter or a gatherer? This question from a hiring…
Feeling Lucky? Pass it on!
There are probably people in your network who are on a job search and you are probably helping them. You have endorsed them on LinkedIn or even written them a recommendation, if you have worked with them in their field. You have introduced them to the people you know at their target companies. When they land, you will be part…
Creativity Savings Time
We will be turning our clocks forward this weekend and although we will have the same amount of light as before, it will land in different places. We started wondering: how does changing the light affect creativity? Researchers from the University of Hohenheim and the University of Stuttgart recently published a study about this very question. They found that drawings…
Reflections: Competition
It’s competition season all over: for actors and others in the entertainment industry, for Olympians across the globe, and even close to home as show choirs on the west coast have a contest almost every weekend for the next few months. With so many vying for honors, we have been struck with the different ways we can handle competition as…
Leadership Lessons from Presidents
Not all of our mentors have to be here in the room, having lunch, or networking with us. If we are open to learning, we can find mentors anywhere, even in history. This Presidents’ Week, we thought we would get a little mentoring from some past US Presidents. Turns out they have a lot to teach us about leadership. Team…
Loving the Freelance Life
As it becomes more common–and easier–to choose the freelance lifestyle, more workers are finding out why their freelance colleagues love it as much as they do. They might even be getting a little jealous. Why do we love freelancing? Entrepreneurship–Freelancing is the simplest way to run your own business. It’s just you, but you are the boss. Enjoy it. Flexibility–To…
The Active Voice
To those of us who pay a great deal of attention to grammar, the passive voice is at least correct. It doesn’t make our antennae go up. In fact, it probably makes our antennae go down, but not necessarily in the right way. It makes us stop paying attention. The same can be said for hiring managers. Or rather–hiring managers…
Office Etiquette in Flu Season
Flu season is upon us and probably someone in your office has already gone to ground this year. We hope they didn’t bring their germs to work. Many people do try to work through colds and flu, even though they probably shouldn’t. Here are some tips for keeping yourself–and your co-workers–from passing around a nasty bug: Wipe down–If your office…
Job Jenny and Why You Should Be Rethinking Your Resume
In the first of a two-part blog, we speak with career expert Job Jenny and why we need to rethink our approach to resume writing and personal branding. I was recently introduced to Job Jenny and her “ridiculously awesome resume service” by a candidate-turned-friend of mine who had used her services. It got me thinking about our approach to resume…