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In the game of life, you play to win, but a lazy LinkedIn strategy could hurt your personal brand—and your overall career success. Without knowing it, you could be scaring away valuable connections. So writes Ariella Coombs in a great article for Work It Daily that shows how to get the most from LinkedIn. Follow the below tips and you’ll be on your way to acing your next trucking job interview, or at least landing one.

1. Give your profile a facelift

Kick the dust off of your old, stale LinkedIn profile and give it an update. How old is that photo? When was the last time you updated your accomplishments?

2. Search for professionals working in your field or at your target company

I’m constantly on the look out for people who work in my field or work at companies I admire. Many times, they’re just sitting in my “People You May Know” list. So, I try to casually browse through it at least once a week.

 

Another way you can do this is to search the company or industry you’re interested in. LinkedIn has a great search function that allows you to find people, companies, groups, and more.

3. Connect with people the RIGHT way

Nothing bothers me more about LinkedIn than when someone tries to connect with me using that generic, vague message, “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”

(Or my least favorite, most creepy invitation, “Since you’re a person I trust, I’d like to add you to my LinkedIn network.”)

C’mon guys. If you really want to connect with someone, don’t be lazy – it shows. Be specific. Tell him or her WHO you are and WHY you want to connect with them. You will have a better chance of getting accepted and building a valuable connection that way.

4. Nurture your connections

Don’t just connect with people and forget about them. What’s the point in that?

Check in with them once and a while. Share relevant articles with them. Endorse them. Give them a recommendation. Doing these things will help you stay relevant to your connections and increases the chance that they’ll think of you when an opportunity presents itself.

5. Keep a “fit” LinkedIn presence

Stay active. Share articles in your feed. Write a blog post on LinkedIn’s platform once and awhile. Update your profile on a regular basis – whether that’s every week, two weeks or month. Just stay on top of things! It will be easier to keep up with that way.

Are you looking for a CDL driver job? You have another great option: Connect with Drive My Way here and get one step closer to your goal today!

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If you want to be successful, work yourself into a frenzy. Or so we’ve been led to believe, anyway.

But one psychologist, Emma Seppala, says something quite the opposite in her new book, “The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success.” Business Insider highlighted Seppala’s Top 6 pointers for living a happier, more successful life.

The good news is, Seppala’s pointers are easy enough for all of us to do, anyplace, anytime. So the next time you’re working at your CDL trucking job, try to work some of these approaches into your day. You’ll be happy you did.

1. Live in the moment

In today’s working world, we’re encouraged to work nonstop in order to stay on top of everything. We’re also constantly checking things off our to-do lists. But research suggests that when we’re focused on the present, we’re much more productive and more charismatic.

2. Be resilient

If we can train ourselves to be more resilient to the setbacks in our lives, we’re more likely to bounce back from them, a 2004 study suggests. The study found that resilient people were able to recover faster (as measured by their heart rate and blood pressure) when they used positive emotions to respond to a stressful experience.

3. Keep calm

In 2014, Seppala and her colleagues conducted a small study of 21 veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Half of them were assigned to do breathing meditation, and the other half received no intervention. The group that did the meditation reported lower PTSD symptoms and anxiety a month and even a year later.

4. Do more of nothing

In Western society, we have this ingrained notion that we need to constantly be doing something, or we’re not being productive. But in fact, research suggests that we are most creative when we’re not at our peak alertness. The findings suggest that we’re at our mental best when we’re not especially alert or focused. So if we want to be creative, we need to give ourselves more time off.

5. Be good to yourself

Research suggests that a fear of failure can lead you to choke up, make you more likely to give up, and lead to poor decisions such as cheating or making questionable investments. It may also make it harder to pursue the career you want. Instead, Seppala said, be kind to yourself and observe your negative thoughts from a distance without letting yourself really dwell on them.

6. Be compassionate

Finally, we often assume that we should be looking out for ourselves first and foremost. But in fact, research suggests that you’re better off nurturing supportive relationships with others. If you have good relationships with your boss, colleagues, or employees, you’re more likely to inspire loyalty, which in turn makes everyone more productive, Seppala said.

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Want to find a job you love?

Drive My Way matches drivers with jobs based on their qualifications and lifestyle preferences.

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