One of the most important relationships you will experience in life is that between you and your boss. The success of this relationship is paramount to the success of any person on the job. It is safe to say that how well we do at work and how happy we are depends largely on our relationship with our direct managers.

Bosses come in a variety of styles and types, and it is up to the subordinate to identify his or her boss's distinct style and adapt themselves to it. One of the two most distinct boss types we will deal with here are the overbearing and underbearing types.


First, let's look at what distinguishes an overbearing or underbearing boss. Ever work with a boss who assigns a task, and gives you the most detailed instructions ever, only to monitor your every step? Or a boss who finds fault in everything you do? Does your boss undermine your contributions or achievements, especially in the presence of outsiders? Does your boss shield you from any interaction with external departments and insist that all outgoing correspondence is routed through him or her? That, no doubt is an overbearing boss.


While you suffer under an overbearing boss, your colleagues on the next floor may be suffering from the exact opposite. Wouldn't it be heaven if your boss would just keep his or her nose out of your business, give you a task and let you be? Wouldn't it be great if you didn't get a daily dose of criticism?


Actually, that's not an ideal scenario either. Employees who don't get enough guidance and feedback from their bosses are not happy either. Nor are those who receive no support from the boss when dealing with external entities. After all, they do need a boss that gives them their "weight," so to speak, with external parties. And how can they be expected to learn and develop if they don't have someone to teach them and tell them how it's done? Do they have to reinvent the wheel every time they get a new assignment and no instructions to go with it?


Such an undiscerning boss does not make for a pleasant experience. When your boss is less than willing to teach you how it's done, or won't support you when dealing


So how can you subtly tell your boss that he or she is driving you crazy?


Talk to your boss: Let him or her know that their attitude bothers you and makes it difficult for you to concentrate and be productive. Ask him or her to give you a chance to follow instructions closely and then to be judged on the outcome, rather than to be micromanaged. Tell him or her that the only way you will be able to learn is by doing the task yourself, making mistakes, and then being given feedback.


But how do you get this all-important conversation going? Start by asking your boss to describe the best boss he or she had. Ask him or her to recount how his or her boss dealt with situations similar to those you encounter with your own boss. And then ask about his or her memories of their worst boss, and what made that experience less than positive.


You will need to choose the right moment to turn the tables gently, and highlight the points mentioned about the good boss that you would like to see applied to your current employee-boss relationship, and to also highlight the negative similarities between the boss's bad memories and the current situation.


The most important thing to keep in mind during this conversation is to keep it as constructive and impersonal as possible, so it doesn't turn into an unpleasant confrontation. It is also a good idea to ask your boss about how he or she views the relationship you have. After all, you may unknowingly be pushing all the wrong buttons and need to modify your behavior as well. Sharing the responsibility of making your employee-boss relationship work will make your boss more willing to listen to your constructive criticism.


Needless to say, the ideal scenario would be a boss who stands somewhere in between the two previous examples - someone who knows exactly when to give the right amount of advice, when to let you make mistakes, and when he or she should give you those few extra tips to help you out of a rut. But, it is also important to keep in mind that an employee-boss relationship is one that involves two parties and its success depends on the attitudes and contributions of both parties involved. So, help your boss become the boss you dream of becoming in the future.


REF: Career Resource Center
Amira Sobeih



Special Programmes Team

YES Country NetWorK Egypt
Sustainable Development Association

by Martha Brockenbrough
A recent Gallup Poll found that more than 38 percent of Americans believe in ghosts. This is up quite a bit from ten years ago, when only one in four people said they believed.

And this belief helps ghosts. Why?

It's pretty simple, according to people who call themselves ghost hunters: You have to believe in ghosts to see them.

The more familiar truism, of course, is "seeing is believing." But ghost hunters have turned it around on purpose. In their ongoing debate with skeptics, they've upended the cliché and used it as a weapon to bolster their case for the existence of spooks.

And what's wrong with that?

It depends on which side of the haunted fence you're on. If you believe in ghosts, there's nothing wrong with it. But if you're a skeptic, it's a huge problem.

"If you go in to a place that's supposed to be haunted, you're tuned up [to believe] already," explains world-famous skeptic James Randi, who has promised to pay $1 million to anyone who can show evidence of a paranormal, supernatural, or occult event under controlled circumstances
So far, no one has won the money, although Sylvia Browne, who claims she is a psychic, agreed in September 2001 to put her powers to the test.

You could have a chance to win that money, too--if only you could find a ghost. So how do you go about doing that?





Amira Sobeih



Special Programmes Team

YES Country NetWorK Egypt
Sustainable Development Association

There are many forms and types of acceptance letters available, each different according to items as the type of vacancy, field, industry, country, etc.
An acceptance letter would typically include the following:



A thank you for the candidate’s interest in the job opening and/or company.
What stood out in their resume and in the interview(s).
Why they qualify for the position.
How they would fit into the organization.
When the offer is valid till.
What they should do if they have any questions.
Their offer details.
There are many other items that may be included.



Sample Acceptance Letter

Dear (Name),

Thank you for interviewing with (Name of Interviewer(s)) for the position of (Position/Job Title).

We were impressed with your qualifications, motivation, and skills, and see great potential in you. We feel you are an ideal candidate for the position at hand, and would like to extend a job offer.

We feel your presence on our team will be of mutual benefit.

Please find enclosed a copy of the offer for the position (Position/Job Title). Should you need any further information or assistance while making your decision, please feel free to call me with any questions.

Looking forward to hearing from you by (Last Date the offer is valid) at the latest.

Sincerely,

(Name)
(Position)




REF:- Career Resource Center

Amira Sobeih



Special Programmes Team

YES Country NetWorK Egypt
Sustainable Development Association

1. Position title and job description.
Provide your title, plus a detailed explanation of your daily activities and measurable results. Since job titles are often misleading or their function may vary from one company to another, your resume should tell the reader exactly what you’ve done.

2. Clarity of dates and places.
Document your work history accurately. Don’t leave the reader guessing where you were employed, or for how long. If you’ve had overlapping jobs, find a way to pull them apart on paper, or eliminate mentioning one to avoid confusion.

3. Detail.
Specify some of the more technical, or involved aspects of your past work or education. Have you performed tasks of any complexity, or significance? If so, don’t be shy, give one or two-sentence description.

4. Proportion.
Give appropriate attention to jobs or educational credentials according to their length, or importance to the reader. For example, if you wish to be considered for a position at a bank, don’t write one paragraph describing your current job as a loan officer, followed by three paragraphs about your high school summer job as a lifeguard.

5. Relevancy.
Confine your resume to that which is job-related or clearly demonstrates a pattern of success. For example, nobody really cares that your hobby is spear fishing, or that you weigh 98 kilograms, or that you belong to an activist youth group. Concentrate on the subject matter that addresses the needs of the employer.

6. Explicitness.
Leave nothing to imagination. Don’t assume the resume reader knows, for example, that Helwan University is in Zamalek, or that "C.S." stands for computer science, etc.

7. Length.
You should only fill up a page or two. If you write more than two pages, it becomes evident to the reader that you are unable to organize your thoughts, and that you are trying too hard to make a good impression. If the content of your resume is strong then there is no need for more than two pages.

8. Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation.
Create an error free document that represents the educated person you are (or are striving to be). Always use a spell check program or better yet consult a professional writer.

9. Readability.
Organize your thoughts in a clear, concise manner. Avoid writing in a style that is fragmented or long winded.

10. Appearance and Presentation.
Don’t deviate too much from the standard resume format in order to avoid being trashed due to difficulty in reading.

11. Portray yourself as someone who is active and gets things done. Do this by beginning sentences with action verbs.

12. Use headlines.
They really work. Headlines permit the reader to skim through your resume and reach the areas that they are interested in quickly.


REF:- Career Resource Center

Amira Sobeih



Special Programmes Team

YES Country NetWorK Egypt
Sustainable Development Association

-{Social Marketing }-

Social marketing:- is the planning and implementation
of programs designed to bring about social change
using concepts from commercial marketing.

Among the important marketing concepts are: ...,
http://www.social-marketing.org/sm.htm


A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development
http://ericae.net/ft/tamu/vpiques3.htm


Planning a "social" marketing campaign involves six
steps
STAGE 1: PLANNING AND SELECTING STRATEGY
STAGE 2: SELECTING CHANNELS AND MATERIALS
STAGE 3: DEVELOPING MATERIALS AND PRETESTING
STAGE 4: IMPLEMENTING THE PROGRAM
STAGE 5: ASSESSING EFFECTIVENESS
STAGE 6: REFINING THROUGH FEEDBACK
on the otherhand:-To market Social programs, the
planner should borrow the the four P's used by
marketers: product, price, place and promotion.

Planning key to good communication research
http://www.drugs.indiana.edu/publications/iprc/newsline/winter92.html

& finally the:- 7 steps to social change:
• knowledge
• desire
• skills
• optimism
• facilitation
• stimulation
• reinforcement
http://media.socialchange.net.au/strategy/

Amira Sobeih



Special Programmes Team

YES Country NetWorK Egypt
Sustainable Development Association

French scientists using an innovative microscopic scanning technique say they have discovered that nerve cells almost buzz with molecular agitation when they communicate with each other.

The work sheds light on how cells operate at the synapse -- the minute gap between neurons, as nerve cells are called.

Neurons communicate by sending chemical signals across the synapse, which then latch on to specific targets, known as receptors, on the membrane of the adjoining cell.

The chemicals activate an electrical signal in that cell, which then sends on a chemical signal to its neighbour, and so on down the line, eventually triggering the desired response or movement in the finger, hand, limb or other organ.

Until now, little was known about receptor movement, and it was thought that these vital "locks" that open to the heart of the cell were largely static.

But nanotechnology, harnessed to a video camera by French researchers, shows the receptors to be extraordinarily active and that they even move around dynamically on the membrane surface.

The discovery is important, because it highlights the complex, highly mobile mechanism by which a receiving cell is able to detect just a single molecule.

The team, led by Antoine Triller, head of an Inserm unit that specialises in synapse research, and Maxime Dahan, of the Kastler Brossel Laboratory at Paris's Ecole Normale Superieure, publishes its work in Friday's issue of Science, the US scientific weekly.

Their observations were made on spinal cord tissue from rats, and used a probe called quantum dots -- fluorescent semiconductors, with a cadmium-selenium core and a zinc sulphide shell -- to tag receptors for glycine, a key synapse signalling chemical.

The "dots" measure just five to 10 billionths of a metre across, and are just a quarter of the smallest nanoparticle tracers used so far. Those particles, made of gold or latex, range from 40 to 500 billionths of a metre, which means they are too big to reveal the single-molecule properties of living cells.

The movement given by the fluorescing quantum dots was filmed in real time, and for long durations, using a videomicroscope.

REF:- MSN Arabia

Amira Sobeih



Special Programmes Team

YES Country NetWorK Egypt
Sustainable Development Association