Here are the seven basic yet very effective habits for career success recommended to become Highly Effective Job Applicant Candidates:

1. Plan your Career
2. Be Organized
3. Manage your time effectively
4. Create a Positive Image
5. Keep Learning
6. Be ready with your next step
7. Maintain work life balance & be healthy

There are good habits and there are bad habits – in all of us. We have to ensure that good habits are practiced more by new jobseekers. They must look for reaping the benefit by internalizing the good habits.

You know the noted author Stephen R Covey has written a book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. We acknoledge that we have taken inspiration from the concept of seven habits from there.

Share your views about these habits by writing in the comments below.

I have seen many of the employees that I interact with rating badly their workplace happiness. That is the reason I have created an exclusive Workplace Happiness Quotient Survey for readers of CareerCola.com. This will help our readers to gauge how happy they are at work.

If you have taken this survey of Workplace Happiness Quotient you can evaluate your results here. Now that you have answered the fifteen questions in YES and NO – you can count the YES you have marked and read the analysis below:

Less than 5 YES: You are totally dissatified with your work and not happy with most of it. Either you are in wrong job or have chosen the wron career. You must consult a career advisor to identify the right job and career for you.

6 to 9 YES: You did not like your work but there is a hope that with positive changes at your workplace the situation can improve. Check the answers where you have said ‘NO’ in the survey and try to identify the areas for improvement.

10 to 12 YES: Well you mosly like your work and can be said that you are almost happy about your work. There is still scope for improvement though and from here you can easily reach the blissful stage of complete work happiness.

13 to 15 YES: Yes you are Happy at work. Now it is up to you to spread this happiness by being a happiness giving boss, subordinate and coworker. Keep it up

Your Workplace Happiness Quotient which measures how satisfied you are workplace can be found from this survey. Those of you who have taken the Workplace Happiness Quotient survey can write in the comments below to share with other readers of CareerCola.com. You can also write about the tips for other readers on how to happy ate the workplace.

I have seen many of the candidates that I counsel and advise rating badly their workplace happiness. In fact I have devised an exclusive Workplace Happiness Quotient survey for readers of CareerCola.com – to gauge how happy the employee is at work. You can take following questionnaire to gauge your Workplace Happiness Quotient.

To check you Workplace Happiness Quotient answer the following questions in Yes / No

1. You look forward going to work everday?
2. You like your coworkers for their work expertise?
3. You feel that relationship with your boss is very positive?
4. You feel that your boss is a better professional with more knowledge and wisdom than you are / have?
5. You like the systems and procedures of your company and feel that they are among the best in industry?
6. If you want any help at work you get it easily from your coworkers and boss?
7. You think that the direct reportees you have at work are among the best?
8. You are happy with your job title?
9. You are happy with the salary package you are getting at work?
10. You feel that you are contributing significant in your job?
11. You feel that you have enough capability to do the job assigned to you?
12. You feel that you are learning something new on the job?
13. You are happy with the future prospects you have from your current position?
14. You get good opportunity to network with similar professionals while on job?
15. Your are happy with the career plan that current company has for you?

Now if you have answered these questions in YES and NO then count your YES and NO. Your Workplace Happiness Quotient which measures how satisfied you are workplace can be found from this.

Those who have taken the Workplace Happiness Quotient survey can write in the comments below to share with other readers of CareerCola.com. You can read the analysis of your answers here.

Here are our recommendations for boosting your self confidence

Self Discovery: Self discovery will lead you to know about your self and accept it as it is. You answer questions like:

• Who you are?
• What you can do?
• What do you want?

Acknowledge accomplishments: Now prepare a list of positive achievements and personality characteristics. Forget the negatives and just concentrate on positives.

• List your accomplishments till date
• List your positive characteristics
• Exhibit this list where you can read it daily

Prepare yourself: Your preparation will give you you knowledge, courage, control and strength to achieve your goals. Try to maintain your focus on what you want to do. Look ahead and keep your energy focused on the challenge.

• Prepare yourself for achieving your goals
• Plan meticulously

Perform and Persist: Start action on your plan and keep doing it till you reach the goal. Achieving goals takes work and persistence. Do not stop midway and persist – that is the key.

Here are some Do’s and Don’ts

Don’ts

• Don’t change yourself to please others.
• Don’t compare yourself to or compete with others.
• Don’t let what happened yesterday affect what will happen tomorrow.
• Don’t personalise the failure. Look upon failure as one step toward growth.
• Don’t let your relationships become a hurdle. Sever ties which restrict you.

Dos

• Do maximize your strengths.
• Do believe in yourself.
• Do affirm yourself by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones.
• Do visualize your goals everyday and imagin yourself achieving them and think of the process of reaching them
• Do Speak up, share your thoughts, opinions and preferences.
• Do reward yourself. Every time you pull through a challenging or negative experience, give yourself a treat.
• Do think of something something positive for yourself every morning.
• Do enjoy success. Evaluate yourself by what you have done, what you are doing, and what you can do.
• Do Keep a daily, weekly, or monthly record of your accomplishment and build on these. Each day do something a little better than yesterday.
• Do become an expert on something or some subject and share it with others.
• Do accept compliments positively. Say, “Thank you,” to those who offer praise about your appearance or ability.
• Do maintain your perspective
• Do face each challenge with an open mind.
• Do develop strong relationships – those which help you achieve your goals.

Building self confidence will go a log way for you to be successful in your life. Following these small tips over a period of time will help you believe in yourself and reach your goals.

If you thhik you can – you will!

If you are confident then your confidence gives you the courage to set high expectations from yourself and others, to take risk, to grow and prosper, and to reach the goals you want.

If you lack self confidence then you take jobs that are relatively easy setting lower expectations from yourself and others, you avoid risks and do stuff tha will not ask for too much. Those lacking self confidence may be losing out on opportunities for growth and prosperity.

How will I know How Confident I am?

How confident are you? Here is small questionnaire to determine your level of self confidence. The results may help upi in improving your self confidence. To take the questionnaire – just answer “yes” or “no” to the following.

1. I feel that when I do a job, I do it well.
2. I am proud of myself and what I have achieved.
3. I feel good about myself.
4. I am as much or more successful compared to most of my graduating class.
5. I feel that I am a worthwhile person.
6. I feel that if I am dying today I will have no regrets about life.
7. I welcome constructive criticism as an opportunity for growth.
8. I feel that my knowledge and experience enables me to offer good advice to those who ask.
9. I accept mistakes and learn from them.
10. I feel that I can achieve almost anything I desire if I work hard.
11. I feel secure in my interpersonal relationships.
12. I feel that other people regard me as a successful person.
13. I respect myself for what I am and what I can do.
14. I am satisfied with the contribution that I made to the society.
15. I accept failure and see them as a chance to learn and grow.

So now you have responded to all the questions in either “Yes” or “No”. Count all the “Yes” and for each “Yes” give yourself “1″ mark and add them togather.

If you have scored 12 or higher: A score of 12 or higher indicates that you love, like and respect yourself. You have high degree of self confidence. You are content and you accept your positive and negative qualities. You are very enthusiastic about life.

If you have scored 7 to 11 Points: This indicates that while you are confident in some areas at the same time you are lacking in few others. This may also mean that you may be a perfectionist – who sets very high standards in life which result in feeling inadequate about oneself.

If you have 6 or lower points: This indicates you have a low self confidence. You may be lacking the zing in life. Your confidence level may be low due to the experience you had in life.

If you feel that you are high in self confidence despite the low score – may be your mood when you have answered this questionnaire was down.

If you are lacking or are low on self confidence – you can change this. There are ways to improve your self confidence. We will be talking about this in our next post.