Debunking LinkedIn Resume Builder Tool

Resume building continues to remain a huge headache for the job seekers in today’s world of tough competition. Questions keep rising on how to make the most attractive resumes out there in order to find the job of your desire.

Or what could be the best resume builder out there on the internet. Although there are thousands of resume builders on offer, yet only a few are commonly used.

People are usually found to use the links that appear in the top search results. While most of the time these search rankings do have authenticity, sometimes they might show the sponsored ones on top.

Click to read more ...

4 Qualities A Great Product Manager Should Have

A lot of people who want to enter the world of product management usually ask this question, “Am I product manager material?” Because while it is very easy to fall in love with the prestige of the role, being a product manager requires a lot of skill and experience which not everyone can confidently claim to have.

If you are one of the many who are aspiring to be the next Steve Jobs or Marissa Mayer, here are four attributes that are common among successful product managers. Read through these carefully and see if you possess the qualities necessary to excel in the field of product management.

Click to read more ...

How to Make a Living as a Tech Freelancer

Are you using your technical skills to make a living, or at least extra money? Thanks to the internet and technology, it is easier today than it ever has been before. And it doesn't hurt that attitudes toward letting people work from home and live anywhere as long as they get their work done have evolved.

How to Get Started Freelancing

Whether you're just getting started as a freelancer, have experience, or don't know where to start, check out the new Due.com Freelancer Guide. This is what you can learn from it:

• What is Freelancing?
• Pros and Cons of Freelancing
• Setting Up Your Workplace
• Branding Yourself
• Creating Your Portfolio
• Setting Estimates and Rates
• Marketing and Promotion
• Where to Find Work
• Working With Clients
• Project Management
• How to Get Paid
• Final Words of Advice

Did you know 80% of employees surveyed said they would like to make additional income freelancing? The sooner you get started, the faster you'll be making money.

Kinds of Tech Freelance Work

Make a list of all of your skills from installing hardware or software, to coding apps, to teaching how to use devices. The longer your list, the better. Do this first so you don't forget anything. Then use your list to search for job ideas on sites like these:

• LinkedIn Job Search
• Job aggregator sites
• Freelancing sites

New freelancers often start on a freelancing site. Two of the most popular freelancing sites oDesk and eLance merged and rebranded as UpWork. This video explains how to use the new UpWork site:

Be sure to optimize your profile on any sites you use and also on LinkedIn as many people will search for you there. If you have many connections or recommendations on LinkedIn, you may even be able to skip using freelancer sites altogether and get work by referral. Established freelancers will often subcontract work to newer freelancers. As they charge on the higher end of opportunities, they also refer clients who can't afford them to others. Find out more in my previous post How to Make a Living as a Gadget Freelancer.

How To Make Sure You Get Paid

This is my favorite topic and I have some advice based on years of being a freelancer. If you have the reputation and examples of your work, charge 100% cash in advance via PayPal. Freelancers who don't want to become collection agents should charge in advance - provided they know without a doubt that they will deliver on what they promise. If a new client isn't comfortable paying up front, suggest that they pay a percentage down and as each portion of a project is completed and delivered. Another way to ensure you will be paid and they get their money's worth is to use the escrow feature on a freelancing site. We do have some clients who pay 50% down and 50% upon completion. Be consistent with each client and have a process for keeping track of your work.

Create a Workflow Process

The most successful freelancers are those who are the most organized. Some use a CRM or an online tool like RememberTheMilk, notepads, and spreadsheets. Unfortunately, cobbling so many different solutions together often resulted in missing deadlines or tasks falling through the cracks. The good news is there is now an all-in-one solutions to keep track of your client's contact information, your projects, to-do tasks for each project, time tracking, and invoicing. It even includes a dashboard showing totals and any overdue invoices. Murray Newlands and John Rampton created the Due.com online project management and invoicing solution for their own use and have now made it available to freelancers and small businesses. They offer a totally free tier so everyone can use it. When you grow your business, simply upgrade to the paid version to increase capacity.

iPod Touch 4G Review

In a world with many music players, one company introduced a device that  has changed the way we think about music devices. ladies and gentlemen,  Apple has updated one of their revolutionary products in September of 2010, called the iPod Touch 4G. Today we will be going over the internal and external parts of the device. We will also look at some of the great features of the iPod.

Inside the hood, there is a blazing fast 1GHz Apple A4 Processor and 256MB of ram. You can buy the 8GB, 32GB or 64 GB sizes. It has 2 Cameras, a rear and  front facing. The front facing camera is 0.3 MP, and it records video at 480p. The rear facing camera is 0.8 MP,  and it will record video at 720p HD. The Mic is in there top too, and it has fairly good sound quality, but not the best. There is, of course, a battery in this device which will give you 40 hours for music, and 7 hours for video, games and browsing the Internet. Last, but not least, one of the most revolutionary parts of the device is the screen. The screen has a resolution of 960-by-640, and it is 3.5 inches. Apple calls this the Retina Display. It is one of the best looking displays out in the market, as of January 2011. The bad part of the screen is that it is not IPS, which means from some angles the screen looks a little washed out. The iPhone 4,   however, has an IPS display so its screen does not look washed out from any angle. That was basically the inside of the device.

The internal parts of the device were amazing, but what about the external design? The front of the magnificent device holds an excellent glass panel, which protects the display. It is not Gorilla Glass, but it is still very good.  The front facing camera is there too. On the left side of the device, you see the volume rocker, which is fairly easy to use. On the devices back, you see your rear facing camera and mic. On the right side of the device, you see nothing but chrome. Without the bottom, this would be a useless device, because the bottom has your speaker, dock connector, and headphone jack. The top of the device has a really useful button and that button is called the sleep/wake button. That was the external design of the device. Next stop is features so hold on for the ride.

Now, what are some amazing things that an iPod Touch 4G, can actually do? I guess it is time to find out. One feature that it has uses the front facing camera and it is called FaceTime. FaceTime lets you video chat with other iPod Touch 4G users, iPhone 4 users and of course Mac users. If you like watching videos, you'll love this app: YouTube. It lets you watch your favorite YouTube videos, straight from your iPod. Of course, you can search for anything, view the featured content, and login to your own account. If you like to game with other people, you'll enjoy this app: Game Center. Game Center lets you challenge other people around the world, to see who is better at a game. You can also browse the Internet,  and check your Email with this device. If you like Music, TV Shows, and Movies, you should know that you can rent or purchase them straight from your iPod, with the iTunes application. One feature everyone loves about the iPod Touch is the App Store, which lets you get hundreds of thousands of apps. They could be free, or paid applications. Let’s say you were playing a game and you got an email? You would have to close your app and check your email,  right? Now, with the iPod Touch 4G, you can check your email without closing the game. The feature that will let you do that is called multitasking. Those were some of the main and exciting features about the iPod Touch 4G.

We have talked about a lot of great things that are in the iPod Touch 4G. We talked about the internal parts of the device, the external design of the device, and about the main features of the device. One thing you might be thinking about asking, is do I recommend this iPod? The solid answer is, yes, I do, because it offers so many features for such a sleek looking, portable device. It also lets you explore an ever changing world of apps.  This would be a great device for anyone because of it's features, and it would especially be great for a pre-teen or a teen, because it would let them talk to their friends face to face. This is an amazing device and I highly recommend everyone go out and buy it.

iPad 2: A Broken Verse?

To say the least, the March 7th announcement was a dispositive settlement of all those knavish rumors that embroidered the front covers of some uninformed tabloids. But the metaphysics have taken their course back to the tilt-a-whirl, working sound, in cahoots with somewhat of a realistic measure. Indeed, Apple pulled out the big gun like Barney Fife from the The Andy Griffith Show, and dismissed its previous retort back at a CNET reporter, to which Apple claimed that camera on a tablet is like inscribing a lilliputian perforation in a well-preserved Rosetta Stone. But then again, the heifer is back to the ridge, and hypocrisies reprise themselves like Nixon’s little taradiddles.

I’m not gonna lie, but as the provoking title of this ‘treatise,’ more felicitously a rant,  implies, the iPad 2 resembles a broken verse of sorts. I’d gladly lay up a warm-handed accolade to Mr. Jobs, had it been packed with more features, like a corpulent child on a hammock on a spree of gobbling a steamer-trunk size Sasquatch pizza. At the original iPad’s inquest, we see its ‘counterpart’ rehash the advantages, which run the gamut from aluminum chassis to lightweight enclosure, take a very leery effort in trying to retain that fleeting battery life, and rub up on the speed department, in which Apple claims the graphics performance improved by nine times, and the overall speed clock by two. Having said that, I’m a stringent gendarme. I have a slight inkling that something is missing, though I could be jumping on the bandwagon here. However, with my stevedore-likened mouth, I would like to ask why the iOS 5.0 announcement was temporized. At this point, I do reckon it’s an irreducible fact that 5.0 would be strikingly similar to the current firmware, for it has long been established an insidious fact that Apple would not change its contraptions and softwares on the score of simplicity. Then again, from a circumstantial standpoint, austerity has shied away from my palate. 

When the Big A’ gives you that come-hither look, beware of its hoodwink. When you the buyer is sauntering around the hinterland, flummoxed by how bland the Dixie-horticulture is, Steve Jobs along with Apple Execs would be sitting on the lap of luxury at Cupertino, afield from you, glazing over the fact how gullible you are. They feel the pulse of the public, like they were voting for Alvin Greene on a rigged voting machine. But if you have a liability to build a credence that the new iPad is the next Holy Grail, fine. Have at it, but I do not concur. I can reel off a long parchment of a modern-day Pharisees, but that drib-and-drab approach would be rendered obsolete once you, perched on a comfy mattress, gamboling around with your expensive gimmick, come to a conclusion that you’d be better off shopping at a haberdashery. And once more, you’d inhale the redolent whiff of insularity, like that moment when you decided to supplant your iPhone 3G with iPhone 3GS, just because the brand “Apple” has become your new pas de deux, and Steve Jobs is your head capos, covertly an Attila-like existence that’s trying to hack your cynical minds away.