Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Heres why you shouldnt use smiley face emojis in work emails

Heres why you shouldnt use smiley face emojis in work schmelzglassHeres why you shouldnt use smiley face emojis in work emailsThe next time you want to drop a smiley face emoji into a work email, it might be wise to hold back - especially if the sender is someone you havent met yet.A recent, three-experiment study by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of Negev, Amsterdam University and University of Haifa revealed that unlike smiles in real life, smiley emojislessen perceptions of competence and dont elevate perceptions of warmth.Overall, 549 people from 29 countries took part in the research, which was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.Citing research, the authors defined warmth as traits that reflect a persons perceived social intentions, such as trustworthiness, sincerity, kindness, and friendliness. They defined competence as traits that reflect a persons capacity topursue goals and intentions, such as efficacy, skill, confidence, and intelligenc e, also citing research.Sending a smiley emoji in an email might just make someone think you are less capable, which could affect the information they share with you and your working relationship, the study found.Why you should keep your fingers off the smiley emojisOf all the findings, here are some that stood out.In the first study(which also featured an initial pilot studyto gather data), participants assumed they were doing a project by creating a presentation for students looking to take class overseas,with three people from other nations.They were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions a picture with a smiling face, a picture with a neutral face, a katechese with smileys, and a message without them.Faces with smiles made people mora frequently judge them as more warm and able in comparison to neutral ones. But smiles in messagesonly made people think they were warmer by a small amount and made them think they were much less able, in comparison to a text-only message.I n the second study, people read an email message from someone they would hypothetically be working with and judged their competence and warmth. They had to write a response back and pick what they thought they thought the senders gender was.Smiley emojis were found to have a bad impact on how the participants judged ability and none on warmth.In the smiley condition, participants thought the sender was a woman more often than a man, but it didnt have an impact on what people thought of them.Formality played a role in the third study. Participants read an email message hypothetically sent by a new hire to an administrative assistant who did not know the employee. The message was a query about a staff meeting (formal condition) or a social gathering (informal condition). The study adds that the email featured two smileys or none at all. Participants judged the persons warmth and ability, and how fitting the message was.The researchers found that smileys worked against the judgment of ability and didnt influence how warm participants thought the sender was under the formal condition. But under informal terms, the sender was seen as more warm and what people thought about the persons ability was not affected, although the research adds that these effects were partially mediated by perceptions of (in)appropriateness.Why your relationship to the sender is importantNo matter who you are, you might not want to include a smiley in a work email to someone you havent met - depending on the nature of the interaction.Dr. Ella Glikson, a post-doctorate fellow at BGUsDepartment of Managementin theGuilford Glazer Faculty of geschftliches miteinander and Management, commented on the findings in a statementPeople tend to assume that a smiley is a virtual smile, but the findings of this study show that in the case of the workplace, at least as far as initial encounters are concerned, this is incorrectFor now, at least, a smiley can only replace a smile when you already know the other person. In initial interactions, it is better to avoid using smileys, regardless of age or gender.Keep this in mind for your next work emailIts clear the rules of emoji etiquette are still being formed.In another study, smiley-face emojis were reportedly found to be largely acceptable by respondents. The same research says to steer clear of emojis with hearts, memes, and typos.When in doubt about how to write an email message clearly and effectively, model it after Steve Jobs he was known to use a simple layout, no filler words, and include one clear purpose.Or take a page out of the smiley emoji study, which says a smiley is not a smile.

Friday, November 22, 2019

10 Tips to Have You in a New Career by Halloween

10 Tips to Have You in a New Career by Halloween10 Tips to Have You in a New Career by HalloweenDuring this busy time of the year, not only will your holiday plan affect your job search, but the employers schedules may be in disarray. The benefit of completing your job search in advance of the holiday season isnt solely your peace of mind. If you can secure a job before the holidays, youll have the opportunity to meet your co-workers in a slightly mora festive atmosphere while participating in the office Secret Santa and sipping hot cocoa at the company holiday party. If you begin your role before the new year, you can enter 2016 on a positive musiknote. It is common for employees to go on vacation at the end of the year. If the hiring manager for your position has chosen to take a year-end trip to Aruba, this could significantly delay your job search. Complete these tasks in your job search before Halloween to partake in the holiday cheer worry-free.Make a list and check it twice. T he holiday season isnt yet upon us, but now is the time to write down your goals for your job search. Obviously, your ultimate goal is to secure employment, but creating a timeline that outlines manageable steps to achieve your objectives will ensure you dont feel overwhelmed.Research positions now. The person who plans his Halloween costume weeks in advance generally wins the costume contest. This is because he gives forethought to brainstorm ideas, allows himself ample time to plan and is prepared with steps to execute.Being more prepared during your job search helps the process move smoothly, and you can successfully secure a position before the holidays to avoid the obstacle of a distracted hiring manager. Browse Simply Hired and save the positions that pique your interest. While job search platforms like Simply Hired help facilitate your path to employment, research takes time and having a list of roles for which you plan to apply is beneficial.Finalize your documents. Some app lications require work samples or a supplemental paragraph describing why you want to work at the company or why you are qualified for the role. Along with preparing your resume and cover letters, write out even shorter documents before.This way you can bake cookies instead of scrambling to complete last-minute paragraphs. Focus on the job search now. You are not the only one consumed by festive cheer around the holidays. The employees at the companies where you applied are also certainly busy with family, holiday parties and grabbing their last minute gifts. Avoid a delay until after the holidays. Dont let your dream role slip through the cracks.Take a class or training course related to your intended career path. The more relevant skills you can cultivate, the more impressed employers will be, and youll stand out among the top candidates. You can begin your holiday season with an accomplishment that is beneficial to your future and jump start your New Years resolution.Apply. Compl eting the application process before Halloween will allow you to experience the holidays stress-free. At this point you can feel the sense of accomplishment knowing youve done the best to present yourself as the ideal candidate rather than rushing through the process and feeling burdened during the holidays. Although it is to your benefit to continue applying for positions even after Halloween until you secure a role, you can feel more lighthearted about the process knowing many of your applications are already in the hands of recruiters and hiring managers.Prepare for the interview. The interview process can be both exciting and challenging, and your ability to present yourself in a positive light is paramount. With the upcoming holiday season, plan some seasonal conversation lines you can use to make a great first impression. Also remember that for some people, the holiday season can trigger stressors. Certain hiring managers may be under a time crunch to meet a hiring quota, use their remaining budget or even have worries about cooking dinner for their 20 visiting relatives, so ensure you read the situation and individual when discussing the holidays. Take time to revisit your interviewing skills and prepare to ace the face to face meeting. Ask the right holiday-related follow-up questions. The employers holiday plan might affect your job search. Take the time to brainstorm the right questions. Ask the hiring manager how the holiday season will alter the company hours and decision-making process. Will the company be shut down for a week to allow employees to celebrate the holiday? Will this delay the decision-making process? Should you expect a decision about the role before or after the new year? Furthermore, if you have your own celebratory vacation plans or intend to log off the computer over the holidays, prepare an out of office reply for your personal email. You dont want to seem like you are ignoring a company or have a lack of interest about a role. Even if your brain and computer are on shut down mode over the holidays, internal decision-making and company processes could still be in full force. Draft your thank you note template now. Remember that recruiters and the employees may be experiencing the typical holiday stressors and distraction, like their Great Aunt Betsys visit. Theyre people, too. In your thank you notes, acknowledge that this is a busy time of year and give a little extra thanks for their valuable time. Youll impress with your consideration for others and show that team members would enjoy working with you. After all, both your skill and likeability impact hiring decisions.Stop worrying. It is a waste of your time. Even the most logical people can be overcome by anxiety, but turning doubt into productive motivation is the best option to make use of your time. Once youve sent off your application and have checked off the steps to reach your goal, take time to enjoy your holiday season. Youve done all you can. The best gift to yourself for the holidays is the satisfaction of having completed these important steps in the job search process so you can focus your efforts on family, festivities and cooking your famous pumpkin pie.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Where to Build Microhydro

Where to Build Microhydro Where to Build Microhydro Where to Build MicrohydroSmall-scale hydropower generators rely on the natural flow of a river or stream unaided by reservoirs that regulate the water delivered to the system. Such run-of-river generators are vulnerable to seasonal changes in water volume, droughts, floods, and climate change.Engineers, communities, and governments need to be able to predict those medium- to long-term changes to make the best use of microhydro. But the modeling tools available are too often only useful with large data sets that are lacking for many small waterways and in developing countries.Now, engineers at Oregon State University in Corvallis have developed a kit of open-source tools to work with scarce data and improve what is available. The result is a tool suite that analyzes potential sites for run-of-river hydropower systems anywhere in the world.The important factors needed to understand a sites hydropower potential are how much water flows through it and the elevation drop, said Kendra Sharp, a mechanical engineering professor at Oregon State who heads the universitys Microfluidics and Micro-hydro Lab.The elevation drop is easyyou have digital elevation tools for any region in the world, Sharp said. Water is harder. In order to get the water part, we had to develop climate tools to measure things like precipitation and temperature.A microhydropower generator operating in the Cascade sortiment of central Oregon. Image Oregon State UniversitySharp worked with colleagues David Hill, a professor of civil engineering at Oregon State, and Thomas Mosier, a consultant to the World Bank in Washington, DC, and a former student of water resources and mechanical engineering at OSU, to develop what they call the hydropower potential assessment tool.That open-source tool and the results from a field test on a microhydropower generator in Oregon were presented in the November 2016 edition of Renewable Energy.Using existing data too ls as their starting point, the team refined the resolution of the temperature and precipitation models available from 50 square km to 1 square km. After discovering the climate conditions, the new software suite develops a hydrologic model that shows the amount of water available for a hydropower system. Then we combine water availability and elevation, giving you hydropower potential, Sharp said.The models rely on data that is available online and on measurements taken at or near each site. Elevation is easy to find online for most places in the world. Historic climate data may also be easy enough to find for many places.If elend, you can use our climate downscaling tool (the one that downscales precipitation and temperature grids to 1 km spacing) to generate the needed input, Sharp said.The models also require streamflow observations for calibration, which may not be readily available. The U.S. Geological Survey provides stream-gauge data for U.S. sites. But in developing countri es, stream-gauge data should come from a local stakeholder or a remote sensing system such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer.While inputting a greater number of stream-gauge data observations is likely to lead to improved calibration and model performance, you can run this with data from just one (or more) sites. The model will be most accurate if your calibration data comes from a point where the upstream landscape characteristics reflect the characteristics of the region of interest, Sharp said.The software suite can also make predictions about the future of a waterway by plugging in climate-change data. The models can show what may happen to a waterway as the world produces greenhouse gases at their current rate, or slower or faster over time.The tools are not super plug-and-play, Sharp said, but they are available online and researchers are encouraged to adapt them to their needs and share their work. The tool suit is available for download at globalclimatedat a.org.Read the latest issue of the Mechanical Engineering Magazine. For Further Discussion The elevation drop is easyyou have digital elevation tools for any region in the world. Water is harder. Prof. Kendra Sharp, Oregon State University