4 Job Posting Requiring MS Office Skills

I searched four different sights, almost every job gives preference to prospective employees who have experience in MS Office.  The following are some jobs I found interesting.



Indeed.Com - Head of Human Resources

• Advanced level of MS Office Suite skills 

Central Oregon Jobs.com - New Products/Costs/Estimating 

Computer skills with Windows (Excel) required

•   Computer Skills w/Microsoft Excel required

Oregon Live.com - Administrative Assistant II 

• Generate and track audit findings/results using Excel spreadsheets

State of Oregon Jobs - Fish and Wildlife Technical Coordinator 

•   Using Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint

Computer skills with Windows (Excel) required

4 Online Tools That Make Work Easier

This post has been particularly difficult for me, because I don't have very many on-line tools that make my life easier.  However it has proven to be a great learning experience and I've found a few tools and apps that I plan on implementing in my daily routine that will hopefully make my life easier.  Next term I will be juggling a full time job, a child in daycare, a child in first grade and 12 credit hours at COCC.  Time and money management, and organization will be crucial in my success, the following tools I believe will be helpful.

Maxwell Apps - Money Monitor

I am very interested in the Money Monitor app for my IPhone as a tool to assist  my husband and myself  in our monthly budget.  This is a personal finance tool that tracks and categorizes purchases in addition to sending out bill reminders, available balances in checking accounts, and remaining payments on a debt.  Also it has a feature that provides reports that include: expense vs income, account transactions, budgets, bills, categories and can be exported via email.

Toodle Do

This app is intriguing to me as I am a self proclaimed "post-it" addict.  I have notes stuck to everything at home and at the office.  Usually I condense the post-it's to a "to-do" list and from there check things off.  Obviously this system is flawed as I often lose a note somewhere or it falls off and I forget to write it down.  This tool can be used with a computer and smart phone which is a huge bonus because it's easier and faster to type than make entries on a handheld device.

Fat Secret

This is a tool I DO use on a daily basis.  This is helpful for me to journal and track what food I eat to ensure that I am getting a balanced amount of fat, carbohydrates and protein.  It is also useful for me to figure out when I'm not feeling well to go to the journal and see what I ate that may have been the cause. 

Epocrates

When discussing this assignment with my husband he told me this is an app he uses on a daily basis as a paramedic.  Often times on medical calls when there is a patient who has overdosed on medication or had a reaction to medication that wasn't prescribed to him/her.  This tool has provided useful information to identify unknown drugs or drugs in related families so the paramedics can provide emergency life saving measures to treat the patient.

Remember The Milk

In addition to the mention of this app in the assignment instructions it came up on several search engines.  I will research this one a little more in addition to Toodle Do.  One of the features that attracts me to this app more than the other one is it's use with Google Calendar.  After reading some of the blog posts on the website I believe this would be better for me since I can share information with my husband electronically.  With our schedules as busy as they are electronic communication is one of the most effective forms of communication we have!

4 Web Sites I Visit Most Often

My Facebook page

I check Facebook multiple times a day for several reasons.  I have siblings in Alabama and Texas and we communicate a lot via Facebook.  Due to work schedules and multiple time zones it's easiest to update each other on the day to day stuff via Facebook.  On the weekends we usually find a time to Skype or Facetime.

S & P Capital IQ

Standard and Poor's Market Scope advisor page I visit several times a day mostly after the stock market is closed.  The site offers a comprehensive analysis of the stock market and trends.  I work for a financial advisor and part of my job is researching information for him to present to clients.

Oregon Live

I visit this sight daily to keep updated on "breaking" news across the state.  I do support our local news station KTVZ for local news, however the quality of information and delivery leaves a lot of room for improvement - In my opinion.

INCI WEB - Incident Information System

This website is seasonal for me.  I visit it everyday during the summer "fire season" months to keep myself informed on the active fires across the state.  My husband is a Captain for the Redmond Fire Department and on a State Overhead Team that frequently gets activated to respond to the larger fires to provide support for logistics and operational needs.  I like to stay updated so I am less surprised when I have to manage the house and children alone for weeks at a time.

Marks Daily Apple

This sight has a lot of information on it, I  primarily read the daily posts and articles.  It's a sight dedicated to educating people in health and nutrition by living the Paleo lifestyle.  I occasionally skim through the forum topics to see what people are talking about, my main interest in the sight is just the daily posts and recipes.

I view a lot of websites during the day, the above four are my top visits.  However I could also add .amazon.com, Huffington Post, and The Paleo Mom, to the list of favorites. 

4 Powerful PowerPoint Presentations at TED

Louis Schwartzberg: The Hidden Beauty of Pollenation

This presentation was a very interesting piece on pollinators (e.g. bees, bats, butterflies) and the delicate balance of the ecosystems and how they can be negatively effected by humans.  There were very powerful pictures and videos of the various animals in action.  I do think that the presentation lacked visual cues of statistical damage to go along with the presenters topic.  




Amy Lockwood: Selling Condoms in the Congo

 Very poignant presentation emphasizing the importance of knowing who your audience/customer is when trying to sell or give away a product.  The presentation involved slides with statistical data on people, disease, and death rates in the Congo.  She also had pictures of the variety of condoms that sold and were widely used and the ones that did not sell - and testimony from pharmacies, hotel owners and the general public on why certain brands were popular and others were not.



Dan Gilbert: The Psychology of your future self

Interesting topic on people and their perception of how they have changed and how they will change in 10 year increments.  Used charts and diagrams to show the actual data and how it compares to what people think. 

Ron Gutman: The hidden power of smiling

Of the 9 presentations I watched and 4 that I posted this presenter used his power point presentation along with his speech the most.  He used a slide to punctuate every point he conveyed.  Definitely an effective tool.  The content of his speech was interesting by itself, however it was engaging with the use of his power point presentation.

3 Tutorials Explaining Excel Financial Functions

RATE function

Website: Excel Easy

This Excel tutorial is pretty straight forward, it explains how to utilize the financial functions in excel, and ads screen shots for clarity.  However if someone has never used Excel and is learning for the first time I would recommend a website that has more examples and/or reasons why this function is helpful in a spreadsheet.

FV (Future Value) function

Website: Funtionx

This is a comprehensive tutorial on the financial functions of Excel.  It is detailed and explains every function, offers a Practical Learning portion for practice, and screen shots of what your work should look like when completed.

YIELD Function

Website: Excel Functions

Definitely the best website of the three that I've posted for comprehensive information on all of the functions.  The sight is easy to navigate, and provides a lot of useful information on when and why the functions would be used.  It also has a "common errors" section with tips on how to avoid mistakes in data entry.

4 News Articles/Reports Utilizing Data Tables

American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC)

The data table is used to represent the amount of exposures to the hazardous substance in this case it is energy drinks containing "caffeine and other stimulants".  The table is rather vague unless you read the highlighted information defining "exposure".  At first glance or to someone not thoroughly reading the article they may equate exposures to deaths - and that is not the case.

ZILLOW

Zillow is a website used mostly by home buyers to research available properties, prices, and schools.  With the housing market making a steady comeback the data tables on Bend, OR are difficult to read due to the many sales involving bank owned homes, foreclosures, and short sales.  My personal opinion if you're buying a home in this market make sure the realtor, the bank, and the appraiser utilize prices from a variety of like homes in a variety of situations from short sales to traditional sales and somewhere in the middle you'll be able to put in a bid.

PEW RESEARCH

Beyond Red vs Blue: Political Typology is the article that I chose off of PEW RESEARCH as I found it interesting to see how the partisan lines are ever evolving.  The table in the article gives a general idea of how politically engaged people are and from that engagement which way they are likely to vote.  The article even provides a quiz to check where your own personal beliefs lie.

WEIGHTOLOGY NET

For this particular article I believe the table serves the purpose strictly for the group surveyed and how they were surveyed.  The study itself is very flawed as it doesn't provide guidelines as to how the weight was lost and the validity of the data reported.

4 Sites with Examples of Nice Resumes

RESUME TEMPLATES.COM

Resume Templates.com has several templates to choose from that are free to download in Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, HTML, and Plain Text.  Additionally it has links to upload your completed resume to Indeed.com.  Once you create an account you can save multiple drafts and resumes tailored to the specific job your looking for.  Additionally if you want assistance in creating cover letters those templates can be purchased.

INSTANT RESUME TEMPLATES


Instant Resume Templates.com offers 186 FREE customizable, printable, and downloadable templates.  The site offers the most popular resumes to choose from on the front page for a range of workers from college students to older workers.  The templates are easy to use and are all Microsoft Word Resume Templates available in Microsoft Word (.DOC) format.  Very user friendly, however I wouldn't recommend it for someone with no prior resume experience as it is simply the templates.

SMART RESUME WIZARD

Of the websites that I've reviewed so far this one is probably my favorite because of the information provided.  All of the templates can be exported to MS Word or PDF and there is a large variety to choose from.  What makes this sight stand out to me is the additional information, articles, and tutoring on how to create a great, professional resume.

RESUME GIG.COM

This site is the most user friendly of the four.  It is well presented with minimal ads, provides step by step instructions and multiple templates to choose from.  It also has several good tips on making a resume stand out, examples of similar jobs, and tips for a cover letter.  It also has a live chat customer support service with someone who can help you should you have difficulty.  Additionally like the first website posted you're able to create and save multiple resumes and cover letters to your own account for free and email documents from there.