How A Blog Can Land You a Real Job

How A Blog Can Land You a Real Job

How A Blog Can Land You a Real Job
Still on the fence about whether or not blogging is for you? What if I told you that I’ve landed TONS of real, legit jobs because of my blog? From my marketing position at the University of Michigan to my various freelance jobs, my blog is a huge factor that sets me apart from other applicants. Your blog could help you land jobs.
  • Your blog will show consistency and dedication for something that you aren’t required to do. It shows that you’re dedicated to projects you pick up and can stick with something. A lot of employers want to know that if they hire you, you won’t just abandon ship a few months later. A blog gives them piece of mind.
  • A blog shows that you’re self starting and do things without being told to. You’re a go-getter rather than sitting around waiting to be told to do certain tasks.
  • Plus a lot of employers would love the chance to see writing skills. A blog is an archive of your work so they’re able to see your voice, editing skills, and writing style. All things that’ll help you land the job above someone else.
  • Without really knowing it, employers will also see that you’re responsive to comments which shows that you’ll be great at responding to emails and others in a timely manner. They’ll see you can run something all on your own.
  • Depending on what job you’re trying to land, your blog will also show photography skills. A lot of creative jobs want you to be good at SO MANY THINGS. A blog is a great representation of everything you know. Social media skills, how to use platforms online, and how to take good photos. 
So polish up that old blog of yours or start a new one. The subject matter really doesn’t matter to employers just as long as it shows just how amazing you are. Other applicants won’t have this secret up their sleeves when applying for the same jobs.
How to Work From Home and Actually Get Stuff Done

How to Work From Home and Actually Get Stuff Done

How to Work From Home and Actually Get Stuff Done
Ironically enough I’ve procrastinated a bit on writing this post. Definitely NOT how to work from home and get things done. Do as I say and not as I do, right?! But in all seriousness, working from home is not all it’s cracked up to be. Sure pajama days are frequent, but getting stuff done takes some serious focus and planning. And when there are adorable cats to be pet, it’s even harder. So here’s how to work from home and crack out that to do list at the same time.
  • Give yourself deadlines. It’s so easy to slack and procrastinate on things if you’re the one in charge of them, so give yourself deadlines and stick with them. I have new release deadlines, video deadlines, and tons of others to make sure I’m not watching Netflix all day.
  • Have a designated work space or area that you like to work in. I muddle this a bit since I enjoy working from bed so much, but I still have a designated desk space I go to when things get serious. This also helps to separate work from home life (something I’m eternally struggling with)
  • Have an end time so you aren’t working from morning to night. It’s important to live a regular life even though you work from home. Go outside, have a non-work related hobby, see friends. Plus if you know when your work day is over, then you know when you can tackle that pile of laundry or the dishes in the sink. It’s so easy to get swept away by those things during the work day, so having an end time gives you a clear separation between work and home.
  • Take breaks throughout the day so you don’t go stir crazy. This is a lot easier when you have a “real” job because they’re assigned to you. I always try to take at least 30 minutes at lunch and another 30 in the afternoon to help get me through until 7pm when I stop working.
  • Figure out a routine for your average work week so there is consistency in your life and you have scheduled time for certain activities. This will help make sure you get everything you need to done because there will be a set time for everything. On Mondays I like to do orders, Tuesdays are for videos and blogging bits, and so on. This helps me to know generally what to expect every week so I can tweak it if there are meetings or events.
If you can work from home, definitely do it. It’s completely changed my working life and if I can avoid going back to a desk job, I will. It comes with it’s own challenges, but it’s worth every single one.

How to Find Your Planning Style

How to Find Your Planning Style

How to Find Your Planning Style
The planning world can be quite daunting whether you’re new or have been planning for ages. Finding a planning style with all the options can seem a bit troublesome and I’ve tried my fair share. Here are my five tips to helping figure out what style will work best for you.
  1. Figure out what styles interest you. Are you attracted to no white space planning, bullet journals, color coding, lists, memory keeping? Write down every style you are remotely interested in.
  2. Try out all the styles you’re interested in without spending any money. Print off mock planner spreads online, get an empty sheet of paper to try bullet journaling, and give everything a go. This will help you get a sense of what you actually like to do before investing money into it.
  3. Once you’ve narrowed things down to planning styles you’re likely to adopt, watch videos and look at inspiration. That way you’ll see the full range of what that particular style has to offer before taking the financial plunge.
  4. Start small with purchasing supplies and try to choose things that could be used in other planning styles if your interests change in the future. Try and DIY some of the more expensive materials when getting started just in case you aren’t 100% positive.
  5. Consider combining some of the styles that
    interest you together to make a hybrid planning style. Maybe keep a notebook for daily list making and a planner for memory keeping. Or use a traveler’s notebook to bullet journal while having color coded lists. A hybrid planning style is most likely the answer, but you have to figure out what you want to mix together first.

I talk more about these five points in today’s video!
Why You Should Make a Year in Review Photo Book

Why You Should Make a Year in Review Photo Book

Why You Should Make a Year in Review Photo Book
It’s not too late to make a year in review photo book of everything you got up to last year. I got my butt in gear and whipped together a book at the start of the year and I’ve already started making plans for my 2018 in review to be even better. There are a ton of reasons why you should take a few hours out of your day to gather all the photos from the last year and put them together.
Why You Should Make a Year in Review Photo Book
  1. The age of photo albums is dying. Some of my best memories with family are flipping through old photo albums, learning about our history, and hearing stories. Soon there won’t be a time when family gathers around albums to talk share memories. I don’t want our future kids to miss out on seeing the early years of their parents.
  2. It’s a great way to reflect on everything that has happened in the past year. I have the hardest time celebrating the small victories, so putting them all into a book is a fantastic way to make sure to celebrate everything.
  3. If you tend to keep concert tickets and other memorabilia, you can add a pocket to the back of the book and stash all those little papers you’ve collected throughout the year.
  4. You can add in travel photos so you don’t feel like you have to have a whole separate book or scrapbook to document the adventure. 
  5. I’m awful at scrapbooking. Plus the time commitment is just too much. This makes the whole process way easier.
I ordered my book through Shutterfly, but there are tons of options out there and coupons constantly. I’ve started a folder on my computer to pop in any photos from this year that I want to include in the next book. That way, twelve months from now I’m not trying to scrounge together photos.
I’ve already convinced my sister to make one…you should too!
On Quitting

On Quitting

I started this blog in 2013 after having various blogs for five years before that. I had these cliche dreams of making it big in the beauty world, quitting my day job, and travelling around the world taking glamour shots on amazing trips. That’s what all the big beauty bloggers were doing and I wanted to be just like them. This photo was taken a few days before I started this blog back in 2013. I had lofty dreams, ambitions, and far-fetched goals.
Fast forward five years and here I am. Not YouTube famous, not blog famous. My unrealistic dreams did not come true. And you know what? I’m still not quitting.
Sure I didn’t become a fast success and the source for all things beauty. But I did become a much better writer, photographer, and content promoter than if I had never started this blog. MicroscopeBeauty and gotten me countless “real” jobs even if it hasn’t sky-rocketed me to internet fame. It’s also taught me to fight for everything I want. Starting a blog and throwing up a few posts isn’t going to give you internet stardom. I’ve worked hard for every single like, follow, and comment I’ve gotten in the past five years.
This blog has been here for me through a lot of life changes. Starting Oh, Hello, getting married, quitting my “real” job to follow (another) silly dream. It’d be so easy to up and quit just because it didn’t give to me what I wanted it to. But it’s given me so much more instead.
Of course I’d love to get a call from some makeup brand whisking me away to Iceland or somewhere equally crazy. But I’m also happy being here, in bed, in my pajamas, doing the same thing I’ve done the past half decade. Because sometimes things don’t work out like you hope they would, but they become something else entirely.
The girl in this photo didn’t know what the next five years had in store for her, but I’m pretty sure if she did, she wouldn’t have changed a thing.