Monday, April 20, 2020

How to Build a Winning Entry Level Software Engineer Resume

How to Build a Winning Entry Level Software Engineer ResumeWhen you are starting a career in the IT field, your first step is to look for the suitable entry level software engineer resume. But it is not only about the computer skills you will have to have if you want to be hired as an entry-level software engineer. You need to look for the following points on your resume.You need to list all the important characteristics you have if you want to get hired as an entry-level software engineer. Once you list these, you will have to look for the following:Skills - Most of the people who are looking for jobs in the IT field need a specific set of skills to take the job. If you have some general knowledge but are not able to deal with the complex things, you can not expect to get hired. You need to show that you are capable to do the task, which your company needs. You should know how to get some data conversion, basic web designing skills, basics of programming and system management to mak e the right decisions on projects.Competition - You need to have a good competitive edge when applying for a job. Your competitive edge will be your competitive edge when you are already working as an entry-level software engineer. You need to show that you are up to date in the latest technology of the company. Show how you can handle the work and give information about the tasks and the deadlines.Knowledge - You should have a basic knowledge about the company. Get information about the team you are going to work with. Also, you should know what kind of work you will be doing.Motivation - You should have a big motivation if you want to become an entry level software engineer. This will make you work hard and work very hard to have the position of the company. Show what your passion is.So, now you can see how you can look for the appropriate entry level software engineer resume. You need to keep all these points in mind while looking for the appropriate entry level software engineer resume.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Self-Employed People Pay Less in Taxes

Self-Employed People Pay Less in Taxes Who pays a greater share of their income in taxes â€" Warren Buffett, or his administrative assistant? Obviously, posing the question implies its answer. Politicians may tout the virtues of our “progressive” tax system, but it doesn’t really favor the poor over the rich. Nor does it favor the rich over the poor, not when 40% of federal tax receipts come from 1% of the population. Fairly or otherwise, the tax system favors the diligent over the unprepared. Specifically, the system favors independent businesspeople over salaried workers. This topic requires a book-length explanation, but to summarize, starting your own business lets you enjoy tax advantages wage slaves only dream of. Take two people in the same field, making like incomes, living in the same city â€" the only exception being that one owns his own business and the other works for someone else. It’s eminently possible that the latter person’s tax bill is nine times the former’s. Read More: How Do I Choose the Best Rewards Credit Card? Declare your independence today, if your career lets you make a horizontal shift to entrepreneurship. If you’re an anesthesiologist, it’ll be hard to rent out an office and put up a sign that reads “Mepivacaine Administered Here â€" Happy Hour 4 â€" 7.” But if you’re an accountant, real estate agent, home inspector, engineer, attorney* or in any kind of creative profession, you can take advantage of complex tax laws. I’m not talking about the kind of entrepreneurship that requires you to open a physical storefront and spend years building a customer base. I’m talking about changes you can make now that will immediately impact your bottom line. I tried to go as long as I could without using the first-person pronoun, but my story illustrates the point. A decade ago I was working for a decently-sized advertising agency as a senior copywriter, making somewhat more than the nation’s per capita income. One day I ran the numbers and realized I could make more money going out on my own. Read More: How Do I Determine the Biggest Monthly Payment That I Can Afford? I collected most of my new clients, other ad agencies, via word-of-mouth. But most importantly, I took on the very agency I’d left as a client â€" and charged them about 30% more than they paid me as an employee. There are two components to that: 1) they were underpaying me to begin with, but had to cough up once I exercised my leverage and threatened to walk and B) the daily rate they paid me after the switch was just for the services I rendered nothing else. It included no employee benefits, no capital expenditures for a workstation, no space reserved for me at the office Christmas party, no food allowance, no 6.2% Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax, no unemployment insurance premium. The responsibility for all that now fell on me. Which is wonderful. It meant that instead of my former employer enjoying all the possible tax deductions from my labor, I got to take advantage of them. My taxes got a little more complicated â€" I now had to keep more detailed records, and file quarterly instead of annually â€" but the benefits grossly outweighed the costs. It’s easy to get started, but also easy to make mistakes. You don’t want to be a single proprietor. You want to found an S Corporation, a legal entity that protects you from creditors who are forbidden from coming after certain classifications of income. An S Corporation lets you separate your money between salary and capital gains, the latter of which is taxed at a lower rate. Read More: What Is the Best Way to Find My Credit Score? Find a company that specializes in entity formation. It’ll cost maybe $500 for them to register you with the relevant state’s Secretary of State office. You don’t have to register in your home state, either. If you live in California or New York, you don’t want to â€" those states’ laws don’t protect you enough from creditors. Register in Delaware or Nevada or, failing that, your home state. Once you incorporate it starts forcing you to think like a businessman. Income will now be tabulated on IRS 1099 forms, rather than those infamous W-2s. The former is where you want most of your income to come from. As a practical matter, once you incorporate you’ll pay (correction: your company will pay) you a salary. What’s a reasonable amount to cover your annual living expenses; maybe $24,000? Then that’s what Employee #1, you, will receive and pay taxes on. After deductions, your effective tax rate on the salary will be close to zero. But what about the rest of your company’s income? Legally speaking, the rest of the revenue your S Corporation takes in is not salary, but shareholder dividends. Which are taxed at a lower rate than salaries are. And you can now deduct all sorts of business expenses before calculating the net shareholder dividends you’ll pay taxes on. Go to IRS.gov and check out Form 2106. Your employer fills one of these out every time you go on a business trip, or eat a meal on company time, or buy anything related to your job. And your employer then enjoys the tax deduction. *** * It tears me inside to know that by writing this post, I’m giving you leeches an economic edge. About the Author: Greg McFarlane is a writer who lives in Las Vegas and Lahaina testament to the power of entrepreneurship. He is the author of Control Your Cash: Making Money Make Sense, a financial primer for people in their 20s and 30s who know nothing about money. You can buy the book here and reach Greg at greg@ControlYourCash.com.

Friday, April 10, 2020

5 Effective Work Habits For Fresh Graduates - Work It Daily

5 Effective Work Habits For Fresh Graduates - Work It Daily Being new in the working world, I am sure you are eager to show off your new-found skills and knowledge. Instilling some basic work habits can noticeably increase your productivity. Being consistently effective with your work increases your chances of early success in your career. The five effective work habits are: 1. Volunteer For Assignments One of the best ways to signal that you are a keen learner and are not afraid of hard work is to volunteer for assignments. Especially assignments no one seems interested to do. However, before that you should assess your own skills and knowledge to see if you can confidently accomplish it. If you are confident in completing the task in full and perfection, go ahead and volunteer for it. However, do remember one thing. Under-promise and over-deliver on the assignment you volunteered. Do not be too confident that you turn a perfect opportunity into mess. Once you start the project, see it until the end. You would be seen as someone who is courageous enough to take on additional assignments. You would also be seen as someone who follows through in your work. This is the first habit you need to internalize. 2. Be Nice To People I am sure we have all heard this often enough. Be nice to people regardless of their rank and designation. It sounds philosophical but when you are nice to people they go out of their way to help you. And being new in an organization you would never know what sort of help you would need. Colleagues often like to work with nice talented people. When you have this effective work habit you increase the chances of people wanting you to work on their team. Being nice to people is just common courtesy. There is nothing extraordinary about this particular habit that you need special skills. A smile and a “Good Morning” are a good start. In this day and age, people working in pressurized environments often use stress as an excuse when they blow up. Is this necessary? Nice is often reciprocated by nice. In fact, it can lower your stress level. 3. Prioritize Your Work We all love to start work on things that are close to our hearts. However, often these may not be the most urgent and important in our list of tasks in the workplace. When you select things you are more interested in rather than work that is more important or urgent, you lower your chances of success. Have a list of things to do according to its strategic importance to your company. Know your role in completing the tasks at hand in order to achieve that corporate goal. When you prioritize your work, you are more productive and that increases your chances of career success. 4. Stay Positive As someone new in the working world it is very easy to feel down because you are new. You are not used to the work system. You have new people to deal with and people in the working world who behave very differently from school. It takes a lot of getting used to. There will be office politics to deal with regardless of how little. Be above all these and stay positive in the face of challenges. When you are positive you remain focused on your goals. You make better decisions and therefore become more productive. 5. Highlight A Problem But Bring Solutions The last effective work habit of the five effective work habits is to bring solutions each time you highlight a problem to your boss or management. You need to remember when you bring problems and not solutions, it is often construed as complaining. To avoid that label, offer solutions. A range of possible solutions also indicates to your boss you have thought this through before approaching him/her with a problem. Have in mind a recommended solution amongst those you suggested. These are the five effective work habits I constantly drill into new employees who are fresh graduates in our company. At first glance, these may seem like common sense. However, in actual working environment people tend to sometimes forget these very basic effective work habits. And don't practice them often enough. Internalize these and consistently practice them to increase your chances of success. Photo Credit: Shutterstock Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!