Volunteer Work Is the Ultimate Interview

Volunteer Work Is the Ultimate InterviewVolunteer Work Is the Ultimate InterviewConsider volunteer work a lengthy interview.If you think doing volunteer work is just filler to pad the resume while you are looking for a real job, then think again. It can make or break you during a job search.Pro bono work can include anything from nonprofit projects to community service and even religious or alumni events.No matter what you invest your time in, its all a lot like an extended behavioral interview. These experiences are a great way to shine, build credibility in professional circles and get your name out there - if you have the right attitude.The bottom line is People talk. And people are more likely to refer someone based on past successes. In other words, your volunteer resume should be just as outstanding as your professional one.Here are some tenets to remember during your pro bono work. Ive seen them all, and I know that people who demonstrate ansicht behaviors end up on the short list when organizations are looking for people to fill paid positions.1. Have the attitude you would have at the office.Yes, we know they dont pay you to do this thats why its called volunteering. Go in with the attitude that, for the short term, you will give more than you receive. Nevertheless, you are volunteering to give back to your community, and this will build long-term trusting relationships.2. Lead, even if youre bedrngnis the team leader.Volunteer appointments are a great way to showcase your leadership, organization and communication skills. If you can help take some of the burden off the team leader, your efforts will be noticed. If the decision that needs to be made falls within the responsibilities of your role, make it and keep the team leader informed. Dont send 200 e-mails a day asking for guidance or permission. Doing so makes you appear indecisive and unsure of yourself. These are not great qualities to display in front of people who may be in a position to refe r you somewhere down the line.3. Showcase your management style.It is equally damaging to make decisions that are not within your role of responsibilities, which could potentially damage or muddy the relationship you have with the team leader. Theres a fine line between being supportive and being power-hungry, so make sure you dont cross it. Your actions will reflect how you might go about managing a team or staff in the business world, so treat volunteer teams as such.4. Endure as you would in a real-world role.Sometimes volunteers make commitments to projects with the best of intentions and then stuff happens, and they fall off the face of the earth. This puts an extra burden on teammates and causes resentment. And if thats not enough, it damages your professional reputation. It is unlikely that you will be trusted with a paid role if you cant deliver on a volunteer project. Stick it out as you would a turn in the market or an unanticipated business need. If you volunteer for a pr oject, stick with it to the end - even if it means doing some juggling.

Were sitting more and more and its affecting our health

Were sitting mora and more and its affecting our healthWere sitting more and more - and its affecting our healthIf Justan Germano werent so dedicated to staying fit, work could put his health on the line.The 32-year-old professional zocker spends more than eight hours nearly every day glued to a screen as he livestreams his exploits on social media and interacts with followers.But hes also a lifelong athlete who takes an hour-long stroll in the mornings and does 90 minutes of weight training at the gym five to six times a week.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreI wanted to show people that just because youre a gamer doesnt mean that you have to be lazy, Germano told Healthline.However, millions of other people in the United States are becoming increasingly sedentary, according to a newstudyTrusted Sourcethat examined low-energy behaviors.Researchers found that Americans of all ag es are spending more of their leisure time on a computer. They also discovered that a large portion of the population is sitting for longer periods in general.In addition, the researchers concluded that well over half the country continues to watch television or videos at least two hours a day.Scientists analyzed data from almost 52,000 children, adolescents and adults who participated in an ongoing federal study of Americans health.Although there have been other studies on the publics level of physical activity, none is as comprehensive as this one that appeared in this weeks Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).For the first time, researchers measured the prevalence of sedentary behavior as well as looked for trends among all ages and over a long period of time, saidLin Yang, PhD, an epidemiologist at Alberta Health Services in Canada and the studys lead author.Among the conclusions reached by Yang and her colleaguesAbout 60 percent of Americans have been spending at least two hours a day for the past 15 years watching television or videos.The number of people using a computer at least 1 hour a day for reasons other than school or work increased during the same general time frame. By 2016, 56 percent of children, 57 percent of adolescents and 50 percent of adults fit this profile.The amount of time that survey respondents estimated they spent sitting rose. In 2016, adolescents reported they were seated slightly more than eight hours a day while adults averaged slightly more than six hours a day.Its really concerning, Yang told Healthline. Were looking at a really alarming trend.The effects of sittingInactivity can produce a host of health problems ranging from obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure to anxiety, cancer, and atrophied muscles.Even people who exercise regularly can sabotage their metabolism if theyre also stationary for long periods of time, saidKen Smith, senior research scholar at the Stanford Center o n Longevity in California.Smith said Americans have made marginal progress over the past decade toward meeting the federal governments recommendations for physical activity, which calls for adults getting at least 150 minutes of modetarif exercise a week.However, he told Healthline, when were not working out, were more likely to be not moving at all.Dr. Cate Collings, president-elect of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and a cardiologist in Mountain View, California, echoed Smiths comments.She said that vigorous exercise on the weekend wont entirely mitigate the effects of inertia Monday through Friday.For better or worse, the body responds in real time when we sit, stand or walk. These actions have an immediate effect on processes such as the heart rate and blood pressure, Collings said.You cant store up (the beneficial effects of exercise) - be sedentary, sedentary, sedentary and then exercise, she told Healthline.Why we sitExperts cite multiple reasons for the sedentar y habits that can lead to sitting disease, an informal term that describes the collection of health complications.In addition to watching TV and using computers for entertainment, Collings pointed to the popularity of mobile devices.The Information Age is absorbing, if not addicting, she said.She notes that people now use their smartphones and tablets to do everything from making dinner reservations to shopping - all of which is easier done sitting down.Whiling away hours in commute traffic also contributes to physical inactivity, Collings said.Kaiser Permanente physicianDr. Sean Hashmipoints to the economys shift from blue-collar jobs to more sedentary, white-collar ones in which office workers are more apt to communicate with other employees by email than walk over to talk to them.The biggest culprit is (workplace) culture, he told Healthline.He added that organizations must ensure their employees are healthy if they want them to be productive.Hashmi, regional director of clinica l nutrition and weight management for Kaiser Permanente in Southern California, used to meet staff members once a week for 30 minutes of light exercise in the companys Walk With Your Doc wellness program.Long hours on the job often leave employees with only enough energy to plop down on the couch with the TV remote when they get home, he added.What you can doHealthcare providers say there is hope for sedentary souls who want to get moving.The body can heal itself if given a chance, said Collings.She noted that exercise is a tool to treat and even reverse the effects of inactivity.The body has a remarkable ability to heal itself when you remove the insults, she said.Hashmi is equally optimistic, pointing out that even those who have been heavy smokers for years start seeing improvements in their lungs as soon as they kick the habit.The key is to take the first step, even if its a small one, he said.For someone whos been sitting watching Netflix, the best day to start is today, Hashmi said. Today is the day. You start today. And you will start to feel better tomorrow inside.Here are some quick ways to get your body moving during the dayTake a break every 30 minutes if youre sitting at a desk, says Ohio chiropractorDrew Schwartz, DC. Walk around or do a few stretching exercises in your cubicle to relax the chest and hip muscles.Get out of your chair and have face time with coworkers instead of communicating with them on the computer.Run errands - or at least walk quickly - during your lunch break.Forget the elevator - take the stairs instead.Get off the subway one stop before your destination and walk the rest of the way.Maintain the homestead yourself instead of paying someone to do it. Vacuuming, washing the car, and doing yard work can get the blood pumping.When you watch TV, do a few exercises during the commercials.This article first appeared on Healthline.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your s ocial class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

Greener Less Expensive Cogeneration Plant

Greener Less Expensive Cogeneration Plant Greener Less Expensive Cogeneration Plant Almost two decades ago, I recommended that our institution, the University of Connecticut, where I taught mechanical engineering, build a cogeneration plant that would help lower energy costs. Cogeneration, also called combined heat and power, is the production of more than one useful form of energyboth heat and electric power, for examplefrom a single energy source, such as the burning of natural gas.At the time, UConns Storrs unigelnde of 15,000 students heated its buildings by steam generated in a central plant with natural gas-fired boilers. During warm months, buildings were cooled by individual electric-powered air conditioning units or by central plant chilled water. All electric power welches purchased from the local notoriously expensive electric utility company.Although my recommendation was not immediately accepted, as energy costs began to soar, almost doubling to $15 million by 2002, and with the prospect of even higher costs, the university administrations thinking aligned with mine. The university asked for proposals for a plant that would produce a peak of 25 megawatts, 200,000 pounds per hour of steam, and 6,000 refrigeration tons of chilled water. Construction started in 2003 and was completed in 2005 at a cost of about $80 million. The plant, which went online the next year, makes better and more efficient use of a high-grade fuel and has a reduced environmental impact.Cogeneration is the key. Heating buildings and people by combusting a limited, high-grade fuel to produce a low-grade form of energy is wasteful. Cogeneration uses the fuel to first produce both high-grade energyelectricityand low-grade heat.The cogeneration plant was designed to blend seamlessly into the campus landscape. In fact, the doors shown here lead to a classroom.If a large institution, such as a university or hospital, purchases electric power from a utility, it is in effect, burning t wo measures of fuel instead of one. One measure of natural gas is combusted in an offsite utility companys gas turbines (and exhausted up a stack) and another measure of natural gas is burned in steam boilers (and exhausted up a stack). A cogeneration plant uses one measure of natural gas twicefirst for generating electric power in a campus-installed gas turbine and then passing the hot exhaust gases through a heat recovery system to produce steam (and only then exhausting up a stack).Total utility costs for universities such as UConn can be substantial. For fiscal year 2005, utility costs for electricity, natural gas, and fuel oil amounted to $23.4 million for the Storrs campus, 20% of the campus operating budget and 3% of the total campus budget.The heart of UConns cogen plant is three 7.5MW Solar Taurus 70 gas turbines, with a rated thermal efficiency of 34%. The load at UConn ranges from 8MW to 22MW. The fuel of choice is natural gas, but the gas turbines can alternately be swit ched over to fuel oil. Each gas turbine drives a water-cooled electric generator. The exhaust, which runs as high as 900F, passes into a heat recovery steam generator to produce both high-pressure and low-pressure steam. Low-pressure steam is used for campus heating, and during the warm months powers turbines that drive three refrigeration compressors supplying air conditioning.High-pressure steam is used to power one single-stage steam turbine that drives a 5MW water-cooled electric generator, providing additional electric power and higher combined-cycle thermal efficiencies. The exhaust from the steam turbine, now at a reduced pressure and temperature, can be added to low-pressure steam to either heat or cool facilities. Thus, this portion of the energy conversion cycle in UConns cogen plant has made three uses of a unit of gas turbine fuel.Using the plant design requirements25MW of electricity and 200,000 pounds per hour of steam, one can calculate a demand rate (ratio of heat re quired to electrical power required) showing that the fuel energy savings ratio could be as high as 48%.I am proud of what we achieved although I cant help but feel that we could have done it sooner. As society faces the prospect of having to use fossil fuels more wisely in order to conserve a finite resource and to reduce the production of greenhouse gases, I cant help but worry that other large but sensible steps toward efficiency will also take as long.Adapted from Campus Heat and Power, by Lee S. Langston, for Mechanical Engineering, December 2006.If a large institution, such as a university or hospital, purchases electric power from a utility, it is in effect, burning two measures of fuel instead of one.