Creative Thinking Definition, Examples How to Boost Creativity

Creative Thinking Definition, Examples How to Boost Creativity Creative thinking skills are important to master in many professions and workplaces.On the face of it, creativity seems like a skill useful only to artists, designers, writers, or marketers.Truth iscreative skills are indispensable for all professionals.Creative thinkers are able to look at things in new, unorthodox ways and come up with solutions no one previously thought of.Creativity is what drives innovation and progress.And you came to the right place to learn all you need to know about creative thinking!This guide will show you:Examples of the best creative thinking skills.What is creative thinking and how to use creativity skills to boost your career.A list of the best jobs for creative thinkers and how to land them.Creative thinking exercises to help you become more creative today.Want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. Its fast and easy to use. Plus, youll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ resume templates and cr eate your resume here.Sample resume made with our builderSee more templates and create your resume here.One of our users, Nikos, had this to say:[I used] a nice template I found on Zety. My resume is now one page long, not three. With the same stuff.Create your resume nowIf you want to learn more about listing all of the most in-demand skills on a resume, see this beast of a guide: Best Job Skills You Should Put on a Resume to Land Interviews in 2020And if you want to learn more about individual skills, we've got you covered! Check out our dedicated guides:Key Hard Skills to Include on a Job-Winning ResumeTechnical Skills for Resume Daily JobComputer Skills Employers Want in 2020Soft Skills vs Hard Skills for a Job: What Employers Look for1Creative Thinking Skills Definition ExamplesWhat are creative thinking skills?Creative thinking is the ability to invent and/or create something new: be that a concept, a solution, a method, a work of art, or an actual, physical device. Creative thinking is based on looking at things in a new way that hasnt previously been considered. Thats why its often described as thinking outside the box.Now, lets have a look at some examples of creative thinking skills.The Best Creative Skills: ExamplesProblem SolvingTackling unexpected problems requires a lot of creativity. After all, employers want to hire creative thinkers not because of their creativity as such, but because they can use it to solve problems in an innovative way.Creative WritingOne of the most typical yet in-demand creative skills. If you are able to write in a compelling, creative way, it will help you a great deal in marketing, sales and, obviously, journalism. But it will also come in handy in all other positions that require writingeven if youre just drafting emails, reports, and presentations.Open-MindednessWhen youre open-minded, you oppose stereotypes and look for new solutions and methods of doing things, instead of sticking to good ol ways which might be n o good after all.AnalysisIf you can gather information and data, thats great but without creative thinking skills, you wont be able to analyze it properly. Creativity in analytical thinking helps you extract meaning from sets of raw data.See more: Analytical Skills: Definition Examples for the WorkplaceCommunicationNo matter how great your ideas are, if youre unable to communicate in an engaging and creative way, youll never get to implement them.And there are different types of communication skills. Check them out here: Communication Skills for Your Resume Workplace SuccessActive ListeningHow can listening be considered creative? Wellthrough active listening you process ideas better so that you can challenge and refine them later during a creative brainstorming session.Sales and MarketingSelling and marketing require a great deal of persuasion. But first, you need to put together a creative message that will enhance your sales pitch.Heres all you need to know about marketing skil ls: Marketing Skills: Examples and How to Use ThemGraphic DesignWhere creative thinking meets art. Artistic craftsmanship is important in graphic design but without fresh, creative ideas, even your most beautiful sketches and projects will be dull and lifeless.LeadershipLeadership is all about inspiring others. But when you have great leadership skills based on big and creative ideas and visions, you are able to connect teams and motivate them to work together towards the end goal.Before we move on to examples of how to use creative thinking skills in your workplace and how to show them off in the job search, one thing to keep in mindTwo terms that people often conflate are creative and critical thinking skills. But these are not the same.Creative vs. Critical ThinkingCreative thinking means you can come up with new ways to think about the surrounding world in order to make something innovative.Critical thinking can be described as thinking about thinking: it means you can understan d the way your perception works in order to identify flaws in your reasoning and avoid biases.3How to Use Creative Skills in Your Job SearchNow that youve seen the best examples of creative thinking skills, think about how you can use these skills to better your career!There are many great jobs that involve creativityweve listed some of the most popular ones below.If youre interested in landing one of them, just click on the position name and youll see a dedicated guide on how to write a job-winning resume for your next creative gig.Heres a list of creative careers you might want to consider!Jobs for Creative ThinkersAcademic CareerActingBartendingCulinary Career (Chef or Cook)Data AnalysisData ScienceGraphic DesignInterior DesignManagementMarketing and Marketing ManagementProgrammingPublic RelationsSalesSoftware EngineeringTeachingUX/UI DesignVisual ArtWeb DesignWritingAnd what sorts of creative gigs are hot right now? Lets see some statisticsRecent research by The Creative Group r evealed that the top 10 areas for creative hiring in 2019 will be:Web and mobile developmentWeb productionUser interface and interaction designCreative developmentVisual designUser experienceDigital marketingUser researchArt directionSocial media / marketing strategy (tied)Creative Thinking Skills on a ResumeIf you dont want to read whole in-depth guides but just need some inspiration for putting your creative skills on a resume, see some examples below.Creative Thinking on a ResumeWriter/PR SpecialistSkilled at writing all types of Public Relations texts: press releases, blog posts, bulletins, emailing campaigns (outreach emails, sales emails, engagement emails).Able to produce up to 1,500 words of great, unique content on a daily basis.Creative Thinking on a ResumeGraphic DesignerCollaborated on a project to create layouts and images for written online content.Contributed to a customer site that won a 2016 Shopify Ecommerce Design Award.Creative Thinking on a ResumeUX/UI DesignerS pearheaded all design elements, templates, and brand consistency.Boosted UX scores by 25% above average for the company.Creative Thinking on a ResumeMarketing ManagerSupervised all stages of digital marketing, creative and operational.Introduced an incentive-driven A/B testing competition among team members which resulted in increasing landing page conversions by 114% in 4 months.When making a resume in our builder, drag drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.Create my resume nowWhen youre done, Zetys resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.Already landed an interview for a job that requires creative thinking skills? Be prepared to face some...Creative Thinking Interview QuestionsRecruiters and hiring managers wont automatically believe everything you put on your resume. Especially when it comes to transferable soft skills such as creative thinking.Be prepared to prove your creative prowess during an interview.To get ready for whats ahead of you, see these sample creative thinking interview questions and answers.Describe a time when you had to think outside the box to solve a problem. How did you handle it?My coworker let a big order of defective parts get all the way to shipping. That was bad and created a lot of scrap. After, I suggested we install mistake-proofing so it could never happen again. We created some dies with pins in them so the parts can only be put into the machines one way. We havent had a single defect since.Tell me about a presentation youve created that youre most proud of.We had to convince a big client to go with a costlier alternative that would ultimately make them higher profits. I put together a demonstration based on 10 real-world applications. They not only went with our suggestion, they became a long-term client.Tell me about a time you used writing and communication skills.I wrote reports as part of my daily shift. I chose to prepare the reports based on single case studies and examples to better illustrate data. My department head frequently commented that my reports were the shortest and easiest to understand of all the officers.Interview questions that test creative thinking skills are usually situational interview questions. You can learn more about them here: Situational Interview Questions and the Best Answers (30+ Examples)3How to Be More Creative: 5 Tips for Increasing Creativity TodayMost people tend to think that creativity is a gift. Something youre either born with or just have to accept living without.Truth it, there are ways to become creative. And creative thinking skills are one of the most fun skills to learn!Heres what you can do to boost creativity:1. Step outside of your comfort zoneResearch has proven that one of the biggest obstacles for creativity is working or thinking within ideas were already familiar with.In an experiment, a group of college students were asked to ima gine, sketch out, and describe extraterrestrial animals. As it turned out, most of the animals they initially created were very similar to the earthly ones.ButThe more limitations researchers imposed on students (e.g. animals have to have feathers and be able to survive in certain conditions), the more creative the students ideas became.When youre facing a creative challenge, try to constrain your work to a certain level (for instance, when making a presentation, force yourself to begin each slide with a verb in active voice, or set a more stringent word count limit on your writing assignment).This way, youll encourage your brain to come up with creative solutions to work around the limitations youve set for yourself.2. BrainstormBrainstorming is a perfect combination of creative thinking skills and teamwork.Its based on thinking about a solution to a problem or a creative task, and jotting down all ideas any member suggestsregardless of how preposterous or out-of-place these might seem.Out of all the ideas, some will most likely be both possible and innovative. But you can add an interesting twist to brainstormingInstead of picking the best ideas and trying to develop them further, pick the worst ones. Then, focus on these ideas and try to find their good features. Or try to come up with solutions to transform a terrible idea into a good one.I guarantee, youll find out something creative youll be able to transfer over to the good ideas.3. Force yourself to work when youre feeling uninspiredAs a professional writer, I have to find ways to overcome writers blockotherwise, there would be weeks when I wouldnt write a single word.Even when you feel like creative work is the last thing youre capable of on a given day, commit to doing it anyways, but work in limited, short periods of time (for example, 20 minutes).During these periods, dont let anything distract you, dont try to do anything elsejust work on the thing youve committed to do.If you write only 5 words, draw just two lines, or note down a single idea that doesnt even make sense, its fine. Once the 20 minutes are over, take a break. Whenever you feel ready, start another 20 minutes.After a few iterations, youll notice that you get more and more done within the set chunk of time and youll no longer feel relieved when its time for a break. Soon, youll be back to your creative best.4. Work, daydream, workMany studies have suggested that disconnecting mentally, daydreaming, dancing, or even simply napping helps enhance creative thinking skills.But theres only one study I found that highlights a very important aspect of daydreaming: it only works once youve already invested a considerable amount of time in a given project.The deeper you are in the creative process, the more unplugging for a while or daydreaming can help you further.(So keep that in mind the next time youll feel like taking a nap as an excuse for leaving your workspace!)5. Think about love (or sex)A fascinating study has shown that thinking about romantic love helps enhance holistic thinking, thus, enabling us to be more creative when it comes to understanding a grander scheme of things.Thinking about the experience of sexual encounters, in turn, boosts the perception of present, concrete details, letting us see and analyze patterns more sharply and quickly.Key TakeawayHeres a quick recap of everything you need to know about creative thinking skills:Examples of creative thinking skills include: problem solving, writing, visual art, communication skills, and open-mindedness.Top areas for creative hiring in 2019 will be: web and mobile development, web production, user interface and interaction design, creative development, and visual design.To show your creative thinking skills on a resume or during a job interview, dont just list them: provide real-life examples of how you used them.The best strategies to increase creativity are: leaving your comfort zone, brainstorming, forcing yourself to overcome a creative block, unplugging mentally after youve begun working on a project, and... thinking about romantic love!What creative thinking skills do you think are most important today? Do you have any questions about how to put creative thinking skills on a resume or discuss it during a job interview? Drop me a line in the comments and Ill get back to you straight away!

What Can Mad Mens Joan Peggy Teach Women About Careers

What Can Mad Mens Joan Peggy Teach Women About Careers When I was assistant regional manager at The Gillette Company in the early ’80s, I tried  explaining to the president why I was not going to relocate across the country again when the  step up position was available in my region. I had already moved from St. Louis to San  Francisco to Boston to Chicago for the company in less than six years. He listened to me, then  said, “We don’t listen to excuses.” I moved on to launch my second career in marketing, working with many of the great brands and  got to stay in Chicago, a city I loved. This is a lesson that comes through loud and clear in Sheryl Sandberg’s book, “Lean In:  Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.” Ms. Sandberg’s point is aside from the many gender  biases that still operate all over the workplace, excuses and justifications won’t get women  anywhere. Instead, believe in yourself, give it your all, “lean in” and “don’t leave before you  leave”â€"in other words, don’t doubt your ability to combine work and whatever else is important  to you which for many young women means having a family. I was the first woman to work for The Gillette Company’s flagship safety razor division. I was  just out of college, single, and an apartment renter, not homeowner. I was an anomaly in the  male-dominated, married with children and a home workplace. Gender biases were everywhere. From no relocation policy for apartment renters (I changed that) to winning trips for you and your  spouse that meant you worked just as hard, if not harder to win the prize but won a trip for one  instead. (I did fight to win the cash value of the second person. Take that!) When they said  move and I said no, I believed in myself and what I had accomplished that I resigned but only  after I found a new position and  career path. Even looking for a career change, recruiters told me that I would have to start in an entry-level  positionâ€"I had seven years of experience at this pointâ€"and would have to accept a pay cut.  Again, I knew the value of my experience and had enough belief in the value I offered that their  scenario was not realized; quite the opposite came true. I leaned in.  Joan and Peggy Lean In  Mad Men is now up to the ‘70s, exactly when I started with The Gillette Company so the week’s  episode, Lost Horizon” had all the gender biases I had known and fought. Peggy grew up at  SCP, where she was known and loved. Being mistaken for a secretary by McCann (oh, come  on) after a decade of proving herself was a huge hit to her confidence. Although it took getting  smashed with Roger, Peggy leaned inâ€"she finally got that wherever she roamed, there would  always be a place for her. She believed in herself. She could do the work. They can never take  that away from her. Joan’s lean in moment was true to her image as the woman who does not let the world get her  downâ€"at least not for too long. She’s a believer. She’s got confidence. She does indeed juggle  work and family and makes no excuses. She shows up. Joan has put up with various forms of  harassment for her entire career, and in this episode she has to live with a fresh round of  injustices and sexual advances. This is the era of feminism and although Joan would never say  she’s one, she finally said enough. Although she has to leave $250,000 on the table when she  quits, to me, she leaves when she wants to leave. Leaning in for Joan elicited, how dare she  stand up for herself? How dare she threaten us? She’s bold. I love her for that. Here is what Peggy and Joan teach us about what it means to lean in. It’s incredibly difficult to manage both career and motherhood or whatever else is important to  you in your life. Men still run the world. People with powerâ€"menâ€"will not give it up, or even share it willingly.  It must be seized by those who do not yet have power. Seize your opportunities. Negotiate like a man. You don’t have to accept the first offer salvo; make a  counter offer. Do not let your own expectations of what you can achieve get in your way. Personal motivation  is an incredibly complex thing, molded by our internal will but also strongly influenced external  forces such as the parenting we receive, the peer group that surrounds us as we grow, the  educational opportunities we get, the connections we make, as well as the expectations and  prejudices of those around us. Women are going to have to be in this struggle together, and genuinely support each other through it. There is no room for self-sabotage among women, no room for sabotage of women  by women. Peggy doesnt get it. Joan does to some degree. I don’t think I got it back in my  Gillette days but I do now.

Everyone was right. About everything.

Everyone was right. About everything. Everyone who said that me  moving with the kids to Swarthmore would be the end of my marriage is probably right. And while Im at it, all the people who told me to stay away from the farmer when we were dating you were probably right too. And the people who say in the comments section that I dont know how to do intimacy. I guess you were right also. Because clearly Im having trouble. I keep saying this to Melissa and she keeps telling me I made good choices. She points out that my ex-husband was excellent genetic material and he is a great ex-husband. That is true. I mean, we spend a week together in the apartment each time he visits the boys in Swarthmore. And Melissa points out that the farmer is  fun, and the farm is  a totally great place to raise two little boys. Well, until  the kids couldnt do anything they wanted to do on the farm. The farmer is not going to move here. Hes decided on a once-a-month visitation schedule right now. And he told me that he has been keeping track of any money he spent on the family that is over $200 and I owe him $30K. To be clear, $30K is not that much for me. I can pay it back. Melissa said I should send the farmer a bill for all the times I had to hire a driver to get us to Chicago so that we could do cello and still live on a farm. I told her thats not fair because I agreed, when I moved the boys to the farm, that the farmer would not have to pay for anything for us he just paid utilities and taxes how he always did. Melissa says, Thats not an agreement you make going into a good relationship. I said, Duh. In Swarthmore I told the boys they have to start doing their own laundry. And then I said they should do mine, too. They complained, of course. And I told them about kindness and caring and they better be nice to me because how you treat your mom is how you treat your wife and I dont want my future daughter-in-law to think I let the boys walk all over me. Thats true about how men treat their wives like they treat their mothers. For example, farmers have largely financial relationships with their parents, and that is largely what I had with the farmer as well. I didnt mean for it to be that way. I dont actually care about money and neither does he, which maybe means that was all we were willing to give to each other. Some days I worry that my older son is not disciplined enough to make it through college. He does not read as much as I did when I was his age. And I was in special-ed English classes for reading below grade level. But then I notice he does his laundry like clockwork, even folding while its still all warm from the dryer. I asked my son to do my laundry and because the last time I screamed this time he said fine. But he also said that my clothes take longer to dry than his do and he cant wait because his biology tutor is coming. Impressed with this magnificent display of time management, I said Id get mine out of the dryer. Then, two days later, all my clothes were gone. I tried to not really say anything to the kids. They know things are sort of falling apart for me: Yesterday my younger son told me, Mom, its going to be hard for you to get a third husband at your age. I wanted to be speechless or deaf or something, but I decided a good mom would be reassuring, so I said, Dont worry. Dad loves us very much. The kids used to call the stepdad Dad and the biological dad by his first name. But recently the boys have noticed that there are huge differences between the two, so they say Dad for both and we all know which is which in context. Of course, the boys are noticing there are huge similarities as well. My younger son tells me my sweater smells. My older son said, She doesnt have another sweater, all her laundry got stolen. WHAT????? How did he know?! The kids know so much more than I give them credit for knowing. And Im pretty sure you are that way, too. I was thinking that I was worried that it would feel terrible to have to admit to you that I cant keep a marriage together. But now I see that the worst thing is actually to have to answer my youngest son when he says, Do you think that because I have two dads who dont want to live with me that I wont want to live with my kids either?

5 Easy Steps for Networking Like a Pro - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

5 Easy Steps for Networking Like a Pro - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Networking can be a vital way to build contacts and grow your clientele. No matter what you’re looking to do with your personal brand, growing and nurturing your network will help you get there. To network like a pro, I’ve broken down the vague task of “networking” into five easily executable steps: Networking steps Step One: Get in the right mindset I always remind job seekers to “network before you need it.” Even if you aren’t searching for a job, never leave networking until you “need it.” Networking is a process. You’re looking to create a mutually beneficial relationship between yourself and this other person and that doesn’t happen overnight. Keep in mind that you will need to network over time, but keep in contact with those who are already in your network throughout this period. Step Two: Sharpen your skill set Think of networking as a gateway. Building and maintaining a network can open the door to huge opportunities for you in your job search and career. In order to reach out to new and interesting people, you need to have an elevator pitch ready. An elevator pitch is a quick, 60- to 90-second summary of who you are, what you do and what you’re looking for. If you’re contacting someone for the first time, your elevator pitch should also end in a call to action â€" what are you looking to get out of e-mailing/calling this person? Would you like to take them to coffee? (Make the call to action about something you can do for them, not something they can do for you. That comes later once you’ve built the relationship.) Step Three: Provide value Networking is about building a mutually beneficial relationship, but when reaching out to new people, you need to provide them with some type of value. Always offer your expertise first, before asking them for something in return. Think about how you can help them succeed, so they will want to help you succeed in the future. Networking is all about creating good karma! Step Four: Follow-up Keeping in contact with your new connections is important to building a relationship. Just like you would follow-up to stay at the front of a hiring manager’s mind during a job search, you should follow-up with your contacts to remind them of the value the relationship holds. Step Five: Leverage your connections The beginning of networking is finding a common ground before asking for help. When done properly, networking can lead to pretty much anything. It’s up to you to build a relationship with these contacts, provide them with value and see if they can (or will) help you. What else would you add? Author: Heather R. Huhman is a career expert and founder president of Come Recommended, a career and workplace education and consulting firm specializing in young professionals. She is also the author of #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), national entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com and blogs about career advice at HeatherHuhman.com. Follow her on Twitter at @heatherhuhman.

Research Your Target Employers to Accelerate Executive Job Search - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

Research Your Target Employers to Accelerate Executive Job Search

The One Thing You Should Do When You Job Search, #truSanFran - CareerEnlightenment.com

Tips For Writing A Short Resume

Tips For Writing A Short ResumeIn order to write a short resume, there are some things that you should consider before you begin. First of all, you need to make sure that your resume is a grammatically correct one. If you are not sure about how to write a resume, there are some tips that you can follow to help you out.For starters, you will need to give your full name, address, phone number, email address, and place of employment or education. It is always important to get the address right, since most employers will want to see this information.The last part of the short resume that you need to include is a list of your qualifications. This includes previous employment and experience. When you are finished writing your resume, it is best to make sure that you have included all of the information that you are going to put on it.Another tip for writing a letter of reference is to include your title, last name, and email address in it. However, keep in mind that you should only use thi s method if your name is known to the person. So if you are not sure, you will want to make sure that you do not include your name. Some references will want to see their names on the cover of the letter.You should also always use a date and send it using a mailing service. However, you should make sure that you send the letter via an internet-based service. The reason for this is that you want to ensure that it reaches its destination as soon as possible. Not everyone is able to receive the letter over the internet.Also, when you write your resume, you will want to make sure that you use the format that is described in the requirements of your job. For example, if you are applying for a position as a janitor, then you will want to include a section about the different tasks that you will perform. You can go with the first part of the document, which includes what you do during the day. Then you can go on to the second part, which is the tasks that you perform during the night.For t hose who are required to use a letter of references, you will want to make sure that you include their name and contact information. When you are done writing your resume, make sure that you include a cover letter that includes your contact information. Make sure that you include a link to your reference letter.Writing a short resume does not have to be difficult. With a little bit of research, you will be able to include everything that you need to about your employment history.