FOMO stands for Fear of Missing Out. It's that feeling of anxiety that creeps up on you when something interesting or exciting is happening and you are missing it out.
All great heroes need an origin story and FOMO is no different.
In 2004 The Harbus – a newspaper at Harvard Business School – ran an article by student Patrick McGinnis about his theory of "two FOs." Patrick intended that analysis to be a joke and he tried to explain social behavior as the result of two opposing forces: "FOMO" (fear of missing out) and "FOBO" (fear of a better option). Ever since then, FOMO has become widespread in both pop culture and eCommerce marketing.

Watch the video “The Secret to Successfully Pitching an Idea (The Way We Work, a TED series)

You can also use the script.
Do you know the secret to successfully pitching an idea? Well, it's something kind of unexpected. It’s FOMO: the fear of missing out.
As someone who invests in companies early in their journeys, I listen to nearly 2,000 pitches a year,
and I work countless hours with company founders to help them make their pitch even more compelling.
You may equate pitching with a slick deck based on some standard format, but whether you're pitching a company or trying to get buy-in for a passion project at work, so much of pitching is a storytelling exercise.
You need to bring people along with you.
You need to tell your audience a story that not only will draw them in, but it will make them feel that if they don't say yes, they will be missing out on something really big.

Step 1: Know your audience

• When people think about pitching, they're thinking inwards, they think about their nerves, how smoothly they're talking or what it takes to get to a yes. But the secret of successful pitching is to flip it outward. Who are you pitching to? What do they care about? How can you speak to what motivates them?
• For example, if you're pitching your start-up idea to a venture capitalist who has lots of money to invest and needs big returns, they probably care about backing the next Uber or DoorDash. So, you should focus your story on the size of the market opportunity.
• If you're pitching to a philanthropist or a nonprofit, their motivation is likely about large social impact. So, focus on showing how your product or idea will improve things in a lasting way.

If you're pitching a project at work, focus on the people you're pitching the project to. What do they care about?
More customer loyalty, more revenue, or perhaps a promotion? Tell them how your project will help them attain the goal that they want in a way that makes it almost inevitable.
Give them that feeling of: “If I don’t support this, I'm going to miss out on something I care about deeply."

Step 2: Think about the hero's journey

• Pitching is much like telling a story. Just like a movie tells a story. You're charting the hero's journey in three acts.
• First, you start by telling about the hero's world, the status quo. In this case, the current situation that your product, idea or service will be addressing.
• Then introduce tension and conflict, showing all the problems that existing products aren't yet addressing. This will lead you to the big confrontation. You, the hero, swooping in to save the day.
• And from there, give the resolution. How are things changed as a result of your actions? How does your product, idea or service solve the problems you highlighted earlier?
• One of the best pitches I've heard followed this arc perfectly. The story started with a disturbing status quo. Depending on where and how it's produced, one gallon of milk can take roughly 1,000 gallons of water to produce and can create about six kilograms of CO2 equivalent or more in the process. In this case, the hero was the CEO and their team of scientists and food industry experts who have come up with a way to engineer plants to produce the animal proteins. They showed how a small crop of soybeans could create lots of delicious cheese and how this could feed the global population in a sustainable and yummy way.

To anyone who cares about both the environment and good food, it was an irresistible story.
It made me feel like I needed to be part of it or I would be missing out on a big opportunity.

Step 3: Shore up your weakest point

When people are done charting their hero's journey, I make them identify their biggest weakness.

• Is it that they're missing somebody on their team or that it's very competitive or that they're trying to do something that has never been done before?
• Most people's instinct is to gloss over it or even skip it altogether. But that's exactly the wrong thing to do because the audience will notice it and will ask you about it. Instead, face it directly. Tell your audience, "Hey, you may think this is a problem, but here's exactly what I'm going to do about it."
• And by showing the strengths and weaknesses of your story and not hiding anything, you inspire confidence not only in you but also in your story.

The best storytellers, they live in the future, and they come here not to just tell us about it, but to show us the steps to get there. And this makes the audience lean forward. And all they need to do to be part of this amazing story is say yes.

What is a CV?
A CV, which stands for curriculum vitae (a Latin phrase meaning 'course of life'), is a document used when you apply for jobs. It allows you to summarise your education, skills and relevant work experience and enables you to successfully sell your abilities to potential employers.
In other countries, such as the USA and Canada, CVs are known as résumés.
How long should a CV be?A standard CV in the UK should be no longer than two A4 pages. Some medical or academic CVs may be longer – it all depends on your experience.

What should I include in my CV?

• Contact details – This is a section where you include your full name, home address, mobile number and email.
• Profile – This is a short statement that highlights your key attributes and helps you stand out from the crowd. It is usually placed at the beginning of a CV and it picks out a few relevant achievements and skills. It also expresses your career aims.
• Education – In this section, you should list and date all previous education, including professional qualifications.
• Work experience – Here you should list your work experience in reverse date order. Include your job title, the name of the company, how long you were with the organisation and describe your key responsibilities.
• Skills and achievements – This is where you talk about the foreign languages you speak and the IT skills you can use competently. The skills that you list should be relevant to the job.
• Interests – This section describes relevant interests which can provide a more complete picture of who you are, as well as giving you something to talk about at the interview.
• References – This is the optional section. You may provide the contact details of your references upon request or you might already have several references available.

How do I format a CV?
The layout of your CV also has an effect on its success. Keep in mind the following tips when you write your CV:

• DON’T CALL the document 'curriculum vitae' or 'CV'. Just use your name instead.
• USE section headings to break up your CV.
• DON’T USE fonts such as Comic Sans. Choose something professional, clear and easy to read, such Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman.
• LIST everything in reverse chronological order.
• KEEP IT SHORT by using bullet points.
• DOUBLE CHECK your margins. Having white space around your CV will make it easier to read.
• NAME the document properly when saving. Don't just save as 'Document 1'. Make it something like 'Joe-Smith-CV'.
• SAVE it as a PDF document. This way you will make sure that the document looks the same on any device.

How do I write a good CV?

• ·Use active verbs when possible.
• ·Format your document carefully. All the margins should look the same with the same fonts and space between the lines.
• ·A good CV doesn't have any spelling or grammar mistakes.
• ·Make sure your email address sounds professional.
• ·Don't lie or exaggerate on your CV or job application.
• ·Include only relevant information in your CV.
• ·If you post your CV online, don't include your home address.
• ·Always include a cover letter unless the employer states otherwise.

What is a cover letter?
A cover letter is a document that you submit as part of your job application together with your resume or CV.
·The purpose of a cover letter is to introduce you and summarize your professional background. On average, it should be around 250 to 400 words long.
·A good cover letter is supposed to impress the hiring manager and convince them they should interview you as a candidate.
How can your cover letter do this?
First of all, it should complement your CV, not copy it. Your cover letter is your chance to focus on most important achievements, skills, or anything else that your CV doesn’t give you enough space to cover. For example, if you stayed unemployed for some time, the cover letter is a great place to explain why it happened and how it helped you grow as a person.
If this is your first time composing a cover letter, writing about yourself might seem complicated. But don’t worry—you don’t need to be super creative or even good at writing.
All you have to do is follow this tried and tested cover letter structure.
Contact details
Intro

• Personal information
• What you’re applying for
• Where you’re applying to
• Why you’re applying

Body

• Story behind your achievements
• Factual information only
• Figures that show off your achievements

Conclusion

• Future plans
• Words of thanks

Abridged and adapted from: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/how-to-write-a-cv
Abridged and adapted from https://novoresume.com/career-blog/how-to-write-a-cover-letter-guide

What is an academic portfolio and what should it include?
An Academic Portfolio is an organised record of your academic experiences, achievements and professional development. It consists of a collection of documents which illustrate the variety and quality of work that you do. It also includes your reflections on these documents and on your development over time.
What needs to be shown in your portfolio:

• teaching and educational development;
• scholarship and the advancement of knowledge and its applications;
• contributions to the university and the community.

You should show your participation and reflection in each of these areas. However, it is obvious that your work will have a greater focus on some areas than on others.
If you want to become a lecturer or get an even higher position, you should consider the fourth aspect:

• leadership within the university.

Apart from these four sections, there should also be a conclusion:

• an overview, where you reflect on and review your activities in relation to your overall goals and career plans.

Each academic's experience and context will be different, so no portfolios will be similar to each other. However, they should always contain evidence of individual academic achievements and experiences, with reflections on these experiences.

Getting Started
Developing a portfolio is a continuous process. Over time, you will include more and more documents which provide evidence of a wide range of activities and achievements, along with your reflections on these papers.
You should start with a framework and sections for your portfolio which you find useful and can continue to use. Then you will add one or two items at a time as you engage with different aspects of your work.
You should add new documents and reflections on a regular basis. This will help you understand your professional development. It’s also a good idea to keep your portfolio up to date for occasions when you need to discuss your academic progress with your supervisor or plan an application for promotion.

Teaching and educational development
Imagine that you are trying to give someone else a picture of your teaching – what you do and why you do it that way. Your portfolio should illustrate some of the complexity and variety of your activity.
At minimum, your portfolio should include a statement outlining your own teaching philosophy, as well as an overview of your teaching experience: the range of subjects and classes you have taught, postgraduate supervision etc. It would then include some items documenting different aspects of your teaching.
What does teaching mean to you?
Describe your own understanding of teaching and the way you understand the relationship between teaching and learning. In this way you will have a record of your thoughts on teaching and learning as you start your academic career. You will be able to return to your initial ideas from time to time and consider the development and changes that have occurred as you have developed your expertise. You may keep this section private at first but develop a description of your teaching philosophy and show it to others at a later stage.
Possible questions for reflection about teaching and educational development:

• What are your teaching goals and the goals that you have for your students' learning?
• How does your teaching encourage student learning? Consider your subject objectives, teaching approaches, learning tasks for students, assessment and feedback.
• How do you know that your teaching has encouraged student learning?
• How confident and comfortable do you feel about your teaching and what helps you develop your confidence?
• How has your experience helped you develop or change your understanding of teaching and learning?

Supporting evidence
The following documents can be used to support or provide evidence for your teaching over time:

• outlines for a subject you have taught for several years, with a reflection on why you decided to introduce the changes over the years;
• a reading list that you have given to your students, with reflections on how students responded to the references;
• case studies developed from your classroom experiences in the form of a description then a reflection about the experience followed by recommendations for continued development or change (for instance, an outline of a lecture or tutorial with your reflection on why the session was conducted that way, how it went and any changes that you found necessary to make in the future);
• a description of and reflection on an innovative teaching approach: why it was chosen, how it achieved its intentions and any suggested changes;
• an interview with a student about his/her approach to learning in your lectures, with your reflection on whether it matched your expectations;
• examples of assessment tasks, with the description of why they were appropriate;
• examples of student work with your feedback and a reflection on your response to the student's paper;
• a peer evaluation of a teaching session with a reflection on your response;
• student evaluations of the subject with a reflection on how consistent they were with your self-evaluation and what changes you made when you received the evaluation;
• description of and reflection on a supervision session with a postgraduate student, which highlights your intentions and contribution and shows this in relation to your views on supervision;
• excerpts from a good student project with a reflection on how you helped the student develop his/her ideas;
• a flyer describing a teaching workshop you attended with a reflection on the impact this had on your teaching.

Questions for self-evaluation:

1. Have your personal goals for teaching been met?
2. How do you know whether you have been teaching well and what evidence do you have of good teaching?
3. What are your main achievements in teaching and what evidence do you have for these?
4. What is your progress towards achieving the teaching goals that you have set for yourself?
5. What support have you already received to develop your teaching and what else do you need to develop as a teacher?

Scholarship and the advancement of knowledge and its applications
'Scholarship' is often described as distillation and integration of knowledge. Scholarship of this type would be expected in most areas of academic work, including teaching, research, consultancy and many types of community service.
While you are reflecting on scholarship, you need to think about how you keep up to date in your field and continue to distil and integrate knowledge – in your research and in your teaching, in terms of content and process.
'Advancement of knowledge' includes activities which are connected with research. You can use your Academic Portfolio to think about the nature of research in your discipline, the research process and how you see yourself as a researcher. You may also think about your own development as a scholar and/or researcher and provide evidence of research development and contribution.
What does scholarship and the advancement of knowledge mean to you?
At the beginning of this section, you should describe how you see scholarship in your discipline. Talk about what it means to distil and integrate knowledge in your area, what sources of knowledge are important and how you engage in scholarship in different parts of your work, including teaching.
After this, describe what research means in your discipline, and how this relates to your own research interests and development as a researcher. In some disciplines (e.g. physical sciences) describing what research means might be fairly easy, in others (e.g. design or production studies) it might be more difficult to define – you often have to include such aspects as original creative contributions. You might find it helpful to talk to one or two senior colleagues about the nature of research in your field and then compare your ideas.
Questions for reflection about scholarship:

1. How do you keep up to date in your discipline area? What sources do you use to do this?
2. What makes your work scholarly?
3. How would you describe scholarship in teaching and how do you apply it to your own teaching?
4. n what ways do you enable your students to engage with current ideas in your area? This could include thinking about how you relate your research to your teaching.

Questions for reflection about the advancement of knowledge:

1. What are your personal research interests?
2. What are your research goals or intentions?
3. How do your research interests fit into the interests of your academic department?
4. In what ways can your research make a contribution to your discipline?
5. How do you find out about sources of funding and resources which may support your research?
6. How have your experiences helped you develop or change your understanding of research and scholarship in your discipline?

Supporting evidence:

• a reading log showing the journals and other publications which you read regularly;
• notes and reflections on research seminars you have attended or discussions with your colleagues;
• notes you have kept in the process of working with a mentor with your reflection on what you are learning from the process;
• copies of contributions of a scholarly kind made to various discussion groups;
• an up-to-date list of publications with separate headings for peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, contributions to other materials etc., along with reflections on what you personally consider to be your most important publications;
• copies of referees' reports on your writings and letters of acceptance from journals;
• invitations to referee papers for journals in your field;
• copies of publications which cite your research;
• copies of grant applications;
• invitations to present your research at seminars.

Questions for self-evaluation:

1. Have your personal goals for scholarship and the advancement of knowledge been met?
2. Do you have any evidence that you are contributing to the advancement of knowledge in your field?
3. What are your main achievements in research and scholarship and what evidence do you have for these?
4. Are you moving forward towards achieving the research goals that you have negotiated with your supervisor?
5. What support have you received to develop your research and scholarship and what else do you need to develop as a researcher?

Contributions to the university and the community
Every university expects their staff to make contributions to university life and to the role of the university in the community. As a staff member, you are expected to perform your administrative responsibilities and contribute to policy development. Sometimes you should initiate or maintain links between the University and external groups. Higher-ranked academics have to participate in Faculty or university committees or working parties, organise particular events in the faculty or take on managerial roles. Contributions to the community may include: involvement in professional societies or community groups within your professional field; organisation of public events, exhibitions, forums or meetings; membership of policy advisory or expert groups.
This is an area where you might want to seek support from you supervisor, who may suggest some activities appropriate to your expertise and interests, put your name forward for various committee memberships or share your contacts with colleagues within the university or elsewhere.
What is your contribution to the university and the society?
In your portfolio, you should include a statement about the nature of your contributions to the university and the community. It could be helpful to describe which contributions are expected of you in your academic unit and show your understanding of the kinds of contributions which are most commonly made in your discipline area. After this, you should describe the expertise and interests that you have which might help make further scholarly contributions to the university and community.
Questions for reflection about your contributions:

1. What administrative responsibilities are expected in your position?
2. What contributions to the university are expected of academics at your level in your department?
3. How are you developing your knowledge and understanding of the university? How can it help you identify opportunities for making useful contributions?
4. Are there any opportunities for you to make active scholarly contributions outside the university?

Supporting evidence:

• up-to-date lists of committee and professional society memberships;
• a description of a specific contribution you have made to the work of a committee and reflections on the impact of your contribution;
• a description of your participation in working groups with a reflection on your own contributions;
• copies of publicity or other materials from events that you have organised with a reflection on your own contribution;
• letters of thanks for your work from professional bodies or community groups;
• invitations to attend public meetings or make contributions.

Questions for self-evaluation:

1. What are your most important contributions to the university and the community and what evidence do you have of these contributions?
2. Has your involvement met your own intentions and your department's expectations?
3. Has your contribution enhanced the quality of the university or community work?
4. What is your progress towards achieving the goals that you have set together with your supervisor?
5. What support have you received to develop your contributions in this area and what else do you need to develop your contributions further?

Academic Leadership
Lower-ranked academics are not usually required to perform leadership roles. However, you may want to demonstrate leadership potential, for example by taking a leading role in a teaching development or research initiative. Your promotion to a higher-ranked position will sometimes require that you provide indications of a capacity for academic leadership within the university. Because of this, it would be wise to develop your leadership skills and qualities and to document activities where you believe you have demonstrated leadership capacities.

Personal Academic Plans and Goals
This is the final section of your portfolio. You may find it helpful to consider how the activities that have been mentioned above fit with your personal goals and plans, or what kind of pattern they show when looked at together. You may keep this section private but you might also want to share some of its aspects with your supervisor or mentor.
Promotion, tenure and probation planning processes include consideration of broad goals but there are some other issues that could be important to help you develop an on-going plan for the future.
Questions for reflection:

1. What gives me satisfaction in my academic career?
2. What causes my frustration and is there anything I can do about it?
3. Where would I really like to be in my career in one year's time, five years' time, ten years' time?
4. Do I have any particular goals that I would like to achieve?
5. How consistent is what I am doing now in my work with my answers to the questions above?
6. Are my goals and career plans consistent with the goals set together with my supervisor, or should I consider some re-negotiation?
7. Who could help my career at present?

Abridged and adapted from