Imagine yourself in that scenario. Where do you see yourself? Are you cuddling with homeless kittens? Bringing smiles to the faces of sick kids? Are you feeding hungry people in your community or helping improve their health or education? Do you see yourself on the scene of a natural disaster?

Now that you feel all warm and fuzzy thinking about the fulfillment you’d get from one of the above activities, go do one! If you have just a few hours a week, you have time to volunteer. You’ll do more than help accomplish the mission of a local non-profit, charity or organization; you’ll boost your own career, too.

Here are a few underrated ways volunteering can be good for your professional side:

1. Be the first to know when a job opens up

Even if no jobs are available when you hop on board as a volunteer, something could always change. Someone might leave for another job, the non-profit could receive extra funding to hire a new employee or temporary help might be needed when a new mother takes her maternity leave.

When these situations happen, people with the power to hire will likely want to interview someone who’s already familiar with internal processes and has demonstrated a passion for the organization’s mission—someone like a volunteer.

If this best-case scenario were to happen, the organization will choose from the best of the best volunteers. So even though you’re not getting paid, treat your job as a volunteer as if it’s a real job. Be punctual, work hard, don’t complain when tasked with seemingly unimportant duties and try your best to get along with other volunteers and staff.

If you’re a reliable and well-liked volunteer, you’ll be at the top of the list when a position opens up.

2. Show potential employers you’re not resting on your laurels between jobs

Maybe you graduated from college or were recently laid off. Your first instinct might be to throw yourself into scouring job boards, attending networking events and fine-tuning your cover letter. While you should do all those things, remember that the job hunting process can be long. And you could be doing more to beef up your resume besides moving bullet points around.

Several months of “professional job hunter” on your resume will impress absolutely no one. Several months as a volunteer as a tutor for a literacy organization, as a dog walker for an animal shelter or as a repacker for a food depository, however, will set you apart from other potential candidates who used their unemployed down time to feel sorry for themselves and eat cartons of Ben & Jerry’s.

3. Expand your network

If you’re on the hunt for a new job, you’ve probably already exhausted your network. You’ve already reached out to your past professors, your friends, your friends’ parents and your friends’ parents’ friends. And you’re still jobless.

So it’s time to expand your network.

One of the most attractive qualities about donating your time to any organization is the opportunity to meet other volunteers from all walks of life. You’ll meet people of all ages, from all different careers, all of whom who come with their own network that’s completely untapped by you.

Don’t treat this like a networking event where you hand out business cards to every new volunteer you meet. Though all these people may seem different than you, remember that you all have one thing in common: passion for the particular non-profit or charity where you chose to volunteer your time. Use that common interest as a talking point to get to know as many other volunteers as possible. You never know who might be able to open a door to a new job.

4. Add new expertise to your skill set

Non-profits, charities and other organizations that depend on volunteers to keep things running smoothly often have tight budgets. That’s why they need free help in the first place. They may not be able to afford a full-time marketing director, accountant or administrative assistant to the CEO. Or, these positions exist, but those employees are overworked because the organization can’t afford to hire a lower-level employee to help them out. They would be overjoyed to have an extra pair of hands on deck.

This atmosphere is the perfect opportunity for you to step up and offer to fill in those gaps, even if for things not considered “official” volunteer duties. Need more social media experience? Offer to manage the Twitter and Facebook accounts. Want to pursue a career in event management? Ask if you can help organize and plan an event. If you want to add management experience to your resume, then volunteer to help manage the volunteers.

Don’t look at this tactic as working for free. Instead, look at it as free career building. (Click to tweet this idea.) You can develop the experience you need to land a job.

So what are you waiting for? Think about the good you can do for yourself while you do good for others and find an opportunity to volunteer. Check for available opportunities on Volunteer Match or Idealist.org and find the do-gooder activity that’s right for you.

How have you used your volunteer experience to advance your career?

Betsy Mikel has been reading and writing since she was a TV-deprived bookwormy kid. She’s now a copywriter and dedicated volunteer. Visit her website and connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Here are three questions to guide you:

1. Do you really need another employee?

When you’re first starting out, you’re hiring someone for one of two reasons: either because you’ve pushed your own limits of how much you can work in a day (a.k.a. you’re going insane by working so much), or because the person you’re hiring has a skill that you simply don’t have, and the time spent learning that skill would not be worth it for your business.

Think of yourself—how many hours you put in, how much work you do to spur your business or the business you’re working for. Now duplicate yourself. Is there actually enough work to be done that there could be a clone of you working simultaneously who wouldn’t be bored or off-task throughout the day?

And if you simply don’t have a skill that’s needed, rethink that aspect of your business. Is there anyone else already on the team who has that particular skill? Is that task that you think needs to get done absolutely core to your business? If yes, then hire. If not, then hold off until it is absolutely necessary.

2. How do you hire? Immediately or on a trial period?

Companies bring new hires onto the team in different ways. Some startups tend to hire people like developers on a Friday as salaried employees and ask them to be at work on Monday—mostly because their skill set is definite and because their job takes place in a space that needs to be confined. (We can’t have our engineers working from Starbucks while writing all of our code to improve security on our site.)

Hiring business teams works a little bit differently. Many of these jobs rely on longer-term objectives and relationships that take time to build, combined with some sort of measurable ROI. At MySocialCloud, we help our employees transition from previous activities (working at another company, going to school, unemployment) to working on our team with a two-week trial period.

We give them a couple of tasks and some actionable items for the two weeks. They can choose how and when they go about accomplishing the tasks by the set date. After the two weeks, we go through an evaluation process. Did they complete the actionable tasks? How well were they completed? Did they go above and beyond? Did they, as ambitious people who know it takes more effort to work at a startup, take the initiative to add their own tasks to that list to help spur the business?

If all of these tasks are completed at a level that exceeds your expectation, it’s time to hire!

Pro tip: Interview a lot of people. Look at a lot of different candidates. At the very least, it gives you a perspective of who not to hire, which helps you hone in on the qualities and skills of a person who truly fits on your team.

3. Do you offer equity, and if so, when/how much?

When it comes to equity in a new company, there are two main pitfalls to avoid.

One is the overly generous mentality. There are some first-time founders who hand out equity for their startup like nobody’s business. They give equity to every new employee and anyone who has helped them with advice or getting a meeting with an important person. Don’t do this! Equity at a startup is worth next to nothing, and the only way it becomes something is if you make it something. Only give it to people who really contribute (e.g. another co-founder, a technical lead on your team, etc.). And don’t forget to make it vesting.

The flip side is the “hoarding” mentality. These are the founders who know for a fact that their business is worth bazillions of dollars, and they want to have it all. Don’t be this person, either. As mentioned above, startup equity means nothing unless your team makes it worth something—you can’t build a business by yourself.

You do need some people on your team to have equity (maybe not all of them, but definitely some of them). At the very least, it motivates them to work harder knowing they have a large potential payout once you reach your goals.

Stacey Ferreira co-founded MySocialCloud, a technology startup that allows people to store their usernames and passwords for all their online websites for auto-login and share websites with friends easily, during her senior year of high school with her brother Scott. When she was just 18, she raised a seed round of funding of just under $1 million from Sir Richard Branson and Jerry Murdock.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

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With all the uncertainty, stress and fear that come with the territory, you might be tempted to stay in a less-than-stellar job. But here’s the good news: you can take the leap to a better gig without having your head explode.

Here are 10 tips and tricks to make a successful career change and keep your cool:

1. Facts: get some

When it comes to a career move, ignorance isn’t bliss—it’s anxiety.

Perform due diligence research before committing to a change and you’ll reduce your fear of the unknown to a dull roar. Get online. Talk with people in the field. Try a job shadow. You want to start a new career with your eyes open to the industry realities. Research is your friend.

You will encounter roadblocks and unforeseen sinkholes. But a solid backbone of data and information puts you in a better (and calmer!) place to deal with the unexpected.

2. Question fear

Fear isn’t all bad. It can help you hone your ideas, find flaws in your thinking and prepare you for your next step. Try this exercise to transform anxiety into a productive tool:

1. Write down any and all fears you have. For instance, you might be worried that changing careers will be too expensive.
2. Next, turn each fear into a “how” question. For example, “How am I going to pay for my career change?”

This process turns undefined fears into actionable problems that can be broken down into doable chunks.

3. Avoid getting trapped in the passion puzzle

The desire to find your “perfect” career path can be totally paralyzing. But according to Cal Newport, author of Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You, we can all just calm down:

Research shows that the traits that lead people to love their work are general, and can be found in many different career paths. They include things like autonomy, a sense of impact and mastery, creativity, and respect and recognition for your abilities. Once you recognize that these traits have little to do with following a pre-existing passion and can be cultivated in many different fields, you can safely abandon the myth that there’s a single right job waiting for you.

4. Practice persistence (in a smart way)

“Persistence is the number one reason for our success” according to entrepreneur Joe Kraus. Most people wouldn’t disagree, but you don’t want to beat your head against a wall, either.

Reaching for absolutely impossible goals—the ones that no amount of hard work can achieve—will guarantee failure. Develop the savvy to differentiate between a temporary barrier and an immovable wall, and you’ll greatly increase your chances of having a calm career transition.

5. Don’t stick your head in the financial sand

“When you start over in a new career, you need to be in good financial health to help smooth your transition,” says Kerry Hannon, a career change expert. “This allows you to try new things without stressing over the initial salary.”

In other words, don’t ignore the numbers in your bank account! Start by creating a basic budget (try a tool like Mint.com) to get a clear picture of what’s within reach. If you’re going back to school, check out what financial aid offerings and tax breaks might be available to you.

6. Run to the end of the block

Running a 10k doesn’t start with a to-do list that says “#1: Run a 10k.”  It doesn’t even start with “#1: Run one mile.” It starts with “#1: Run to the end of the block.”

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by long-term plans, focus on small projects instead. What are the steps you can take today, tomorrow and the next day to reach your goals? By taking action each day, you can feel more in control and confident.

7. Sweat it out

Working out is usually the last thing you want to do when you’re stressed. But it pays to prioritize a sweat session. Studies have repeatedly proven that upping your heart rate can do miracles for your mood.

No need to become an exercise junkie; even mild exercise (like a 20-minute walk) can boost your endorphin and serotonin levels. This lowers your stress, increases your ability to concentrate and acts as a natural antidepressant. Consider it time well spent.

8. Build relationships

Relationships are at the heart of happiness. “A lot of research shows that higher satisfaction is achieved when there are friendships at work,” Degrees of Transition founder Lea McLeod points out. In fact, many studies have shown that relationships are one of the only external factors that can significantly improve your happiness quotient.

During a career change, your personal support network will become the cheerleaders who keep you going and keep you sane. Your professional network can also become a huge source of energy and advice when the going gets rough.

9. Call a timeout

Career transitions require a lot of hustle. But running yourself into the ground won’t help anyone. Be sure to make time (at least a little bit) to really switch your brain off. Turn your attention to the other aspects of your life—family, fitness, fun—that help you stay happy and healthy.

10. Carve your own yardstick for success

The most traditional measures of success—money, power, fame—are all well and good. But they aren’t the whole picture.

What do you really want? When you picture yourself as a successful person, what do you see? What parts of your life matter most to your version of success?

If you can determine your personal definition of a successful life, you can then design a career change plan that will get you what you really want. It may take longer to get there, but meeting your own standards—rather than somebody else’s—is a formula for lasting satisfaction.

Annie Favreau works for Inside Jobs, a site that helps people discover strong careers and connect with the right education to achieve their goals. Follow her on Twitter at @InsideJobs!

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But is the role you’re going after right for you? Are you sabotaging yourself by not looking past the goal of landing a job?

In the current professional climate, it’s easy to focus on “winning” in the job hunt game and forget that a new role should be a thoroughly evaluated stepping stone in your career. In short: it’s easy to land the wrong job. Here’s how to do it:

Be a marvelous presenter

It’s no secret that communication skills are in high demand among employers, and for good reason: in many roles, it’s important to clearly articulate the value of your company’s product or service and to represent your organization professionally.

Hone those communication skills, but superstar communicators, beware: your talent could work against you. Presenting information in the best possible light seems like a smart strategy, and nowhere is this more applicable than in an interview. If you’re a fantastic presenter, you know how to read a room, how to get heads nodding and how to paint the picture of you as the perfect person for the job.

You could walk out of an interview having charmed the pants off of everyone in the conference room and influenced them to vote for your hire—but did you showcase your skills and talents accurately? Is your experience truly a good match for the job’s responsibilities? Did you sell yourself as the best candidate when someone with a different background would actually be a better fit?

It’s best for the employer—and you—to reign in the polish and carefully discuss the facts. Realizing you’re unprepared for the role after you’ve committed to each other is a disaster for both parties.

Be 100 percent agreeable

It’s important to resist the temptation to avoid questions or topics that are less than exciting or could steer the conversation into not-a-strong-candidate territory. It may feel uncomfortable to describe, for example, your preference to work alone when it’s becoming clear the role will require significant teamwork.

Everyone is better off, however, if you’re upfront about your personality from the get-go. The same is true for disclosing your actual strengths and weaknesses.

If you do manage to keep it honest, avoid glossing over the details or attempting to smooth any wrinkles if it means you’ll be, in effect, taking back what you just said. Don’t follow up an explanation of how a calm, quiet work environment is best for you with a contradicting statement about how you could be quite productive in a fast-paced office because you never miss a deadline. (That may be true, but will you be functioning optimally?)

An interviewer motivated to fill the position might latch on to the part of your answer that indicates you’d do well in the hectic environment and forget the rest in a subconscious effort to make you into the perfect candidate. If this happens, both of you lose.

Be a “Polly Positive”

As you look over your notes after the interview and recount the conversation—the job responsibilities, company culture and anticipated organization and career growth—you must include the negatives in your evaluation. A new job can feel exciting, and it’s fun to look at all the pros associated with the role and imagine the rainbow-filled paths your career can go down.

But it’s crucial you weigh the cons of the situation, too. What seems like an insignificant factor can feel like a huge problem when the newness of a position wears off. As much as possible, try your best to be objective and see beyond the bright side.

Sometimes you don’t have much of a choice and life circumstances dictate how picky (or not) you can be about your next job. When you’re able to, though, move past the “score a gig” goal, and think strategically about your career. It’s exciting to land a position, but it sucks to later realize it’s the wrong one.

Cassie Nolan is the blogger behind Alternative Badassery, a creative guide to being good at life, where she covers career, writing and health topics. She also regularly disseminates awesome on Facebook and Twitter.

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A word of warning: not all internships are created equal. Some will be very structured and, if you’re conscientious enough, it should be fairly easy to have an enjoyable and enriching experience. Others will have next to no structure, so it’s important you take the lead. The first two weeks of an internship are crucial in setting expectations and your trajectory for success or failure.

1. The basics

These are things which, if you’ve had an internship before, you probably already know, but we’ll list them just to be sure:

• Dress appropriately (and don’t assume Fridays are casual).
• Watch the language you use.
• Don’t bitch, whine, complain or moan.
• Don’t hit on your cute coworker—or, worse, your manager.
• Do not get drunk at the welcome drinks (or happy hour).

Now, on to some of the lesser-known tips…

2. An internship is a six-week interview

Many internships will offer some full-time jobs to recent graduates at the conclusion of the internship program. So if you think you want a permanent role in the company, your internship is the best time to prove to your managers that you’re the right choice. Even if you don’t get a job straight away, you can still build up contacts for later down the road.

3. Failing to plan is planning to fail

The internship will be over before you know it, so it’s important you plan exactly what you want to get out of it. By letting your manager know upfront what you want to do, it will be a lot easier to design a program tailored to your interests. Be firm, but not demanding; they might not give you much “real work,” but at least you can let them know which types of roles you want to oversee.

Try to set up brief weekly catch-ups with your manager so you can update them on your progress or flag any concerns you have. Use this time to steer the direction of your internship if you feel it’s getting off track.

4. Be realistic about what you want to achieve, and have a daily plan

It’ll be impossible to deliver a major project in such a short amount of time, but you should look to add value in any way you can. Tagging along to meetings is a great way to find out what your manager actually does all day, what problems they face and how they deal with them. Offer to take the minutes and send them to your manager afterward. This will help keep you in the know and will get you well-acquainted with the different stakeholders and the steps required to complete a project at the company.

5. Be social (but not at your desk)

Sure, eating out every day can be expensive and unhealthy, but imagine you’re the only one who brought lunch and you’re sitting in the lunch room by yourself while everyone else is out. Next thing you know, everyone is calling your manager “the dolphin” and you have no idea why. Hanging out with your colleagues during non-work hours is an essential part of getting to know their personalities and how to best work around them, so don’t be the one left behind!

6. Don’t just hang out with your intern friends

It’s great to make friends, but make sure you also spend time getting to know your managers and teammates, their backgrounds and the team culture as they’re ones you’ll be working with in the future. Being an intern, people will generally be more lenient when it comes to you asking questions and poking your head into different parts of the business.

Use this to your advantage and don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions about how different divisions work together or whatever else you’re interested in. Most people love to talk about themselves—they just don’t have an audience! By asking how your colleagues got to this stage in their careers, you can see what skills you need to acquire in order to get to the same place.

7. Your manager is not your friend

An internship is a mighty short time to build strong, professional rapport with your colleagues and your manager, so always make sure you act professionally in the office. Even if they say it’s cool to take a two-hour lunch break, it probably isn’t. The same goes with sharing too much personal information.

This doesn’t mean you have to act like a robot with no feelings or personality; just make sure you’re showing your best self during this time. Also, don’t be too concerned about sucking up to high-level managers! Often it’s your immediate manager or middle management who will have the last call about hiring you.

8. Don’t come with problems; come with solutions

Instead of asking, “What should we do about XYZ?” say, “I think we should do [insert activity] for [insert project]. What do you think?” This will test your own analytical skills and also show your manager that you’re thinking about the problems, not just waiting for instructions to be dropped in your lap. People who follow instructions without adding value are easily dispensable. Always have a go at finding a solution before asking your manager; they want to work with people who can think on their own, not people they have to micromanage every step of the way.

So, there you have it! Eight simple steps to getting the most out of your internship. Keep your head up, and great job taking charge of your career!

How do you make sure you get the most out of your summer internship? Share your tips in the comments!

This post originally appeared on Levo League.

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As a responsible young professional, you pay close attention to the management of your financial assets. You put aside a bit of each paycheck towards savings and paying off student loans, and you watch your 401K like a hawk. You try to follow the advice of financial advisors: implement a long-term strategy, and your diligence will pay off.

 Now here’s a question about an even bigger asset: how well have you managed your own career?

Over the long-term, workers who earn the median US income of approximately $50,000 per year could earn more than a million dollars during their lifetimes. As important as the earnings, a career also brings a source of pride and identity. If you manage your career like your most important asset, you’ll not only maximize your financial return, but also achieve greater lifetime satisfaction.

To manage your career as your most important asset, follow these 10 steps:

1. Establish your own goals for growth, risk tolerance and security needs

You need a sense of what you want to accomplish. How high do you want to climb? How hard do you want to push? What risks, like moving to a new city, are you willing to take?

2. Find a mentor

Seek expert guidance from a knowledgeable person who’s interested in your success. Don’t just rely on your boss. Your mentor could be a sponsor, rabbi, colleague or family member who can share valuable wisdom and experience that you can apply to your career.

3. Strengthen and diversify your portfolio

What skills do you have, and what do you need to create the future you want to create? For example, if you specialize in a particular line of work, do you need general management skills and experience? If so, how can you get that experience?

One analyst I know could not get promoted to manager because she had no management experience—everyone’s Career Catch-22. She took a leadership position in a volunteer organization in her community and gained excellent experience quickly.

4. Assess the current market

Find out what’s available in the job market and what it’s worth. What are the trends? Where is the growth? Mainstream publications often publish lists of “fastest growing jobs.” Adapt your skill set to meet the demand.

5. Make career decisions based on facts, not emotions

Yes, trust your gut—but be sure your gut has been informed by the facts. Choose your next opportunity as carefully as you would choose a stock or mutual fund. Who is the manager? What’s their track record? How do others evaluate their performance? For mutual funds, we have Morningstar. For work environments, we have the word of mouth of employees or sites like Glassdoor to get an inside look at the culture and job satisfaction of others who work there.

6. Ask for what you need

We can be experts in some things, but not in everything. If your career isn’t moving in the direction you want or at the pace you expect, get specific feedback and guidance from bosses and colleagues that will allow you make changes.

7. Show a fast ROI

When you do get the opportunity you want, balance the learning curve with the need to show an immediate lift in your new organization. Establish a reputation for effectiveness, and then learn more. At the end of each day, ask yourself, “Did I add value today?” and “Did I enhance my own portfolio today?”

8. Monitor your progress and make course corrections as needed

Don’t wait for your annual review to take stock. A year is a long time. Too many opportunities to add value and build your network can be missed over that time.

9. Use all tools available to you

Look both inside and outside the organization to invest in your career and benchmark your progress. Check online postings, outside listings, articles on hot careers, classes to take, networks to join, etc.

10. Own it!

We would never say to someone else, “Here’s my house. Figure out what to do with it, and let me know.” Like homes, careers require ongoing maintenance, upgrading and periodic investments of time and money so they will grow in value.

The bottom line: invest in yourself and manage your career as you would your financial assets, using the help of trusted advisors. Your strategy will pay dividends.

Lisa Parker is an executive coach and author of the recent book Managing the Moment: A Leader’s Guide to Building Executive Presence One Interaction at a Time.

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Of nearly 3,200 freelancers worldwide who were interviewed as part of the new study, “Millennials and the Future of Work,” 72 percent revealed that they’re keen to quit their 9-to-5 and strike out on their own. More than 60 percent said they’ll likely make that move within two years, citing a desire for freedom to pick and choose where and when they work.

It’s not just a question of working from home and shunning the 9-to-5 lifestyle. While flexibility undoubtedly appeals to freelancers, 69 percent of respondents saw freelancing as providing more freedom to work on more interesting projects.

Take note, employers: your employees want to spread their wings sooner than you might think.

Redefining entrepreneurship

The survey also generated some interesting findings when it comes to what people mean by the term “entrepreneur.” Only 10 percent of those who responded defined an entrepreneur as “someone who starts a company,” while the overwhelming majority considered entrepreneurship as a certain attitude or mindset. When asked to define what this mindset might be, the terms “self-starter,” “risk taker,” “visionary” and someone who “spots opportunity” all came to the fore.

“This signals a major shift in our economy and how we manage our careers,” said Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding and author of Promote Yourself. “Entrepreneurship is now accessible to everyone regardless of age or occupation. You don’t need to own a business to be an entrepreneur, but you do need the entrepreneurial mindset to be successful in business.”

Talking ’bout my generation

With this in mind, many of the respondents classify themselves as entrepreneurs—nearly 60 percent, in fact. But will they all follow through on their entrepreneurship dream? Or is Gen Y getting too big for its boots?

“Narcissism is markedly higher among college students in the 2000s compared to those in the 1980s,” says Dr. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University who runs studies on Millennial attitudes. Yes, this generation has seen the likes of Facebook’s and YouTube’s rise to stratospheric heights, witnessed the birth of the smartphone and the unbridled popularity of the app—yet is Gen Y somewhat delusional?

And will the 72 percent who say they intend to quit their jobs and forge their own paths make good on their promise? It’s easy to announce intentions, but far tougher to see them through, especially in challenging economic times.

Are you one of these freelancers who plan to transition to working for yourself? How will you make that dream a reality?

Amy Noble is a freelance writer, copy editor, proofreader and general grammar-obsessive living in London, England.

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Maybe this happens at Google, but for most in-house recruiters, attracting the most talented workers is a whole new ball game these days. Relying on job boards, attending career fairs and having a standard “we’re hiring” message on your website just isn’t enough.

So here are five powerful tactics for finding all-star employees who want to stay the course and help the company grow:

1. Hit up relevant live events

Today’s digital world has created a recruiting environment centered around screens. Your organization will stand out if you get off your computer and attend live events to meet candidates. Having a face-to-face connection with a rising star will leave a lasting impression, while an email can easily be forgotten.

To determine what events to attend, think about who you are targeting, learn where they hang out and then go there. For instance, attend a local hackathon to find hard-to-reach tech geniuses. For harder-to-reach candidates like those in the emerging field of “big data,” you may need to think outside the box and host a special event that will draw in great candidates.

2. Find creative ways to get the word out

Collaborate with your marketing team to create innovative ways to announce job opportunities. For example, at Seamless, the online food ordering system where I serve as Vice President of the People Team, we include messages about joining our team when our customers interact with our service. They’re likely to see it even if they aren’t actively looking for a job.

By doing so, we’re putting a bug in the ears of people who are already familiar with us, but maybe never thought about our company as a great place to work. Infuse all of your outgoing communication with the message that you’re actively looking for candidates to extend your reach.

3. Create a fun and engaging office environment

You may have a top-notch recruiting process in place, but if a supportive and dynamic company culture isn’t there to back it up, your efforts may be all for naught. Today’s prospective employees are looking for a workplace that’s fun as well as purposeful and fosters appreciation. When your employees are excited to go to work every day and find meaning in the work they do, they’ll share that with their friends and, in turn, provide you with a continuous flow of candidates.

Creating the type of environment in which today’s top talent wants to work requires investing in building their leadership skills, recognizing their accomplishments and rewarding hard work. In other words, it means helping build great careers. This will not only improve your recruiting efforts; it will also help your company retain the best employees.

4. Involve the whole team

The entire organization should be involved in bringing in top talent; it should not solely fall on your shoulders. Managers should feel responsible for building out their teams—and then engaging team members so they can continue to build new relationships for the company, attend live events to advertise and help creatively announce openings.

This may include using a referral program as an incentive for employees to bring in their contacts as well as encouraging them to tap their networks for potential leads. In all likelihood, those referrals will make excellent workers who want to stay with the company long-term.

5. Never underestimate the power of perks

At Seamless, we recently conducted a nationwide survey of nearly 1,100 professionals across more than a dozen different industries and found that employees highly value the perks their company offers. We learned that the presence of food (surprise, surprise!) can play an important role in motivating employees to spend more time in the office, work more effectively and view their workplace more positively. In fact, 60 percent reported that having more food at the office would make them feel more valued and appreciated.

While offering free food all the time may not be feasible for your company, you can show you care about your employees by hosting special birthday get-togethers or celebratory lunches.

Offering competitive salaries is nice, but the ability to nurture a vibrant and engaging environment will separate you from the competition and help you retain the best workers. In our highly connected world, news about the ways in which companies treat their employees travels fast—hopefully to the ears of a rising star considering a position within your company.

Karen Miller is the Vice President of the People Team at Seamless, the leading online food ordering service that makes it easy to feed the office, where she is responsible for defining and executing Seamless’s people and HR strategies. Karen has more than 15 years’ experience in organization development, including talent management, employee engagement, performance improvement, communication, facilitation, coaching and cultural transformation.

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As someone with a lot of different passions—someone with both a film degree and a law degree, who did freelance Web design and played classical violin for much of her life—I couldn’t imagine ever finding a single career that would keep me interested long-term.

If you have a lot of different interests and skills, you’re likely multi-passionate, too. I use the term “multipotentialite” to describe us on my website, Puttylike. But you may also be familiar with the terms Renaissance Person, Polymath or Scanner. Basically, it means that you are insatiably curious and like to play in different disciplines.

What I didn’t realize when I was younger is that it is absolutely possible to design a career that incorporates many of your interests. Here are a few tips to help you identify those careers and companies that will not only value your multi-passionate nature, but actually pay you to explore and integrate your many interests into your work:

1. Figure out how much variety you require

Are you a multi-passionate who needs to use a number of different skill sets throughout your week? Do you need to be writing one day and leading a group the next? Or do you prefer to work on one project till completion and then jump on an entirely new project?

Knowing how much variety you require in your week, and how often you need to cycle through your various skills to stay happy and engaged, will give you clues as to the right kind of career for you.

2. Look for careers in fields that are interdisciplinary in nature

Is there an intersection point between two or more of your interests? Here are a few examples of interdisciplinary fields:

• Bioethics = Science + Philosophy
• Architecture = Art + Science
• Anthropology = Language, History, Literature, etc.
• Physical Therapy = Health + Athletics
• Filmmaking = Photography, Art, Writing, Business, Music, Design, etc.

3. Look for careers that provide flexibility and are self-directed

Some careers (and companies) value multi-passionate personalities more than others. Look for an organization that appreciates independence and creative thinking and sees your ability to do many tasks as a good thing.

When I was in my second year of law school and applying for summer jobs, I found one legal clinic that loved my diverse background. They took a look at my transcript and enthusiastically asked about the astronomy class I took in undergrad. “What on earth is ‘Assembling Space Ship Earth’?” they asked. We talked for awhile about the class. I almost think they hired me because they could sense my passion and curiosity in so many different realms.

4. Get in the door with one skill, then be proactive about doing additional things within your company

One sneaky way to craft your dream career is to get in the door by highlighting one primary skill, then volunteering to take the lead when an opportunity in a different area shows up within your organization. Better yet, be proactive and initiate projects, making suggestions for ways to help your organization grow, innovate or run smoother.

The key again is to find an open-minded organization to work for and a boss who understands you (and is maybe multi-passionate himself). Of course, being an outstanding employee is a given; otherwise your ideas won’t be taken seriously.

5. Look for a position that is “mission-based” rather than skill-based

You can often tell by the way a job listing is worded whether a company is looking for someone to perform one task again and again (which won’t be fulfilling to you as a multi-passionate) or whether they’re focused on an end goal like client happiness or problem-solving.

I recently hired a “Director of Tribe Happiness” at my company. It was unclear exactly what he would be doing (though we had some ideas: forum moderation, customer support, etc.). He ended doing all of those things and more. Way more. But all of the skills he uses are in service of the ultimate goal of enhancing the experience of our users. How he does that doesn’t really matter to me.

It’s like they say in copywriting: focus on the benefit, not the features. What can you do for your organization? If you need to use multiple skills to make that happen, so be it.

6. Be an entrepreneur

Running a business naturally requires that you wear a lot of different hats. You need to understand marketing, human psychology, the intricacies of your field, growth and partnerships, product development, design, customer support and so on.

There are endless ways to utilize your skills when running a business. For instance, if you own a coffee shop, you might bring your love of art to your business by having your space host lectures and cultural events. If you’re building a consulting business but also love comedy, you could incorporate your humor into the mix and brand yourself as “the funny guy, for fun businesses.”

Entrepreneurship is a fantastic way to combine your interests, and if you take a look at many of the successful entrepreneurs—the Richard Bransons and Russell Simmonses of the world—you’ll notice that they’re usually involved in many different facets of their businesses. (And sometimes many different businesses!)

Having a dynamic career that allows you to switch between your skills and explore new areas is completely possible. There are people in every field who have found ways to make their careers more plural. But it first starts with understanding what makes you tick and then seeking out a complimentary career.

How have you gone about integrating many interests into one career? Do you have any tips to add?

Emilie Wapnick recently launched Multi-Passionate Must-Haves, a bundle of 27 products to help you pursue your many passions in a sustainable way. Multi-Passionate Must-Haves is only available until May 16th at midnight Pacific, and it’s an incredible deal ($1,379 worth of products for $97!). Learn more here.

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This summer, many job seekers will flock to job boards, attend countless networking events and scour through their contact lists to find the perfect position. No matter if you’re fresh out of school or an experienced professional looking for something new, try thinking outside the box.

That’s right, there are some job alternatives that may be just as fulfilling as traditional positions. Consider these four options:

1. Hourly work

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, average hourly earnings have actually increased over the past year. That means employers are not only hiring hourly workers, but these workers’ earnings are increasing.

Hourly work comes in all shapes and sizes, too. Maybe you want to earn some extra bucks as an event coordinator. Perhaps you want to work retail or even serve on the side. Well, with hourly work, you may be able to try out whatever you want. Plus, if your hourly gig goes well, there’s a chance it might turn into a full-time position. Who can argue with that?

Tip: There’s nothing wrong with trying out multiple hourly gigs! As long as they don’t conflict, either personally or professionally, give a few hourly jobs a try. You can use the experience to find out what you like and what you’d rather not pursue.

2. Freelancing

The world of freelancing is about as untraditional as it gets. Typically, freelancers aren’t attached to a company, but rather work for themselves. A lot of creatives, such as graphic designers or communication specialists, are freelancers. They work on a project-by-project basis or for a company for a longer period of time. Either way, if you’d like the opportunity to work with an array of companies while still performing familiar tasks, freelancing this summer may be right up your alley.

Tip: Create an online and offline work portfolio to show off your stuff. Presenting your work history in a simple way will heighten your legitimacy and impress potential clients.

3. Volunteering

Volunteering for an organization is a noble gesture. Though you may not get paid, you’re certainly compensated in experience. From environmental organizations to non-profit causes, volunteer work can be fulfilling because you feel like you contributed to a mission. Plus, you may even gain valuable contacts or recommendations that can help you land your next job.

Tip: Just because you may not be getting paid for your efforts doesn’t mean you can’t contribute a thing or two to the cause.

Have an idea that can help improve the organization? Speak up and suggest it! Many volunteer-based organizations would be happy to hear all ideas and may incorporate your suggestions into their operations if possible. Remember, putting in an effort is always encouraged, no matter what you get in return.

4. Contracted gigs

Contracted jobs occur when professionals work for an organization for a set period of time or through set terms. For example, an organization may need an assistant for three months or may want to hire a marketing director for a set amount of money. Though these terms can be negotiated, budgets and timeframes are typically set in stone from the beginning. This allows employers to evaluate employees in a set time period and gives them room to expand the position if necessary.

Tip: Like your contracted gig so much you want to stay? Then make it happen!

Oftentimes, contracted workers are aware of their end point, so they don’t think they can create an opportunity—but you can use the experience you gained to stay. This may mean coming up with a big idea, suggesting your services for a new project or just sitting down with your boss. Whatever you decide, be sure to take control of your contracted gig and extend your stay.

What other summer job alternatives have you come across?

Lynn Dixon is the Co-Founder and COO of Hourly.com, an employment network that quickly matches people who are interested in flexible positions with the right opportunities. Connect with Lynn and Hourly on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Many of you have a big career goal, and you might feel as though achieving that goal is the only yardstick for success. But just because you haven’t achieved your dream yet doesn’t mean that you can’t live your passion in other ways.

My guest for this episode, Mexican-born chef Vanessa Musi, is well on her way to opening Edit Bakery, Texas’s first gluten-free, sugar-free bakery. In the meantime, she supports her dream by teaching others the art of bakery and acting as a brand ambassador.

Highlights in this episode:

• How Vanessa gave up psychology to answer her calling in bakery.
• How pursuit of her craft has taken Vanessa around the world, from five-star restaurants to bed and breakfasts.
• How Vanessa took a health problem—hypoglycemia—and turned it into a strength by masteing the art of making pastry without sugar or gluten.

For more interviews, check out previous Paid to Play episodes. Enjoy the podcast!

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Yoga can help these worries and job-hunting related stressors in more ways than one. It’s a great way to break away from the job hunting boards to refresh your mind and body. And, it provides some powerful lessons along the way:

1. Flexibility is key

While you don’t have to be flexible to do yoga, it helps. The more you practice, the more flexible you become.

Job seeking is similar. Being flexible in your search and related activities will help you see open doors where you may not be looking. Sticking to a rigid job seeking routine takes impressive determination, but it could also be limiting your potential.

The universe works in strange ways. That person you didn’t stop to talk to because you had a routine to follow could’ve been a door you chose not to walk through. These proverbial doors can be anywhere.

Be open to the possibilities, be flexible in your day and remain curious about where opportunities may be hiding. Consider applying for jobs outside of your field, brainstorm how you could create your own dream job, take your search beyond the traditional job boards (Twitter, anyone?) and get out there and network.

2. Embrace the journey

This may be the hardest of all. We’re always focused on the end goal. Looking for a job is time consuming, tedious and frustrating. Embracing the journey seems impossible, but at least entertain the idea of enjoying each step of the process.

Can you find any benefits to being unemployed? Or if you hate your job and are looking for a new one, maybe there’s a reason to hold on for a bit longer. Stay open to finding the message or important life lesson in the job hunting experience.

Think about what you’ve applied for, the people you’ve met and what you can see yourself doing next. Take it one day at a time. One application after the other. Take each rejection or milestone as they come.

One potentially disastrous outcome of letting desperation rule your search for employment is that you could end up in the wrong job. Attempting to embrace the journey will allow you to stay focused on letting the process unfold as it will and taking the opportunity that is right for you.

3. Breathe through the difficult periods

In a challenging yoga pose, as in much of life, we forget to breathe. Yes, breathing is an involuntary action, but in yoga, the goal is to do it consciously.

The poses become easier if you anchor your breathing. If you get into a tight pose, breathe into your low belly or into the spot of discomfort. Where your attention goes, your energy will follow.

In stressful situations, such as job seeking, remembering to breathe into the discomfort can help you relax, feel better and reduce tension-related illnesses (such as tension headaches).

If job seeking gets to be too much, go for a walk or do something you enjoy to clear your head and reconnect with your mission. Sometimes taking a moment to breathe is all that’s needed.

4. Have faith in your abilities

Sometimes yoga students need an experienced teacher to guide them into more challenging poses. They may think they can’t do it, but with some guidance and faith in themselves, crazy things are possible.

We often don’t give ourselves enough credit in our abilities. It’s not easy to suddenly believe you’re awesome (p.s. you are!), but luckily, you can fake it to start. The human brain doesn’t distinguish between a real smile and a fake smile. Similarly, just telling yourself how awesome you are can make you believe it.

Take a little time each day, or throughout the day, to remind yourself of your awesomeness. Take stock of what you’re capable of, what you have to offer employers and what obstacles you’ve overcome to get to this place. And beyond just believing in yourself, practice applying for jobs and interviewing with confidence.

5. Beware of your mind playing tricks on you

We all think the mind is so great and powerful, and it is! We have the ability to learn and create and do all these wonderful things—but the mind is not always an ally.

It tries to tell us we’re not good enough, pretty enough, young enough or smart enough. Applying for jobs with that mentality is destructive.

For whatever job or career you aspire to, take steps every day to get there and notice what your mind is doing. Just being aware of destructive thoughts or habits is enough (you don’t have to try to ignore them or actively change them). Recognize them as your mind trying to hold you back. As Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

The hardest part of yoga is dealing with the mind. It’s as if the mind’s job is to distract us from our goals and lead us off our path. Notice when your mind is playing these tricks on you and don’t give in.

Repeat after me: “I am enough, I have enough, I do enough. I will find a job I love.” And breathe.

Amber Erickson Gabbey, MA, is a freelance writer, holistic health expert and yoga instructor. She blogs at Mindfully Written with the goal of inspiring and empowering others to be their healthiest selves.

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This unprecedented Baby Boomer retirement trend could work in your favor, because your dreams of being promoted to a big time position could come true a lot sooner than you thought.

Read more at Black Enterprise…

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That’s exactly what recent college grad Jannic Nielssen did. Nielssen designed an “interactive social resume” that looks like a Kickstarter campaign. The goal? To receive a job offer by May 1st or be forced to leave the US. (He’s a dual citizen of Jamaica and Norway.)

As Nielssen said:

Kickstarter is about supporting a product, but in my case, monetary funding would not make sense. Instead, I transformed the concept into social shares. This way I would get my resume in front of more people and eventually employers—similar to word of mouth on a digital level.

You can check out the full post here.

Did it work? On May 2nd, Nielssen accepted a position with Thrillist Media Group. No doubt they were impressed by the marketing savvy and digital innovation shown not just in his resume stats, but by his resume itself.

Have you ever considered creating an outside-the-box resume? What would yours look like?

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How do you make big (and little) decisions? What should you focus on? How do you handle the day-to-day stress?

Thankfully, we’re not blazing our trails all by our lonesome. Plenty of people have gone before us—and succeeded. And from them, we can learn some great lessons on how to rock our own careers. So, we thought we’d ask some of them.

We asked some of today’s top entrepreneurs, thought leaders, speakers and bloggers what one piece of career advice they would give to young professionals. And, as expected, their answers were both insightful and inspiring.

So get your notepad out, because you’re going to want to remember these:

Ash Ambirge, Founder of The Middle Finger Project (@TMFProject)

Don’t wait for anyone to give you anything, and certainly not a job. Want to be a famous author? Get writing. Want to edit videos? Get editing. Anyone can start their own business and actually be the big shot, while most people are sitting around, waiting for someone else just to grace them with the title.

Corbett Barr, Creator of Think Traffic (@corbettbarr)

Don’t start out doing something because it’s “good experience” or because you can make “good money.” Start out in a field you really love, no matter how impractical your parents or friends tell you it might be. Essentially: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” -Howard Thurman

Jenny Blake, Founder of Life After College (@jenny_blake)

Be dynamic. Don’t expect your first job to provide 100 percent glee and fulfillment. Learn what you can and give it your best while you are there—AND keep exploring your other interests, whether it’s a hobby like cooking or a “side hustle” like starting your own blog or business, in your free time.

Catherine Caine, Boss Lady of Cash & Joy (@CatherineCaine)

Motivation fluctuates. Some days you’re fired up and ready to do ALL THE THINGS, and others you seriously can’t be arsed. The smartest thing you can do is choose work that requires very little motivation. Y’know, work that you enjoy and care about and believe in.

Arvind Devalia, Coach, Author, Speaker and Blogger at Make It Happen (@ArvindDevalia)

If you’re starting out in your professional career, you should know and accept that you can’t reach the top overnight! It takes diligence, application and effort in any position you first start out in. By doing well in each post, you are more likely to be noticed and progress rapidly. Avoid getting involved in company politics and give every day your best, and strive for excellence, not perfection!

Scott Gerber, Founder of Young Entrepreneur Council (@askgerber)

Create a job to keep a job. In these tough economic times, the job market is uncertain for young people. Figure out something you can start with your own two hands on your own time and on your own dime. You don’t need investors; you just need to be practical and realistic. Build your own success.

Ryan Healy, Co-Founder and COO of Brazen Careerist, Inc. (@rjhealy)

Take a risk and do what you love. The worst thing you can do early in your career is settling for a job that is safe and comfortable. Taking a leap to do something that may seem risky will set your career on a path that you want from the beginning, and you won’t wake up at 40 wondering what could have been.

Benny Hsu, Blogger and Appreneur at Get Busy Living (@benny_hsu)

Take more risks. Don’t be afraid of failure. Being younger is advantageous because if you fail, you have much more time to get back up and try again. You also likely to have less responsibility than a person with a family and a mortgage. So failing while you’re younger is much easier. Take advantage of it!

Craig Jarrow, Founder of Time Management Ninja (@TMNinja)

Even in these days of the Internet and seemingly immediate access to everything, there is no such thing as instant success. Overnight sensations are just flashes in the pan or one-hit wonders. True, lasting success takes years of hard work and discipline. Be willing to do the work.

Danielle LaPorte, Author, Business Strategist and Inspirational Speaker (@daniellelaporte)

It’s all about relationships. Every victory, every stressor, every laugh, every breakthrough and almost everything you appreciate about your work and your life will be about the relationships you have.

Jonathan Mead, Chief Troublemaker at Paid to Exist (@jonathanmead)

Constantly look for ways you can create and seize opportunities. Find people that you love to work with and work that you enjoy. Fall in love with it.

J. Money, Founder of Budgets Are Sexy (@budgetsaresexy)

Find something you REALLY want to be good at—even if it’s something small—and then do whatever it takes to rock it. Immerse yourself in books/blogs/networking, whatever it takes to really own that skill. It’s okay to be decent at a whole bunch of things, but being the BEST at one where your name is the first that’s associated with it can pay off immensely. You want people to start adjective-izing your name just like Google has managed to do.

Bobby Ocampo, Director of Revolution (@ocampob)

Get better every day. Wake up in the morning and visualize what you want to accomplish. Be proactive and take action. Every day is a gift. Don’t take it for granted.

Joan Otto, Editor of Man Vs. Debt (@manvsdebt)

Don’t ever be “too good” to do anything, and see the big picture in those little tasks. My first job was typing the obituaries for a local newspaper—a job nobody wanted. But not only did I do them; I developed a system that made them more accurate and quicker to process—and THAT mindset led to a 13-plus-year career there, a management position, flexible hours and more. (And my degree was in mathematics!)

Andrea Owen, Founder of Your Kick-Ass Life Coaching (@andrea_owen)

You CAN have it all; you just can’t have it all at once. Especially for young women who decide to have a family and work. I think we compare ourselves to what we make up about other women—that they’re doing it all perfectly and loving every minute of it. But the truth is, it’s really hard sometimes, and we fall short in certain areas. It’s just life. So be kind to yourself.

Srinivas Rao, Host/Founder of Blogcast FM (@skooloflife)

So many of the choices we make when we’re young are ego-driven: What looks good on paper? What has the highest starting salary? I only know because it’s what I tried. What I’d say is, look for where the opportunity will eventually lead.

Joel Runyon, Founder of Impossible HQ (@joelrunyon)

Find jobs, projects and people that you can learn something from and put to use practically. Don’t just take a job to take a job. Have a purpose behind doing so.

Jody Thompson, Co-Founder of CultureRX and The Results-Only Work Environment (@JodyROWE)

As a mother of two sons in their 20s, the piece of career advice I gave them—and would give to any young professional—is first, do what you love. Doing what you love gives you the intrinsic motivation to be successful doing what you’re passionate about. For the first part of my career, I did what I loved. Then I thought I needed to switch careers, climb the corporate ladder and make more money—where I became seriously demotivated and disengaged. Do what you love. The rest will follow.

Carol Tice, Owner of the Make a Living Writing Blog and The Freelance Writers Den Community (@TiceWrites)

Go into business for yourself, as soon as you possibly can. There’s never been a time in history that is more receptive to young people starting their own business. You’ll never earn as much from any employer as you’ll have the potential to achieve as an owner. If you’re at a job, start a low-cost side business. Learn all you can about entrepreneurship and business-building from any owners you work with. Have a vision of where you want your career to go, and then ask yourself frequently if you’re in the right place to learn what you need to get there. If not, seek out mentors and get the knowledge you need.

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One of the most prevalent reasons for failure is the lack of the essential elements needed to lead now and lead well. Here are four traits you must possess if you want to succeed as a leader:

1. Authenticity

Every leader faces the temptation to project a persona rather than be themselves. They think that to maintain the confidence of their team, they must appear faultless, flawless and wise. Yet most organizations need an authentic leader, not a perfect one.

Today’s leader must develop the art of self-awareness. Quit trying to emulate someone else and start being yourself. Share and be honest about your own struggles. By doing this, you’ll immediately gain influence.

2. Courage

As a leader, you can’t wimp out. You must be willing to be bold and take risks.

Will it be hard? Absolutely. Will it be scary at times? Probably. But courage is not waiting for your fear to go away; courage is always confronting tough decisions and conversations head-on.

You may find that this trait doesn’t come natural to you. The good news is that courage can be learned. Start practicing now.

3. Principles

Every organization fails at one time or another. If a leader is principled at the time of the failure, he or she is much more likely to learn from it and move on to success.

Leaders are defined by their inner strengths and convictions, not the outer portrayal of who they are. Your character will determine your level of leadership and your legacy.

Living on principle is one essential that will help you lead well and finish well. There are three elements of being a principled leader: humility, discipline and integrity.

Want to know if you possess these three valuable principles? Start searching your speech for phrases like, “I’m sorry,” “thank you” and “I trust you.” Listen for patterns of “we” and “us” versus “I” and “my.”

Practice the art of these principles and establish an accountability system to help keep you grounded. No one likes a leader with a big head.

4. Collaborative spirit

Every strong leader shares at least one desire: to grow. Very few successful leaders say, “I think we’re about as successful as we need to be. I’ve decided we should just coast from now on.”

If you want to grow, you need to start collaborating. Leaders tend to shy away from other leaders because they don’t want to give away their secrets, but this mentality is backward.

Collaboration creates innovation, reduces unnecessary risk and amplifies success. If you desire to advance your level of leadership, one of the best things you can do is to build bridges.

Start by looking for two kinds of organizations: one you have profound philosophical differences with and another that is in the same line of work, but not a direct competitor. Once you’ve found them, set up a meeting and begin sharing best practices and brainstorming. You’ll be thankful you did.

It’s been said that following is easy, but leading is difficult. That is no doubt true. Leading in this century is a daunting task. But moving toward these healthy habits and characteristics will help you become a successful change maker capable of leveraging your influence for the betterment of the world and the collective good of others.

Brad Lomenick is President and Key Visionary of Catalyst, one of America’s most influential leadership movements, and author of The Catalyst Leader: 8 Essentials to Becoming a Change Maker. Follow him at @BradLomenick or http://www.bradlomenick.com.

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 Borrowing from the style of Twitter (which maxes out at 140 characters) and similar to a quick-and-to-the-point elevator pitch, this new request forces you to carefully select words and summarize your most important skills.

Not sure how to condense your experience into 150 characters? Use these four tips to pull it off:

1. Break your 150-character “about me” into three parts

Describe yourself with a title based on your most recent work experience (Social Media Connoisseur, IT Project Manager, etc.). If you just graduated from college, use “Recent Grad” and add additional flair by indicating what type of position you’re looking for. Perhaps add a word or two about what you’d like to specialize in your future career. Or mention your area of study or the type of degree you earned.

Next, showcase your personality and wit with a unique line about what makes you stand out or why you love the work you do. Get creative here and add a few words about interesting hobbies or passions. It’s important to make yourself stand out in a well-rounded and unforgettable way.

Tie it all together at the end with a final line about why you’re a perfect fit for the company and the position.

2. Remember, every word counts

Chose strong verbs and carefully select powerful and eye-catching adjectives. Always look for shorter synonyms for longer words and take out filler words that don’t need to be in the sentence.

Avoid the abbreviations or online slang often used when writing for social media, but do keep contractions. They’re more conversational—and they’re shorter!

3. Quadruple-check your grammar, punctuation and spelling

One of the main reasons employers incorporate this new request into job applications is to measure your written communication skills alongside how well you’re able to brand yourself and showcase your personality.

Though space is limited, the rules of grammar, punctuation and spelling definitely still apply. Read your 150-character “about me” out loud to make sure it flows and to verify correct punctuation is placed where it’s needed.

4. Write without thinking about the 150 character limit, then revise and cut

The best way to pull apart your resume and cut it down to 150 characters is to write a quick bio about yourself. Once the words are on paper, then you can begin to cut it down.

Make a list of important points, accomplishments and skills you mentioned throughout your resume and cover letter. Next, cross out words and phrases you deem unimportant and substitute long words with shorter synonyms.

Jen Glantz is a New York City writer who is the brains and beauty behind the website www.thethingsilearnedfrom.com. Jen is a proud graduate of the University of Central Florida, where she received her B.A. in both Journalism and English.

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All you want to do is feel just a little better at work.

If this is you, know that you are not alone. With email, smart phones, tablets and texting, work can find you at any time. That connectivity means you often feel like you’ve got to be “on” all the time. You never unplug, never take a break and never really catch up. Information is always coming in, right?

Ugh.

It’s gotten so bad that some people actually sleep with their phones. Of course, this means they have a restless sleep, wake up stressed and never take a moment to just breathe. They’re worrying about work all the time, and that’s exhausting.

We’ve all read the articles about reasonable changes we can make in our lives. And it would be great if we all ate salads and drank water at night, got to bed on time and were proactive in planning. But the truth is that bar food tastes good, sometimes a glass of wine (or three!) with friends is medicinal and staying up late to watch Game of Thrones just happens.

So, what’s the hack?

All of these articles mean well, but they don’t know your life and the unique problems you face. That’s why this particular hack is about making the one change in your daily life that will have the largest impact on how you feel. This change is something that you want to do, that you talk about doing, but you’ve never taken that seriously before.

Today you’re going to start doing it. No matter what.

Take a moment to think through your workday and figure out one area that’s causing you a lot of stress. Here are a few examples:

• Spending the entire day feeling like you’re playing catch-up because a coworker emails you annoying work requests early in the morning.
• Checking email when you get out of bed, so you start the day overwhelmed and feeling behind.
• Not shutting off your smartphone at night.
• Checking your phone after you know everyone has probably gone to bed, but you can’t resist doing it anyway.
• Not waking up with enough time to get ready for the day, so you spend your morning feeling rushed and stressed and wearing something awkward.

Now, commit to the hack: make one change that will make you feel better and will have a positive impact on your day. Maybe it’s not checking email from bed in the morning or setting the alarm 15 minutes earlier so you can enjoy a long shower.

Don’t pick more than one change because that can feel overwhelming. Stick with the hack, refuse to compromise on it, and you will feel better. You can do one thing for yourself, right?

Start there, and you’ll be amazed at the instant boost it brings to your day.

Christie Mims is the Radical Fairy Godmother to the Woman Trapped in Her Suit and the founder of The Revolutionary Club. You can get unstuck in your career with her free kit over here, or hang out with her on Facebook and Twitter and have her wave her magical fairy dust all over you!

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Luckily, there are plenty of tools available to help you keep things in line. Some are free, some let you collaborate with others and some are just plain pretty.

Here’s a list of some of the most popular to-do list apps so you can stay on top of things:

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is versatile, so you can use it to manage everything from deadlines to shared grocery lists. Collaborate with others on group projects, sync on the cloud—and for those of us who get off on organizing by subtask, there’s that, too. Even though looks aren’t everything, this app is pretty. You can choose from 16 different backgrounds, or go for the simple wood screen.

Cost: Free.

Dispatch

This is a good tool for groups that require a lot of collaboration drawing from different sources. While it’s a bit on the stuffy side, it works with images and documents stored in Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote and Box. You can reply to comments that others leave on your notes, but its best feature is the ability to easily unsubscribe from things that don’t interest you.

Cost: Free.

Asana

Yeah, you’ve got stuff to work on with your colleagues, but Asana lets you create “workspaces” for pretty much anyone you want to share lists with. (Suddenly, pulling together that dinner club doesn’t seem so intimidating.) Asana gives you an activity feed, similar to Facebook’s news feed, to show you what people have been up to. It’s in real time, down to the keystroke.

Cost: Free for teams of up to 30 members. Beyond that, $100 to $800 per month.

Remember The Milk

This one’s great for basic lists. It’s easy to create, edit and (ahem) postpone tasks with the website’s cute, simple interface. The iPhone app works wonderfully, but it allows you just one wireless sync per day. Any more than that and you’ve got to pony up for the pro version, which can also sync tasks across multiple devices. To achieve even more order, you can sort tasks by location and add tags. You can also set it so that you get task reminders via Twitter.

Cost: Free for the basic version. Pro version is $24.99/year.

Nozbe

Like some of the others, Nozbe works with other apps like Google Calendar and Dropbox. But Nozbe’s real strength is giving overwhelmed procrastinators that extra nudge—it prioritizes steps in a project and tells you exactly what to do next. Learning to use it may be a matter of learning the jargon. (The website says “Organize in Projects but work in Contexts!”)

Cost: Plans range from $7/month to $37/month.

Astrid

This is a popular one. If tasks get you down, Astrid will make them seem cheerful and fun. You can share lists and speak your tasks if typing isn’t your thing. It’s fast, the interface is simple and it syncs with Google Tasks. No wonder 40 percent of Lifehacker readers voted it tops.

Cost: Free.

What’s your favorite to-do app?

Gigi Douban is an independent journalist who writes often about business and tech.

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Sound familiar? Unfortunately, for many recruiters, it’s an all too familiar scenario as they go to market for top talent. Seventy-six percent of employers surveyed last year reported that relocation is still an issue for candidates. Moving for a job can be a tough sell—so how do you turn a “no” into a “yes” with a rockstar candidate when relocation is the only thing standing in your way?

It’s not completely hopeless. Last year, 44 percent of workers said they’d relocate for the right job, and data from 2011 reports that interstate residential shipments were up significantly from the recession, suggesting Americans might be more open to moving for out-of-state jobs. Plus, general job satisfaction remains low, with the majority of employees in the U.S. and Canada unhappy at work.

Despite these encouraging trends, a rigid approach on your company’s part will not put you fully in the game for relocating top talent. In order to successfully compete, your company needs to look at each case individually, rather than trying to fit every candidate into your standard relocation policy.

Candidate objections to relocation can usually be placed into one of three categories: personal, financial or professional. What follows are examples of these objections and how your company can work to overcome them.

Personal Objections

“My son is a junior in high school, and I really don’t want to move him before he graduates.”

“Your job is a perfect fit for me, but we’re a two-income family.”

These are probably the two most common personal objections a company will face when recruiting an out-of-town candidate.

To deal with the first scenario, many companies are adopting extended remote working relationships for new employees, allowing them to delay fully relocating until after their child graduates. These accommodations often last for a year or more.

In the second circumstance, employers should consider the option of contracting with a career counseling firm to provide job search assistance to the trailing spouse. Also, executives at your company should be encouraged to open up their networks to trailing spouses to assist with their job search.

Financial Objections

“I’d love to take the job, but my house isn’t worth what I paid for it.”

“On the face of it, you’re offering a nice increase, but the cost of living in Philadelphia is 30 percent more than in Charlotte.”

The prolonged depression in the housing market continues to be problematic for both employers and candidates. Over the past few years, many companies have either instituted or increased the loss-on-sale provisions in their relocation packages to ease or eliminate the financial burden that an underwater mortgage has on a candidate.

In terms of the cost of living difference, companies need to incorporate this information into their offer. At the very least, understand it’s an issue and use this information to determine whether it’s realistic to pursue a candidate.

Professional Objections

“Your company is owned by a private equity firm. I’m worried about the company being sold early in my tenure and my being out on the street.”

“The role you’re offering is appealing, but what are my potential opportunities with your company after this first role?”

These issues aren’t unique to relocation scenarios but can become more important to candidates when they’re being asked to pick up and move.

Private equity-backed firms are in a bit of a quandary on this issue. On the one hand, you want the talent; on the other, if someone needs a large amount of assurance on job security, then he or she probably isn’t suited to a PE environment in the first place. For the right candidate, offer an appropriate incentive to participate in a successful transaction on the back end.

The second issue comes up more frequently with earlier-career executives who are looking for intermediate or long-term career growth. Providing these types of candidates with specific details on your company’s career development practices will help them understand why your company would be a good place to hang their hat for the next 10 years.

While the financial challenges associated with relocating a new hire will hopefully dissipate as the economy continues to improve, the personal and professional challenges will only increase. As a company contemplates conducting a national or global search for a new executive, these issues must be addressed early on in the process to increase the likelihood of a successful outcome.

If your approach is flexible enough to address the unique issues confronting each candidate, there’s no reason not to expect rockstar candidates to accept your offer, whether they’re right around the corner or halfway across the country.

 John Touey, Principal at retained executive search firm Salveson Stetson Group, has 20 years of experience providing executive search, human resources and management consulting services to organizations in the healthcare, financial services, utilities, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals industries. Follow him @JohnTouey.

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As you prepare to enter the next stage of your career, you should have certain skills mastered by now. Not quite there yet? We’ve got a list of the top five career-related tasks you should know how to do and quick tips to brush up on those skills:

1. Write a solid cover letter

Writing a good cover letter is an art. By the time you hit your mid-20s, you should be able to compose a strong cover letter that leads to an interview where you can really show off your stuff.

Quick tips:

• Address the cover letter properly. That means finding out the hiring manager’s name and personalizing your letter accordingly.
• Cover letters are not just about presenting your skills; write about how you and your skills can directly benefit the company you are applying for.
• Show the hiring manager you’ve done your homework. Reference a recent campaign or news article about the company in your cover letter.

2. Interview well

Most people in their 20s have gone on several interviews, whether it be for an internship, a freelance project or a full-time gig. While interviewing can be nerve-wracking, practice makes perfect, and the more you do it, the stronger an interviewee you’ll become.

Quick tips:

• Remember: you’re interviewing the company as much as they’re interviewing you. Ask specific questions to learn about the company’s culture to ensure you’ll be a good fit.
• Bring something to show. For example, if you’re applying for a job that requires writing skills, bring examples of your writing. Physically showing something during an interview shows you’ve come prepared, and also allows you to relax for a moment as you flip through a portfolio and explain your samples.
• Follow up within 24 hours of the interview. An emailed thank you note is fine, but a handwritten thank you note will make you even more memorable.

3. Prioritize

Your to-do list is a mile long and you have no idea where to begin. In your 20s, you’ll learn that not every project carries the same weight. Figuring out which to complete first will help make you a productivity rockstar as you progress in your career.

Quick tips:

• Figure out when you work best. If you’re most alert in the mornings, block out that time on your schedule for creative assignments that require laser-focus and clear thinking. If you have trouble concentrating on nitty-gritty assignments in the afternoons, use that time for meetings or other, more social work tasks. When you figure out how you work best, you can make the most of your eight hours in the office.
• Tackle the big items on your to-do list first. Leave the smaller, easy-to-check-off tasks for Friday afternoons or other quieter times in the office.
• If you’re not sure what to work on next, ask your boss. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help; in fact, your boss will likely applaud you for being self-aware enough to check in.

4. Stand up for yourself at work

Feeling overworked or taken advantage of? Early in your career, it’s important to learn how to defend yourself and tackle workplace issues respectfully, but head-on.

Quick tips:

• Before you say anything, make a list of all the issues you’re having at work. See if there are places where you can improve or solve the problem yourself. Once you’ve narrowed down the list, then it’s time to talk to your boss.
• Schedule an in-person meeting with your boss. Don’t address serious issues over email. Face-to-face is best for these kinds of conversations.
• Document your conversation with your boss and any action items or decisions that come out of that meeting. Use that information to ensure you’re both holding up your end of the bargain.

5. Leave a job gracefully

More than likely, some time in your 20s, you’ll leave a job for a new one. Giving notice to your boss can be scary, but during your last two weeks you can take action for a smooth transition. This will ensure your reputation with your former company stays intact and you leave on a high note.

Quick tips:

• Share the news with with your boss first. As much as you may want to tell a trusted colleague, to be respectful, your boss should know first. He can guide you on how you should share the news with the rest of the team.
• Wrap up as many projects as you can, and create a document that breaks down your individual duties and processes so that whoever will be taking over your workload has a solid “how-to” guide to your former job.
• Thank those who helped you! Be sure to show your gratitude to the people who mentored you along the way with a thank you card or small gift.

What other career-related tasks do you think every 20-something should know be able to do? Share your tips in the comments below!

Jessica Lawlor is a public relations professional, blogger and freelance writer in the Philadelphia area.

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If you’ve been in the business world for a while, you’re accustomed to assessing things in terms of ROI. And with scary stats like the cost of graduate school and the debt some grads carry afterward, it’s no wonder many people who are looking to get ahead in their careers are thinking twice about pursuing that MBA or a similar degree.

But then you hear all those learn-to-earn facts, how those with a master’s degree can expect to earn more every week than those with just a bachelor’s degree. Add that doctorate and professional degree holders make even more than those with master’s degrees (according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), and you’ve got yourself a good case for heading back to the classroom.

Which brings us back to the sugar daddy scenario. Here are a few creative ways to fund your way through grad school:

Work your loan off

There’s one sure way to get student loan lenders off your back—through loan forgiveness. You may be eligible for significant loan reductions if you choose to give back to society after the completion of your degree by committing to public service through organizations like Teach for America, Peace Corps or AmeriCorps.

As a bonus, you’ll feel good because of all the great work you’ll be doing for others. Win-win!

Give your boss a pimp hat

No, not literally. But employer tuition is pretty much all about your workplace paying your way through school.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics’ report Trends in Student Financing of Graduate and First-Professional Education, 21 percent of all graduate students received employer tuition assistance in 2008. For MBA study, that number climbs to 40 percent.

In other words, there’s a good chance your employer might be willing to foot some of your tuition bill. (Go ahead and picture your boss in a purple and orange pinstripe suit and a cane—we won’t tell!) Be aware that some conditions will apply, like maintaining a certain grade point average or agreeing to keep working for that employer for a specified amount of time.

Flaunt your assets

Show ‘em what you got! After all, your work and volunteer experiences could actually be worth hundreds—if not thousands—of dollars because they could earn you college credits. Many career-focused degrees and vocational programs offer prior learning assessments so students can bypass a couple of those pesky introductory courses.

You can also try taking CLEP exams, which allow you to test out of prerequisite courses if you already have the foundational knowledge.

Adult-rated college cash

Don’t assume that only high schoolers are eligible for federal aid assistance. The same goes for scholarships, which are sometimes earmarked for nontraditional or online degree students. To score some nontraditional student aid, your best bet is to apply via the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). It’s worth a shot!

By staying open-minded about your education financing options, you can take ownership of your future on someone else’s dime. Not a bad deal!

Dawn Papandrea is the managing editor of MyEducation.com, which helps aspiring students explore and research degree programs. The MyEducation blog features admissions advice, financial aid tips, degree spotlights and higher education news.

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The only problem is that you’re not the only one in this position. A few of your coworkers probably feel the exact same way. For you to land the promotion, you need to stand out and make yourself a vital asset to the team.

That might sound like a lot of work, but these easy-to-follow steps will help show your employer it’s time for you to move up and advance in the company:

1. Dress for success

Your physical appearance doesn’t affect how well you do your job. But it does show your level of professionalism. Consider the standard dress at your workplace, and try to match that.

Obviously, if the dress code is casual, you don’t need to overdress. But you can still take a few extra minutes each morning on your appearance to show your employer you care about work and how you represent the company. And, paying attention to how you present yourself shows you’re aware of how you come across to other people.

2. Be punctual and prepared

Employers notice who shows up late and who’s on time. Avoid strolling in late like you own the place.

Arrive a few minutes early so you’re settled before the clock strikes 9:00 a.m. If your lunch is already in the fridge, your coffee on your desk and your email open as everyone else arrives, you’ll send the message that you value your job and care enough to start work when it’s scheduled to begin.

3. Ask questions and make suggestions

The biggest asset to any company is someone who knows what they’re doing. Asking valuable questions and clarifying answers is the best way to become well-rounded in your line of work.

Never be afraid to ask questions. Not only will you understand your position better, but you’ll show your employer you aim to get the most out of your time spent at work. Asking questions might make you feel as though you’re being a pest, but you’ll be strengthening your performance and making yourself a better asset to the company.

Speak up and make suggestions. Nothing will impress your employer more than if you offer ideas to improve the work environment. Don’t be aggressive or persistent about your suggestions, but try to show you can be resourceful and creative when it comes to thinking of ways to improve the company’s efficiency.

4. Go the extra mile

It’s never fun to do more work than required, but sometimes doing a little more than everyone else can help you stand out. Do a little work from home, stay a few minutes after hours or take on an extra side project (even just getting the coffee going in morning).

You’ll set yourself apart from the rest of the pack and show you can be counted on.

5. Brighten up the place

Attitude can take you a long way in life, and a cheery, optimistic demeanor can make a difference in the workplace. It’s important to be yourself, but try to be someone your coworkers enjoy working with as well.

Getting along with others and avoiding workplace drama shows you’re mature and professional. Nothing is more of a turn-off to employers than catty, childish behavior.

It’s also important to take direction. Listen to any feedback and ask open-ended questions about what’s expected of you to show you’re willing to work within the company’s guidelines. On the other hand, getting defensive and having a rebuttal for any constructive criticism can leave the impression that you’re hard to work with and can’t own up to mistakes.

6. Communicate your desires effectively

Sometimes, showing your boss you’re ready to move up is as simple as saying it out loud. Express to your employer that you have a desire to advance with the company, and inquire about any future positions. This will put you in mind when a position does come along.

Standing out to your employer doesn’t have to be calculated. In fact, the steps you can take are easy. And if you’re already a quality employee, you most likely already practice these habits and have shown your boss you’re ready to move up the ladder.

The most important thing (as many times as you’ve heard it before) is to believe in your own abilities. If you lack confidence in yourself, don’t expect anyone to fill the gap for you.

Arlene Chandler is a freelance writer who loves helping people prepare for life’s unexpected turns. She writes about finance tips, career advice and income protection insurance (Suncorp).

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It’s quite the opposite. Any job that can help you to be a better professional and advance your career goals—even if it isn’t what you dreamed of doing—should be considered. Failing to do so can actually push your job search and your career goals in the opposite direction because you’re not open to alternative possibilities.

So, should job seekers be willing to do any task if it’s relevant, though not familiar, to their careers? Absolutely. Here’s why:

1. Your transferrable skills may surprise you

Transferrable skills are like gold in a job search. Varying your skill set means you can apply to different jobs. For example, knowledge of Photoshop can be beneficial to the advertising field, a content marketing job or a UX designer position. These transferable skills just have to be applied in different, more creative ways.

In addition, although some transferable skills may not be seen as such, chances are an employer will pick the candidate who can offer more over the candidate who has a more basic skill set. It’s all about your return on investment—what you can do for them in the long run.

Tip: Don’t shy away from positions or projects where your skill set may not be applicable! If you come to the table with ideas of how your transferrable skills can help an organization, the employer will typically be more open to you.

2. Variety gives you an edge

Performing tasks that aren’t your specialty should be seen as a blessing in disguise. Variety is, of course, the spice of life. If an employer notices you have a broader background than another candidate, you’re more likely to be plucked out of the crowd.

Further, a resume that paints a different sort of picture boosts your legitimacy, can help you meet your career goals and broadens your perspective.

Tip: Look for similar positions in different industries. For instance, if you worked in sales for the travel industry, you can migrate these skills to the food and beverage space. Although the position may be comparable, industry rules can vary. This way, you’ll be familiar with the job duties but can apply your skill set to different situations.

3. It’s not as difficult as it seems

You should be willing to do anything that will help shape you as a professional and advance your career goals. Job descriptions are blurred; many people don’t work in industries that apply to their degrees, and we’re often surprised by what we like.

Though taking on tasks you aren’t 100 percent accustomed to may seem intimidating, in the end, you’ll figure it out. You just have to navigate the best route for you.

However, take this advice seriously: taking on jobs out of your expertise will probably backfire. You’ll spend more time figuring out how to perform a task as opposed to figuring out how to do it right. This doesn’t help anyone, especially the organization. Instead, understand how your professional background and your career goals can benefit a company and apply for positions accordingly.

Tip: Don’t be afraid to ask a mentor, former boss or coworker for advice about an unfamiliar position. Particularly if they have experience in the job or industry, their input can be very beneficial.

If you’re part of the large chunk of Americans looking for a job, but wary about the process, look beyond what you’re used to. You’ll typically find the best opportunities, and the best experiences, are far from what you expected.

What do you think? Why else should job seekers be willing to do anything?

Sudy Bharadwaj is a Co-Founder and the CEO of Jackalope Jobs, a platform that helps job seekers find a job via their social networks. Learn how Sudy and Jackalope Jobs obsess over job seekers by connecting with them on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Ever been in a meeting that seems to drag on forever? Or where you spent more time in back-and-forth emails to schedule the meeting than actually having a discussion?

How can you think about meetings to help you make the most of your time—and the time of your colleagues?

When you think about it, there are four types of meetings. To be most effective, you need to know what type of meeting you’re in and tailor your preparation and message appropriately.

1. The meeting: selling people on a new idea

The first kind of meeting is selling people on a new idea. In the “sell” meeting, you need to be clear about the “ask.” What do you want? Do you need funding, or just an okay to proceed with the team you already have? The goal of the meeting may be to get an initial “Okay, that sounds good” or to agree on an approach to take when moving forward.

To succeed in the sell meeting, make sure you can:

To succeed in the discussion meeting:

• Think about the core issues. This requires clarity of thought.
• It’s okay to have less formal preparation.
• Have enough materials—and the right materials to get to the heart of the discussion.

These materials could be an article, an image or a one-page outline in a Word doc you can build upon in the actual discussion.

3. The meeting: presentation of results

The third type of meeting is the presentation of results meeting. If you work in management, consulting, finance or advertising, you may have one or more of these a week. The important part about the presentation meeting is that you have to prepare, prepare, prepare.

If you have a long time to prepare—say, six to 12 months in advance—brushing up on your public speaking skills is a good idea. Toastmasters International is an affordable and convenient way to practice giving speeches. There are thousands of clubs around the world and dozens of clubs in major cities.

To succeed in a presentation meeting, make sure you:

• Tell a story.
• Have quality content that shows you did the work.
• Speak confidently and persuasively.

Be prepared to outline the findings of your work in a clear, compelling way. As human beings, we all love stories. This is true whether you work in Hollywood or on Wall Street. For consultants especially, the difference between a “fact pack” and a true presentation is the difference between a “data dump” and something on which your client can take action. You should be able to tell the story with no notes at all. If you need a document as a crutch, you haven’t refined your thinking enough to make it a real story. (Throwing everything into a PowerPoint deck and hoping that everyone will “get it” isn’t enough.)

The process should look like this:

Data > Discovery > Synthesis > Further Synthesis > Success Story

Another thing to consider: does your presentation pass the “pencil test?” This means that you want to follow the implicit organizational boundaries of the page. Keep labels and titles where they belong. If you want your thinking to be taken seriously, package it with care. Think about how Apple products come in custom packaging—not just any old bubble wrap. Your clarity of thought is reflected in white space and design. Consider designing your PowerPoint slides like a place setting with silverware.

4. The meeting: formal decision-making

The fourth type of meeting is the formal decision meeting. This could be as simple as scheduling 30 minutes with your manager to get an approval for a new project, or it could be as complex as an annual board meeting that lasts for one or several full days. The thing to remember is that people will be judging your ideas with more scrutiny.

Preparation for this kind of meeting matters, but in a different way from the presentation meeting. While you should be prepared with the materials and your arguments in advance, the challenging preparation you may need to make involves lining up all the relevant stakeholders in advance so that they can approve your project or idea. You don’t want to wait until the day of the formal decision meeting itself to find that someone hates your idea and you can’t implement it, so some informal advance reconnaissance work is strongly recommended.

To succeed in the formal decision meeting:

• Prepare your answers to issues well in advance.
• Decide which issues can be deferred until after the meeting.
• Meet with all the relevant stakeholders, especially potential detractors, in advance. This could be as simple as stopping by their office or making a phone call.

I hope that this helps you classify your organizational landscape. Once you know what kind of meetings are on your calendar, you can prepare more appropriately to turn your ideas into reality.

How do you take your work meetings to the next level? Share in the comments!

This post originally appeared on Levo League.

Katharine Bierce graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago with a degree in Psychology. Over the last few years, she’s been thinking about what makes organizations tick and how to connect people to career development opportunities, whether through compiling resources like this Google Doc (http://ht.ly/2wPB8) or making introductions. In 2012, she was a Finalist for the Net Impact “Impact at Work” award for her “intrapreneurship” in a global employee volunteering group at work. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, reading, cooking and meditation. You can follow Katharine on Twitter @kbierce.

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In a piece for The New York Times Education section, editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education Jeffrey J. Selingo discusses the ways in which the subject we majored in in college means less in the real world than other skills and character traits: 

So does the college major matter? I posed that question recently to my roommate at Ithaca College, who like me, majored in journalism. He had known since middle school what he wanted to do—become a television journalist. Now almost 20 years after we both graduated, David Muir is an anchor and correspondent for ABC World News.

He works with plenty of people who do not have journalism degrees. The commonality among them, he says, is that “we all majored in what we were interested in. The curiosity and the willingness to adapt are more important than what the degree is in.”

These are many of the same qualities that employers say, in survey after survey, they want in future workers. Hiring managers complain that they often find today’s college graduates lacking in interpersonal skills, problem solving, effective written and oral communication skills, the ability to work in teams, and critical and analytical thinking. Employers say that future workplaces need degree holders who can come up with novel solutions to problems and better sort through information to filter out the most critical pieces.

You can check out the full post here.

It’s a strong argument for the importance of soft skills—something you can focus on learning no matter which major you decide to pursue.

How much of a role do you think your college major has played in your career success? Has it been as important as the skills you’ve acquired?

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The problem is that their plan was not really a plan. Starting a blog is not an exit strategy. In fact, some entrepreneurs to tell you not to bother starting a blog. But the real problem is not with blogs (or businesses) themselves. It’s the confusion people have between the two.

Once you’ve quit your job and eventually realize your blog isn’t a business because it doesn’t generate income, you wonder what went wrong. But you can’t blame the blog. You need to blame the expectations you had for it.

Before you leave your job to do something else, ask yourself if you want to start a blog or a business.

Let’s take a look at why you might want to start each:

Benefits of Starting A Blog

1. Create a Voice

A blog can give you a voice. That is to say, it can give you a measure of influence and a growing expertise over a tiny (but potentially huge) audience. You can use your blog to gain the kind of influence you couldn’t get through any other medium.

This can lead to all sorts of other ventures and opportunities down the road for speaking, writing and interview engagements depending on how you play your hand. If you do it right, this can be a huge leverage tool for your career.

2. Improve Your Communication Skills

In my opinion, the best thing about blogging is that it’ll help you grow some great communication skills. Not right away, though—you’ll suck at first, but eventually, you’ll start to realize you can think through your own ideas better and communicate clearer because you’ve improved with practice.

If you want a practical way to teach yourself communication skills, maintaining a blog is killer way to do it.

3. Create a Long-Term Asset

A blog is a long-term investment. If you’re only planning on writing for two months, don’t even bother. However, if you’re willing to stick with it for a couple years, a blog over the long-term can be a powerful marketing tool.

With that in mind, you’ll need something to sustain yourself throughout the process, so make sure you have a few ideas on how you plan to do that.

Keep in mind that a blog provides a lot of avenues for revenue down the road, but it rarely generates revenue directly. In other words, blogs are a great marketing tool, but they do not come baked-in with a product (which is important if you want to generate revenue).

If you want to quit your job and start a blog, it’s worth thinking about how you can make it sustainable and bake a business model into it from the start.

This brings us to the business side of things.

Benefits of Starting a Business

1. Generate Capital

A successful business means one thing: you’re generating capital. If you’re not making money, you don’t have a business. Sure, money is only one measure of a business. And you can do a lot of things without generating a billion dollars.

Ask yourself how people can give you money for your product or service. Because if you’re running a business, you need to have dollars and cents coming in. If you don’t, it’s just a hobby.

2. Create Freedom and Options

A business gives you freedom, and money gives you options. Again, money isn’t the only important thing here. But if you quit your job, you’ll need another source of income.

Blogging might seem like a great option, but unless you’re a blogging superstar, blog success won’t come overnight and money isn’t guaranteed. If you want to be sustainable, it’s a good idea to have a business idea in mind for how you’re going to cover your baseline expenses every month. Once you have a business and a revenue stream established, you’ll have more options to do even more things you want down the road.

3. Quickly Validate a Long-Term Investment

A business is a long-term game, but if your business solves a problem or provides a service that people need, you’ll find out quickly whether or not your business idea is valid.

From there, building your business is a long-term proposition, but you can validate it much quicker than you can sometimes do with a blog.

So, what are you really trying to start? A blog or a business? Make sure you know the difference.

Joel Runyon is the author of Impossible HQ, where he helps people to push their limits to the impossible. Check out his complete guide on how to start a blog here.

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But the reality is that few people keep their first jobs for long. The average person stays in a job around 4.5 years these days according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but this number is lower for younger people—only 13 percent of 30-34 year olds have been with their current employer for 10 years, the BLS reports. The more common story is that people find other opportunities, travel, go to graduate school and so forth.

So let’s say you’ll stay at that first job for two years. Let’s say you’re also planning on devoting a lot of time to work—maybe 50 hours per week (far more than the average worker puts in). That gives you roughly 2,500 hours per year, or 5,000 work hours over your two-year tenure.

That’s a lot of time, but it’s also a finite amount of time, and easy to let slip through your fingers. A weekly two-hour meeting that you sleepwalk through will eat up 200 of those 5,000 hours, with little to show for it.

So a better approach is to ask yourself what you hope to do with those 5,000 hours. What would you like to learn? Who would you like to meet? What can you do to position yourself well for the next 40 years of your career?

Here’s a checklist of 10 things you might want to take away from those first 5,000 hours, regardless of what your actual job entails:

1. A portfolio

Manage your time so you leave with a few examples of work you’re proud of that you can point to and say “I did that.” In particular, results that can be measured get noticed.

2. Real colleagues

Manage your relationships so that at least a few of your immediate coworkers would like to work with you should your paths meet again (which they probably will, as the corporate world can come to resemble a revolving door).

3. Mentors

Outperform expectations so well that at least three people higher up in the hierarchy not only answer your emails, but like you and will vouch for your competence.

4. Skills

A job is a chance to get paid to learn. Try to leave with an in-demand skill or two that you knew little about coming in.

5. A network

Meet at least 10 people outside your company at industry events and keep in touch with them regularly. These people are likely the key to landing your next job.

6. Good karma

A volunteer gig in an industry organization introduces you to people who can see that you’re eager to help—so they’re likely to help you.

7. A career map

Have lunch with people of lots of different tenures so you develop a good sense of your industry and a good sense of the career paths associated with it. This may keep you from earning a degree that doesn’t actually help you reach your goals.

8. Self-awareness

Success requires knowledge of the kinds of projects you do well, the kinds you need to work on and the mistakes you have a tendency to make again and again.

9. Good time management habits

Not many people have the ability to make steady progress toward future deadlines and the discipline to say no to distractions so you can say yes to things you want more. People who do tend to soar.

10. Assets

If your employer offers a retirement account (like a 401k), be sure to set it up and fund it well enough to get any matching funds. If you earn decent returns, any money you stash away now will be worth a mint when you retire. You’ll thank yourself later.

What do you plan to take away from your first 5,000 hours on the job?

Laura Vanderkam is the author of What the Most Successful People Do at Work (Portfolio, April 23, 2013) and 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Portfolio, 2010).

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Your political fortune depends on daily news and events often outside your control. You could walk into the office on any given workday, as I often did in my previous life as a campaign staffer, to get a call from a reporter inquiring about a sensitive subject.

Within minutes, a relatively quiet workday has become nightmarish. You furiously start multitasking between high priority tasks, political life-or-death interruptions and emergencies that threaten to topple the campaign.

Suddenly you’ve spent the whole day responding to a barrage of negative and often untrue attacks. And you haven’t gotten any real work done.

What do you do when you’ve lost control of your day?

If you’re in the business of putting out fires, work in a high-stress workplace or simply feel overwhelmed on the job, use these nine strategies to help manage the chaos:

1. Prioritize tasks based on your goals and objectives

Not all tasks are created the same. You must determine what your ultimate goal and objective is for the day. Is your job to advocate for a policy, improve turnout for a community event or sell a product or service?

Once you identify the objective of your work that day, it should be easier to identify what should come first.

2. Start with the most important tasks

Determine what’s important and what can wait. Make sure the tasks that you’ve selected for the day are in line with your goals for the day.

Let’s say you’re trying to get the word out for an event in the community. You need to call leaders in the community, craft a flyer to inform people and promote the event through local media. If event logistics aren’t your goal for the day, there’s no reason to coordinate with the center where the event will take place. All you have to do is focus on turnout for today. Nothing else.

3. Say “no” more often

Set a goal of saying “no” three times each day. Say no to tasks that are irrelevant, unimportant or distractions. Sometimes the most difficult person you have to say no to you is yourself.

You have to discipline yourself not to do the first thing that jumps in front of you. Many problems aren’t a crisis; they can wait.

4. Ask for help

You work with a team. People will likely help you, especially if you can show them the project is in their best interests as well.

Sometimes, we tend to be so focused on our projects that we fail to look around to see who’s available, who’s an expert and who can lend a hand to help complete a project. All it may take is asking.

5. Restrict your email access to an allotted time period

It’s easy to spend your entire day emailing. If you leave your email inbox open indefinitely, your whole day will be reactionary.

Each email will introduce a problem or present a new question. Instead of attacking emails as they come in, allot a time period each day to answer them. When finished, close your email for the day. And take email off your phone so you don’t become a professional email replier!

6. Make a game plan for each day, and cross things off

Similar to planning your communication time, spend a few minutes each day to jot down your to-do list. Go over your goals for the day, prioritize your activities and determine what needs to be done.

A to-do list is an effective way to keep track of your tasks for the day. Many basic paper and online tools can help. Find one that works for you. This will help you prioritize the tasks you need to complete that day so you can tackle them one by one.

The process of recording what needs to be completed helps you feel less overwhelmed because you know everything that needs to be done. Crossing these items off will bring you a much-needed sense of joy and celebration.

7. Use the right tools to stay organized

Tools can help you do your job easier and more effectively. For example, online calendars, apps and programs like Teux-Deux, Evernote and other tools can help you stay on task and get your work done.

Taking the time to learn to use a couple of productivity tools can help you get your work done quicker and be more efficient.

8. Visualize the consequences of incompletion

To evaluate the importance of a task that needs to be completed, think about the end result.

What would happen if you don’t complete a particular job today? Will you get fired? Will you miss the deadline? Are others depending on you completing the task? Consider what will happen if you don’t get the job done to weigh the importance of each task.

9. Pause and take a deep breath

Sometimes, you just have to step back and take a deep breath when you feel like you’re drowning in deadlines, to-do lists and uncompleted tasks.

Take a breath and step away from it all momentarily to regroup, rest and get re-energized. Take your rest and lunch breaks to step back from your work for a few minutes.

Do you use any of these above strategies to manage stress when work piles up? What works for you?

Vishnu Subramaniam writes about career, life and spirituality tips for his community of world-changers. For inspiration, sign up to receive weekly posts at www.vishnusvirtues.com.

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Some of us might even dream of becoming the red-caped business superhero who’s willing to take risks now and ask for forgiveness later. One who can make bold decisions and go with their gut, à la Don Draper.

Unfortunately our dreams can get shot down early in our development by corporate cultures that train young leaders NOT to make decisions.

Answer “yes” to any of these symptoms, and you just might be risking your dream:

• All your work has to be pre-approved before completion.
• You know what you’re supposed to do, but your supervisor constantly checks up on you.
• You can’t run to the bathroom or answer a client call without running it by your boss first.

Are you getting the leadership training you deserve?

If we let our decision-making skills go untrained in our youth, we’ll be lost when it comes time to make the big, important decisions later in our careers when WE become the senior leaders. If we aren’t allowed to think on our feet and make a decisions early, the process will be foreign and difficult when the costs are highest.

In 1776, officers on the battlefield were expected to make tactical decisions based on their commanders’ intent and previous instruction. They did not have the time nor the ability to run every single decision through the chain of command prior to moving forward. George Washington was as close to Superman as it gets, but even he couldn’t be everywhere at once.

Fast-forward 200 years. Today it seems young leaders are lucky to choose where to have lunch, much less decide how to go about completing their assigned tasks. It’s a sad truth that junior leaders today are not as well-equipped to make tactical decisions.

But don’t worry. It’s not our fault, completely.

We live in a world where information is so readily available and communication so easy that senior leaders want to know as much as possible so they can make that all-knowing, perfect decision. Decisions are being made higher up the organizational chart then necessary.

We belong to a time where some organizations make decisions at the highest level possible instead of at the lowest, most efficient level. The hope is that by hoarding all the power, fewer mistakes will be made. When in truth, mistakes just end up costing more.

What many organizations today don’t realize is that a late decision is the same as a bad decision. And, their junior leaders lose out on opportunities to learn by doing (or deciding, rather).

The same principle controls the stock market. The idea is to buy low and sell high, but when a stock starts to tank and everyone jumps ship, no one realizes they’re too late. In the time it takes to look around and see what everyone else is doing, the inept investor “waits” themselves into buy-high and sell-low decisions.

Fortunately, it’s not too late for us.

It’s time to get some guts, don that tricorn hat and start making decisions. Don’t allow yourself to be lulled to sleep by the corporate decision trap.

If a process is broken, find a better way and execute it. If you’re working on a project, stop playing 20 questions with your supervisor, and just get it done. If you have a great idea, don’t run it by your boss to see if they agree. Just go for it, and let them thank you later.

Pick a direction and move forward. Sure, you’re bound to make a few bad decisions. But if you’re making these decisions quickly enough, there’s time to recover.

Stop watching opportunities pass you by because you’re unwilling to take a chance and make a decision.

Ben Drake is an Air Force Officer, grad student and the Communications and Branding Lead at @be_influential. Create your portfolio today and show the world what you have to offer.

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So whether you receive an offer or not, treat every interview as a learning experience. Although they can be stressful, try to keep your eyes and ears open so you can build on your interviews to make each one better than the last.

In my quest to land a full-time job, I’ve learned the following nine dos and don’ts that could be helpful for your job search:

1. Don’t get bogged down by qualifications

“Qualifications” are sometimes impractical. For example, “10+ years of proven success using social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to promote business” is ridiculous. Facebook first debuted (for college kids only, may I add) in 2005. The rest came along well after that, and it’s only 2013. You do the math.

2. Don’t accept timelines as fact

The hiring process is rarely fast. Interviewers and recruiters may give you an estimate of when you’ll hear back, but be patient. One week might turn into three weeks. Three weeks may turn into six weeks. And “end of the month” means you probably didn’t get it.

3. Don’t brush aside an internship

An internship can turn into a full-time job, especially if you make yourself irreplaceable. If you’re a bad intern, they’ll probably still recommend you to a different organization (unless you really stink). A lot of entry-level positions ask for at least one year of experience.

4. Still be nice to your parents

Without a job, moving out of their house is difficult. Pretend to like watching NCIS and teach them about “the Twitter,” and they probably won’t kick you out anytime soon.

5. Name drop (but don’t expect it to land you the job)

Name dropping is fabulous and should be done as often as possible. If you can say, “I heard about this position from my friend John Smith, VP of Marketing” in your cover letter, you’ll be a step ahead of the applicant who applied through the company’s online system.

It may help you land an interview, but once you’re in the door, it’s up to you to sell yourself for the position.

6. Realize that interviewers are nervous, too

I’ve met stutterers, fidgeters and even one guy who broke out in hives (which made me more nervous). These situations can be challenging, but your chances of getting the job drop drastically if you’re obvious about it.

7. Bring deodorant

Interviews make people nervous. Nervous people sweat. Sweaty people smell. Smelly people don’t get a lot of job offers.

Arrive a few minutes early, find the restroom and apply a fresh coat of deodorant for your big interview.

8. Don’t spring for just “any job”

Just because you get the offer doesn’t mean you should take the job. Everyone’s situation is different, but if you can hold off on accepting a job outside of your field of study, you should. It’s harder than you think to move from retail to writing or IT to marketing.

9. Include your salary expectations if you’re asked

Not doing so will only backfire. What if you spend hours preparing, drive two hours for the interview and complete a project just to wow your interviewers, only to find out the pay is $10,000 less than your current position? If the salary is a deal breaker, then find out how much the position pays early in the process.

Alyson Komyanek earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Public Relations from Kutztown University and currently works as a freelance writer in the Philadelphia region. She’s interested in landing full-time employment, so connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter at @alyalyson25.

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What have you done for me lately?

With those seven simple words, a career can be made. If you always have a solid answer, you’ll continue to move forward in your career, whether it’s at your job now or you’re applying to a new position.

Don’t rely on past successes

Employers want employees who have a lot to offer. Coasting on past success will not get you far. Businesses that succeed are not in the habit of dwelling in the past because their innovation, creativity and profits would suffer.

Imagine if Apple released the iPod and decided to take a little break from new products and services. The world would be a cruel place, devoid of the joys of iPads and iPhones. More importantly, picture what would happen if the medical industry decided to stop their research. No more new treatments or cures for fatal diseases.

No matter what you do for a living, doing a good job consistently is essential. You can be the top salesperson one month, but when the next month rolls around, you will still have goals to meet and sales to make.

I could write an article of pure genius, one that goes viral, gets me a book deal and makes Oprah start following me on Twitter (@Erin_E_Palmer if you’re reading this, O). But I would still have new deadlines to meet. If I turn in an article that isn’t good enough, my editor won’t care how good my last piece was. “But my last article was awesome,” is not an acceptable excuse.

Focus on now

Try to think of the last time you did something really exceptional at work. Chances are, you’re thinking about a past experience. Unless your first thought was something that you’re working on, you have room for improvement.

Aim to be the go-to person in your office. When people come to you for help, for ideas, for everything, it keeps you present. Being the person who others rely upon isn’t easy, but it increases your status and relevancy.

If you wonder whether focusing on the present is really that important, put yourself in a recruiter’s shoes. Two resumes come across your desk, both with amazing skill sets and experiences. But the major achievements of one candidate happened years ago, and not much happened before or has happened since. The other boasts consistent major successes, including the most recent points.

Which would you choose?

So, what have you done for me lately?

Honestly, not every assignment is going to be groundbreaking. When Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, it wasn’t all genius, all day. He still had to build a scaffold and clean his paintbrushes. The important thing is to put your all into every task, even the small ones. Figure out how to manage your energy and make every assignment the most important one.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to write my best piece ever.

Erin Palmer writes about education for University Alliance, whether you’re a business management major, a criminal justice major or anything in between. Erin can be reached on Twitter @Erin_E_Palmer.

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Maybe you’re a people-pleaser and don’t like the idea of letting someone down. Maybe you’re trying to impress your boss/mother-in-law/frenemy and don’t want to sound like you can’t handle a certain responsibility. Maybe you were taught that it’s always best to be a team player and extend yourself for others, even if it’s a sacrifice.

You can forget that particular tidbit of etiquette right now.

While you certainly should pitch in and be helpful, successful people—the kind who achieve success without totally burning themselves out in the process—do so by knowing how to say no. You only have so many hours in the day and so much energy. It’s only reasonable that, when faced with multiple pressing obligations, you will have to turn some of them down. Otherwise, you’ll become a frazzled wreck, spread too thin to be of service to anyone (yourself included).

The key is in knowing how to say no politely, but firmly, in a way that doesn’t make you come across as a jerk. Memorize these handy little phrases for the next time you’re ambushed with a plea for your help:

1. “I’m currently working on the Smith report, the Jones report and the Macklemore report. How would you like me to prioritize this new project?”

This particular phrase is especially helpful when dealing with a superior, who you can’t very well “Just Say No” to. Instead, show your willingness to do the work but ask for an executive recommendation on how best to balance your various obligations.

If you’ve already got several projects in your queue, ask your boss which one takes priority so you can focus on that first. If you report to several managers and they’ve given you competing projects, ask them how they’d prefer you resolve the conflict. (One of them is going to have to cede to the other if they want you to give both projects your full attention.)

The trick to this phrase is not to say it huffily or with a “woe is me” attitude. You are not complaining about how overloaded you are and whining for a way out; you are being a responsible employee and making sure you do your job to the best of your ability (while also letting your boss(es) know just how much you have on your plate).

2. “I’m all booked until [insert date here]. I can put this on my list for then if you like.”

This phrase demonstrates a willingness to help—you’re not saying no altogether—while letting the other person know your schedule is firm and you’re sticking to it.

If their project is super, building-on-fire urgent, they’ll have to ask someone else (or maybe not leave things till the last minute next time).

3. “What exactly do you need done?” or “When is the hard deadline for this?”

If you’ve ever worked with…well, anyone else…you know that different people communicate in different ways. (And some people don’t necessarily communicate in the most effective ways.) Just because your boss is a high-strung micromanager, his stopping by your desk every hour to see how things are going doesn’t necessarily mean you’re racing against the clock.

As soon as you’re handed a project, make sure to get clear on exactly what’s expected of you: what steps are involved, how time-intensive will it be, when will you need to turn in the final product? Nebulous action steps or a sense of false urgency can make it hard for you to decide whether you even need to say no in the first place. Once you have a better grasp on the scope of a request, you can decide whether or not you can take it on—and under what terms.

4. “I need to check my calendar and get back to you.”

This can be useful when you find yourself cornered. Some people have a way of weaseling a “yes” out of you through sheer, dogged persistence. You pick up your extension to hear your coworker breathlessly mid-request before you know what’s hit you. Or your mother-in-law has a fantastic knack of countering every excuse you give for why you can’t host the family reunion for 100 relatives this summer.

Rather than trying to avoid a pushy person forever or playing the 20 excuses game (only to ultimately lose), just drop this simple phrase to put an end to the ambush. Saying you need to check your calendar (even if you secretly know your answer will be “no”) gives you a little room to breathe and escape the pressure of the moment. Then, from a safe distance, you can reply back (e-mail is a great way to avoid further attempts at persuasion) by saying, “I’m so sorry, but I’ve looked at my calendar, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to do it.”

Don’t offer any elaboration or excuses; all they need to know is that you can’t do it.

5. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t.”

Seems deceptively easy, doesn’t it? If only it were that simple, you’d have been using this one for a while now, right?

Not necessarily. This is actually the hardest of the phrases, and best used after you’ve built up your courage with the other ones. The trick to this seemingly way-too-easy defense is in the follow-up: there is no follow-up.

Most people aren’t used to taking a no-frills “no” for an answer. They’ll want to know why you can’t, if there’s any wiggle room, if they can’t convince you to change your mind once you know how special their particular circumstances are.

This is where you need to stand firm—and say as little as possible. You are the rock of Gibraltar. You make excuses to no one. You are (if the image helps) dealing with an overly inquisitive toddler who is trying to test your limits, and you’ll have none of it.

Why can’t you do it? Because you’ve got too much on your plate.

But it’s only a little favor, and you really owe them one… You’re very sorry, but as aforementioned, you can’t. You will owe them one another time.

But whyyyyyy? Because you said so. End of story.

Stated simply, firmly and politely, a simple “no” is unassailable. Repeated several times over, it will make the requester eventually get tired and move on to someone who’s an easier sell.

There is nothing wrong with saying no when you can’t take on something. While it’s important to be a team player and to stretch yourself when needed, you are under no obligation to run yourself into the ground trying to make everyone happy.

As a matter of fact, you owe it to your job, your coworkers, your family and everyone else you come in contact with (including you!) to manage your time smartly and not take on more than you can logically handle. Doing a million things half-assedly is not doing anyone a favor.

So, start practicing those phrases and putting them to use. You can do it!

Kelly Gurnett is Assistant Editor of Brazen Life and runs the blog Cordelia Calls It Quits, where she documents her attempts to rid her life of the things that don’t matter and focus more on the things that do. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook and hire her services as a blogger extraordinaire here.

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Many of us are working jobs we don’t like. What’s worse, many people fall into the trap of staying in these ill-fitting positions or industries for years, and by the time they start to think seriously about leaving, it seems like it’s “too late.” They think they’re too old to start over and build up enough of a reputation in an entirely different field.

But whether you’re 25 or 55 when you come to the decision to make a change, there are things you can do to make sure that your transition will be a successful one.

Here’s how to get started on your big change:

Seek out happiness

That’s at the heart of this, isn’t it? The first question anyone looking to change careers should ask is at once simple and incredibly difficult: what do you want to do?

If you already know the answer to this question, congratulations, because you’re ahead of the game.

If you don’t know, think long and hard about what makes you happy and explore whether any of those things could become a viable career. Still not sure? Look into taking a few adult education courses that interest you at your local community college and see if something stands out.

Take stock of yourself

After you’ve come up with a few potentially interesting career shifts, look inward and try to be honest about your skills and abilities. Sure, becoming a professional daredevil sounds cool, but is it really right for someone with a fear of heights and poor balance?

Cross ideas off the “dream” list until you find those that seem plausible in terms of your abilities and interests.

Learn before you leap

In changing careers, age matters a lot less than how much you know about the industry you’re looking to move into. The smartest way to change your career is to spend as much time as you can researching and planning how to make that leap before you actually do it, so you’ll be better able to deal with the realities of your new role and improvise effectively when the unexpected occurs.

If possible, take classes for free using your company’s professional development programs that are geared towards doing the kind of work that really interests you.

Build with a safety net

Doing something completely different from your current career can be terrifying, which is why you should try to ensure it’s the right move while you’re still getting a regular weekly paycheck from your current job.

If you can freelance in the industry you’re considering, seek out a few clients for night and weekend work to create a portfolio and work on forging long-term relationships. Volunteering is another way to get experience in your new career field. And if you can’t find a way to get hands-on experience, see if you can find an opportunity to shadow someone who has the job you want or at least take them to coffee to learn more about their day-to-day experiences.

Put a financial plan in place

Regardless of how much building you do ahead of time, it’s doubtful that you’ll find instant financial success in your newly chosen career. In fact, it’s likely you’ll have to take a pay cut.

Because of this, you may be tempted to back down from making the change because you can’t imagine living with less money, even if it’s just temporary. However, if you make a comprehensive budget of what you’re really spending, there’s a great chance that you’ll see things that you can trim without feeling like you’re losing out on too much.

Whatever you do, prepare for the worst by making sure you have sufficient savings to pay for at least six months of living expenses. Figure out how long that money will last if you’re only earning 80 percent of your current income. Or 50. Or 25. It may seem horribly depressing to look at numbers like this, but knowing you can likely survive for several years making less money can take a lot of the pressure off and let you focus on achieving your dream.

Redefine success

Finally, don’t forget to focus on what you want. Is it a Scrooge-McDuck-like money bin where you can swim through your cash? Is it fame and respect? Is it more time with your family and work you love doing every day? All of those are equally viable desires.

The next time you start thinking it’s too late and finding reasons to put off the switch for even longer, think about this: every second you spend in a career you don’t like makes it that much harder to finally take the plunge and seek out something that will truly make you happy.

Patrick Del Rosario is a Filipino business and career blogger. He is part of Open Colleges Blog. If you want to feature his writings on your site, connect with him at Google+ or drop a line at patrick (at) oc.edu.au.

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• You outgrow your position or the company.
• You get poached by a growing company who wants your skills.
• You get so good you need to freelance to keep up with the demand.

No matter why you decide to leave a company, winners leave their workplace better than they found it and arrive at their new job with clean karma. Follow these tips to resign from your job like a pro:

Give informal notice, then formal notice

Are you one of those people who relish giving their two weeks’ notice? (You do know to give two weeks’ notice, right?)

Take a deep breath. Instead of waltzing into the office and shoving your letter in the face of HR, show respect to your coworkers and direct supervisor by giving them a private head’s up about your decision. Surprises can be fun, but spare your teammates some drama (and shock) by sharing with them first.

Offer to help with the transition, but don’t expect a consulting gig

If your company suspects you’re leaving them in a lurch intentionally so that you can sell them on your consulting fees, it’s likely they won’t take you up on that offer. No one wants to feel blackmailed! Politely offer to provide transitional training, but leave the final decision in their hands. Play hard to get; if they want your expertise, they can have it, but you are fine with taking your hard-earned knowledge with you when you go.

You can be honest in the exit interview, but you need to stay positive

When it comes to facing an exit interview, here’s something you may not want to hear: either HR knows what’s wrong with the company and they aren’t planning to do anything about it, or they don’t know what’s wrong and they darn sure don’t want to hear about it from you. If you think you’re going to change an entire company in an hour’s time, you might want to reassess your approach—but that doesn’t mean you can’t offer a little advice.

Instead of trying to cover too much, offer positive insight on one or two carefully chosen priorities. For example, instead of providing an analysis of the market rate salaries and how the company is shortcutting their employees, let them know they’re underpaying by sharing something like “I know better compensation would go a long way toward helping people feel recognized and appreciated.” It’s honest, it’s not accusatory and it may just get your former coworkers a bump in pay.

No, really: stay positive

You may actually be leaving the worst job on earth. But even if everyone knows it, it only reflects poorly on you to go out saying so.

Professional, classy individuals don’t express extreme emotions on the job. That includes the sentiment that everyone you worked with is crazy and deserves to be fired. This is your opportunity to practice your win-win reasoning muscle. Use it!

Sarah Greesonbach is a content and communications expert with a lot on the back burner. She manages and writes for the lifestyle and personal finance blog Life [Comma] Etc and launched her first ebook, Life After Teaching, in April 2013.

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I was in this situation recently. I walked into my boss’s office, sweat streaming down my back. I was stressed, anxious and overwhelmed with uncertainty. He had asked me to work on a project that required technical skills I didn’t have.

After I explained how my work on the project would put me, my manager and the company in a compromising position, my manager said, “We’ll find someone else.”

The positive result of our conversation and my desire to make it better the next time sent me on a quest to find the best way to stand up for myself and not be a pushover at work.

I learned the following:

1.  Don’t worry about appearing vulnerable

It’s not a sign of weakness or failure if you admit you can’t stay late, work a particular weekend or don’t possess the skills necessary to fulfill a business requirement. It’s courageous and caring, especially if the request lies beyond the scope of your ability. Everyone has gaps in their skill set and can’t fulfill every demand made of them.

Sometimes we want to please our managers so much that we sacrifice ourselves in the process. We become afraid to admit our limitations and concerns for fear of how we will look. But vulnerability is not bad and is sometimes necessary when taking a position.

2.  Check your vibes before standing up for yourself

Be sensitive of the power emotions and thoughts have over your behavior. Have you ever met someone who didn’t like you, and you knew that by the expression on their face or the gestures they used in conversation? Ninety-three percent of communication is non-verbal. How you’re feeling and what you’re thinking will come out. It will either come out of your mouth or out of your body; but it will come out.

So, check your vibes before discussing anything of importance. If how you’re feeling is not what you want to communicate, address it. Talk with a close friend. Vent to a family member. Affirm yourself. Write in a journal. Just don’t put yourself in a position to send a message you don’t want to send.

3.  Be understanding and sympathetic

Try to grasp where your manager is coming from. Managers are concerned about one thing: completing work that affects the company’s bottom line. This narrow focus sometimes causes them to look at coworkers as resources instead of people with feelings, aspirations and limitations.

In a situation that affects you directly, such as one involving your abilities, desired career path or work schedule, speak up. Part of your job is to remind your manager you are more than your job.

For the best possible outcome, present your concern in a way that demonstrates your interest in protecting your manager, the project or the company from potential harm.

4. Present favorable alternatives

Sometimes requests made of us seem unreasonable. Only you can determine what is unreasonable to you. Being hired for a local job and then being asked to fly overseas one week out of every month might seem unreasonable. You must let your manager know what is unreasonable for you.

Your manager is more likely to respond favorably if he or she is presented with alternatives. For example, instead of telling your manager you don’t have the skills to work on a particular project, ask if training could be made available to you.

If you’re unable to stay late or work weekends, suggest your interest in working remotely. Present alternatives to demonstrate you’re not trying to avoid work but would rather do what’s best for everyone.

5. Respect the time of everyone involved

Your manager doesn’t have time to listen while you figure out what to say. If possible, write down your message before entering his or her office.

For example, if they have a business requirement you don’t have the skills to fulfill, write something like, “I’m not a good fit for this project because I don’t have the skills needed to work on it. Although I am willing to learn them, right now, I don’t want to put me, you or the company in a compromising situation.” Then, use your message as the core to shape the rest of your case.

Should a demand suddenly be sprung upon you, avoid responding immediately. Your first reaction may not be the message you want to communicate. Instead, pause for several seconds, think about what you want to convey and then respond. Just pausing for several seconds can give you enough time to gather your thoughts and respond in a purposeful way.

If time warrants, you could say, “Let me think about it for a minute,” or “Let me think about it and get back to you later in the day.” If your manager agrees, be sure to deliver your response within the timeframe you stated. Doing so shows you take the matter seriously.

6. Take cues from your boss

Some managers like to hit the ground running first thing in the morning and are focused on getting their task list done. This means it’s not a good idea to interrupt them immediately upon arriving unless it’s critical.

Other managers like to walk around and socialize over a cup of coffee. Bosses tend to be more receptive to messages in this relaxed setting. This is the time to say, “I need to talk to you later about something” and make an appointment.

And when you do have that meeting, approach it positively; keep your head up, lean forward and actively listen to what is being said. If you disagree with something, say so verbally to avoid misunderstanding. Conversations like these are a normal part of the ebb and flow of business and should be seen as such.

You have no reason to be a pushover at work. You don’t have to dread going to the office day after day, smiling on the outside while seething with frustration on the inside. You are responsible for making your career as fulfilling as possible. You are the only one who knows what you want and need. Nothing is too big or small as long as it matters to you.

So don’t wait around for your boss to guess what would make you happy; use these tips and stand up for it.

Lisa Hamilton blogs at Getting to Zen, where she shares practical tips for living bold, getting fit and being happy. Check out her advice on how to list freelance and self-employment experience on your resume.

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The shoe salesman glances at the artist’s shoes and asks, “Are those comfortable?”

She says, “I guess so. I mean, they kind of rub my ankles, but all shoes do that. I have low ankles.”

He looks her in the eye and says, “You think you deserve that pain, but you don’t.”

You think you deserve that pain, but you don’t.

Too many of us go through life quietly enduring things that make us unhappy. We tolerate jobs that cut into our well-being. We stay in roles that rub and chafe and wear away at our happiness. In short, we settle.

A few years ago, while eating lunch with my colleagues in our corporate cafeteria, I looked around the room at everyone and then turned to my coworker. I asked, “Do you think these people are happy?”

He replied, “Right now they are.”

“In general, though,” I said. “Do you think they’re happy?”

He stared at me. “Do you really think anybody is happy with their job?”

And there it was.

We grow up dreaming of being astronauts and princesses. We’re told we can achieve anything we want. We’re promised the world and permitted to dream beyond its limits. But at some point along the way, we abandon the concept of happiness completely. We build lifestyles of cubicles and commutes. We do what we think we should.

And then we wake up on Monday morning filled with dread and think it would be ludicrous to expect otherwise.

“Nobody likes their job,” we justify, “so I shouldn’t expect to, either.”

The salesman in the film goes on to say, “People think foot pain is a fact of life. Life is actually better than that.”

The artist’s friend adds, “Your whole life could be better, starting right now.”

Your whole life can be better.

You deserve to face Monday with something more than despair. You deserve to feel excited about something more than Friday evening. You deserve to love your job. You deserve to feel that your happiness still counts. Because it does.

Happiness should be a standard that life decisions are measured against, and any decision that undermines your happiness should be regarded as a poor one.

Don’t bind yourself up in a mortgage if you’re going to use it as an excuse to stay in a job you hate. Don’t move to a city you hate for a job you hate just because it pays well. Don’t arrange your life so that you work an hour from home if you’re going to spend the commute missing your children grow up.

Do not settle for shoes that hurt your feet.

Do not justify a job that pains you in other ways.

Happiness is a basic necessity. Expect happiness—and then figure out how to get it.

To borrow one last line from the movie, “I am prepared for amazing things to happen.”

I deserve it. You do, too.

Krista Goral is an IT consultant by day and doubles down as a writer, blogger and philosopher/doer by night. She explores the everyday human experience on her blog, Response Crafting.

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Whether you’re content in your current position or the owner of your own business, having an accurate and professional social media presence will allow you to develop your brand, get the attention of prospective employers and clients and maintain your reputation within your industry.

Here’s how to do so:

1. Nail your bio

Do you know how to describe who you are and what you do in 140 characters or less? That’s what Twitter asks of you. Utilize keywords, get to the root of what you do, demonstrate your passion and area of expertise and express how you provide value. From the witty to the informative, make sure you’re standing out and showcasing your personality.

On LinkedIn, your professional headline is just as important to your personal branding. Make sure that it says more than just your current job title; express your full competency.

2. Regularly update vital information

If your Twitter bio hasn’t changed since you created your account two years ago, or you haven’t looked at your LinkedIn profile since college, it may be time to refresh. You don’t have to constantly update the answer to Facebook’s question, “What’s on your mind?” (nor should you), but you should make sure you’re staying on top of life changes, keeping job descriptions current and sharing relevant content.

Check in on your social networking accounts periodically to take a pulse on how they’re reflecting you as a professional and as a personal brand. You might want to use a tool like Reppler to help evaluate your social media presence under a professional lens.

3. Shamelessly post and pin

It does you no good to shy away from sharing your work online. Pin your resume. Post your portfolio on your Tumblr. Don’t miss an opportunity to flaunt your skills, interests or point of view. Potential clients, employers and industry experts are on the lookout for new talent and thought leaders.

4. Tame your image

Go ahead, Google yourself—you can be sure prospective clients and employers will be. It’s not vain, it’s smart; what’s out there about you isn’t completely composed of what you post on your social media accounts.

Keep tabs on your online presence and manage it before it manages you. Are there any photos on Facebook that aren’t particularly professional or social media resume-friendly? Facebook’s recent changes have made profiles more easily searchable; it’s essential that yours accurately reflects how you want potential employers and clients to view you. Make sure to take a good look at your tagged photos, or use a tool like Pendaflex’s Tag Tamer to filter your Facebook timeline and make sure any potential untamed photos aren’t revealed. A picture says a thousand words—make sure they’re all positive and that no one’s judgement is cast based on an inappropriate photo from your college days.

5. Go public

With that being said, personally, I’d rather hire or work with someone with drunken photos on Facebook than someone with a blocked account. Transparency is one of the keys to a successful social media presence. Opening yourself up demonstrates that you’re a trustworthy professional with nothing to hide. Allow your LinkedIn profile to be public so that it shows up in search.

Who you are in your professional field should be who you are in life—there’s a fine line between being appropriate and being fake. Being unique is the best thing you can do to give you an edge online. So from your LinkedIn headline to your tweets to your Tumblr portfolio, make sure you’re being you on social media.

(Disclaimer: Pendaflex is a client of Likeable Media.) 

Dave Kerpen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Likeable, an award-winning social media agency, and author of New York Times Bestseller Likeable Social Media and the new book Likeable Business.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

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You get to wake up each day and make your own rules. Your time is your own. Gone are those endless meetings, your annoying supervisor and the unrealistic deadlines. You can finally burn that useless employee manual.

Oh, but wait. What’s that piercing sound? Your alarm clock?

Off to your day job you go…

There’s plenty of great advice on day jobs and dream jobs. And  the truth is, you can use your day job to make progress on your dream business. Here are four ways to do that:

1. Change your perspective

Your day job is the gift that keeps on giving; it is an investment. With your steady paycheck, you’re able to finance your dream. Set aside a specific amount of your paycheck for your business venture, and remind yourself not to resent your 9-to-5—it’s helping you move toward that big goal.

2. Take your financial temperature

Knowing how to manage your money is the first step to being a successful entrepreneur. The moment you decide to make the leap to being your own boss, you need to take a candid assessment of your financial picture: your credit score, your savings, your debt. If your personal finances are in shambles, you should address those issues while you still have a steady paycheck coming in before throwing yourself into your business full-time.

3. Learn everything you can from everyone you can

One day you’ll be glad you did. That self-righteous coworker who knows Excel as if he created the program? He’s the one you want to ask how to create master spreadsheets. The assistant with the ever-annoying attention to detail? Follow her example to learn how you can stay on top of your game.

This is the time to seek out mentors and others who can teach you specific skills so you don’t have to spend thousands on post-college courses. Your workplace likely has built-in teachers, so suck as much knowledge out of them as you can.

4. Stop wasting time

Some days, you’ll be impatient and anxious to start your business. Don’t these folks know you have other things to do?

That mindset—though natural—is a waste of time. It often can end up a waste of money, too; you’ll eat through your budget while rushing your business off the ground.

Instead, focus on what you can accomplish during commutes, lunch, evenings and weekends. Then create realistic a timetable for your exit strategy and new focus: your business.

Tanea Smith is a motivational speaker and expert on launching while working. She’s also the founder of inspiring stationery collection She’s Got Papers.

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But the source of potential candidates only scratches the surface; building a world-class recruiting team is just as important as finding those world-class candidates. The better your recruiting skills, the more quickly and efficiently you can hire.

In today’s uber-competitive talent market, you might not be able to simply find more people. Instead, you should find better ways to convert the candidates you already have into hires. Hiring people is an expensive and time-consuming process, so efficiency matters.

Use the following tips to improve how your recruiting team vets candidates:

1. Before starting your search, agree on the candidate profile

One of the most common mistakes recruiters make is starting the search without getting consensus on the ideal candidate. To recruit efficiently, the entire team needs to know the profile of what type of person would be the best fit.

How many years of experience and what skill set are required? What type of person fits best with your organization’s culture? Answer these questions first and make sure everyone is on the same page. Then, it’s off to the races to evaluate candidates as quickly as you can!

2. Train your interviewers to improve their skills

Everyone thinks their interview skills are top-notch. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. The good news is, anyone can learn to improve how they conduct an interview.

Make it your mission to train your recruiters on how to interview better. They need to be able to evaluate both a candidate’s talent and how well they will fit your organization.

3. Ask better interview questions

Gone are the day of silly interview questions and brain teasers. Every minute of an interview counts, so being prepared with a list of quality questions that will truly reveal the candidate’s potential is essential.

Help your organization develop a database of great questions. The better the questions you ask, the better you’ll understand a candidate’s skill set and be able to determine how well they can do the job.

4. Don’t skip the phone screen

Phone screens are tough, so many people wimp out and bring the candidate onsite.

Bad idea. Part of training your team is encouraging them to screen out candidates who don’t fit the role or the culture. It’s important to do this before you invest more time with in-person interviews.

5. Document interview feedback

If you’re not documenting interview feedback, then you’re hiring by the seat of your pants—and asking for trouble. Ask your team to recap the interview and put their feedback for each candidate on paper. Use that feedback to make the yes/no hiring decision.

The secondary benefit to this is that interviewers have to put their thoughts in writing and defend their opinion of each candidate.

6. Give feedback on feedback

This is probably the hardest thing for a recruiter to do, but it’s the most critical. When someone does a great job interviewing or asks a great question, congratulate them. And when someone is uncalibrated or asking crazy questions, you’ve got to give them feedback on that, too.

Honesty and upfront feedback to your interviewers will help them improve and will make your hiring processes more efficient.

So make sure your team has the skills and confidence to do their jobs well, and you’ll find your recruiting efforts to be more successful.

Jeff Moore has almost 20 years of recruiting experience in the greater Boston area, but is relocating to the Silicon Valley for a new adventure. You can find more information on his blog, www.jeffreytmoore.com, or via Twitter @JeffreyTMoore.

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1. Run a blog tour

This is not just the realm of authors and probloggers! Even if you don’t keep a blog (but especially if you do), connecting with others in your niche is one of the best ways to get attention.

Get to know top bloggers in your industry, and reach out to them with an idea for a post that will offer value and introduce you as an expert to their audience. Rather than doing this haphazardly, schedule several guest posts within a short period of time to multiply the impact.

2. Create an intro video

If you’re doing business mostly online, clients can have a hard time feeling connected to you. Adding an intro video to your site is a great way to let your personality shine!

Be honest—as perky, goofy or stoic as you are in real life—to help clients know who they’re working with and ensure you’re connecting with people who want to work with you. Keep it short, and point to your website or portfolio at the end for more information.

3. Start an email newsletter

Email subscribers will be happy to keep up with your business news and take advantage of sales and special offers when you gain their trust by first providing value through a newsletter. Share how-to articles to display your expertise, and they’ll think of you first when they’re ready to hire.

Adding current clients to your email list can help boost your referrals as well. Your newsletter may open their eyes to your services they don’t need—but they know someone who does.

4. Publish a piece in the local paper

Pitch articles or submit op-eds to local papers and newsletters, sharing tips or news about your industry. These will garner visibility with business owners who prefer to seek talent in familiar places, rather than through job boards or Craigslist.

If you offer novel services you know a lot of business owners in your area aren’t utilizing yet, try a piece that explains how these services can help them. If you sway them, you’ll be their go-to contractor!

5. Enter a contest

Aside from cool prizes and visibility, contests can give you an awesome branding boost, whether you place or not, because they ask you to clarify exactly how your business is the best at what you do.

They can push you outside of your comfort zone if the entry method is a media you haven’t explored or mastered yet. You’ll be forced to learn or hone skills that will help your business down the road.

6. Narrow your audience to one

Focus on one specific person to define your audience. Are you working with someone now, or can you think of someone, who is your ideal client?

Keep that person in mind (tack her picture over your desk if you have to!), and use her characteristics to create a business plan that meets her needs and a marketing strategy that commands her attention.

7. Create (digital) products to give away

Digital freebies are great in combination with your email newsletter—as incentives to sign up or as stand-alone free products on your website.

An infoproduct like an ebook, or even a short pamphlet to give away at live events, can help you display your expertise. Give your audience a takeaway to help them remember you when they need your services.

8. Start a podcast or video series

Do you already have a blog or website? Expand your appeal and reach a wider audience by dabbling in other media. Help people who don’t read your blog discover you through channels like iTunes and YouTube.

You don’t need a ton of technical know-how to get started. Make the content valuable and interesting enough, and you don’t need to go hog wild with effects to get attention.

9. Start a mastermind group

A mastermind group is a few like-minded entrepreneurs or freelancers who refuse to let you fail. Meet periodically with the group to swap ideas and offer support and resources where they’re needed.

They’re also your accountability partners. If you share dreams, goals and plans, those pending check-ins are a great incentive to follow through!

10. Go on tour (with a book, speaking or workshops)

Instead of just another workshop or speaking engagement that provides a paycheck, design a tour to gain more attention. Give it a theme and create some hoopla around it!

Have a kickoff party, produce special schwag to give away, create a Twitter hashtag and write about it on your blog to help potential clients or future gigs find you online.

11. Get a good head shot

This is such a simple step that many freelancers neglect! Even if you don’t have a website (agh! get a website!), clients will search and find you online.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money. Just make sure the photo you use on your social media profiles, LinkedIn and accompanying your portfolio is framed well (no cropping out group pics!), free of background clutter and shows your friendly, “work-with-me” face.

Have you tried any of these or other creative ways to grow your freelancing or consulting biz? What would you recommend?

Dana Sitar is a freelance blogger, author and entrepreneur. For even more ways to boost your creative career, grab her free ebook, A Writer’s Bucket List: 99 things to do for inspiration, education, and experience before your writing kicks the bucket.

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In this episode of our Recruiting Radio podcast series, Nando & Charlene add a little levity to your job search by teaching you how to land that perfect job the way your favorite superhero would.

We all wanted to have super powers when we were younger, so why not use that to inspire you in your journey towards landing that perfect role?

Highlights in this episode:

• Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman—all are awesome. All have the perfect jobs. Get yours by being a little heroic, too.
• What they did that worked for them and how to make it work for you.
• Fashion, follow-up and branding tips to land the perfect job.

Enjoy the podcast, and for more info on Nando & Charlene, check out Interviewing U.

**This podcast has been produced in conjunction with Brazen Careerist.

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In fact, lots of job seekers get duped by job ad scams or don’t realize they’re going to be interviewed by agencies or consultants. If you’ve been there, you understand how these can be roadblocks in the already frustrating process of looking for a job.

But if know you what to look for, you can avoid these situations. The better you understand the different types of postings that are out there, the less likely you’ll be taken by surprise.

So here are five types of job ads and what you can expect from each one:

1. Legit direct-hire ads posted by the company hiring for the job

The most effective way to ensure that you are indeed applying for a direct-hire position is to search for the name of the company.

Few companies post well-written ads that rise to the top of job boards. The person who writes the ads probably does not have SEO experience. And most companies just aren’t going to take the time to figure it out. As a result, a lot of good jobs get lost in the Careerbuilder (or whatever job site they’re posted to) shuffle.

If you click on a position posted on one of these job boards, a legitimate direct-hire position should take you directly to the careers section of the company’s website.

If you’re still not sure, avoid the big job boards altogether. If you know what company you want to work for, your best bet is to check their website regularly for jobs as they become available.

If you’re unsure of what kind of job you want or which company to search for, this career guide can help you get started.

2. Positions posted by placement agencies and career consultants

Agencies and career consultants represent different companies. They find candidates to fill open positions within those companies or job hunters who need help with their careers. Since their job is finding jobs, they spend time improving the ads of the companies they’re hiring for. They’ve figured out the formula that gets them to the top of the search results.

So how do you know if someone from an agency or consultant wrote the ad? It should say so. This may be fine-print information at the bottom, but it should be there.

You’d be surprised by how many candidates have no idea when they’re interviewing with an agency and not the company that’s hiring. This shows the recruiter you didn’t read the ad, and that doesn’t make you look like an attractive candidate.

Placement and career consulting fees (as well as who ends up paying them) vary by state. Some agencies specialize in contract jobs, while others do direct-hire for full-time positions. The ad should make some mention of all of this information somewhere.

So it’s best to research the agency and make sure it’s a route you actually want to take.  Agencies and career consultants can provide you with great opportunities and services you may not have come across otherwise, so don’t completely dismiss the idea—especially if you haven’t had much luck on your own.

3. Scam ads that aren’t for real jobs (they just want your money)

Ever notice how some job ads on huge boards may have a little dollar sign next to them? This lets you know the job may require an investment on your part. It’s also a dead giveaway that the job is a scam.

Anything that requires you to pay money upfront is a scam. Even legitimate career consultants do not ask for upfront payments!

Scams also usually promise a lot of money for not very much work. Or, they ask for personal information off the bat (bank accounts, your Social Security number, etc.). Some candidates end up in pyramid schemes or have their identities stolen by pursuing these types of ads.

If you’re suspicious that a job ad might be a scam, research the company. Google “Name of Company Scam” and see what comes up. If you conclude the company can’t be trusted, report it. We don’t need more of these clogging up job boards.

4. Ads for non-salaried, commission-only jobs

These positions don’t offer a base salary; instead, your income will depend on commissions from sales. Commission-only jobs include insurance sales, real estate and door-to-door marketing.

Some people don’t mind this salary structure and can make a good living. But from my experience as a recruiter, most candidates prefer the security of a regular paycheck. Typically, companies will at least offer a range for base pay on the job ad, while commission-only jobs say “Not Applicable.”

You may also want to keep an eye out for jobs that start you off with a base salary, then slowly take it away once you start making commissions. Or, the company might cap your commissions. At this point, there’s no way to really know whether that will happen unless you either show up for the interview or read comments on Glassdoor.

If base pay is important to you, make sure to call the company and ask what their payment structure is like. They typically won’t volunteer the information on their own, so you might have to prod a bit.

5. Postings for temporary or contract jobs

Unfortunately, sometimes you can’t tell whether a job is temporary by just looking at the ad alone—big companies included.

You might actually need to go through the application process, or at least get in touch with the company or agency to verify whether the job is permanent. If you’re looking for a full-time gig, find out the details of the position sooner rather than later.

You can learn a lot from job ads, including how serious a company is about hiring. Make sure to pay close attention so you apply for a job you actually want.

Amanda Abella is a writer, speaker and life coach who combines her recruiting background with life coaching to help clients get clear on their career desires and how to go after them. Visit her at http://www.amandaabella.com.

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So we scoped out open positions at each of these companies, and we found gigs ranging from marketing to engineering to sales, at offices based in California, India, Texas and more.

Here’s a list of those companies, some quick information about their available jobs and a link to each of their careers pages so you can learn more. (If we were you, we’d get on these pronto. These hot jobs won’t last long.)

Ready, set, apply!

1. Ask.com

About the company: Ask.com is a leading provider of custom toolbar and search solutions for software and media companies.

Where the jobs are: Current positions are in Oakland, California, but the company also has offices in New York City, Paris and Munich.

Examples of positions: Affiliate Manager, Corporate Counsel, Senior Product Manager, Director of Engineering.

2. Evernote

About the company: Evernote apps help users stay organized and productive by enabling them to save ideas and information to the cloud so they can access them from anywhere and share them with others.

Where the jobs are: US positions are in Redwood City, California and Austin, Texas. Globetrotters can find jobs in places like Tokyo, Moscow and Taiwan, among others.

Examples of positions: Jobs in categories ranging from Product Development to Platform Strategy to Business Development and more.

3. Foursquare

About the company: Foursquare’s free app helps you make the most of the places you visit by “checking in” to millions of locations worldwide and getting personalized recommendations and deals based on where you’ve been, where your friends have been and where people with similar tastes have been.

Where the jobs are: Foursquare is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco and London.

Examples of positions: Software Engineer, Android Developer, UX Designer, Sales Coordinator.

4. Gilt

About the company: Gilt designs websites with a focus on improving customer experience, from making sites aesthetically beautiful to creating fast, secure accessibility from any browser or mobile device.

Where the jobs are: Current openings are in New York City, but Gilt also has locations in Portland, Oregon and Dublin, Ireland.

Examples of positions: APX Software Engineer, QA Automation Engineer, eCommerce Product Manager.

5. Netflix

About the company: Netflix is a subscription-based movie and TV service that offers DVD delivery and streaming options.

Where the jobs are: Various locations throughout California, with DVD Operations positions in Hillsboro, Oregon; Fremont, California; Bordentown, New Jersey; Kansas City, Missouri and Denver, Colorado.

Examples of positions: Jobs in categories ranging from IT Operations to Finance to Global Customer Service and more.

6. One Kings Lane

About the company: One Kings Lane is a daily deals site that offers sales on items by luxury, vintage and designer brands.

Where the jobs are: New York City and San Francisco.

Examples of positions: Design Director, Graphic Designer, Online Marketing Associate, SEM Analyst.

7. Tagged

About the company: Tagged is a “social discovery network” that enables users to meet and socialize with people around the world by utilizing matching features and browsing categories like shared interests.

Where the jobs are: San Francisco.

Examples of positions: Interaction Designer, Senior Data Scientist, Customer Service Support Specialist, People Operations Administrator.

8. Yammer

About the company: Yammer provides social networking for your company. It enables better communication, efficiency and teamwork through file sharing, conversation tools and content collaboration.

Where the jobs are: San Francisco, California; London, England; Melbourne, Australia.

Examples of positions: Software Development Engineer, UX Designer, Product Marketing Manager, Javascript Engineer.

9. Zynga

About the company: Zynga is is the world’s leading provider of social gaming services for platforms like Facebook and Google+. Their list of games includes Words With Friends, FarmVille and Mafia Wars.

Where the jobs are: Across the US in cities like San Francisco, Chicago and New York City. International jobs could take you to exotic locales in India, China and the UK, among others.

Examples of positions: Jobs in categories ranging from Art & User Experience, Marketing & Communications, People & Recruiting and more.

Do you know of any other companies that offer unlimited time off? Let us know in the comments!

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As one of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields, the demand for science professionals is blowing up. Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce forecasts STEM careers will expand by at least 17 percent, compared with just 10 percent growth for other jobs. Your chances of earning a bigger paycheck are also high—while the average U.S. salary is around $43,000, the average STEM income is closer to $78,000.

However, even if you loved bio class, getting an advanced degree in nuclear chemistry or spending years on a computational physics PhD may not be the best choice. So do high-paying science jobs exist for people with a bachelor’s degree, associate’s degree or even a certificate?

We went to find out and discovered this wide range of science-related gems:

1. Environmental Scientist

Environmental scientists are problem solvers for Mother Nature. Depending on your specialty (protection, chemistry or health), you might gather field data to help restore polluted wetlands, create recommendations to slow ozone depletion or develop plans to ensure air is safe to breath. To prepare for this eco-friendly career, get your bachelor’s degree in a natural science field like biology or chemistry.

Not interested in a four-year degree? Earn your associate’s in a science-related field to become an environmental field technician.

Job Outlook: 19 – 24 percent (depending on type and specialty)

Average Salary: $41,000 – $62,000 (depending on type and specialty)

2. Sonographer

Sonographers are the scuba divers of the human body. While you don’t literally go inside, you do use ultrasound technology to see the organs hidden deep below the skin’s surface. Your high-tech job helps doctors assess and diagnose diseases and injuries.

Like some other medical jobs, you can break into this field in more than one way. A bachelor’s or associate’s degree in sonography, or—if you’re already a trained health pro like a nurse—a one-year certificate program can prepare you for this career.

Job Outlook: 44 percent

Average Salary: $64,000

3. Veterinary Technician

Whether you’re working to keep pets healthy at a vet practice or helping scientists perform research in a lab, your main goal is to make sure animals are treated carefully and humanely. And when it comes to your education, you’ve got options: there are jobs available for people with either a bachelor’s degree or an associate’s degree in veterinary technology.

Job Outlook: 52 percent

Average Salary: $30,000

4. Geotech

As a society, we rely on oil and gas to fuel our cars, heat our houses and run our appliances. And geotechs (short for geological technicians) are on the front line of efforts to explore and extract new pockets of these natural resources. Some employers will hire people with only a high school diploma, but most prefer aspiring geotechs to have at least an associate’s degree in an area like geology or chemistry.

Job Outlook: 15 percent

Average Salary: $54,000

5. Nurse

Nurses blend the hard science of medicine with the art of patient care. This job often tops the list of quick-change career ideas because of the variety of education options (including certificates, associate’s and bachelor’s degree paths) and the good benefits. So if you’re the type who thrives on mixing person-to-person interaction with the analytics of health care, this could be a good option for you.

Job Outlook: 22 – 26 percent (depending on type and specialty)

Average Salary: $40,000 – $65,000 (depending on type and specialty)

6. Forensic Science Tech

Forensic science techs are sharp-eyed individuals responsible for collecting or analyzing evidence that can put criminals behind bars. Whether you want to be an on-the-ground CSI or focus on laboratory work, your best bet is to get a bachelor’s degree in forensic science, biology or chemistry.

However, many rural police agencies will hire applicants for CSI work who only have a high school diploma or an associate’s degree. Check with your local agency to learn about specific requirements.

Job Outlook: 19 percent

Average Salary: $52,000

7. Biomedical Engineer

By 2020, demand for biomedical engineers is set to skyrocket 62 percent—making this career the fastest-growing science job in America. To break into this field, you do need a bachelor’s degree in the fairly narrow and tough area of biomedical engineering. However, the payoff can be worth it; average income is $81,000. Not a bad deal for paying attention in bio class, right?

Job Outlook: 62 percent

Average Salary: $81,000

Annie Favreau works for Inside Jobs, a site that helps people discover strong careers and connect with the right education to achieve their goals. Follow her on Twitter at @InsideJobs!

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Until that point, though, you ask yourself every hour if you’ve done the right thing by striking out on your own. It doesn’t help that you have absolutely no clue exactly how to score that important first client.

If you’ve already hounded your friends and family and are still coming up short, try the following ideas for a fresh approach. Above all else, keep trying, and keep asking!

1. Start doing it

You can’t gain experience without any work. And you can’t gain any work without any experience. It’s the classic catch-22 that confounds freelancers all over the globe. How are you supposed to combat this?

The answer is to start doing whatever it is you want to do. It may not sound outside-of-the-box, but it is when you consider how many people won’t even take this first step.

You’ll most likely be working for free—but that’s okay, because you love it, right? No matter if it’s for a friend, a local struggling business or your mom, you’re still getting experience. Future clients just want to see some level of experience.

2. Find partners

Someone out there loves the same things you do. Finding like-minded people can not only help your business, but also build your confidence. It helps to know you’re not alone.

Head out to local meet-ups or poke around online and find groups of business owners who can help you. For every freelance peanut butter maker, there’s a freelance jelly maker. Just imagine the good things that will happen when you two finally partner up.

3. Have coffee… with the right person

You’re not going to break into any business overnight. Luckily for you, there are people who have paid their dues. While they may not have work for you, successful people are often looking for ways to give back to the next generation of up-and-comers.

So figure out who in your area is where you want to be (LinkedIn is great for this), and buy them coffee. Not every professional will have the time or inclination to meet with you, but it only takes a couple of yeses.

You’ll learn valuable tricks of the trade from talking with people who have years of experience, and who knows—maybe they’ll remember that eager young up-and-comer the next time they want to pass along work for a friend.

4. Start local

Many of your potential clients will want to work with someone local—someone they can meet face-to-face, who knows their area and their demographic, who is invested in the same community that they are and who they might bump into at the hardware store.

So embrace local marketing. List yourself on Yelp, YellowPages.com and any local websites. Take an ad out in the paper. Put one up on Craigslist. Put up flyers where your clients hang out. Go to local networking events.

The Internet features thousands of nameless, faceless people who provide the same service you do, but few of them live in your neighborhood. Capitalize on your home field advantage. And become a recognizable face in your community!

5. Auction yourself

No doubt you’ve seen the auction-a-freelancer websites out there. A client posts “I need help,” and zillions of freelancers come out of the woodwork to bid on the job.

Yes, it’s a terrible way to get solid and long-lasting work. However, it’s great for newbies who want practice and to build their portfolio.

It may take a little while, but eventually you’ll land someone who needs some work for cheap. The more work you do, the better your chances of getting MORE work.

6. Take some classes

If you need a good recommendation, look no further than someone who teaches exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life! Since you’re still learning and growing, taking a class won’t be a waste of resources. Plus, it gives you the opportunity to network.

Furthermore, if you impress your professor by constantly performing at your peak, they’ll be more than willing to recommend you when the time comes. A professor likely knows tons of potential clients and could steer you in the right direction.

7. Ask everywhere

You’ve already asked your friends and family, and you’ve even remembered to ask your annoying former carpool buddy. But those aren’t the only people you know!

Take a second and write down every single place you’ve been in the past month, making sure to identify your regular hangouts. How many people do you know in each of these establishments, even on a casual basis? They may need work or know someone else who does—all you have to do is ask.

Jennifer Dunn is blog editor for WePay, the easiest way to accept credit cards online.

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Here are some pointers on how to craft the perfect cover letter:

Use details to show how your experience is relevant

Make points in your cover letter that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. Is it a marketing job? Specify the roles you’ve played and tasks you’ve undertaken that make you a qualified candidate.

If your cover letter looks like a template, the recruiter will likely feel you aren’t making an effort, and the letter probably won’t speak to why you’d be a great fit for the job you’re applying to.

Give it personality

Avoid sounding monotonous or boring in your cover letter; recruiters will assume you’re like that in person, too. Be excited about the position (but avoid using exclamation points), and be inspired by the work you would do for the company.

Be confident

Sign the letter “I look forward to hearing from you” rather than “I hope to hear from you and that you think I am qualified for the role.” Assume you will hear from the company in your tone—otherwise they will sense your lack of confidence and question your qualifications.

Use proper spelling and grammar

The best way to turn off a recruiter is to use improper grammar or spelling. This says that you don’t have an eye for detail, that you don’t necessarily truly care to work at the company and that you’ll make the same kinds of mistakes when you come on board.

No one wants internal or client communications to be filled with errors; it’s bad business. To brush up on your grammar for free, check out EnglishGrammar101.com for online grammar lessons.

Allude to your network as it pertains to the job

Networking is a critical part of your job search today. If you’ve met someone within the company, reference that person and why they inspired you to apply. It helps even more if the person you’re submitting your resume to is someone you’ve met—tell them why you enjoyed meeting them and why you’d like to work with them. (Appealing to their ego doesn’t hurt!) You can network your way into the job without looking desperate.

Consider length

It’s critical that your cover letter not be too long. Keep it concise and to the point. Recruiters read so many cover letters in a day they might only skim the really long ones. You want to be heard, so keep that cover letter tight.

Before sending the letter, read it over and put yourself in the recruiter’s shoes. In a sea of competitive cover letters, is this a cover letter you’d be inspired to respond to?

Cara Aley is a freelance writer who writes about everything from recruitment strategies to doctor reputation management. She is currently VP of Operations for Two Degrees, a one-for-one food bar company.

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Kind of bleak, isn’t it? While long-term unemployment isn’t something to be taken lightly, you can view it in a positive way. In fact, there are benefits to being unemployed!

Here’s how long-term unemployment actually benefit you:

1. Take advantage of your free time

Remember when you wanted to take that road trip across Canada but couldn’t take the time off? Well, now you can!

You’ve always had something you’ve dreamed of doing, right? Go on, grab a pen and paper. Sit down for five minutes and write whatever comes to mind. It’s not the time to drop all your other responsibilities or recklessly spend your money, but do what you can.

2. Learn to surrender

Some of us have been sending out resumes and going to job fairs for more than a few months. There’s not much you can do except to try to build your skills and wait. Then wait some more. Being forced to wait teaches you that you aren’t always going to be in control of your life. That’s okay, because people with jobs aren’t always in control of their lives, either.

3. Be empathic

Millions of Americans are unemployed. Many have to support their families, and they might be facing challenges that are even more difficult than what you’ve got on your plate. Now that you’re unemployed, too, it should be easier to understand what they are going through.

4. Learn to identify yourself in different ways

Some people solely define themselves by what their profession is. What happens when you don’t have that awesome job anymore? Being unemployed forces you to look deep inside yourself to figure out who you really are.

5. Find patience

It takes time to land another job or start your own business. Jobs don’t just magically pop up overnight. Nobody is going to randomly come up to you on the street and ask you to work for them.

If you’re like me, you handed out hundreds of resumes and went to numerous job interviews before landing a job. The last job interview I had involved three interviews across two months. If I hadn’t been patient about the whole process, I probably would have given up.

6. Get creative

Some people find creative ways to earn an income or to get the attention of employers if they’ve been unemployed long-term. Many have taken the leap into freelance work or even decided to pursue the business ideas that they’ve tucked away for years.

A friend of mine decided to make a DVD where he gave advice to different companies on how they could improve their businesses. He was hired within a week.

7. Practice gratitude

No matter how dire your situation, there is always something to be thankful for. You’ve always got it better than someone else.

Take the time to really think about the great things you have going on in your life. Do you have a wonderful and supportive spouse? Do you have a roof over your head and enough food to eat? Make a point to find something to be grateful for!

Even if you’ve been unemployed for more than a few months, don’t lose hope. Sit back, relax and reflect on how you’ve grown personally through this experience. Just because you might not be getting ahead in your career doesn’t mean you haven’t grown in other parts of your life.

Sarah Li Cain is an international educator and freelance writer who blogs about reclaiming her fearlessness in life and wants to help others do the same. You can also follow her on Twitter @slicain.

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Ironically, it may be the work-at-home employees and freelancers who are most affected by these hindrances. After all, when you’re trusted to work remotely, coworkers and supervisors will express more skepticism and frustration if you fall out of touch. Likewise, if you telecommute, it’s up to you to manage your time. Anything that slows you down can be a sentence to long evening hours still at “the office.”

We’ve learned about improving efficiency through employee interaction within the office environment. Shaving minutes, and eventually hours, from our daily processes can be equally beneficial to online productivity, resulting in more free time and less stress and frustration—whether you work in a cubicle or propped up against pillows in your bed.

Here are seven tips to fine tune your online work process throughout the day:

1. Carve out time to organize

Just as tidying up your desk and putting things in their place removes distractions and improves workflow, cleaning up your virtual desktop also carries benefits. If you’re awash in a flood of icons, create a few folders that can sort and hold everything so that you never waste moments searching for a file again.

Likewise, your cloud accounts (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) will benefit greatly from a filing system. Put the time in upfront to organize and you’ll reap benefits down the road.

2. Keep an eye on free space

Have you ever maxed out your computer’s hard drive or your available cloud or email storage space? Nothing throws a wrench in a workday like the inability to send an email or save a file. In addition, a full hard drive can slow your computer down. Pick up an external drive with enough space to store all of your old files and data (portable 1TB drives run $100-$150). It could be worth buying two to create a backup.

Likewise, don’t let your email server space become bloated. For users like me who save everything, programs like Apple Mail and Outlook let you create folders stored on your hard drive instead of on the server. Plus, providers like Gmail sell additional server space if you run out.

3. Move your email accounts offline

Do you find yourself constantly checking email and shifting your attention away from a task? One handy tip is the “Take Accounts Offline” feature found in email aggregators like Apple Mail. I’ll typically check my email and make the necessary replies, then take the accounts offline while I work on a task.

I keep an eye on the clock and check my email every hour or half-hour, as necessary. Controlling when you shift your attention can help hone your process and you will actually complete daily tasks more efficiently.

4. Use your browser’s automatic form fillers

I recently switched to Google Chrome from Safari, and one of the most pleasant surprises was the intuitive form filling. When I’m tasked with entering my address and contact information, Chrome offers me the option to fill them in automatically.

Most browsers offer this feature but require you to turn it on and “teach” it your correct information. Take advantage, and you’ll save several minutes each time you come across an online form requiring your information

5. Learn to type faster

Fortunately, learning to type is easier than learning a foreign language, but it does take practice. If you’re still a hunt-and-peck typist, make the commitment today to speed up.

Online typing tools can be fun, and just 10 minutes a day can work wonders within a month to get you up to speed. Mashable has a nice list of eight sites and typing tools. Find one that works for you and get started.

6. Move social media to a different browser

Do you find yourself constantly tempted to check Facebook or Twitter? Although a quick social media break can be a great reward throughout the workday, it’s also a guaranteed productivity killer.

One trick I’ve found is to block these sites in my primary browser and force myself to open a new application to check my profiles. I then shut the program back down and get back to work, without the constant temptation to click a bookmark link in my primary browser. For more self-controlled workers, simply eliminating the bookmark may be all you need to do!

7. Speed up your Internet connection

Apart from investing in a faster connection with your provider, computer users can speed up their Internet access with a few other methods. Shut down other devices and computers that might also be drawing on your signal. Password protect your Wi-Fi to stop neighbors from leeching off your connection.

Most computer programs and applications frequently access your connection, so think about what else might be open on your computer that could be stealing bandwidth in the background. If you’re not using an application, shut it down.

With a bit of planning, organization and due diligence, anybody can improve workflow and increase online productivity. That makes bosses happy, benefits you and your employer and leaves more free time for everything else in life.

What other tips do you have to improve your daily work process?

Allison Rice is the Marketing Director for Amsterdam Printing, one of the nation’s largest providers of promotional products for businesses large and small. Amsterdam specializes in personalized promo pens, as well as other items such as calendars, bags and water bottles.

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What’s the one piece of paper you expect to represent your entire identity? No, not your birth certificate or Social Security card. It’s your resume, and the reason it’s so valuable is because it’s going to land you your dream job. Right?

Well… maybe not. Unfortunately, you’re not the only the only one who hopes this piece of paper is your ticket to a job.

In this competitive job market, openings receive resumes from hundreds of applicants. Some candidates send out hundreds of resumes and get just one interview. With all this competition, let’s jump into how you can really stand out in a sea of potential employees:

1. Think outside the resume box

Your resume is not the only way to get a job. So many applicants rely on their resumes alone to present themselves. Come up with another way to stand out from the crowd, or else you’re fighting an uphill battle alongside droves of other applicants.

Take Philippe Dubost, for example. This January, he built an online resume that resembled an Amazon product page. After promoting this creative resume online, it received 1.3 million unique visitors in three weeks (1,000,000 in just the first eight days) as well as 39,000 Facebook likes, 1,100 emails, 800 LinkedIn connection requests and 2,149 Twitter mentions.

Philippe is currently in the process of discussing job opportunities. Instead of fighting with tons of other candidates for one job, he’s the one candidate the companies are fighting to hire.

2. Put yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes

Imagine you were in the position to hire someone with your same exact resume. What makes you the candidate so special? Communicate how you can add value to your ideal company or organization.

Sadly, this is the step most people miss when looking for a job. In today’s job market, companies want to know how you can grow their company from day one.

3. Market yourself where you want to be recruited

Yes, you read that right; today’s employees should actively be marketing themselves to the companies they want to work for. Finding a novel way to do this helps.

Alec Brownstein’s success story is a perfect example of this strategy. In 2010, Brownstein landed a job at Y&R New York, a well-known and respected advertising agency. He did it by using Google AdWords associated with top creative directors. When they Googled themselves, they saw his ad. He landed interviews with all five creative directors he targeted.

Brownstein spent a total of $6 and didn’t even have a resume. Instead, he came up with a great way to market himself to the companies he wanted to work for.

Even if you don’t have the skills to build a Google AdWords campaign or faux Amazon product page to market yourself, you can still learn from these applicants’ success. Your Web presence—whether you showcase your personality in your LinkedIn bio, your online resume or go so far as to launch a website—can be just as powerful as your resume, if not more so.

Get the attention of prospective employers. Being unique will set you apart. When you do something special, out of the box or different, you’re showing potential employers that you are someone who can problem-solve to get results.

Nick Reese is an author, entrepreneur and change maker. Along with the team at Microbrand Media, he built ForgetYourResume.org, a simple, free, open source tool to help you create amazing online resumes quickly.

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