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How do you decide what jobs to apply for? Referral from a friend? New alert from Monster.com? There will always be temptations due to the nature of being in transition. Most of us while looking want to stop looking and find a job (I say most as some really love being out and free!). And anything that looks kind of close gets our heart palpitating.

: I'm in the process of changing my career and am looking for ways to be more productive. What do you think of the current popular methods discussed in books like Timothy Ferriss's "The 4-Hour Workweek" and David Allen's "Getting Things Done?"

Q: I have worked for many companies and have been told repeatedly that company rules won't allow them to give out references. I have gone to two temp agencies, and they had to drop me from jobs because I had only one reference. What is one to do to get around this problem?

Most career advice you receive focuses on the big picture: how to get ahead, how to "win," and such things that are on a much larger scale than the daily grind that most of us face. In fact, it is that day to day grind that pulls down many of us - we go to work, come home exhausted, and often feel as though we're just spinning our wheels.

Article on different job search methods for recent graduates and their parents

Fred Wright and Tyrone Gatson live about 55 miles apart and worked as technicians for poultry producer Pilgrim's Pride Corp. until they were laid off last month. But Mr. Wright, who lives and worked in Arkansas, is eligible for nearly twice as much in unemployment benefits as Mr. Gatson, who lives in Louisiana and worked at a different Pilgrim's Pride plant in that state, just over the border from Mr. Wright. Under Arkansas's more generous system, Mr. Wright can get $431 in weekly benefits, compared to Mr. Gatson's $284. He is also eligible to receive benefits for three more months than Mr. Gatson.

LinkedIn is the leading professional network on the web, so if you don't have an account already, get one today! If you have one already, you're off to a great start. LinkedIn is an invaluable asset to all you job seekers out there, providing you many unique features, including your own professional online resume, its own job board, a comprehensive company directory and more.

Dear J.T. & Dale: My husband and I both have worked in high tech for more than 20 years. With all the stress from outsourcing and reorgs and overly aggressive management, we feel like Lucy and Ethel in that famous "I Love Lucy" episode where the assembly line keeps gets cranked up faster and faster. We've been investigating alternative careers, but none of the resources we've used addresses how the work environment fits into the picture. We fear making a career change that ends up trapping us in a new toxic environment. - Kathy

MyPlan.com helps students and professionals plan more fulfilling lives by making well-informed decisions about their education and careers. Whether you're deciding on what college to go to, choosing a major, planning ahead for your first career, or thinking about making a career change, MyPlan.com can help you explore options and bring clarity and insight into figuring out what's right for you. 100% independent and unbiased, MyPlan.com gives you the truth about colleges, careers and majors. Our research and data is the most comprehensive you'll find anywhere on the subject. And, with dozens of easy-to-use tools, we've made getting to that information convenient, simple and fun.

What are the advantages of guiding workers to collect stories directed at organizational career management? Expressing accomplishments in story form is a huge advantage because a compelling, engaging story is memorable to the manager making a promotion decision, while people who aren't telling stories may be forgotten. The decision-maker gets to know and trust employees through their stories, which may also help establish an emotional connection that inspires investment in their success. (And, by the way, the same storytelling principles that work for other employees also work for your own career progression.)

"Developing employment opportunities for individuals with difficult backgrounds can be extremely challenging, especially in today's economy. Even when these candidates have strong vocational skills, many have difficulty finding or keeping good jobs. They just can't get along with their coworkers, won't listen to their supervisors, seem unwilling to follow common sense expectations. Why is this, and what can we do to help?"

o get you prepared, here are 20 real job interview questions that such companies as Google, Capital One and Goldman Sachs asked internships candidate. The interview questions were compiled by Glassdoor.com, an online job community that encourages people to anonymously share that inside look at jobs and companies.

How do you get kids ready to become entrepreneurs? Journal Report Read the complete Small Business report. The classic answer, of course, is the lemonade stand: Encourage your kids to start a homespun business instead of just bugging you for money. But entrepreneurs and educators say the real solution goes much deeper than that. There are crucial psychological traits an entrepreneur needs to succeed, they say, and parents should help kids develop them at every opportunity. Here's a look at those attributes-and how to foster them.

Twitter may have cost former Congressman Anthony Weiner his career, but when used properly, social media and other Web tools can actually help you get a job. FINS spoke with Coleen Byrne, a former sales director at Yahoo, about the perils of not being on LinkedIn, reaching out to old friends and colleagues, and using the Web to network offline. Byrne is the co-author of The Web 2.0 Job Finder.

Twitter may have cost former Congressman Anthony Weiner his career, but when used properly, social media and other Web tools can actually help you get a job. FINS spoke with Coleen Byrne, a former sales director at Yahoo, about the perils of not being on LinkedIn, reaching out to old friends and colleagues, and using the Web to network offline. Byrne is the co-author of The Web 2.0 Job Finder.

"In a career workshop I recently conducted there were an inordinate number of attendees who stated they were on LinkedIn but did not know how to get the most out of it. So here are some LinkedIn tips worth repeating.

Don't burn yourself out! Don't give 100% achieving more than the next guy. That's not what's going to get you promoted or give you that salary bump. It's about much more: Who you know, being in the right place at the right time, mastering office politics. Don't believe the hype.

Emergencies happen. Sure. You can't control the accidents on I-5 freeway, or the bus drivers showing up late. But you can definitely be prepared. Commute to the site of your interview before the day of your interview. See how long it takes to get there. On the day of your interview, give yourself enough time to be there early, even IF unexpected circumstances arise. With all that said, if you are still running late, CALL the interviewer! It's common courtesy. And there is almost a zero-percent chance of getting called back if you are late AND don't call to let them know.

Astrology can tell you which part of your life you need to focus on at any given point in time. Dashas and antardashas of your horoscope can give timeline of when a bad period will end and a good period will start and auspicious times to start new ventures. Have a query around when you will get married?

In modern life, a lot has changed in the societal norms and structure. Take the instance of marriage itself. The age for getting married is rising steadily upwards, people prefer to establish themselves in a career or work independently for few years before even thinking of marriage. When it comes to choosing a spouse, again many have a lot of expectations and are not ready to compromise on many factors including age, career path, residence, financial level and educational level of their future partner.