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"You messed up a job search, making a faux pas during an interview or handling a turndown badly. But you probably don't realize that your mistake, exacerbated by the tight job market, could harm your long-term prospects. "

"With prospects for new jobs or promotions still looking grim, many workers are struggling to take their careers to the next level. Some, though, have found ways to cope and make themselves more marketable for when companies start hiring again."

"Kelley McDonald has always loved exploring new terrain. In home videos as early as age 3, "I'm always off by myself, looking under rocks or catching and studying bees," she says. Today, at 18, the Apple Valley, Minn., college student is studying for a science career in the fast-growing field of nanotechnology-working with materials at the molecular or atomic level. That makes her one of the lucky ones-a young adult whose career passion is in sync with one of the hot jobs of the near future."

"The number of online listings containing the keywords "HTML5," "Mobile app," and "Android," have skyrocketed over the past year, making them the fastest growing keywords in jobs posted online, according to data tracked by jobs search engine Indeed.com."

"When the number of employees Matt Kaplan managed at a lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson mushroomed from six to 30, the school called in a management coach to make sure he was prepared. What he learned surprised him-his employees thought he was distant and didn't trust their work. "The biggest challenge for me was realizing I couldn't do everything myself," he says. "I had to learn to trust my team, which was a gradual process." Experts say many bosses are similarly clueless about their appearance to employees. Here are five signals you may be one of them."

Non-users of LinkedIn may wonder, why bother? Posting a profile, keeping it updated, building and maintaining your network of connections, and responding to messages takes time.

The unemployed need not apply. That is the message being broadcast by many of the nation's employers, making it even more difficult for 14 million jobless Americans to get back to work.

Everyone is afraid of something. Spiders, heights, angry bees. But while spiders and bees can make a picnic challenging, they usually don't get in the way of doing a job. Unfortunately, my fear is public speaking.

It's never too early to make a bad impression. A cover letter or introductory email is often the first thing a potential employer sees when reviewing a job applicant. It's the first opportunity to impress recruiters and hiring managers and, therefore, the first opportunity to disappoint them. Everything from copy mistakes to inappropriate jokes in a cover letter could derail an application. Here are the top ten worst things to put on a cover letter:

Do you do any of the following during a job interview? If so, you might be sabotaging your chances at landing a new job:

Sheila is a claims processor at a major automotive company. Due to recent declines in the economy, she has recently been given notice that her position will terminate in two weeks. A despondent Sheila makes an appointment with the career consultant employed to assist with terminated workers. Upon hearing Sheila's story it might not surprise you to hear that the counselor plans to consult various websites during her work with Sheila. As professional career counselors, we are practiced at using career-based websites to assist clients with finding resources for taking interest inventories, engaging in job searches, finding occupational information, and creating resumes. However, Sheila's counselor is not looking at these types of websites. There are other beneficial websites that may not be as apparent or as frequently used. There are many websites that have information on career development theories that may be useful to counselors who are working to resolve the dilemmas of their clients. Below are several websites on the theories of cognitive, sociological, trait-factor, and on diversity issues that Sheila's counselor, and many of you, may find useful.

Americans aren't keen to discuss money. We like making it and we like spending it, but money doesn't belong in polite conversation. It sits on the shelf of forbidden topics, alongside politics, religion and sex.

Many creative children are taught from a very young age that there is no real place for them to shine. From a young age, these children are trying to learn skills to which their talents are not applicable. As a result, these adolescents are frequently unable to create a satisfying future career. Career counselors are in a position to effect significant change in the lives of creative adolescents but often lack the understanding of this population that would make their interventions more effective.

I'm frequently asked how to make the transition from working in an organization to striking out on one's own. But here's a question that's rarely discussed: What if you're an entrepreneur or solo practitioner and must decide whether to return to the business world? Can you -- and should you -- go from your living room back to the boardroom?

Q. You're a recent college graduate getting ready for the working world. Can your college wardrobe make the transition with you?

Solo entrepreneurs, freelancers and other self-employed professionals have always struggled to take vacations, and the recession is making it even harder. Being out of pocket can mean missing one of a diminishing number of business leads, and the rising tide of unemployed professionals has heightened competition for freelance work.

Ah yes, Networking. Today, it has become a common exercise in the workplace and a vital part of the advancement of most careers. Networking can be accomplished anywhere these days, whether it be outside on a sidewalk, or at an obvious networking cocktail event. If it is done successfully, it can help you meet a future mentor, move you effectively toward an initial interview, or even allow you to make a lasting first impression with your first boss. However, successful networking can often times be harder than it sounds. Sometimes, it is hard to know all the right things to say or do and how to turn a 15-minute conversation into a potential life-lasting connection. With that in mind, I have developed a basic 5-step guide that gives the basics on how to untangle this mystery and turn any previously nerve wracking networking event into an exciting time of opportunity.

Mentors can be essential, especially for people making career transformations. But unfortunately, a lot of mentor relationships fall apart after a few months because there is no formal structure to support them.

15 Career Mistakes I've written other newsletter articles about careers (see the links throughout this article as well as at the end of the article), but until now I've never specifically written an article about career mistakes. I think the subject has been too personal - I've made a lot of these career mistakes myself, and it's hard for me to admit my failures. But in the interest of helping others avoid some of the mistakes I've made, I've decided to go ahead and create a list of the major career mistakes that I've made or that I've seen other people in IT make. Let me know if you think of other mistakes that should also be on the list.

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