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"Research shows that motivation is positively correlated with college performance, academic discipline, and future occupational success. It is critical that practitioners and educators direct more attention toward implementing practices that focus specifically on increasing client motivation and behavior change-thus maximizing graduation rates and minimizing future educational, occupational, economic, and personal consequences (Miller & Rose, 2009; Willis 1994). Motivational Interviewing (MI) is one approach that is used to help clients engage in the career planning process."

"Personal Branding redefines many of the concepts used in career development and shows our clients why career development is important at all phases of their careers and not just when they are in transition."

"When I do a seminar for prospective career changers, I always ask the audience how many people are using LinkedIn to communicate directly with contacts in their new industries. Typically, only a handful of people raise their hands. But given the fact that tapping the social-media groundswell is one of the best ways to launch a new career, active participation in sites like LinkedIn should be 100%."

In a time of increasing competition and economic pressures, employers are faced with difficult recruitment and retention challenges. Learning Plans are a tool used by many organizations to link business needs with individual career development interests, thus potentially engaging and retaining employees for longer periods. Learning plans benefit both employers and employees, as they build a sense of ownership and motivation through communication and negotiation. Self-directed learning allows employees to take responsibility for their own learning and career development, as it involves a level of personal investment. Employers reap the benefits through supporting and investing in their employees, which leads to an increase in skill development, motivation, and productivity. How did Learning Plans come about?

"In my experience, few factors have a bigger impact on the juggle than the emotional climate where you work. At a previous employer years ago, the prevailing employee attitude was ceaseless, simmering resentment and cynicism over ever-rising workloads and a lack of recognition to us for shouldering the burden. I tried to keep an optimistic attitude there, but a fierce desire to get out drove me to work weekends and holidays to land a better job at a better place to work. When I did, my energy for family and personal life soared."

"While M.B.A. students' quantitative skills are prized by employers, their writing and presentation skills have been a perennial complaint. Employers and writing coaches say business-school graduates tend to ramble, use pretentious vocabulary or pen too-casual emails."

"I answered my phone recently to hear a friend shrieking in my ear. "Check your inbox for the email I just sent you," he wailed. "And please, please tell me I didn't hit Reply All." What happens when we hit "reply all" by mistake? The result can be very embarrassing to say the least. Elizabeth Bernstein offers some tips on how to avoid making such a potentially costly mistake. You know that feeling: You hit Send-and your heart nearly stops. This shouldn't still be happening. After almost two decades of constant, grinding email use, we should all be too tech-savvy to keep making the same mortifying mistake, too careful to keep putting our relationships and careers on the line because of sloppiness. "

"Do you feel like your job choice out of college is the most important decision you will ever make, and that blowing it will tank your career? Relax and get used to it. It is just the first of many job choices you will be making throughout your career."

"The biggest changes in family life sometimes happen gradually. New employment data suggest one such seismic change is upon us: Job-holding patterns between the generations have turned upside down."

The resume is a blank canvas that any job seeker can transform into a unique document. When every resume uses the same jargon in the same way, it's just a waste of space and opportunity.

Obama will use his speech before a joint session of Congress tonight to marshal a sense of urgency behind his jobs agenda and to try to open a new phase in the fight over proposals to fix the economy.

There's an art to dismissing an employee. Using the phone usually isn't the way to go. The recent firing of Yahoo's Carol Bartz via a phone call brings that practice into view.

There are many platforms out there that may help your personal brand - for instance, Twitter to promote your work or Facebook to interact with customers. Though those social networks can absolutely help your image and brand, they serve their users for multiple purposes.

On the worst days, Chris Keehn used to go 24 hours without seeing his daughter with her eyes open. A soft-spoken tax accountant in Deloitte's downtown Chicago office, he hated saying no when she asked for a ride to preschool. By November, he'd had enough. "I realized that I can have control of this," he says with a small shrug. Keehn, 33, met with two of the firm's partners and his senior manager, telling them he needed a change. They went for it. In January, Keehn started telecommuting four days a week, and when Kathryn, 4, starts T-ball this summer, he will be sitting along the baseline.

Honestly, most of us only care about the salary when we choose a career, even it begins at choosing the major before entering the college.

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.

Recently, I held a focus group with 12 college students - juniors and seniors. The discussion was around their experiences with college career centers…and it was fascinating. I'm not kidding.

Generation Y, our generation, is a strong and ambitious one, and now that many of us have begun to launch our careers, we are constantly seeking advice, feedback and new ways to improve and advance ourselves.

Job seekers, beware the telephone. For years, the phone interview was a preliminary step that allowed an employer to give a candidate the once-over and schedule an in-person interview. But these days, many recruiters are using the phone interview to pose the kinds of in-depth questions previously reserved for finalists. What's more, job hunters say the bar for getting to the next level has been raised much higher, catching many of them off-guard.

ALAN KENNEDY, 54, had never used social networking sites until he was laid off from his job as an engineer last November. Then he did what many job seekers are now advised to do: he set up profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn.