Career Development

"Job boards are irresistible because they seemingly put everything within easy reach. Unfortunately, the majority of job hunters are competing for the same small pool of jobs and getting turned down."

Q. A growing number of colleagues have requested to connect with you on social networking Web sites. You have mixed feelings about giving these professional contacts a window into your personal life. What should you do?

CIO - When you belong to several social networking sites-Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter-(and don't we all?), keeping up with them can seem overwhelming. Tweet this. Update that status. Share a link here.If you've resolved to get more organized this year, consider these seven tools that save time and streamline your social networking interactions. My picks: For easy content sharing across platforms, be sure to check out is the browser plugin Shareaholic. And for simple synching and updating of multiple accounts, Atomkeep seems to be the most efficient.

: 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?"

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:

No one has been writing best-selling career-advice books longer than Richard Bolles, author of the "What Color Is Your Parachute" series. (1975 was the only skipped year since the series was launched in 1970.)

"10 Things Recruiters Won't Tell You "

"I was terminated from my last job. Do I have to put that on my applications for future employment? "

"A new educational credential could prove to be a time-efficient and cost-effective means to help launch a career change. The National Work Readiness Credential (NWRC) is based on an employer-defined standard of the critical skills needed by entry-level workers in a variety of fields."

"One of my best friends from high school, Andrew, changed majors during his first semester at college. He and I had been fascinated by politics for years, sharing every news story we could find and participating in the Internet activism that was exploding into a new political force. Even though he was still passionate about politics, that was no longer enough. "I have to get practical," he messaged me one day, "think about getting a job after graduation. I mean, it's like my mom keeps asking me: What can you do with a degree in political science anyway?""

Even when the U.S. labor market finally starts adding more workers than it loses, many of the unemployed will find that the types of jobs they once had simply don't exist anymore.

"With the country's unemployment hovering around 10%, many professionals are on the hunt for the perfect job. But what job? What industry? To the rescue are online career-assessment tests that aim to help workers (and daydreamers) identify suitable jobs and work environments. We took four tests to learn what fields are a good fit for a longtime reporter: the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Kolbe A Index, the Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential (MAPP) test, and a service called Careerkey. "

My article in The Journal Report on Leadership-"Why Companies Aren't Getting the Employees They Need"-generated an avalanche of reader response. In that piece I argued that companies too often put the blame on our education system for their inability to find the skilled workers they need. Instead, I wrote, companies "need to drop the idea of finding perfect candidates and look for people who could do the job with a bit of training and practice."

Most people assume being good-looking gives you a career boost. But just how much does it help? A lot. Good-looking people charm interviewers, get hired faster, are more likely to make more sales and get more raises.

Traditionally, in a mentoring relationship, a senior-level person provides guidance, support, and information for a younger person just beginning in a career. However, with rapid changes in the workplace, people living and working longer, and several career/job movements and shifts being the norm, an up-dated perspective of mentoring and learning is needed.

March 2010 Employment in New York

Occupational Employment OOQ Winter 2009

To get a read on applicants, more employers are using pre-hire assessments, which can check personality, cognitive ability and competency, among other areas. About 56% of companies are using some sort of assessment tool as part of the hiring process this year, up from 48% in 2010, according to Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based research firm.

"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?"