Career Development

"For many job seekers, finding the right fit could be one of the biggest hurdles in the search. After all, finding an appealing job that you'll enjoy is a big decision. You don't want to regret your choice after a week - and you certainly don't want to feel like you've wasted ten years of your life when you finally realize it's not the right fit."

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.

After working for more than six years as manager of digital licensing for Warner Music Group in Burbank, Calif., Michael Locke, 34, felt like he wanted more. But there wasn't much latitude for change within his job and department.

On one side, the Obama Administration, Capitol Hill Democrats, Wall Street whizzes and budget experts have been wearing out their thesauruses looking up new words for "catastrophe" as they try to explain to the public that failing to raise the $14.3 trillion federal debt limit by Aug. 2 would result in a radically different country on Aug. 3. Read more: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/07/19/debt-ceiling-could-a-deal-cost-the-economy-a-million-jobs/#ixzz1SeaCmUlr

3 in 4 mobile users check-in from a smartphone comScore, a market research firm that measures trends in the digital world has released a study that shows just how mobile the world has become. Their research reveals that many mobile and smartphone users checked in using mobile apps such Facebook Places, Foursquare and Gowalla. The study, which surveyed users in March, found that 16.7 million, or 7.1 percent of the total US mobile subscriber base used location-based "check-in" services on their phones. 17.6 percent of the estimated 12.7 million smartphone owners now use these services.

I do. I worked in my family business-a funeral home. From the time I was five, my parents found ways for me to "help out." My first responsibility was to collect broken flowers from funeral sprays so my mother could easily vacuum. It might sound morbid-but it was a way for my parents to spend time with me, instead of dropping me off with a baby sitter. And I learned some invaluable lessons about work ethic along the way.

Tamara Guion-Yagy was disappointed when Tetra Tech, an environmental engineering firm in Pasadena, Calif., hired somebody else for the job that she wanted. The 40-year-old graphic designer thought she was being tried out when the firm hired her as a temporary worker.

Selling is all about building relationships. Focusing on the positive ones is imperative, according to Philip Styrlund, CEO of the Summit Group, a sales training firm. The same is true of your career.

While it might seem fun to work at a company where the average age is below thirty and everyone is on Facebook and Twitter, you're better off working with more seasoned colleagues, say experts. FINS readers agree. Of 654 respondents in FINS' informal online questionnaire Sign or Decline, 88% said they'd accept their dream job if their new coworkers would all be 20 years older than them.

While it might seem fun to work at a company where the average age is below thirty and everyone is on Facebook and Twitter, you're better off working with more seasoned colleagues, say experts. FINS readers agree. Of 654 respondents in FINS' informal online questionnaire Sign or Decline, 88% said they'd accept their dream job if their new coworkers would all be 20 years older than them. At some of the hottest employers, that's simply not possible. The median age of an employee at Facebook is 26, according to data from PayScale, a Seattle-based firm that gathers compensation data. Compare that with more traditional companies like IBM and Hewlett-Packard where the median age is 44, according to the same data.

The U.S. tech sector will lead the world in revenue and employment growth in the next year, according to a new survey from KPMG, the accounting and consulting firm. India and China will have the second and third most employment growth next year. Last year, the U.S. ranked third in revenue growth, and fourth in employment growth. KPMG surveyed 102 C-level and senior executives in the computing industry. The top drivers of revenue growth are cloud computing, mobile apps, and data analytics, the executives said. Mergers and acquisitions will continue to rise, as 68% of respondents said they would be involved as a buyer in the next two years. Despite the U.S.'s resurgence in tech employment growth, fewer of the executives surveyed say they plan to increase headcount. Last year, 72% said they would hire more, but this year it's only 49%. (KPMG)

There are many reasons U.S. companies give for their lack of robust hiring -- from weak consumer spending to uncertainty over the direction of government policies on debt and spending. Some industries have significantly boosted employment over the past year while others continue to shed workers. But even those adding jobs are hiring far fewer than would be needed to put America's 14.1 million unemployed back to work. Here's what it looks like on the ground in some industries:

Skepticism Over Online College Courses 8/29/2011 1:15:10 PM Fewer than one-third of Americans believe that online college courses provide value equal to classroom instruction, but half of college presidents disagree. Kevin Helliker has details on Lunch Break.

The economic downturn has forced employers to tighten their belts and do more with less. With fewer resources available, many companies have refrained from handing out raises, even when an employee is given additional responsibilities and a title change. According to a recent study from OfficeTeam, a subsidiary of staffing firm Robert Half International, about one in five human resources managers have acknowledged that awarding promotions without salary increases is at least a "somewhat common" practice at their company.

Job candidates get good at smiling into the webcam as interviews via video become increasingly common.

The longer one has been out of work, the harder it is to find a new job. New unemployment figures out Friday from the Labor Department are likely to point to continued pain in August. At last count, nearly 4.5 million Americans had been unemployed for 52 weeks or longer and were still looking for work.

All year long, from every direction, surveys bombard students.

After working a full day at the stables of her horse transport and training business, Melissa Weiser heads to BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse.

Could you pass a Facebook background search? The next time you apply for a job, don't be surprised if you have to agree to a social-media background check. Many U.S. companies and recruiters are now looking at your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other accounts and blogs -- even YouTube -- to paint a clearer picture of who you are. Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903461104576464823762727188.html#ixzz1Tnrdf6Qk