Career Development

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.

I think it`s pretty undeniable that nepotism pays, but don`t worry if your daddy`s not a big executive. You`re in luck because you can create your own nepotism. You don`t need a blood relationship for someone in power to take an interest in you and put you on the fast-track. Here are ideas that can give you the same advantages as those born with great connections.

If you're gay or lesbian and you're closeted at your office, you're not alone. Despite major strides in acceptance over the last 15 years, many still struggle with the decision to come out at work. A recent Harris poll conducted with Out & Equal and Witeck-Combs Communications indicated that 44% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) participants feel unable to talk freely to co-workers about their partners, and up to 78% don't feel comfortable bringing their partners to corporate social functions.

Q: I'm an intelligent, talented and creative person, but I'm lacking motivation to perform my job to the best of my abilities, and it is starting to show. I'm planning on leaving my firm for graduate school next year, but in the meantime, do you have any ideas on how I can regain my motivation at work? There are no upcoming projects which even hold the remotest level of interest for me, and based on my recent performance review, I would not likely be assigned them to begin with.

I've been pondering the future since my dad took me to visit the World Future Society headquarters in Bethesda, Md., when I was 10 years old. And now that I'm a career writer, it's my job to think about what the workplace will look like -- and what it will demand from us -- in 2025.

Many job seekers have been paying big bucks to have professionals rework their résumés, but when it comes to career counseling, free help abounds. By visiting a government-sponsored job center, your alma mater and even your local library, you can tap into a pool of professionals who will help you create or critique your résumé. By visiting a government-sponsored job center, your alma mater and even your local library, you can tap into a pool of professionals who will help you create or critique your résumé.

If you have avoided social-networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook with the excuse that they are the domain of desperate job hunters or attention-seeking teenagers, it's time to reconsider.

Finding a job in a recession is tough, let alone one that suits your background and interests. But a strong fit is important. Chances are you won't be happy if, say, you're an introvert and vegetarian working as a sales rep for a foie gras purveyor.

When it comes to displaying feelings at work, you have to be careful. There's passionate -- and there's emotionally unstable.

Nowadays, new laptops usually come with built-in Webcams, including the ultra-small, inexpensive models known as netbooks. But many people don't know what to do with these Webcams or how to use them for videoconferencing with other people. Some don't even realize their computers have these tiny videocameras.

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

Esquire created a riviting-if depression- look at the effects of the recession on the job market and wages

Promoting Career Counseling: Ideas from NCDA

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.

The original, Post-World War II GI Bill has been both idealized as evidence of America as land of opportunity, and criticized for primarily benefiting white men while perpetuating racial and gender discrimination. So write Glenn C. Altschuler, a professor of American studies and dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at Cornell University, and Stuart M. Blumin, professor emeritus of American history at Cornell, in their new book, The GI Bill: A New Deal For Veterans (Oxford). Altschuler and Blumin argue, instead, for a need to "gain a more dispassionate understanding of the bill's role in the shaping of postwar America" -- even up to the present day, as then-President Bush cited the legacy of the original GI Bill in the 2008 signing of a new, Post-9/11 GI Bill.

The 25 most difficult questions you'll be asked on a job interview. Being prepared is half the battle.

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.

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

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.

OPRAH WINFREY granted pop superstardom in April not to another fraudulent memoirist, but to Twitter, the online social network that has lured both Hollywood celebrities and basement amateurs away from their blogs.