Career Development

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.

Last December, with unemployment at 7.2%, The Wall Street Journal enlisted eight people who had lost their jobs to write about their hunts in a new blog called "Laid Off and Looking." All eight had M.B.A. degrees; five had worked in finance at big banks. They had been unemployed for a median of nine months.

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.

A growing number of Americans struggle with job searches these days because a scandal destroyed their small employer-even though they played no role in its demise.

Until recently, I was a glass half-empty kind of girl. If 10 good things happened and one bad thing happened, guess what I would focus on? I put tremendous pressure on myself to achieve immediate success, and when my career didn't progress splendidly in all respects, I'd feel miserable.

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.

Introverts bring many unique strengths to organizations, including a focus on depth, an ability to listen, and a calm, reflective nature. If career counselors and coaches can deepen their understanding of how introverts are "wired," they can help create more wins for introverted clients and their organizations.

NEW YORK -- The first phone call comes 30 seconds after Kim Hall arrives at her desk. She groans, chases two Tylenol with a gulp from her extra-large coffee and sweeps her bangs away from her eyes. She reaches into a drawer and grabs the notepad that contains what her colleagues refer to as "the tally of destruction." After the third ring, Hall grabs the phone and presses it to her ear. It is 9:03 a.m. on a Wednesday, and another day of economic collapse has begun.

The U.S. unemployment rate dropped in July to deliver the labor market's best performance in a year, and while the decline was slight it was enough to raise hopes that the economy is on the cusp of a recovery.

Seventy-seven percent of members of Freelancers Union, which has 120,000 members nationwide, have had clients that didn't pay at least once, says Sara Horowitz, executive director. Worse yet, more companies are trying to renegotiate lower prices with freelancers after work has been delivered, says Gary Swart, chief executive of oDesk, a freelance-management Web site that acts as a liaison between freelancers and clients.

Work is always a cause of stress, but lately, it seems like it's been even more so. Layoffs have put millions out of work. People who are still employed are often seeing their workloads increase, but not their pay, and they're worried about their own job security.

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.

Blog on various issues of being Funemployment.