Career Development

Blog on various issues of being Funemployment.

Q: I have worked for many companies and have been told repeatedly that company rules won't allow them to give out references. I have gone to two temp agencies, and they had to drop me from jobs because I had only one reference. What is one to do to get around this problem?

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.

Out of work for months? Prevent your professional skills from atrophying by taking steps to brush up.

Plenty of people claim to be qualified to help you make your next career move. To make sure they can deliver the goods, heed these 9 tips.

But I don't give a hoot that you are "having a busy Monday," your child "took 30 minutes to brush his teeth," your dog "just ate an ant trap" or you want to "save the piglets." And I really, really don't care which Addams Family member you most resemble. (I could have told you the answer before you took the quiz on Facebook.)

Q: My wife joined a mentor program that was suggested to her by a very senior company official. The same official recommended a mentor who is only one level above her while everyone else has a mentor three levels higher. She feels very slighted and is not sure what to say -- or if she should say anything at all. I know in this current uneasy environment workers probably don't want any added responsibilities, which would make it difficult to find quality mentors.

For employers, Twitter-where users post updates, or "tweets," of no more than 140 characters-offers one more way to find and attract candidates, and a cheaper alternative to big online job boards. It also helps companies target social-media-savvy job hunters and convey an innovative image. For job seekers, Twitter offers the chance to interact one-on-one with companies' recruiters and can be more convenient than job boards.

Most people in the job market today would consider themselves lucky to get a single offer. Receiving multiple offers sounds like a dream, but for some, this scenario is very real. They are the candidates everyone wants.

ISAAC: The week before college starts has been a lot of fun on campus. It's when you get the beginning-of-college experience -- getting new classmates, attending school events, exploring the area and enjoying the new freedoms of college -- without the stress and time consumption of classes. But that's soon going to change.

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.

So many working people out there feel frustrated and stuck in their careers . They feel trapped in jobs that don't fit, unable to make a change. Eventually, a negative perspective starts to permeate everything.

I am not your typical "geek" CIO. I have 35 years in banking, including 12-plus years from the business side as well as 20-plus years from the technology and operations side. I have asked about a promotion to COO, but I never really get an answer. I have no mentors and feel very isolated.

For the most part, tomorrow's bachelor's-level majors will look very much like those offered by colleges today. But in interviews with The Chronicle, academic experts, business analysts, and economic forecasters helped identify five emerging areas of study.

According to lore, the academic terms "major" and "minor" first appeared in 1877, in a Johns Hopkins University course catalog. By the middle of the 20th century, the specialized major had become standard practice at almost every American college. Sophomore year: Agonized conversations with parents, and then the declaration of a major. Junior and senior years: Upper-level course work. Graduation day: A diploma that certified your skills in psychology, or physics, or, as the old joke goes, underwater basket weaving.

Executive Coaches See Steady Demand

Q: I'm mentoring a young, ambitious engineer in our company. He's competent and demonstrates his energetic drive every day. However, he constantly makes spelling and grammatical errors in his writings. I've asked him to utilize spell-checking and re-read his emails. But mistakes such as confusing "our" with "are" and "there" and "their" aren't picked up with the computer tools. It's been over a year and he's still making these mistakes. What would you suggest as an appropriate next course of action? I am not sure if there are any additional classes he can take to improve his grammar/spell-checking skills.