Career Development

Generation Y, our generation, is a strong and ambitious one, and now that many of us have begun to launch our careers, we are constantly seeking advice, feedback and new ways to improve and advance ourselves.

Recently, I held a focus group with 12 college students - juniors and seniors. The discussion was around their experiences with college career centers…and it was fascinating. I'm not kidding.

When I was training to be a professional counselor (1969-1971), the vast majority of my professors (and my colleagues) stressed that the "ideal" counselor would strive to view all clients with 'unconditional positive regard' and conduct their counseling sessions in a 'client centered' and 'client directed' approach taught by Carl Rogers, the most prominent and respected counselor educator of the era. While my natural personality is to be very extroverted, assertive, and directive, I learned and practiced the Rogerian techniques as I began to provide career counseling and train other counselors.

For learning to occur, younger students in particular often need to experience learning in a way that is meaningful to them. Teaching about careers to these students can be challenging especially since the concept of a career represents an aspect of human development which is far off in the future and associated with something that is "adult-like." The idea of a vocation or career represents a certain level of abstractness that students may not be developmentally ready for. Teaching middle and high school students about careers through activities and games may serve as the perfect conduit as students naturally like to learn while being active and engaged.

A few months ago, Andrea Kornfeld was working on a computer program to shave milliseconds off of transactions at Merrill Lynch. Now, she's spending her severance pay on a mosquito net and malaria pills for her new job: as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching computer skills to high-school students in Cameroon.

Q. You're a recent college graduate getting ready for the working world. Can your college wardrobe make the transition with you?

IN an environment of rapidly rising unemployment, scores of managers and executives have had doctor-as-patient, "aha" moments, as they find themselves among the millions of American workers looking for new jobs.

ALAN KENNEDY, 54, had never used social networking sites until he was laid off from his job as an engineer last November. Then he did what many job seekers are now advised to do: he set up profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Job seekers, beware the telephone. For years, the phone interview was a preliminary step that allowed an employer to give a candidate the once-over and schedule an in-person interview. But these days, many recruiters are using the phone interview to pose the kinds of in-depth questions previously reserved for finalists. What's more, job hunters say the bar for getting to the next level has been raised much higher, catching many of them off-guard.

You might think that being at home for an interview means a more relaxed environment. But experts say the key to success is being as diligent as you would be in person. Advice to help you ace the phone interview.

View numerous job search videos posted and created by the WSJ.

Melissa & Doug LLC, a fast-growing toy maker in Wilton, Conn., puts applicants through an interview process so grueling that one job seeker says she left in tears and felt psychologically traumatized.

So, as you might expect, there are those who have NOT knocked my socks off. In fact, their actions left me wanting to double knot the shoe laces. Bad people? No, not at all. Maybe lazy. Or perhaps, just perhaps, these folks had never been in a positive networking environment before. One in which people give first - not as a result of being helped in advance.

Every year at about this time I find myself humming, "It's May; it's May," a song from the musical Camelot. This year I took a closer look at the lyrics. I had missed the second half of a couplet mid-song: "The month of great dismay." For the many people on the job market who are still in limbo, that line has probably become a too-familiar refrain. Now that you've reached May without a job, what are your options?

Michael Van Gorkom was laid off by Yahoo in late April. He didn't panic. He didn't rush off to a therapist. Instead, the 33-year-old Santa Monica resident discovered that being jobless "kind of settled nicely."

Michael Van Gorkom was laid off by Yahoo in late April. He didn't panic. He didn't rush off to a therapist. Instead, the 33-year-old Santa Monica resident discovered that being jobless "kind of settled nicely."

With the unemployment rate hitting a new 25-year high Friday, many workers and layoff victims in the worst-suffering industries are looking for safer sectors.

Melissa & Doug LLC, a fast-growing toy maker in Wilton, Conn., puts applicants through an interview process so grueling that one job seeker says she left in tears and felt psychologically traumatized.

MyPlan.com helps students and professionals plan more fulfilling lives by making well-informed decisions about their education and careers. Whether you're deciding on what college to go to, choosing a major, planning ahead for your first career, or thinking about making a career change, MyPlan.com can help you explore options and bring clarity and insight into figuring out what's right for you. 100% independent and unbiased, MyPlan.com gives you the truth about colleges, careers and majors. Our research and data is the most comprehensive you'll find anywhere on the subject. And, with dozens of easy-to-use tools, we've made getting to that information convenient, simple and fun.

I'm always reading career-advice articles about coping with a bad boss or firing someone in the most appropriate way. But what about ending a work relationship with a person who's not your manager or your employee? How do you know when this is the right solution -- and how can you extricate yourself with your dignity intact?