"It's all about who you know." At one point or another, we've all heard that phrase. Whether you believe it or not, it's a fact that your personal network can help you score the job of your dreams. Keeping up good relations with professors, employers, and advisers is an essential part of the job-hunt. Don't neglect those who have helped you ...

No matter how many good things you say and demonstrate about yourself on your resume or in job interviews, at some point employers are going to want an objective second opinion of you -- and probably third and fourth opinions as well. That's where your professional references come in. The time and care you invest in choosing and even coaching the ...

If I were to say, "golden arches," what restaurant would you think of? I'd be shocked if you didn't say, "McDonald's." After exposing consumers to the golden arches for decades, the company has trained us to think, "McDonald's," whenever we see those arches on TV, in print media or when we're driving. Powerful stuff, don't you think? You can use a ...

What's your take on the idea of networking to learn about careers or job leads? If you're like a lot of college students or new college grads, the thought of networking makes you want to gag. A couple of years ago, I interviewed a recent college graduate for an article I was writing on the post-graduation job hunt. I asked the ...

If you're looking for a creative, effective way to learn about an industry and make helpful professional contacts, consider the successful electronic strategy employed by Exuper Okouya, a third-year student at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Okouya, a 25-year-old French citizen who's majoring in biochemistry, arrived in Canada two years ago with his only real goal being to "adapt to ...

Experience has shown that informal networking is a very rich source of job leads and information about unpublished job opportunities. Successful networking requires that you have as many contacts as possible hear your story, so they realize you are in the job market. h4. Sources of Possible Contacts To begin developing your network, secure names of specific individuals. These names can ...

In an ideal world, every undergraduate student would be interning this summer. But in the practical world of your own competing life demands, not to mention the ups and downs of the internship market and overall economy, you may well find yourself internshipless right now. But fear not: You can still do plenty of things over the summer to build the ...

You wouldn’t wear jeans to a job interview, but do you pay as much attention to job-hunting etiquette when networking? Everyone talks about networking but few realize how to do it well. Most people start networking when they start looking for a job. In any job market (and especially this one), a network will provide you with more opportunities and ...

Whether you're looking for a job or trying to advance your career, networking is very important (in a recent HotJobs poll, 57 percent of respondents said that networking was a factor in landing their most recent job). And networking shouldn't end when you log off of LinkedIn or head home from a conference. Valuable contacts are on the perimeter of your ...

Almost all mature companies have shed employees at some point--and in most cases the pink slips don't come as a surprise. "Very often senior management will delay a decision to cut headcount, so unless there is a quick catastrophic event, layoffs have been a long time coming," explains Scott Steinberg, CEO of TechSavvy Global. How can you know if your job ...

Years later, I still remember that sinking feeling, just after I'd hit the Send button after writing an email complaining about an editor. My worst virtual fear was quickly confirmed: Yes, I had sent my bit of snark to the editor instead of my friend--and no, the editor wasn't amused. Although he initially refused to work with me again, he eventually ...

No matter what field you're in, a successful career is built on human relationships. Your job search will be much more effective if you connect with and expand your network of contacts rather than just respond to job ads. Thousands of healthcare positions are created and filled without ever being advertised. A networking letter will help you uncover these hidden job ...

Creating a structured plan and process is vital to any successful venture, whether launching a new business, orchestrating an organizational turnaround or managing your job search networking campaign. It is critical that you clearly identify your network contacts, develop a personalized networking plan and build an administrative process to manage it all. Before starting to create a two-tiered networking system, remember ...

Networking comes easily to some. The rest of us should get past the fear that this art of chitchat is one-sided and somehow inappropriate I don't remember many speakers from junior high assembly (like many people I know, I tend to block out that period in general), but one guy has always stuck in my memory. He was a polished-looking, smooth-talking ...