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Original Post Here [TheWiseJobSearch] From time to time I get asked about what’s appropriate to wear to a job interview, networking meeting, or other event. The answer varies based on the circumstances and type of position. The key to keep in mind at any time, however, is that first impressions do matter and dressing appropriately and professionally is a prime component of that first impression. The way you dress can tell someone a lot about you: Do you pay attention to detail Do you think this meeting is important Do you care about the impression you make Do you care about being current …and other characteristics as well So… what is appropriate dress for your meeting or event?

Original Post Here One of the trickiest parts of landing a new job is making sure you get paid what you're worth. Negotiating your salary is part art, and part science, but there's one rule that never changes: be nice. Photo by Orin Zebest . Wired's How-To Wiki has a great collection of tips on figuring out what a job ought to pay and how much you can expect to earn based on your level of experience and education. Once you've got a ballpark estimate, you'll need to get your prospective employer on board, and that's where good negotiation tactics come in handy. We've mentioned ways to hone your negotiating skills before, but one tip in particular is important to remember. It pays—literally—to be nice when you're trying to find a middle ground between what you want to earn and what the company is willing to pay. Salary negotiation may make you feel as ruthless as Gordon Gekko, but the basic rules of human decency still apply. After all, you wil...

Original Post Here Uploaded on January 16, 2010 by nanpalmero 1) Make sure that your page is up to date — I realize that LinkedIn is not much fun and that you’d rather be on Facebook, but it is important to have your information fresh and current. 2) Make sure that your page and your resume jibe — If your employment history doesn’t match up between your resume and your LinkedIn page, that could be an indication that you’re hiding something or, possibly worse, you’re just sloppy. 3) Proofread, proofread, proofread — enough said. 4) Use a professional, and recent, photograph of decent quality — it’s like wearing business attire to an interview, duh! And nobody wants to see your picture from the kegger at the beach last weekend. 5)LinkedIn doesn’t provide much real estate in which to work your writing mojo, but in those places where you can be descriptive, be creative and show a little style . 6) Join appropriate groups and join their conversations — It is, after all, soci...

Original Post: Here Rocket Surgery Made Easy Recommended by Joel Spolsky Monday, January 25, 2010    Steve Krug has written a follow up to his usability classic Don’t Make Me Think. The sequel, Rocket Surgery Made Easy, is a terrific, short, concise, fun guide to running simple “hallway” usability tests to improve the usability of your software and websites. Highly recommended.

Big 3 Recruiting Mistakes – Continued Posted by Corey Harlock on January 21, 2010 at 1:08pm Reputation is HUGE, especially now with social networking and immediate feedback. People talk, especially when they feel like they have been treated unfairly. Your reputation is a consideration at every level of your business. Here are some areas you may not have thought of: How you advertise your positions. Are you targeting the right people or using the “dirty bomb” method? Post it everywhere and hope the right person sees it. I can not stress the importance of posting the right job in the right place. Too many advertisements can = desperate. Your selection process. Do you take the time to send a “thanks, but no thanks” letter? Here is what I know – over 70% of applicants in our industry receive a response to their online application 60% of the time or LESS. Too busy to respond? You should make time because 36% of those people you didn’t respond to WON’T re-apply! Talk about shrinking your ca...

Original Post  Here image by  Joe Pemberton “Networking for a job change or to get off unemployment is nearly essential, since people -- not computers -- hire other people,” says Matt Noah, CEO of Chanhassen, MN-based, NetSuds.com, a firm that helps professionals build and enhance their network of contacts. Here are 3 ways you can network better and find your next job faster … 1) Attend Industry Events No matter what you do, there’s probably a regular event of some kind where potential employers in your industry gather. Identify events or venues that will most likely help your job search, then go there! “Typically, the more focused the event, the better,” says Noah. “If you are a plumber, don’t go to an electrician’s trade show, for example. And size matters -- events are popular and well-attended if they provide value to the people in attendance.” So, attend well-focused, popular events. You can f...

Original Post Here January 7th, 2010 (12:00pm) Dawn Foster There have been plenty of blog posts and discussions recently about how you need to be “personal” across the various social media web sites, even when communicating on behalf of your company or brand. Social media is about conversations, and people have conversations with other people, not faceless corporations. So you want to come across as a person talking with people, not at them, unlike the traditional one-way marketing broadcasts of yesteryear. In this post, I am going to focus specifically on how to balance the personal with the professional, but you should also read Aliza’s post about revisiting her 10 golden rules of social media for more best practices. You can actually be professional and personal at the same time in social media without too much effort. When we talk about “being personal” on social media web sites, I think that many people confuse “personal” with “private.” The reality is that you get ...

Original Post Here If you’re looking for a new job, I’ve rounded up some useful iPhone apps that can help you with your search and preparation for interviews. Here are 24 free apps to get your job hunt moving in the right direction. asapLocal displays many different types of information specific to your location, including job openings. Career Bliss provides inside information about companies, including salaries. HireSyndicate shares real-time job info from recruiters. CLBFree provides mobile access to Craigslist, including the job section. BusyBee finds freelance and contract opportunities in your local area. JobTweet Job Search utilizes Twitter for search for open positions online. JobRadio.FM is a 24/7 Internet radio show dedicated to careers advice. InterviewBuddy offers a slew of advice, tips and tricks for interview preparation. GetApps Done is a little different than the other apps in this roundup. It caters to the development community, connecting those who are looki...

Original Post Here The proliferation of tools created to support Twitter is astounding due to the early adoption and usage of the Twitter API by developers worldwide. While there are plenty of web applications to choose from to analyze and visualize your activity with Twitter, the Twitter tracking apps that help you manage all of your friends and followers with ease are indispensable. Here’s a rundown of eight of the best Twitter tracking apps to help you keep track of your friends and followers, and decide among them who are adding value to your usage of one of the world’s most popular social networking tools. TwitterKarma While it may not win awards for its aesthetics, Twitter Karma makes up for its simple design by providing a quick solution to see all of your friends and followers sorted in a variety of ways. You can follow and unfollow quickly and easily among your friends, followers, and mutual friends. FriendOrFollow Another Twitter tracking app for a simple sorted visualizat...

Original Post Here Recently, a lot of folks have noticed their Twitter pages superseding their blogs in Google search results for their name. Tech journalist Marshall Kirkpatrick has an easy HTML workaround to keep Twitter from becoming your primary online identity. Having a say in what Google says about you is extremely important these days, especially for professionals such as freelancers, for whom a Google search result of their name is a first impression for potential employers. You definitely want your blog or professional web site to show up before your non-professional social networking profiles. Kirkpatrick discovered a small HTML tag that was missing from his own blog, yet present in Twitter, that could make all the difference: So the long and short of this story is that if you want to make sure that Google understands your blog to be your primary beacon on the web, then you should add the words rel='me' to a relevant link on your blog. I've added that tag to the...