You’ve heard me mention Steven Rothberg and his incredibly useful employment information website at CollegeRecruiter.com before, and this week Heather Eager wrote a terrific post on a topic I never considered – how to get a federal job. I never realized this, but the process of applying to work for the government is totally different ...

In his book How to Win Friends and Influence People, author and motivational guru Dale Carnegie says that the person who can speak acceptably is usually considered to possess greater ability than he actually has.  In my experience, this is true.  If you look and act like you know what you’re talking about, people will think ...

Since we often talk about differentiating yourself in a crowded market around here, I thought you might like to know that twenty-something branding phenom Dan Schawbel recently launched a new magazine, Personal Branding.  As you might guess, the magazine is about establishing a professional and memorable identity in order to drive your ...

On Chris Russell’s Secrets of the Job Hunt blog, Phil Rosenberg offers some smart info on getting what you need from recruiters.  Phil suggests that in order to develop successful relationships with recruiters you must adopt the attitude that you work for them, not the other way around.  His tips include: Give recruiters information ...

Maybe because we’re still at the beginning of a new year, or maybe because we’re on the edge of a recession, resume writing has become an even hotter topic lately.  On the heels of the great response on last week’s Razume post, I thought I’d share some information about a new free resume help service  my friend Louise Fletcher has just ...

In the coming months, I’m going to be focusing some of Water Cooler Wisdom’s content around employee recruitment and retention techniques.  Let’s start with the obvious: the e-advertisements that you, as a manager or HR rep, might be perennially posting on major online job boards.  You know that these boards receive tons of traffic, but ...

Employment Digest has an interesting post on the qualities that potential employers want to see, and how these qualities can be translated on a resume.  Among them:   ·         Communication Skills: For example, the phrase “Ability to be persuasive when interacting with clients, junior colleagues ...

I’m very pleased to share this review of my friend and colleague Jason Alba’s new book, I’m on Linked In – Now What???  I have known Jason for over a year, and I can say with all seriousness that he is one of the best networkers I know.  He knows everyone, and if he doesn’t know someone, he wants to meet them.  He’s a big advocate ...

I get a lot of e-mails asking me how people should use LinkedIn for business networking.  And the truth is, I’m not entirely sure myself, which is why I’m looking forward to my friend Jason Alba’s book on the topic.  This week, though, I came across a great post from Chris Brogan at Lifehack with some tips for making it easier ...

On Vault.com this week, Judi Perkins offered some great advice on writing a thank you note after a job interview.  I love this topic because it’s discussed so infrequently, as if people fundamentally understand that a thank you note should in fact be written, and written in a very strategic way.  In reality, while you may consider it a ...