• Be in the know. Before submitting one more application, make sure you have a firm grasp and are able to articulate what you’re looking for in a job. That way, you can focus your search and target jobs or organizations that fit your wants and needs. If you adopt an “I just want a job” approach, you’ll spread yourself too thin, wasting time and energy applying for too many positions you probably wouldn’t want in the first place.
• Limited experience? Not a problem. Although having years of experience would definitely be a bonus, if you’re lacking in that department don’t let that keep you from applying. Highlight accomplishments, transferrable skills, and leadership roles you’ve held on campus or in the community. This will show companies you have drive and initiative to get the job done.
• Don’t be locationally challenged. When looking for jobs, many job seekers list location as the single most important factor they consider. Don’t get me wrong, location is definitely important but, early in your career, it should generally take a back seat to job content and the quality of the company you’re going to work for. After all, you want to take the job that gives you the most optionality for you next career move and the move after that. Think long term.
• Always have a story. Chances are, in the first few minutes of your conversation with a recruiter, you’ll be asked why you want to be a (insert job title here). They’re looking for that “aha” moment when something inspired you to pursue a particular career path.
• If family and friends offer to help, let them.  If your parents have been working in an industry you’re interested in for the last 20 years and they offer to introduce you to some people they think might be helpful, that could be just the break you need to get your foot in the door. Remember-if they didn’t want to help you find a job, they wouldn’t have offered.
• Whatever you do, don’t answer your phone. If you list your mobile phone number on an application or resume, realize that you will probably end up receiving a call from a recruiter when you are at a crowded restaurant, standing in line at the grocery store, or at some other inopportune time. To keep this from happening, let calls from numbers you don’t recognize or that appear on caller ID as unknown go to voice mail. That way, you can return them when you have time to gather your composure and adequately prepare.

Set aside time each week to work on your job search. Follow the tips above and there’s a good chance you’ll not only be able to find the job you’re looking for, but you’ll also be well on your way to launching your career.

I know it’s tempting to pack as light as you possibly can to avoid the extra baggage fees all of the airlines are now charging. And luckily, all of the items below don’t take up a lot of space, but they can be a life saver when you’re traveling out of town to interview.

1. An extra dress shirt. Just because you’re flying there and back on the same day doesn’t mean you can’t run into flight delays or, even worse, spill something on your dress shirt—and that can happen even before you leave the airport. To be on the safe side, pack at least one extra dress shirt.
2. Stain remover wipes. You’d be surprised how hard it can be to find them when you’re pressed for time in a city you’re not familiar with. I know some hotels carry them in their gift shop, but it’s easier (and cheaper) to throw a few in your carry on.
3. Your laptop. Interview times, locations, and itineraries are subject to change. You also want to stay connected in case you’re contacted by other companies of interest about scheduling possible interviews. Plus, you never know when you might want to do some last minute research on the company, industry, or job.
4. Ibuprofen. The last thing you want going into an interview is a headache. Throw a few in your pocket or briefcase or purse just in case.
5. An extra pen. I was once in an interview and barely made it through before my pen ran out of ink. Luckily, they didn’t ask me to fill out an application.
6. Copies of your resume. In most cases, they will provide copies of your resume to the interview team but sometimes they don’t. It’s never a bad idea to have 3-5 extra copies stashed in your padfolio.
7. Directions and contact info. If you’re getting a rental car, make sure you Mapquest the route ahead of time. If you’re taking a taxi, make sure you have the complete address. And always be sure you contact information for someone at the company in case you get lost.
8. Breath strips. Critical for coffee drinkers. Gum and candy are okay but, chances are, just as you put a piece in your mouth, the recruiter will walk out. Breath strips are the quickest, most effective way to combat coffee breath.
9. Cell phone charger. Don’t assume that just because your phone is complete charged doesn’t mean you’re not going to need to charge the battery—even for one day trips. You’d be surprised how quickly your batter will run down when you’re checking voicemail, returning calls, etc.

The last thing you want to have to worry about when you’re interviewing is a stain on your shirt or having to ask the interview if you can borrow a pen. The next time you’re headed out of town for a job interview, pack smart. That way you can focus on the interview instead of worrying about making a frantic trip to the corner store or hotel gift shop to pay $3.00 for two Advil.

This is a post I wrote for Brazen Careerist…

Unless you’re planning on working for one company your entire life, at some point you’re going to have to tell your boss you’ve accepted a job with someone else. And even though it might have seemed like you were in an “open relationship” where you thought you were free to interview with other companies, as with any breakup, your boss and the powers that be could still feel rejected, disappointed, or even angry.

Of all the conversations you’ll have with your boss, this is probably right up there on the awkwardness scale with the ever popular “raise discussion.”

There are two schools of thought on how much you should communicate about your interest in “seeing other companies.” Some career experts suggest having an open and honest conversation with your supervisor. Others recommend waiting until you have an offer in hand to have the discussion. Depending on your particular situation and your relationship with your boss, both could be right.

If you were in a truly “open” relationship, you’d work for an awesome boss who is totally supportive of your career development and advancement. In that case, there’s a good chance they’ll ask about your short- and long-term career goals during a performance review–obviously a great time to have that discussion. By bringing it up, they’ve opened the door to talk about it.

But, most employer-employee relationships aren’t completely open. When they hire you, they could be looking for a possible long-term commitment. If that’s the case, they might feel betrayed or rejected and end up writing you off delegating most of your projects and responsibilities to someone else. And once that happens, you can say goodbye to a positive performance review or any chance of a future promotion.

“It’s not you, it’s me.”

How you handle the breakup will go a long way in determining if you can be friends. You want to keep the conversation short, but not abrupt. Let them know (in general terms) why you’ve decided to accept another position. For example, are you leaving for a position that is more in line with your long-term career interests? Are you doing it to be closer to family? You want to be general to avoid making any negative comments about the company; these might come back to hurt you later if you want to apply for a position in the future. In the world of dating, you probably wouldn’t like it much if somebody pointed out all of the reasons he or she didn’t want to go out with you. The same holds true when exiting an organization. Finally, thank them for the opportunity. Even in a bad relationship, it’s possible to learn a lot.

“But I can change.”

Okay, so the company doesn’t want to lose you. If they think you’re “a keeper,” management might want to work with you to reorganize your job content to try to get you to stay. They may offer you more money. Or, on the other hand, they could be happy to see you go. Be ready to respond to any situation.

When you break up with someone it’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict how the other person is going to react. So before you have a discussion with your boss about interviewing with other companies, make sure you look for subtle or not so subtle cues that might suggest he or she would be supportive. Best case scenario, the split is amicable and you’re able to remain friends or, in this case, colleagues.

It wasn’t until the last semester of my senior year in college when I realized it. At the time, I was a student worker for the admissions office and was attending an event for prospective students. And it was at that event when the speaker said something that rocked my world.

“Most undergrads don’t get jobs in their major.”

In retrospect, that information might have been a little more useful to me a few semesters earlier.

But I digress. As I look back, I’m pretty sure I spent too much time thinking about what I was going to major in and not enough time thinking about what I was going to do with it. When choosing a major, you pretty much have two choices–major in something you like such as history and don’t worry about job implications (definitely not what your parents want to hear if they’re helping you foot the bill) or major in something that has a clear career path right out of undergrad such as engineering, accounting, nursing, or computer science.

You can definitely get job offers with a history or philosophy major, you just probably won’t see them plastered all over campus. And that’s okay. It just means you’re probably going to have to work a little bit harder to identify opportunities of interest and to craft a story that links your major to each specific opening.

Don’t wait until a month before graduation to figure out possible career paths. Think about what attracted you to a particular major and how that interest might correlate to different careers.

Don’t limit yourself to jobs based on your major. Most companies want to hire candidates who have the intellectual horsepower to hit the ground running. So that means they’re going to be less interested in what you majored in and more interested your grades, leadership roles, and related internship experience.

A big thank you to Lindsey Pollak for writing a review of my book, Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job.

Lindsey’s blog is a one-stop shop for young professionals. In addition to proven career advice, she also writes about the latest websites, books, and events that can help you launch your career.

One of my favorite posts is about learning how to find your passion. That’s definitely something that took me a long time to define so it really hit close to home.

You’re looking for a new job. You get some networking referrals from friends and family. You reach out but a week goes by with no reply. You decide to give up on them. But by doing so you could be missing out on a warm lead. And that begs the question–should you move on to other leads or follow up? To get our answer, we have to debunk some of the assumptions about why we think people don’t respond.

No response means not interested. Probably the first thought that comes to mind for most jobseekers. But it might not be true. Just because someone doesn’t respond to you within minutes (or sometimes weeks) of receiving your email doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not interested in speaking with you. Call me a wishful thinker, but I’d like to believe at least 30% of the people you’ll come into contact with will at least be willing to speak with you for a few minutes.

But people are busy. And when they’re busy, it’s easy to put your request on the back burner until things calm down. And sometimes they just plum forget about you. And that’s not to mention recruiters in some hyper-competitive industries who often don’t respond just to see how much you really want the job.

It was something you said. Don’t get me wrong…the quality and content of your email can definitely be a deal breaker. I’ve heard of job seekers incorrectly spelling the company name four times in five sentences or referring to a Mr. as a Ms. Oops. But don’t jump to conclusions. Just because you don’t hear back from someone doesn’t automatically mean your email was the problem.

You’re being a pest. Probably the biggest concern job seekers have about following up with someone. If you email them once a day for three or four days straight, and you’d not only be a pest, but you might be technically considered a stalker. How much follow up is too much? Generally one phone call or email every seven to 10 days not to exceed three or four total attempts per contact. Notice I mentioned phone calls and emails. Some people have a preferred method of communicating—if emails don’t work, try calling.

Like most forms of what pretty much amounts to cold calling, your response rate isn’t going to be incredibly high. Don’t take it personal. There are a ton of reasons why people don’t respond: vacation, business travel, project deadlines, spam filters.

Keep track of who responds and who doesn’t. And, when you don’t hear back from someone, wait a few days and ping them again. With some pre-networking homework and a little follow up, you’ll be on your way.

A friend of mine is looking for a new job. And, like most of us, he listed his cell phone number on his resume. The good thing about listing your cell number is that it makes getting a hold of you a whole lot easier for employers. But that’s also the bad thing about listing your cell—the possibility of a company of interest catching you off guard.

And that’s just what happened to my friend.

He was pulling into a parking deck just as his phone started to ring. He glanced down and didn’t recognize the number. Instead of letting it go to voicemail he decided to take the call. On the other end was a company he had been anxiously (and I mean anxiously) waiting to hear from for the past few weeks. By not letting it go to voicemail, he didn’t have time to get his nerves in check and, as a result, ended up awkwardly fumbling his way through the call. To make matters worse, the signal strength from inside the deck was terrible and that caused him to drop the call. What a way to make a great first impression.

If you list your mobile phone number, be aware that you may receive a call when you are at a crowded restaurant or at some other inopportune time. To keep this from happening, let calls from numbers you don’t recognize or that appear on caller ID as unknown go to voice mail. That way, unlike my buddy, you can return them when you have time to gather your composure and adequately prepare.

Some students are still scrambling to find internships for the summer. Now that formalized recruiting at most of the big companies is all but over, they’re shifting their focus to small- to medium-sized companies. The only problem is, a lot of those companies haven’t hired interns before and, as a result, they seem a little skittish. To get their foot in the door, right out of the gate a lot of eager internship seekers mention they’d be willing to work for free. Fantastic! Or was it?

Most students think money is the biggest roadblock to getting their foot in the door but that’s not always the case. In my experience, the biggest obstacle is time. To bring you on as an intern, they’re going to have to come up with projects for you to work on and dedicate at least one person at the company to supervising you over the summer. And, every minute he or she spends with you is a minute they’ll be taken away from doing his or her day job. Before reaching out to companies of interest, spend some time thinking about the types of things they’re currently working on and how you might be able to assist them with a minimal amount of supervision or ramp up time. Doing so will not only give you some talking points to use when speaking with companies of interest, but you can also use that proposal to give an unstructured internship some structure. For many companies, this will also do some of the heavy lifting for them: if you present a project or two that you could work on, it may convince them the whole internship thing isn’t as hard as they thought.

Money might not be the biggest roadblock to hiring an intern, but it’s got to be a close second. Some companies, especially start ups, could be more worried about their survival than they are how much they can pay an intern. So you have to ask yourself whether it’s more important to get paid or get experience on your resume that will open doors during your full-time search. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to get paid top dollar for your summer internship but the experience is really what you’re after. Do your homework ahead of time. Calculate what it would cost for you to survive over the summer (apartment, food, transportation, etc.). If the company isn’t able to pay you the going rate, maybe they would be willing to cover your housing. Some companies also offer a “stipend.” It usually only translates to gas money (which actually could be a big deal this summer) but it’s something…

And finally, let’s not forget about space. Some companies just don’t have enough room. And, unfortunately, offering to work for free won’t help create another cubicle if they don’t have anywhere to put it. If space comes up, don’t be afraid to explore creative ways around it. For example, maybe they have someone on staff who only works a few days a week. In that case, you might be able to use his or her workspace on off days. It’s also possible to work remotely. Just make sure you build in enough structure around the internship that you don’t spend your entire summer watching The Hills. I know it might be great taking a little bit of a break and catching up on your favorite tv shows, but good luck trying to sell that to a company this fall.

Before offering to work for free, try to figure out if money is the real deal breaker or if it has more to do with time or physical space or a combination of all three. And, once you identify the roadblock, be prepared to suggest creative solutions to address whatever might be keeping them from brining you onboard this summer.

The more my personal and professional life goes up on the web, the more I find myself thinking about my virtual brand. Thanks to Facebook friend requests, LinkedIn connections and recommendations, and comments on blogs, we often become microcelebrities to people we might only have a loose connection to, if any connection at all, but who could end up hurting our brand.

One of the guys I went to high school with sent me a Facebook friend request but I didn’t accept it because his profile picture was, shall we say, totally inappropriate. I decided not to add him (sorry Todd). But what if someone in my group changes their profile picture or personal information tomorrow to something that could be offensive to people? Is that something I want to chance? If they’re a friend on Facebook or MySpace, am I giving them my implied endorsement? And if I am, how will the questionable things they do reflect on me? As it stands, I don’t spend a lot of time monitoring my virtual friends, but I do try to keep an eye on it.

I hate to admit it, but I actually had to ask a fellow blogger whether I should approve a comment on one of my recent blog posts. I’m still relatively new to blogging so maybe I’m just being a bit overly cautious. After all, the comment seemed innocent enough. Something like “I really liked your recent post.” Awwww. Did she really mean it? How can I tell? I checked out her blog and she had to be legitimate. I mean, she did have, as my friend put it, “A fancy GlamourShot” headshot. I’m smart enough to recognize and delete the blatant spam comments, but this one seemed like it could have been legitimate. After mulling it over with my blogging mentor (unofficial title of course) Eric of Boggs Blog fame, I decided to delete her comment. When linking to or approving comments from other blogs, it’s important to be selective. Click around. Get a feel for the entirety of their work. After all, you are sending people their way and they’re sending people to you.

When it comes to our online brand, more is definitely better–more friends, more recommendations, more groups, more photos, more everything. And with that, comes more exposure and risk. As you put yourself out there on the web, think about the people you associate with and recommend. After all, your online brand should be an extension of, and complement, your personal brand. That means no pictures of keg stands or hot tub parties, and no otherwise questionable content.