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Technology Etiquette For Job Seekers

By: Mark Jewell

If there's any small solace when starting a job search in this recession, it's the proliferation of digital technology to help you re-enter the working world. Web sites like LinkedIn.com have multiplied the number of job openings you can track and the professional contacts you can make. E-mail and smart phones make it easier to pitch yourself and set up appointments.

But think twice before picking up that BlackBerry and thumb-typing a message to the hiring manager whose e-mail address you so slyly uncovered online. In the end, landing the right job hinges on old-world skills. "The electronic piece usually just gets your foot in the door," said Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, a tech industry recruiting division of Menlo Park, Calif.-based staffing consultant Robert Half International.

By: Raymond Arroyo

New research by the University of British Columbia confirms the link between happiness and generosity. The study shows that individuals who give to friends regularly or make charitable contributions are more fulfilled than those who don't. This is something that different faiths around the world have known for a long time. Money can indeed buy happiness, but only if you don't keep it all for yourself.

Whether you are giving of your time to mentor a person, taking the time to buy a cup of coffee for a colleague, or writing a check for your favorite non-profit organization, you're creating a sense of fulfillment that is hard to replicate. Your thoughtful gesture is likely to be appreciated by those around you. This practice is similar to building a personal network - the more you give, the happier you will be.

By: Barbara Rose

Quick: Tell me who you are and what you do in less than a minute. What experiences do you bring to your work and how do you do your job better or differently than anybody else? In short, why should I hire or promote you, invest in you, buy from you or listen to your advice?

This drill produces an "elevator pitch," a message short enough to be delivered in the time it takes to ride from the ground floor to the executive suite. And we aren't talking Sears Tower here.

By: Liz Ryan

Job-hunters take a lot of flack on their networking prowess, usually for one of these reasons:

1. They don't network until they need a job.

2. When they network, they immediately ask for job-search help.

3. They request introductions from people they're meeting for the first time.

If you're in the thick of a job search and you haven't spent much time or attention on your network so far, the first of these problems may be unavoidable. But you can easily avoid the other two common job-seeking-networker problems by following a few simple job-search networking rules:

By: Tony Lee

Trying to find a job by calling people you don't know and asking them for help probably sounds dreadful, like a cross between telemarketing and door-to-door sales. After all, nobody likes rejection, and this job-search strategy is sure to provoke a rash of apologies and unreturned phone calls.