Have you been thinking about how you are using your time? My friend Jessica recently wrote about the topic of how she spends her job seeking time. She breaks it down pretty well – and notes that it keeps her pretty busy, eight hours a day! When is the last time you really sat down to review how you were spending your hours? I think about this all the time as a business owner. What is the best use of my time? How can I he...

Did you know you can deduct some expenses associated with a job hunt from your taxes? There are some exceptions. You cannot deduct expenses if this is your first job hunt (for example, if you have just graduated from college and have never worked before) and you cannot deduct expenses if you are planning to change careers. Since I am not a tax advisor, I thought it would be useful to direct you to the IRS’s website. Be s...

This article is inspired by my cat. She knows how to go after what she wants. Yesterday, I made the mistake of putting down a mug of milk while I continued to work. She went after it. I said, “no,” and moved the mug to the other side of the desk. She went slinking around the other side of me to try to dive into that mug. Again, I moved the cup, this time covering it with a book so she couldn’t put her nose in it. Undeterred...

If you’re involved in a long-term job search (the average is 25 weeks, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics), you may be getting to the point that you can’t imagine doing something different that will move your search forward.If you haven’t started, dive into social media and Web 2.0 applications! Yes, this can take some time if you are going to do it full force. But, you have time, so go for it! Start searching fo...

How you communicate your skills and accomplishments is key to a successful job search. OfficeTeam’s website notes: The adage “It’s not what you say, but how you say it” holds particular weight when it comes to resumes, a recent survey shows. Eighty-four percent of executives polled said it takes just one or two typographical errors in a resume to remove a candidate from consideration for a job opening; 47 percent said...

Let me tell you the tale of two job seekers.One has been out of a job for almost a year. She is really tired of looking for work, and chafes at the idea of ramping up her networking. She “doesn’t have time” to optimize her LinkedIn profile and focus on using Twitter for the job hunt. Even thought she has a great resume and terrific experience, she has a tough time getting engaged in the hunt and she has nothing good to say...

I recently watched 20/20. A very interesting show with the authors of Superfreakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. James Altucher from the Wall Street Journal writes: SuperFreakonomics,” by the economist Steven Levitt and writer Stephen Dubner, is not only a book with mind-blowing ideas, innovative research and quality investigative journalism, it’s also a story about creativity and what it takes to get the mind...

As a career coach and blogger, I am constantly seeking inspiration and looking for messages to convert into job search advice for my readers. So, when I watched a commercial for Lexus, one sound byte really resonated with me:You can’t change traffic, so change the way you drive through it!How true – there is so much that individuals do not control. The economy. The weather. The neighbors’ barking dogs. I bet someone once to...

“What’s the ROI? How do you know you are GETTING something from it? How much time do you spend?”These are questions a friend of mine asks when I talk about how much I enjoy using Twitter to connect with colleagues and job seekers. She wants quantified RESULTS. How much money did I earn from it? How many clients do I have because of Twitter? She’s busy. She needs to make every second count.I’m thinking, “Do you ask about the...