When you get into top management slots in businesses you start having to discuss some of the most random things which you would assume would be just common sense. But. I will tell you that the discussion you have with employees is absolutely nothing compared to those same discussions in the Executive meeting. All these senior executive types start talking about serious crap like “did you see what Evelyn wore to the office the other day” and getting their proverbial panties in a wad.

And then, of course, you have the head honchos who look around and sagely say “well, I worked my way through the business and it was because I wore “x” all the time and people took me seriously and that was the secret to my success.” (not that maybe there may have been something smart said or done on occasion). It is typically at this stage of the executive meeting where things start spiraling completely out of control. While no one had anything constructive to suggest when the discussion was about, say, the strategic direction of the company, everyone has an opinion on dress code. And then there are the brown-nosers who line up behind the leader and shout “yeah, we wore that too and that’s why we got promoted and clients loved us.”

It was in meetings like this I was torn between becoming a human bobble head and becoming sea sick or simply falling into a coma as all usable oxygen was sucked out of the room.

So. Below is a typical management outline of company Dress Code doublespeak, non-clear direction and my interpretation.

Q. What does “business appropriate” dress code mean?

A. We have chosen “business appropriate” dress code as the preferred way of describing our dress code standard. This acknowledges that the work you do should guide your choice of dress rather than having a formal dress code. Some individuals have incorrectly interpreted business appropriate as casual dress. (For example, wearing weekend attire to work.)

- WTF. I believe they are saying formal wear (black tie) is preferred versus formal sandal wear. If I were creative (and wanted to get fired) I could argue business appropriate means appropriate for business I work on … for example … if I work on Chiquita I am permitted to wear a fruit headdress any time I want .. Valvoline I can wear a cool mechanic shirt with my name sewn on the front … accountants are permitted to wear their formal green visor. Lastly. “Incorrectly interpreted business appropriate as casual dress.” Awesome. Basically while oddly crafted they are trying to tell you “don’t ever be casual at work.”

Q. How do I know what is appropriate dress if there are no specific guidelines?

A. We have not created an all inclusive list of appropriate attire. Instead, we rely on employees to use common sense to wear what is appropriate for the type of work that they do. While jeans, shorts, mini-skirts, clothes that expose mid-sections, sweat suits, spandex (or other tight fitting clothing), flip flops, and tennis shoes are certainly acceptable weekend casual wear, they do not convey a professional business image and would not be appropriate to wear in business situations.

If there are important business reasons for an employee to dress formally, such as attending meetings with outside clients who dress in more business formal attire, then formal business attire would be appropriate on those occasions.

- Ok. To be clear. I didn’t make this crap up. This is actual company policy. So. We trust you as long as it isn’t jeans, shorts, sweatsuits, spandex (I wonder if spandex underwear is okay?), tennis shoes, etc. once again. We won’t list appropriate attire but given this list wear a suit or something formal.

Q. Who decides whether my work dress is appropriate? How is it reinforced?

A. We expect each employee to dress in a way that reflects the company’s professional creative and trendy image, shows respect for others and is appropriate for the business they will do that day. So, as long as those principles are met, each individual will decide what appropriately meets those criteria. And, most employees have a good sense of what is and isn’t appropriate for the work they do.

In the rare situations when the principles are not adhered to or are in question, each employee’s manager is expected to address the inappropriate attire, just as they would any other type of inappropriate conduct in their departments. Since dress always involves a subjective element, managers should use common sense in handling dress standard issues and talk things out in a professional, constructive way.

- Lots of references to common sense but basically you are at the mercy of your manager. And it pays to remember that shit rolls down hill so your manager’s manager is actually the one you are watching for “attire guidance.” Oh. And while I do love a contradiction how the hell do I maintain a ‘creative & trendy image’ but I cannot wear jeans, sandals or bare my mid riff (which is unfortunate because I have a sweet beer belly button tattoo)? Does this mean I have to wear some goofy tie with Marvin the Martian on it or worse a bow tie?

Q. Will it be seen as a performance issue if I wear clothes that are too casual (something I thought was appropriate, but my manager does not)?

A. Use your best judgment on what to wear to convey a professional image. If there is an issue, your manager should deal with it quickly, honestly and openly to help clarify what business appropriate attire might look like for the work you do. This should not be seen as a long-term performance issue unless it happens repeatedly despite getting advice and counsel.

- So. After reading the answer the real answer to the question is “yes. Casual clothes will be seen as a performance issue.” As in “you will no longer be performing here if you wear those fucking jeans (or loin cloth) one more time.”

Q. Can my manager dictate that my department wears only formal business attire?
A. This will need to be discussed between the manager and his/her department. If there are important business reasons for a department to dress formally every day, such as they meet daily with outside clients who dress more business formal, then this may be appropriate.

- Yes. The manager can dictate it. But. Once again don’t worry about your manager. If he/she has their shit together they will be slyly suggesting that they believe everyone should be able to dress however they want. Don’t be fooled by listening to them. Look to the corner office. Unfortunately no matter how cool they say they want the office culture to be if they wear suits every day and wear argyle vests or knitted sweaters with cats on them on “casual Fridays” … well … that is the “common sense” attire direction.

Let me be clear on this. Work dress codes bring out the worst in senior management. It is an Office episode. Sadly so.

For more on work appropriate dress code, you can check out Cable Car Couture’s take on — Business Casual: Are jeans work appropriate?

Career Assessment

Discover your personal passion with these career assessment tools. Matching your personal interests and aptitudes with the right job is what proper career planning is all about. We all excel at things we enjoy … and enjoy things that we excel at.

Assessment.com

Assessment.com contains a career assessment tool called MAPP which stands for Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential. In a few minutes you can answer a list of questions and determine your motivations towards work. Based on your key motivators, career categories/fields are recommended that match your interests and motivations. You can get a free report or a full report for a fee (ranging from $19.95 – $129.95).

The Princeton Review Career Quiz

This is a really quick, fun quiz that takes just a minute or two and then you immediately get the results of your interest and style profile. By signing up for free, you then get a list of careers that match up with you interest and style. You can click on any of the suggested career fields and it will then give you a day-in-the-life job description, associated careers, and more. Give it a try – you might discover a new interest or validate that you’re currently in the right field. I found out that I’m a match with what I’ve been doing and with what I am currently pursuing.

Company and Industry Research

Research industries and companies and learn all that you can to help with your career planning and job search, and get you prepared for the interviews.

Hoovers Online

A quick one-stop reference for business information: industry overviews, company directories, Fortune 500 lists and more.

BusinessWeek Online – Company Research

Search over 42,000 public and 322,000 private companies worldwide. Find stock quotes, news and press releases, financial data and key competitors. Research compensation, biographies, and board relationships of key company executives.

Forbes -Lists

Lists of everything imaginable – best small companies, best big companies, fastest growing, top private, world’s biggest and more.

The Inc. 500

Quickly get information on the top 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. With a quick click on Top 100 Lists you can drill-down and get all sorts of statistics on the top 100 fastest growing private companies.

Newslink

Easily search for news articles on the web on any given company, industry or topic. The site also has state and market links to every major media outlet: magazine, newspaper, TV and radio for easy access and on news with the U.S. and beyond .

Find Articles.com – Now Super-Powered by BNET

Another great news and article search tool that allows you to search by most popular topics, publications or by key categories and industries.

Networking

Never under estimate the power of connections. In many situations it’s who you know that will ultimately get you the job. Build your social and professional networks with these selected networking sites.

Facebook

A social utility that helps you connect and share with the people in your life. Enough said!

LinkedIn

From a business networking standpoint this is the best networking site. You can connect with past co-workers, friends and associates on a professional level. You build your network of connections which then builds exponentially based on the “friends of friends” philosophy. You can interact, get introductions, make recommendations, and more. The really nice feature is that it shows you who you are connected to when searching for jobs on the major search sites.

Naymz.com

This is a new one I’ve just been invited to try. It’s a reputation network whereby you build and monitor your online reputation, review your peers, promote your good name on search engines, and communicate with reputable professionals.

Plaxo Pulse

Plaxo Pulse is a great way to stay in touch with friends, family and business associates. It enables you to discover the content your friends are creating and share your own. When you or any of your contacts makes a change to the stored information, updates such as new job, contact info, etc. appear on your “pulse” page. A really neat way to quickly see who’s going where and doing what.

Knowledge is power. Embrace that.

To help you in your life-long quest for knowledge there are a mind-blowing number of highly respected universities that are now offering free online courses, assignments, and lectures via streaming video, podcasts, and lecture notes that are available for download.

iTunes U — Amazing Brain-Power at Your Fingertips

Simply head on over to iTunes U where you will find over 600 colleges with active  iTunes U sites — including Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, and UC Berkeley that distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store. You can learn about the Galapagos Islands, how to start a business, learn Spanish, how to write fiction … the list goes on and on. To begin expanding your brainpower simply review the available courses and lectures and download your selections.

Of course you need to have the iTunes software that you can download here.

Once you’ve got the software installed, simply go to the iTunes Store and then click on the iTunes U tab to begin browsing all the life-long learning opportunities for K-12, colleges, and in the Beyond Campus section you’ll find even more brain-power goodness from museums, public libraries and more.

Also, for the ultimate in portable learning these can be viewed on iPods and on iPhones. Awesome!!

Top Colleges Offering Free Online Courses:

Here are some direct links to noteworthy colleges offering free online courses. A few require a simple email registration, but that’s it. Most don’t even require that. Below is a short list of some of the most renowned colleges and universities that offer free online courses.

• Berklee College of Music
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Gresham College
• Johns Hopkins University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• New York University
• Open University (United Kingdom)
• Stanford University
• Tufts University
• University of California at Berkeley
• University of Notre Dame
• University of Washington
• Utah State University
• Utah Valley State College
• Vanderbilt University
• Yale University

Academic Earth

Another resource for free online courses is AcademicEarth.org. They have a much smaller selection of courses, but they do focus on top schools. Just another option to explore.

Life-long learning is an important and amazing thing, and with free online courses and technology at your fingertips … there are no excuses.

Power up, stretch your skills and be amazing!

When you find yourself out of a job it’s often hard to know what to do next. You may have been at a company forever or feel that your skills are limited and are now left wondering … what do I do? For those of you who may find yourself in this situation, here are some suggestions to Kick-Start Your Job Search.

1. Identify Job Likes and Dislikes — Start by making a short list of what you like/love about your current or past job as these are things you would like to maintain in your next job. Next jot down things you would change if you could – ie. more flexible hours, ability to work from home, less stress, etc. These are also things that you will want to look for.

2. Discover Your Personal Passions — What are you passionate about? What do you like to do in your free-time? Write it down. How great would it be to do what you love everyday. Maybe a job, career, or business idea will come from this. “If you love what you do it’s not work.”

3. Go through a Self-Discovery Process — Take a free career assessment test that can be easily found online. Most provide initial insights for free and want you to pay for the full report (don’t do that). You can gain some initial insights as to your skills, interests and aptitudes and suggested careers that would better suit you.

4. Identify the Possibilities — Based on the self assessment, thought and analysis, narrow down the list of possibilities of what you would like to do and write them down. If it is a career change, do you need more schooling? Do you know someone already doing a similar job that you could talk to? Ask if you can shadow them for a day to see what a day in their work life is like. Ask them how they got started. If you don’t know someone, ask anyway. You’d be amazed at how willing people are to help someone who has a genuine interest in what they do.

5. Get Connected — Now it’s time to kick your social and professional networking resources into high gear. So often it’s who you know that will get you the job or at least an interview. Networking is about building relationships. Talk to friends, family, current and past co-workers and let them know what your looking for or what you would like to do. This gets the word out as they may know someone who is hiring or someone you could talk with. It also makes you accountable as you’ve begun to put yourself out there. Call, email, talk at the gym, in your neighborhood. Let people know that you are looking for a job as they may become your biggest advocates aiding in the process. Also join the professional networking sites such as LinkedIn. You’ll be amazed how quickly your network of contacts grows.

6. Take Care of the House-keeping Matters– Of course you need to have a great resume that is to the point and relevant to the new opportunities you are exploring. Even if it’s a totally different field, there are skills and attributes that you have that would translate into other fields. Play up these skills you possess and your past experience and accomplishments that you know would be needed in the new opportunity. For example, teachers take information and present it in interesting ways that inspire students to want to learn. Good teachers are good at imparting information and instructing others. This could translate into a corporate trainer, or working on the admissions end of a college or vocational school, meeting with students and talking to them about the available opportunities.

7. Do Something Daily — Everyday! Successful people take action. Do something everyday that is a step toward reaching your goal or finding your dream job. Just one thing. Make a new contact, search a job site, research companies, send out a resume, call a recruiter, research a company your interested in. You get my point. By being persistent, patient and accomplishing something everyday you’ll build momentum and stay motivated. I have a question that I ask myself daily … in fact there is a yellow post-it note on my desk … “What have you done today to make you feel proud?” Pride is defined in many ways. Make yourself proud.

Fear seems to be what holds back many of us from trying something new and different — fear of failing … fear of success. But, the longer you wait the harder it becomes. Kick-start your job search and get the ball rolling now. Surround yourself with positive people and positive energy and know that you can do it!

Be curious and don’t be afraid to experiment and try something new. Good luck to all of you on this journey!

Please share your tips too.

1. Show initiative – Be a can-do problem solver. Understand your companies goals and current issues that they are facing. Within your area of expertise or job scope, offer solutions for stream-lining process and work flow that can ultimately save the company money, increase sales, etc. Work smart.

2. Have a positive attitude – You don’t always have to be the ray of sunshine, but everyone would prefer working with someone who is optimistic, friendly and easy to work with versus the office grump.

3. Continue to develop your skills – Stay abreast of industry news, read and teach yourself new things that will help you in your job.

4. Network and develop your reputation – Staying connected, networking, and maintaining positive relationships with friends, co-workers, old colleagues, and other community associations is critically important. Positive relationship can go a long way to help you keep or find a job. A top professional networking site is LinkedIn.

5. Document your accomplishments – Keep a list of your achievements and successes. Find subtle ways to make others aware of these accomplishments without being obnoxious.

6. Be prepared – It never hurts to be prepared. You should always keep a current resume that highlights your skills, contributions and accomplishments. Give some thought to parallel industries that you could consider if you were suddenly faced with making a job or career change and understand how your current skills would transfer. Rewrite your resume to emphasize that.

7. Make yourself indispensable – I’ve preached this to people I’ve worked with. For example, when a new account is won you want to be the person that is assigned to work on the great new account. And, when an account is lost, you want to be the one that they can’t possibly live without.

While there is no job security in this economy, it can never hurt to be viewed as a “super-star” and top contributor at you place of work.  If you approach your workdays with that in mind and follow the above career planning job advice it will always serve you well and will certainly improve your job security.

Be brilliant at whatever you do!

Source: Living Frugal Tips

Here are the top 30 favorites — many of which are already featured on HotCareerSites.com:

General Purpose Job Search Sites

CareerBuilder.com CareerJournal.com

CareerJournal.com (The Wall Street Journal job board)

Craigslist.com

Indeed.com (searches across multiple job sites)

Job.com

Monster.com

SimplyHired.com (searches across 1,000s of job sites)

Workopolis.com (Canada)

Yahoo! HotJobs

Niche Job Sites for Key Career Fields

CareerBank.com (accounting, finance)

ComputerJobs.com

Dice (IT Jobs)

HealthEcareers Network

JobsInLogistics (logistics, supply chain, distribution and more)

Niche Job Sites by Industry

Absolutely Health Care

AllHealthcareJobs.com

Bio Space (biotech, clinical research, pharmaceutical)

Hcareers (hotels, hospitality)

HealthCareerWeb.com

Niche Job Sites by Geography

JobCircle.com (mid-Atlantic region)

Jobing.com

Niche Job Sites – Affinity

CollegeRecruiter.com (new grads)

LatPro.com (Hispanic and bilingual)

VetJobs.com (military veterans)

Niche – Employment Category

EmploymentGuide.com (hourly)

SnagAJob.com (hourly and part time)

Net-Temps (temporary and contract work)

6 FigureJobs (senior executive level)

ExecuNet (senior level executive)

The Ladders.com (senior level executive)

Good luck to you all as you embark on your job search. I hope that you find this list of best job search sites and HotCareerSites helpful as you look for your perfect job.

Life is short. Love what you do!

The interview is your time to shine and show employers that you are the ideal candidate for the job. The old saying “practice makes perfect” is very relevant to the interview process. It takes great skill and lots of practice to get prepared, answer interview questions correctly, and improve your interview skills.

To help you master the interview and get a job, I have surveyed the top business leaders that I know throughout the country, from the likes of Disney, AT&T, The Coca-Cola Company, and PepsiCo, to Presidents and CEO’s of some of the largest national ad agencies, and I asked them what their favorite interview questions are. Below you will find a compilation of thought-provoking and insightful sample interview questions from top companies that are their personal favorites.

Review them carefully and give great thought to how you would answer them. They are grouped in different categories based on what employers may be trying to determine by asking you such questions.

These are also great questions for employers to get hold of so that you and your employees are prepared to ask the right interview questions to find your next great employee.

Sample Interview Questions

Self-Awareness/Confidence:

• What are you good at, great at, and where do you need to grow and improve (biggest weakness)?

• Where would you like to see the most development in yourself?

• What is one of the best decisions you ever made?

• What are two or three characteristics a person must possess to be successful? How would you rate yourself in those areas?

• How would others describe you in terms of your job performance (including bosses, subordinates, peers, clients, suppliers)?

Self-Awareness/Emotional Self Awareness:

• What is the most important thing you contribute to any organization?

• What are three things people might say about you at your last company after you have been gone?

• If we hire you, a year from now what will people in this office say they really like about you? And what will those same people say are the things about you that drive them crazy?

• What is the single biggest regret you have had in life?

Self-Management/Emotional Self Control:

• Tell me about a time you were angry or frustrated.

• Tell me about a bad day you had at work and how you dealt with it?

• How do you deal with stress?

Social Awareness/Organizational Awareness:

• What bothers you most and least about people? How do you handle those situations?

• Tell me about a place you worked that had either good or bad morale.

• You’ve been in the office now for a while (or a few visits) – what are your initial observations or recommendations about this workplace–either positive or negative?

Self-Management/Responsibility:

• How do you set priorities in your job?

• What has been the highest pressure situation you’ve faced in recent years? How did you cope with it?

• What is your greatest failure and what did you learn from it?

Always remember that being prepared will make you much more confident during an interview. By practicing your responses to the above sample interview questions you will improve your interview skills – you will have well thought out answers, you won’t be caught off guard, and this will allow you to shine and ultimately get the job offer.

Please add other interesting sample interview questions that you ask candidates or that you have been asked in an interview. Let’s build a great useful list together.

Good luck to you all.

Recession job advice: Rather than make radical career changes during these times, it is recommended to find ways that your current skills transfer to jobs within these key sectors that are thriving.

Job Growth Areas

1. Education - The demand for skilled teachers continues to rise, especially in higher growth areas of the country such as the south. Increased enrollment and higher teacher retirement rates are driving the demand.
2. Energy - This is a growing concern as supply lessens and prices sky-rocket. Jobs related to gas, oil, nuclear power and alternative energy sources are likely to have strong growth.
3. Environmental Sector - The huge effort to combat global warming is driving demand for professionals with green skills and sustainability skills. There could be shortages in these areas that could drive demand for several years.
4. Health Care - According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 30 of the fastest growing occupations are in health care. These hot jobs include physical therapists, medical and physician assistants, home health aides, and medical records and health information techs.
5. International Business - With the growing global economy, there is demand for professionals that have knowledge of other cultures and who are willing to work in other countries.
6. Security - Crime doesn’t stop and often escalates during hard times. Demand continues for security experts, police officers, port security specialists and international security experts.

Jobs Always in Demand

• Funeral Directors – people will always die and there will always be a need for these professionals.

• Skilled Laborers -such as plumbers and electricians that are knowledgeable, reliable and dependable will always be sought after.

Job Sectors Harder Hit

• Housing Related Areas – The housing slump is hurting any sector related to housing: real estate, banking, engineering and architecture.
• State and Local Government Jobs – As home values drop and property taxes are reduced, state and local government jobs that are funded with this tax revenue will likely see slow downs.
• Restaurant and Retail - The housing slump, coupled with rising fuel costs and energy prices will likely limit discretionary spending and hurt restaurant and retail jobs.
• Manufacturing – Unfortunately, the pinch will continue in this sector.

Even during hard times there are recession proof jobs and key job growth areas that remain strong and continue to hire and expand their workforce. Best of luck to you all!

• Growing demand in healthcare – The U.S. healthcare patient count will increase exponentially with the aging baby boomers and the influx of immigrants. Additionally, it is anticipated that millions of uninsured Americans will eventually be covered by some type of national healthcare plan.

Hot Careers: Health informatics specialists – These individuals will develop systems to help nurses and doctors make evidence-based diagnoses and treatments. Patient advocates – families of patients will hire these individuals to aid them thru the healthcare system. Wellness coaches -Moving beyond personal trainers there will be a demand for wellness coaches to help you manage life, stress, etc.

• The increasingly digitized world – Everything we are doing from shopping to education and entertainment is all online. iPhones and Blackberrys keep us constantly connected.

Hot Careers: Data Miner - With all the data on the Internet, these individuals would analyze and tell businesses what to sell and how to market to the individual needs and demands of customers. Simulation Developer – Broadband connectivity is enabling simulation to be incorporated in entertainment, education and training.

• Globalization, especially Asia’s ascendancy – The dual trends of high immigration rates and offshoring are creating demand for new careers.

Hot Careers: Business Development Specialists – They will help U.S. companies develop joint venture partnerships with Chinese firms. Offshoring Managers – Once the deals are made, Offshoring manages oversee these joint ventures and the necessary jobs associated with them. Immigration Specialists - With the large number of immigrants coming to the U.S. all types of disciplines will be needed from education to marketing, to criminal justice.

• The dawn of clinical genomics – The decoding of a person’s genome (chromosomes and inheritable traits) is affordable for many, and the price for identifying a person’s risk for illnesses such as heart disease and Alzheimer’s and other predispositions is becoming affordable (falling from $1 million months ago to $1000 for partial decoding. Amazing!).

Hot Careers: Computational biologists and Behavioral Geneticists – These professions will bring this true revolution to pass.

• Environmentalism – The concern over global warming is this generation’s primary initiative and many are insisting that significant action is required. This environmental wave is creating jobs in every sector that is producing green products, government, and engineers who are developing hydrogen-powered cars, solar cells, etc. The problem is that these are high-skilled jobs at threat to being filled overseas.

HotCareers: Green-Collar Consulting - This career is offshore resistant and requires less training. An example would be learning how to conduct green-building audits.

• Terrorism – Experts concur that the U.S. will fall victim to a terrorist attack again. Jobs in antiterrorism have seen a tremendous increase and demand will grow.

Hot Careers: Demand is growing for experts in computer security and Islamic intelligence, however, Emergency Planning is a more attainable profession with more easily acquired skills.

Continue to keep abreast of trends and how they drive top job growth areas as these will provide some of the most promising career paths and jobs for the future.

“Being connected is second nature to these over-achievers,” said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. There has also been a rapid increase in the 55+ wealthy consumer whose participation in social networks increased five-fold to 49%. However, because the wealthy have much to lose, they will not tolerate behaviors exhibited by some social networks that do not allow opt-out of tracking private purchase information, make it difficult to exit, and give out personal data without permission. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they would disconnect if personal information was given out without permission.

With the rise in popularity and usage, it’s a given that networking sites can play a major role in searching for your next job and getting your foot in the door for an interview. Networking is about building and maintaining positive relationships with family, friends, co-workers, colleagues, neighbors, etc. For a preferred list of Business Networking sites, please check out the Networking page on this site. Or, for a complete list all the major social networking websites you can review Wikipedia’s top 100 most notable social networking sites.

It’s never too late to start making more friends. Happy connecting!