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By Rob Kelly – A globally recognized CEO and Business Advisor.

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all.” – Michelangelo
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail.” — Dr. Robert Schuller
“If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would astound ourselves.” –  Thomas A. Edison
“You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.” — Oprah Winfrey
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls” — Joseph Campbell
“A business has to be involving. It has to be fun. And it has to exercise your creative instinct.” — Richard Branson
“If you have a talent, use it in every way possible. Don’t hoard it. Don’t dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke.” — Brendan Francis
“We spend our time searching for security, and hate it when we get it.” – John Steinbeck
“I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it.” — Lou Holtz
“Desire! That’s the one secret of every man’s career. Not education. Not being born with hidden talents. Desire.” — Bobby Unser
“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.” – Arnold Toynbee
“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.” – Buddha
“You’re happiest while you’re making the greatest contribution.” – Robert F. Kennedy
“To love what you do and feel that it matters–how could anything be more fun?” – Katharine Graham
“Most of the early part of an actor’s career, you do the  jobs you get.” — Jack Nicholson
“Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.” — Cadet Maxim
“One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” – Albert Schweitzer
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” — Mark Twain
“Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one’s levels of aspirations and expectation.” — Jack Nicklaus
“If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting.”  – Katherine Hepburn
“Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself; you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you’ll have more success than you could possibly have imagined.” — Roger Caras

By Nancy Mann Jackson

Compared to LinkedIn and Twitter, Facebook may be the most “social” of the social networks, since most people are connected there to actual friends rather than business acquaintances or people with shared professional interests. But Facebook can still be a valuable tool in your job search if you use it correctly.

“Networking and personal branding are perhaps the two most important skills a job seeker needs these days and Facebook is an excellent way to hone both,” says Hillary O’Keefe, a job search strategy expert and online marketing manager at Onward Search. Here are some ways to do that:

• Create a robust profile. “Setting up a public, professionally grounded, yet suitably personal, Facebook profile will tell potential employers a lot about you,” O’Keefe says. “What company or industry organization pages do you ‘Like’? Does the passion you have for your career continue beyond your 9 to 5 [job]? How well versed are you in social media in general? Answering these questions with a well designed Facebook profile will undoubtedly raise the value of your personal brand in the eyes of a hiring manager.”
• Keep that profile professional. “Use as your primary photo a high quality high resolution image which represents you as you need to be seen for the job you desire,” says Roy Cohen, a career counselor, executive coach and author of The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide. “If you’re looking for a job as a pole dancer, then a bikini clad image is fine. For the rest of us, keep it professional. Facebook is, first and foremost, a visual platform and that’s how your audience forms its impression. Certainly, additional photos should be available but even these should never have an embarrassing afterlife, circulating for eternity on the internet.”
• Network with professional interests in mind. “Using Facebook is just an extension of face to face networking,” says Brian Basilico, an author, speaker and president of B2b Interactive Marketing Inc. “You can and should let people know that you are looking for a job and what kind. Ask if anyone knows of a job and ask them to keep their eyes open for you.”
• Extend in-person relationships. “Thank people you meet face to face by interacting with them on Facebook,” Basilico says, “and build a stronger relationship so they will keep you in mind if any opportunities arise.”
• Target your job search. “‘Like’ the companies you are interested in and engage in conversations on their page,” says Tisha Freer with Evviva Brands, who helps companies find employees on Facebook. “Specifically follow the careers Facebook pages for your target companies. Those pages are typically moderated and managed by the companies’ Talent Acquisition departments.  Use the Facebook login at SimplyHired.com to determine if any of your friends work or have worked at your target companies. And look for Facebook alumni groups or employee groups for your target companies. Let those groups know what type of position you are looking for by posting on the wall and asking for leads or introductions.”
• Enlist the help of your “friends.” While you don’t want to seem desperate — or self-absorbed — by posting about nothing but your job search, you do want to keep your network informed and involved. “Post progress on your job search with some regularity so that your community will remember that you are, in fact, in job search and not just dabbling,” Cohen says. “Make Facebook a journal for your job search activities, a forum to share information and insights that you’ve gained that may be helpful or interesting to members of your Facebook family, and as a platform to shout out requests for ideas as to how to enhance your job search and move it forward.”

By Vickie Elmer

“The waiting is the hardest part.” – Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, “The Waiting”
That stretch between the first interview and the second one can be a killer.

So too is the waiting if the hiring manager is so busy to finish interviews or reach a decision.

The hiring cycle is stretching longer as employers are more selective. Jobs that used to take two months to fill may take four times as long, as managers wait for better candidates, according to a WSJ.com article last month.

So after the interview, you wait and wonder. Or you work on ways to land to a second interview, or even create a consulting project for yourself, said Pennell Locey, a senior consultant with career management firm Keystone Associates.

Candidates who are smart also are creative in staying connected to decision-makers and others, she said. Check in too often and you’re seen as a pest. But if you lay low you could be forgotten in the crush of other candidates and daily tasks.  She recommends a follow up every seven to 10 days, and not burn your chances by following up every two or three.

“Time runs exponentially longer for the job seeker than the hiring manager,” said Locey, who used to manage a university career department and retraining programs for displaced workers in Massachusetts.  ”It’s such a fine line between attentive and needy.”

Here are a half dozen ways Locey recommends to be attentive and stay connected until you get called for the second interview:

• Send thank you notes aplenty. You know you must send one to the hiring manager. But you’ll really be a standout if you thank the administrative assistant, especially if she helped you with travel arrangements or other details. Then maybe you met with a few other people in your department. Send them a gratitude note too. Locey said such appreciation really demonstrates your people skills and can go a long way toward advancing your candidacy. It’s important though to be gracious, and not sound like a suck-up.
• Give a thoughtful expansion on the interview. If there’s a subject that got short shrift or a question that you didn’t answer well, come back around and address it better. Send this follow up within a week or so of the interview, otherwise it looks contrived, Locey said.
• Check in with your internal recommender. Whether this is your ex-wife or a former colleague, they may be able to give you some inside information on the hiring plans. They also may be able to help you understand any delays in filling the job.
• Offer some information. Send the hiring manager some blog post, conference information, white paper or other valuable information. “Make it useful or light,” she said. You want something that connects you two. If you don’t have a great link to share, you could comment on corporate news or changes.  If there’s a new senior vice president, see how that may affect the department where you want to work. The message: “I’m staying informed. I’m watching.”
• Seek to give new details about yourself. When you think all the interviewing is almost done, you could write the hiring manager again, and note that time and conversations may have reshaped the job’s details or the company’s expectations. Then ask: “Is there anything we didn’t cover that would be useful?”  This is an opening for another conversation.
• Offer to take on a pressing problem or piece of work. During the interview you’ve found out that the company has a tight timetable for its new project. Yet the job you want was just reposted with some different qualifications. So you write to the hiring manager and offer to help with an urgent need. Be clear you know you’re coming in for a short-term quick-fix and you understand the organization is continuing its search to fill the opening. Focus in on one piece where you know you could be helpful and that you know needs addressing.

One way to identify those needs: During the interview ask about the most important things you would need to accomplish in the first 30, 60 and 90 days after being hired. Or try “What are some quick wins you want me to produce for you?” Locey suggests. Use those needs to propose a project and the project could lead to more projects or possibly the job you interviewed for so long ago.