That’s what they say you need to do.  Keep “up.” 

Of course it’s a whole lot easier said than done.  You’d be forgiven for having days when you just don’t feel like keeping “up.”  So, number one, give yourself a break and let yourself feel down for a while.

And then, number two, look for ways to get  back up.  Because it’s the only way there is to go on.  Not simple, not so fun, but the only way.

For some tips on exactly how, check out today’s U.S. News post, 20 Ways to Stay Motivated During Your Job Search. 

Nothing original here, it’s all tried and true stuff.  But give it a quick look.  There might be something there for you.

A poet wrote “What is this life if, full of care,/We have no time to stand and stare?”

Sigh.  Isn’t that what we all need, some time to stand, and stare, and think?  Some time to just…be? 

It can feel impossible in our modern lives, which seem to be very very full of stuff (to do, to read, to watch, to clean, to write, to update, to eat, to tweet).  In fact, you may have noticed that–at least here in the U.S.–being busy has become a point of honor.  Being busy means somebody wants us.  Being busy means we’re important.   

Busy-ness equals love?  Has it come to this?

Meanwhile, we are all slowly being driven mad by a nationwide shortage of sleep, recreation, and simple contemplation.  Aided and abetted by electronic devices of all kinds.  Like the one you are reading, to be sure.

Anyway, one way to have more time is to use what we’ve got more efficiently and that’s the idea behind “30 Smart Time Management Tips & Tricks,” last week’s post over at U.S. News & World Report.  (Hey, WG did not have time to update this blog sooner!) 

It must have struck a chord because it was picked up today over at Yahoo.  If you have time on your hands, take a look at some of the comments.  Otherwise, just glance at the 30 tips (maybe one of them will inspire you).  And go back to plowing through your to-do list.

Which is what Working Girl should be doing right now.

So many people looking for jobs these days, which makes articles on how to get hired the obvious choice for many career writers. 

Working Girl being no exception.  Hence, this week’s U.S. News & World Report post entitled “The Truth Behind Those Crazy Interview Questions.” 

It was inspired by a recent commenter who said she was asked, in an interview, which character on “Friends” she most resembled.  The first problem was she had never seen ”Friends.” 

The second problem is that instead of simply explaining that and seeking to understand the motivation behind the question (maybe there was another way to give the employer the info he was after??), she asked, “What does this have to do with the position?” 

Guess what?  She didn’t get a job offer. 

So check out the crazy interview question post so you know what to do if this happens to you.

Last week’s U.S. News post returned to that perenially favorite job hunter topic: resumes.  Working Girl would just like to say, for at least the millionth time, that while your resume indeed needs to be as perfect and wonderful as possible, a resume all by itself will not get you a job and it doesn’t pay to spend more time than is necessary working on it/fretting about it.  A resume is really just a sort of large business card.  Please try not to obsess, people.

But there are ways to enhance the effectiveness of your resume, and a really good one is to customize it to the specific job you’re seeking.  Yes, this means you will need to tweak your resume every time you apply for a job.  That’s what word processor software is for. 

More specific info can be found over at “The Worst Mistake You Can Make on Your Resume.”

In other news, it seemed to be International Week here at Working Girl Headquarters.  The ”7 Ways to Gain Power at Work“ article from a while back (it was picked up by Yahoo) led to an interview with Adevarul, a major Romanian newspaper.  Here it is:  “Cum Câstigi Puterea la Serviciu.” 

You don’t read Romanian?  Here’s a mildly amusing translation courtesy of Google:  “How to Win Power at Work.”  It only freaks out Working Girl a little bit that the translation occasionally refers to her as “he.”

The same power post also made its way all the way down to Colombia, to the nice people who produce “The Originals” (or, for all you hispanophones out there, “Los Originales”),  the most popular radio program in South America.  Woo hoo!

WG did a live interview with them on Tuesday (no link, you’ll just have to take her word for it).  The interviewer asked a question in English and WG answered in English.  Then she waited while the interviewer translated said answer into Spanish, chatted for a bit with her colleague, naturally in Spanish, then asked WG another question in English. 

Four years of high school Spanish and WG could only make out an occasional “exactament” and “algo” and “poder.”   That was the only sad part of a fascinating experience. 

P.S. “Poder” means “power” in Spanish.   ”Algo” is a handy little word that means “something,” “anything,” or “somewhat.”  “Exactamente” means, well, you know.

Working Girl is hooked on the ongoing drama of the 33 miners in Chile.  What an amazing story.  Here are 33 guys in grave danger, trapped half a mile underground, not knowing when (or if) they will get out–yet by all reports they are holding it together emotionally and physically.  You could not find a better example of “workplace cooperation” anywhere on the planet. 

A big reason for this, in WG’s opinion, is that they have extraordinary leaders.  The oldest, 62-year-old Mario Gómez, has emerged as a powerful force for good.  With two others, Luis Urzúa and Yonnie Barrios, these largely uneducated men have created a sense of order amid chaos.  They’ve built a chapel and an exercise area.  One leader, Barrios, has taken over as the group’s medical advisor (by virtue of a 6-month nursing course he took 15 years ago).  They pay attention to everything.  For example, their food comes down a narrow borehole portion by portion, but the leaders make sure everyone waits to eat until they can all eat together.  Little stuff, but it makes a difference.  

With that example in front of us, our own problems at work can look remarkably more manageable.  Still, workplace relationships can be a serious challenge.  What other group of people are we “forced” to spend long amounts of time with, whether we get along with them or not?  It can be a living hell even if we’re not trapped underground with them.  But consider the little stuff, the influence it has on our daily lives, and check out these 39 ways we annoy our coworkers (note:  it’s a list of what NOT to do).

The 33 miners have been very unlucky but they are lucky in one thing: They have great leaders. 

Maybe you don’t have a great leader in your workplace.  They seem to be rare nowadays.  This is not only bad for the work, it can result in feelings of helplessness and powerlessness every day you are on the job.  But take heart.  You, no matter what your role or title, do have access to power.  Check out these 7 ways to gain power at work.  Some of them might apply to you.

Meanwhile, send up a prayer or good thought, or both, for “los 33″ in Chile.

Hard to believe that here we are on the last day of August.  Suitably, it’s in the sixties here in Seattle, and raining.  Brr.

What’s been going on?  Well, in late June WG was part of this nice Houston Chronicle piece on “Job Success Could Depend on Managing Your Manager.”  It’s true, you absolutely need to know how to manage your boss.

In July this humble site was named one of OnlineDegrees.org‘s “Top 100 Career Advice Blogs.”  

More recently, U.S. News & World Report produced a pretty cool slide show amalgamating many of WG’s past posts, entitling it “21 Secrets to Getting the Job.”  21!  That’s a lot.  Maybe one of them would work for you. 

And then just last week Working Girl did a radio interview with Ed Wenck at WIBC in Indianapolis, all about “How Do You Survive the Worst Day at Work?”  (You have to go down to Ed’s section and scroll to August 25th.)

Finally, of course, WG has still been pumping out the weekly posts for U.S. News: 

1. Looking for a job?  Think a job club might help out?  Here are some tips for telling if your group is a good one. 
2. If work is stressing you out more and more, check out these “50 Tips for Surviving Your Worst Work Days (it led to the radio interview).” 
3. And this one for job hunters again: You know how interviewers always ask you if you have any questions?  You need to have some.  Here are 10 good ideas.

Not bad for summertime.  See you in September!

 Okay, a bit behindish on posting links to U.S. News & World Report articles.

This week:  A short treatise on the wonders of listening.  Yes, listening.  It’s a very handy skill to have in the workplace (everywhere, really), and we could all probably stand to do a better job at it.  Hop here for some useful tips.

And, because it went unmentioned on this blog, last week was all about vacations.  Namely, how to take a real one.  You know, the kind where you don’t work.  With a goodly amount of preparation, it can be done.  How?  Go here.

You can hire a career coach but they can be pricey.  And, truly, most of they time they don’t tell you anything you didn’t already know yourself or couldn’t find out by cracking open a good book.

To get started, here’s a useful post from Online Degrees: 101 Tips for Becoming Your Own Career Coach. 

Each item is a link to a full article about that topic.  Lots of info here.

Long time no see.  Working Girl doesn’t want to do one of those lame sorry-I-haven’t-posted-in-so-long posts, so she won’t.

Instead, here’s a link to a fairly useful piece on good jobs for college students.  Nothing new here, really, but it’s a good list.

Don’t need to work while studying?  Good for you!  However, many college students do need to supplement their income and here are the most common ways they do so.

Sidenote:  Of the 20 jobs listed, WG has done 11.  Sounds about right.

What would you say to your boss if you could say anything at all?

A few ideas in today’s U.S. News post.  Add some of your own!

A long but worthwhile post from Career Alley.  Lots of good stuff here. 

Today’s post covers a variety of topics to help you in your job search.

Before getting started, though, a word of hope. We know you keep hearing about all the jobs lost and the high unemployment rate. What you don’t hear about is that businesses of all kinds are still hiring.

Even in the slowest of times, some are growing, while others need to replace employees lost for a host of reasons, including discharge, resignation, retirement, promotion, and even death. When you hear there are six employees for every position? Tell yourself one-in-six aren’t bad odds.

Awkward Interview Question: “So, What Have You Been Doing Since You Graduated?”

You’re at yet another interview. It’s early October. Summer is but a fond memory (and school an even fonder and more distant one). You’ve gone through the usual questions without any problems and think you have a pretty good chance at landing this job.

And then the trouble starts:“I see you graduated in May, what have you been doing with yourself?”

“What have I been doing?” you think. “I’ve been looking for job,” you say.

“Looking for a job since May? Don’t you think you could have been putting your time to use?” the interviewer asks.

You think, “What are my options, what should I have been doing with my time besides looking for a job all the time?”

The Volunteering Option Can End Up Helping Your Job Search

The interviewer continues to dig it in: “Have you thought about volunteering?”

“Volunteering? Doesn’t seem to be much of a career in that,” you say defensively.

Wrong answer!

After months have passed, many potential employers are going to wonder what you’ve been doing in your spare time since you graduated from school last May. “Looking for a job” sounds like a logical answer, but you know what? It’s not going to fly five months after you graduated.

Volunteering allows you to gain some valuable experience, while giving back to the community. But it also tells potential employers that you are ambitious and not just sitting on your hands. Yes, you should still be looking for a job almost every waking hour, but you also need to get yourself out there. After all, who knows whom you will meet?

Volunteering for College Grads

Here’s where you can find some great information on volunteer opportunities to make productive use of your unemployed time:

Volunteer work for college grads benefits from Serve America Act — A short article from the National Student News Service about some of the benefits (some of them financial) of volunteering. Take a look. (Pssst — Serve America is not 100% unpaid volunteering: an education award of around $5,000 given to those who complete their service can be used to pay off student loans, or be put toward further degrees).

Volunteering Up Among College Grads— Another short article, this one from Jobmonkey.com, supports the premise that volunteering is becoming more popular for college grads. Also take a look at Jobmonkey’s Volunteering Abroad link.

Volunteer Match — This site provides resources for finding volunteer jobs.

The center top of the page has the main search engine where you can search by location and keywords. At the top of the site are a few tabs for volunteers, non-profits, and more.

Career Fairs

The old standby of career fairs may not be your best bet in these times of high unemployment, but are always worth considering. Here’s some helpful information for making the best use of them:

The Ten Keys to Success at Job and Career Fairs–- This article, by QuintCareers.com, provides excellent advice on preparing for career fairs. It will help both college students preparing for college career fairs, as well as experienced hires preparing for professional career fairs.

CareerFairs.com –- This site allows job seekers, universities, and employers to coordinate the job fair process, and makes it more efficient for all, via a searchable database. You can search for upcoming job fairs and employers can pre-screen students.

Mosaic Career Fairs–- The website for this series of career fairs, organized by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), says the purpose is “to connect talented minority students with leading advertising/marketing and communications companies that are seeking to hire entry-level candidates.” The site provides the dates of upcoming fairs as well as registration forms. There is also a link to the AAF Job Bank. This is but one example of many specifically targeted career fairs.

Job Fair Directory & Employment Resources – This directory, provided by www.carouselexpo.com, allows you to search for job fairs by State. Click a State, and scroll down to see when there will be a career fair near you.

Job Search Sites

If I had a nickle for every job search site or job board . . . So hard to choose, but here are a few less well known ones to consider:

CampusCareerCenter.com–- “Jobs, Guidance, Networking . . . Options” is the tag line for this site. It leads with who’s hiring, with several employers listed on the main page. There are a wealth of resource links on the first page as well, on topics including internships, cover letters, preparing for your interview, and more. There are also tools and resources down the left-hand side of the page, including research companies and job search. Click the “Post Resume” tab at the top to register, post your resume, and get started. Looks like you must register to use the job search.

CollegeJobBoard.com— The main page of this site lists featured employers, with job categories on the right hand side of the page. There are related article links as well as a resource center (which is a little light on content). The job seeker home link is restricted to registered users only.

Center for Career Opportunities-– This is a Purdue University site and is designed to provide additional sources of information and job leads. The right-hand side of the page lists a number of databases to help in your job search. This is primarily a list of resources, so you will need to explore from here for it to help in your search.

Groovejob.com–- This is a pretty neat site. It focuses on teen, student, and summer jobs. The site lists featured employers in the main section of the screen. There are a number of resources as well -– on resumes, career assessment, interview tips, student resources, and more. Most of the jobs appear to be part time, but I did not register on the site to see the full functionality.

Good luck in your search!

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.