career

Although your résumé is definitely important, the cover letter can also be a make-or-break factor. Before you even get an interview, your application will have to impress the recruiter or hiring manager, so perfecting your cover letter is key to earning a face-to-face meet. Here are some tips for the perfect cover letter that will catch any recruiter's eye:

• Tweak your tone for every company. Don't send generic cover letters that can be used for any job application. You want to make sure that the tone of your letter fits the type of firm you're applying to. Is the company looking for someone with sass or someone more serious? Figure that out on your own, and tailor your letter to what suits the company.
• Make a case. You won't be able to get to this on your résumé, so be sure to make the case for why you're the right person for the job on your cover letter and why you want to work for them. A good way to sell yourself is to connect your experiences with the job description. List your skills and experiences that match the type of candidate they are looking to hire.
• Be different. Don't repeat everything on your résumé in your cover letter. The letter is your chance to shine and show a bit of your personality. Repeating what's already been said just takes up valuable space.

Read on for more.

We've all been there — an amazing idea pops into your head and, without even realizing it, you've interrupted whomever is speaking to share your thought. Talking over others stops the flow of conversation and is also disrespectful to the person speaking. This faux pas is forgivable from time to time, but when it becomes a persistent characteristic, interrupting may cost you your job . . . and even a few friends. Along with learning how to be patient, retraining your brain to change how it responds to instant ideas can curb your interrupting ways. Here are a few tips to take into consideration:

• Write it down: When listening, if a great thought comes to mind, discretely write it down in a notebook while keeping up with the conversation, especially when meeting with senior managers or important clients. Wait for a break in conversation before asserting your opinion or new ideas.
• Ask a question: Instead of busting someone's talking flow, wait until the end of a thought and share your view phrased as a question. Yes, you're still cutting in, but asking a question creates an opportunity to offer new ideas and thoughts while sticking with the direction of the discussion.
• Get help: Enlist an office buddy or good friend to tip you off when you interrupt. Come up with a special hand signal or give your helper the OK to deliver a swift kick under the table to curb your interrupting ways.

Keep reading for more helpful tips.

So, you got laid off. It happens, and it doesn't have to be the end of the world. Sure, it might feel good to lie on the couch for a week and do nothing, but you eventually have to get things into gear! Our friends at LearnVest are here to share all the dos and don'ts of the unemployment world:

Most of us wouldn't think to associate the words "joblessness" and "fun," but unemployment coach Katie DeVito says she wouldn't have it any other way: "The best thing that ever happened to me was getting laid off."

After the loss of her communications position at a nonprofit, DeVito dispatched a tweet to find out how many fellow New Jerseyans were also out of work. With that tweet, she found her calling: the overwhelming response inspired her to found NJ Unemployed, a support group for job-seekers in the Garden State to facilitate the exchange of stories and advice for moving forward professionally after the loss of a job.

Now the site has over 1,000 members, and DeVito says being part of the community helped her not only find a new job, but also put her fate in perspective. That's one way not to let a pink slip get you down.

We also spoke to experts to find out several key unemployment dos and don'ts when you want to get back on the career track. Heed these tips, and you, like DeVito, could wind up even happier than you were before.

Read on for more

It's important to accept the right friend requests, because the strength of your LinkedIn network depends on who your connections are. You want to make sure you're comfortable with your connection having access to your network. Adding and accepting a LinkedIn request is a gesture of trust, and it should be made with careful consideration.

Now that you're more careful about who you add, the next step is to clean up your friends list. You may not have been too picky in the beginning while you were building up your account, but it's time to weed out the connections that you don't want or need. Here's how to go about deleting your contacts:

1. Log in to your account, and hover over "Contacts" on the top bar of your profile. A dropdown menu will appear, and you should click on "Connections."

2. You'll be taken to your address book. Click on the hyperlink "Remove Connections" which you can find in the top right-hand corner of the page.

3. You should be in the "Remove Connections" page. You'll see the address book on the left side, and you'll have to click through each alphabet letter (connections are grouped by last names) to see which connections you'd like to delete. When cleaning up your list, check to see if your contacts meet these qualifications. If they don't, consider deleting them. Check the boxes next to the names you want to delete, then click on the blue "Remove Connections" button to remove them.

Peppering your conversations with "like" can seem like the norm or even cool in high school, but when it comes to the working world, it can discredit your professionalism. You might as well throw in a "whatever" or "as if!" while you're at it. It disrupts the flow of your conversation, and also makes you sound unsure of what you are saying.

However, this doesn't mean that you can't use the word at all. The word "like" is properly used in some instances:

• You're comparing the similarity between two items: This shirt is like the one I have.
• You favor something: I like him
• You're giving an example: A sport like football.

Here are some things you can do to curb the use of the filler:

• Record yourself: Try to record yourself talking on the phone with a friend and watch how often you say the word. This will make you more aware of how much you say "like." You may start automatically noticing your usage when you're talking.
• Make a conscious effort: Make an effort to stop saying "like" in all your conversations. The more you practice, the more second nature it'll become to you.
• Join Toastmasters: Join your local Toastmasters to improve your public speaking skills, which most definitely will include the banning of the use of the word "like."
• Slow down: You may be interjecting the word "like" in your conversation as fillers because you need more time to process your thoughts before you speak. Start slowing down your speech and take pauses when you need them. People often worry about pauses making the conversation uncomfortable, but it actually shows that you're thinking before you speak, which is always a positive trait.

Who doesn't need more money? We've given you many ideas to earn extra income, but sometimes there are intangible factors you may or may not have control over that affect your salary. Thankfully, we have scientists hard at work in their labs trying to figure out the answers for us. Here are various results of research studies of the things that impact income:

• Height: An Australian study found that 6-foot men earned $1,000 more than guys who were two inches shorter. "Taller people are perceived to be more intelligent and powerful," says the study.
• Regular exercise: People who work out regularly, according to a study in the Journal of Labor Research, earn nine percent more than their couch potato peers. Perhaps your monthly gym membership is literally paying off.
• Popularity in high school: Being well-liked in high school isn't something we can change right now, but if you were one of the cool kids, you're in luck. A National Bureau of Economic Research study says people who were among the top fifth most popular students in high school, earn a 10 percent premium on salary four decades later compared with the bottom fifth.
• When you marry: College-educated women who marry past their 30s make more income, while men who marry earlier see more financial benefits, according to a study by the National Marriage Project. One reason could be: women who marry earlier tend to have kids earlier as well, which forces them to take a break from their career during a period when they'll see a lot of growth. As for men, perhaps those who marry earlier tend to be more secure and confident than their single friends, leading to higher productivity.

Read on for more.

We're happy to present this post from our partners at Yahoo! Shine:

What's in a name? Lots and lots of "Benjamins," ($100 dollar bills, that is). Unless your name happens to be Benjamin, in which case, some research suggests, you had better stick with Ben.

The Ladders, an online job-matching site, recently crunched the numbers in its database of over 6 million career professionals to determine the top names for corporate executives as well as the names of the highest earners. They found that people with first names longer than five letters lose out on about $3,600 in salary every year—and that's per letter. So, for little Alexander that means potentially missing out on more than $500,000 over the course of a 40-year career.

Want insight on how names affect other aspects of life? Read on.

These days, it's hard to just stick with one company. Whether it's the job market or just the way things work now, many people are finding themselves working for multiple companies in the span of just a few years. Read the stories of some of today's job hoppers from our partner site LearnVest:

These days, job hopping is practically a way of life. Gone is the idea of spending four decades at one company, ultimately retiring with a gold watch and a pension plan.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median number of years workers stay at a given job is only 4.6, which allows them to rack up as many as 10 gigs in a lifetime.

The problem: Many employers still see job hopping as a deal breaker. Nearly 40% of recruiters and hiring managers say that a history of hopping is the single biggest obstacle for job-seekers, according to a recent survey conducted by recruiting software company Bullhorn.

We found four serial job hoppers who were willing to dish about their adventures in the labor market. Then we asked a crack squad of career experts for advice on how these hoppers can find a gig that will make them want to stick around.

Read on to get the details.