job search

Once you've snagged a job interview, the inevitable nerves that follow can make it difficult to focus on preparation. With a little bit of planning, though, you can bring your best business-ready self to the table. Follow these tips leading up to your big moment.

Several hours earlier:

1. It's important to have a healthy, substantial breakfast, of course, but it's just as important to eat well the night before so that you feel your best in the morning. Choose nutritious foods that fill and satisfy, and remember to limit caffeine to one or two servings. Chances are you'll already be feeling jittery, so put a cap on your coffee consumption.

2. Check the hourly forecast and grab any extra items that you may need: an umbrella, a raincoat, gloves, or suitable footwear, for instance.

3. Shoes are important: make sure your pair is both weather-appropriate and easy to walk in, because the last thing you want to do is trip your way through the office. The night before your interview, wear the selected shoes with socks for a couple hours to guarantee that they're broken in and comfortable.

Continue reading for more essential tips.

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.

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.

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.

Being picky on LinkedIn doesn't make you a snob, it's just smart. After all, if you add everyone and their moms to your account, you're diluting the strength and integrity of your connections and network. How can you be a trusted connection if you had no idea your connection Jane Smith is a scam artist? It can be hard navigating the ins and outs of the professional social media network, so you should have a few ground rules for accepting LinkedIn requests.

You should only let a connection add you if she meets one or more of these requirements:

• You've worked or communicated with the person more than a handful of times, and you like her professional attitude and track record.
• You don't mind the connection tapping into your network.
• The person is someone you would feel comfortable reaching out to for networking purposes.
• She is someone you know in real life.
• You want to help her out.
• She is someone you respect and admire.
• Someone you trust has referred her to you.

Don't feel bad if you decline someone's request; it's something that happens often, and you're only hurting yourself if you weaken your network. Adding and accepting a LinkedIn request is a gesture of trust, and it should be made with careful consideration.

We all know how lying to your potential employer can create problems, but there are also a couple of résumé missteps you need to be aware of. Here are some red flags to avoid on your CV:

• Spelling mistakes and other typos: If a recruiter spots typos on your résumé, she will assume that you don't pay attention to detail and you can possibly be careless, which isn't a very attractive trait for a job candidate. Keep reviewing your résumé for errors and ask at least three people to review it and give you feedback.
• The wrong file name: Your recruiter will pay attention to this simple detail so include your name when you're naming the file. This helps hiring managers better sort through the mountain of résumés. Just imagine trying to find a file named résumé among dozens of similarly named files.
• Tacky email: Make sure you're using an email address that's professional. If you don't have one that's appropriate, create one. Also if you're still at your current job, don't list your work email.
• Résumé gaps: Gaps in employment are obviously noticeable, but don't fret too much about it because it's almost the norm in this economy. List what you've been doing on your time off if the activities are relevant to the position. Here are more ideas on how to fill the résumé gaps.
• Irrelevant information: Having unnecessary information that's not related to the job is a waste of time for your hiring manager. Don't overshare — pick the right succinct sentences to showcase the skills that will be valuable in the position.
• Being vague: It's always good to be specific and quantify your achievements so your story will be more convincing and believable. "Increased quarter one revenue by nine percent year over year" sounds a lot better than "increased revenue for the company." A résumé is always more compelling if you can back your achievements up with quantitative data.
• Job hopping: Going through too many jobs in a short period can be a red flag for an employer. You may want to consider taking off jobs that you've only been at for a month or two if it doesn't pertain to the position or if you already have a pretty full résumé. If you're going to include the short-term positions, be very clear about the big contributions you have made toward the company, so the recruiter will see that you have added value to all your previous jobs even if they were of varying lengths.