The Laid Off and Looking series in the Wall Street Journal, which I’ve referenced in the past, always has interesting columns filled with current first hand experience, like yesterday’s article from Rachel Levy, a laid off marketing director, on her recent interview faux pas.

Levy writes:

“A few months ago, I was asked a question by a potential employer that I couldn’t answer. The question was: What do you think of what we are doing in social media? I couldn’t answer it not because I didn’t know what he meant, but rather, that I hadn’t actually looked it up. Although social media is the area of marketing I am most interested in, I was still stuck in my old ways of researching a company by looking at their website.”

As every job seeker knows, or should know, having properly researched the company before sitting in front of its CEO is pretty key to portraying your knowledge and enthusiasm for the position. But like Levy, I suspect many a job seeker wouldn’t expect the social media question mainly because it’s new. Job hunters need to adjust to new forms of technologies  and be prepared. Levy offers her new strategy on doing just that.

“Here’s what I’ve started doing. I search for the company’s fan page on Facebook. I look what they have posted, and what their fans are posting about them. I do the same for YouTube. I find their corporate account on Twitter, and again, see what they are tweeting about. I also search on an application called Twellow, to find employees of the company, and see what they are writing about. I find their company profile on LinkedIn, and look up the profiles of some of the people I might be working with or key executives, and definitely the people I will be interviewing with. I try to find at least one item about a person that I have in common with them, so I can bring it up in the interview somehow.

Additionally, I do quick searches for the company and key people on Hoovers and Zoominfo. Other good websites include: Vault, Glassdoor, Lexis Nexis, Bloomberg and Yahoo Finance. Of course, there’s the good old search engine where I can type in the company’s name, or coupled with keywords such as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Through looking at these sites, I also try to understand who the company’s major competitors are.

Of course, I still look at the company’s website, and at a minimum, read the About Us section, the press section, and overall what the company has been doing. If they have a blog, I read the first few posts.”

Levy offers great tips here and says she feels she has a much better understanding of the companies she interviews for now. Follow her lead and keep yourself prepared. You wouldn’t want to look behind the times!

Read the article.

It seems that contrarian waves of thought are more and more the norm in these changing times. In the past week, we’ve posted two instances of uber successful professionals saying not only is it OK to fail but that, in fact, it’s more than OK, it’s good…and let’s celebrate it. We all know we learn from failure, but celebrating it? Especially in the workplace, that’s definitely a new way of thinking.

Today’s WSJ featured a review of a new book that introduces yet another off kilter business idea: ditching team work.

“I Hate People”–which I admittedly have not read yet, but now intend to-- is all about “obnoxious, sycophantic, incompetent, bullying, meddling, obstructionist, deceitful, self-serving and all-around dreadful fellow workers who can transform a cubicle into a squared circle of hell” and how, really, we should only be concerned with getting ourselves ahead. Forget the team!

“The only person at work who has your best interests at heart, after all, is sitting in your chair. Most of your colleagues are indifferent to your fate.”

The authors of the book, Jonathan Littman and Marc Hershon, “propose to educate the office-bound in how to “kick loose from the overbearing and underhanded jerks at work and get what you want out of your job.” Along the way, they address two realities seldom talked about by career- advice gurus: On any given day, some of your so-called colleagues are consciously or unconsciously trying to sabotage your career; and being good at what you do is only part of getting ahead.”

Their solution to the problem? Abandon the team spirit…

“Teamwork, the authors say, suffocates creativity and has its own limitations. They describe a classic experiment done nearly a century ago by French agricultural engineer Maximilien Ringelmann. He measured people pulling on a rope connected to a strain gauge, first as individuals and then as members of tug-of-war teams. The result: A person pulls harder alone than as part of a group. Ringelmann dubbed the phenomenon “social loafing.” Today it is known simply as the Ringelmann Effect, and what it means in the real world, say Messrs. Littman and Hershon, is that “the more people you throw at a problem, the less each contributes.”

The review’s author, Doug Colligan,  writes that the book  advises instead to become a “soloist” and names six principles including “Separation of the pack is not rejection of the pack”; “Achievement won’t always make me popular”; and “Creativity doesn’t fit on a spreadsheet.”

“Solocrafting is of course reducible to “four easy steps”: Stop Talking, Start Doing, Stop Asking — “If you ask for a dedicated team (or resources), you’re not getting it done” — and Make Them Believe…Messrs. Littman and Hershon, in other words, are champions of the entrepreneurial spirit even in day-to-day office life.”

Not only does “I Hate People,” sound like a light, funny, and unfortunately universally relative  book, but the core idea behind it is pretty interesting. How often do we see resumes with “team player” listed as a skill? Why now are people realizing that abandoning that notion might push them ahead?  My thought is the comfort of more stable times led us to complacency and at times mediocrity. Now we see that success means standing out in the crowd and putting an end to social loafing. Interesting stuff. What do you think?

Read the full review.

Dear Bev: “OMG I can’t wear flip-flops 2 work?” How do I keep my Gen Y employees buttoned up?

By Beverly Weinstein

It’s not the beach, it’s not a club, and it’s certainly not a car wash. It’s an office. These are the words that more than one senior-level executive used in recounting the challenge of keeping Gen Y employees in appropriate attire during the summer months.

Times have certainly changed since Sigourney Weaver gave “Working Girl” Melanie Griffith a little talk about her office appearance. We’re talking bigger problems than “rethinking the jewelry.”

As East Coast temperatures steadily climb, senior managers say it’s their texting, tweeting and flip-flop-wearing employees — many of whom are starting their first corporate jobs — who unbutton a few too many buttons and raise those hemlines. So how do those in leadership positions deal with the issue of how much is too much?

“The Conversation”

Broaching the subject with young guys is easier; most of the men I asked steered clear when it came to talking to young women on the issue of “inappropriate” female attire. The one exception I found called his wife for advice before he delivered the news to an under-clad employee at his company’s annual off-site.

The most common default to handle this somewhat sensitive subject is to turn to a younger, but still more senior, female in the department. Conversations are straightforward and generally include what’s expected in terms of office attire and the potential negative impression of an office fashion faux pas.

HR departments have also been enlisted to either have “the talk” or offer advice on an appropriate approach.

Keep Them Cool

There were some unique techniques to avoiding the issue of overexposure. “We keep the AC cranked all summer. Trust me, everyone around here is wrapped in layers of clothing,” one senior female executive told me with a wry laugh. “And yes, every summer, the guys come to me and plead to have the temperatures turned down a few notches. Never happens!” Problem eliminated, although not the greenest solution.

More Guidelines For New Grads

An informal call to some Gen Y employees revealed that they are being better informed on how to navigate dress codes by college career centers. (Rutgers, for example, provides dress-for-success advice to its graduates). Some corporations also offer advice on employee Web sites.

A Different Kind of “Working Girl”

Generally, once an employee is off the clock, what they decide to wear is strictly up to them. Are there exceptions? Not usually, but I did find one particularly amusing instance where that wasn’t the case. It seems a young female account executive worked nights as a pole dancer. When clients became customers and someone delivered a video to her boss, out-of-the-office attire was no longer out of bounds. “I had to give her an ultimatum; you’re either a pole dancer or an account executive.” She chose her night job. “It was probably a bad long-term decision. I think AE’s have a longer career span,” he concluded with a shrug.

Watch more Working Girl videos on AOL Video

Read the Media Post version here.

“Once upon a time, it was very, very gloomy.  The skies thundered, the economy crumbled, and people only spoke to grumble. Everything looked bleak, bleak, bleak.

Until one day, shortly after a market crash and right before another round of layoffs, a girl named Miss B. came up with a terrifically bright idea.  As she later explained to her friend and business partner, Miss K., their mission would be to scour the world for the best in fashion, design, and décor.  Then, one by one and everyday, they would give it all away to some very lucky people.

This is how The Bright Side Project began on a wintry, gray day in February.”

I stumbled upon The Bright Side Project through Daily Candy this morning and not only found it to offer some really neat give-aways but also to be a lovely anti-Recession-attitude idea. When there doesn’t seem to be a bright side, why not create one? Its creators, two corporate gals, really get the meaning of taking life’s lemons and making some cool, crisp lemonade.

Their mission: “The Bright Side Project is here to bring you sunshine every day with themed, daily giveaways. We hope to inspire you to stop for a second and remember life is (still) beautiful and there is goodness in the world.”

Check out the site and answer questions to win some cool stuff!

By Beverly Weinstein

It’s not the beach, it’s not a club, and it’s certainly not a car wash. It’s an office. These are the words that more than one senior-level executive used in recounting the challenge of keeping Gen Y employees in appropriate attire during the summer months.

Times have certainly changed since Sigourney Weaver gave “Working Girl” Melanie Griffith a little talk about her office appearance. We’re talking bigger problems than “rethinking the jewelry.”

As East Coast temperatures steadily climb, senior managers say it’s their texting, tweeting and flip-flop-wearing employees — many of whom are starting their first corporate jobs — who unbutton a few too many buttons and raise those hemlines. So how do those in leadership positions deal with the issue of how much is too much?

“The Conversation”

Broaching the subject with young guys is easier; most of the men I asked steered clear when it came to talking to young women on the issue of “inappropriate” female attire. The one exception I found called his wife for advice before he delivered the news to an under-clad employee at his company’s annual off-site.

The most common default to handle this somewhat sensitive subject is to turn to a younger, but still more senior, female in the department. Conversations are straightforward and generally include what’s expected in terms of office attire and the potential negative impression of an office fashion faux pas.

HR departments have also been enlisted to either have “the talk” or offer advice on an appropriate approach.

Keep Them Cool

There were some unique techniques to avoiding the issue of overexposure. “We keep the AC cranked all summer. Trust me, everyone around here is wrapped in layers of clothing,” one senior female executive told me with a wry laugh. “And yes, every summer, the guys come to me and plead to have the temperatures turned down a few notches. Never happens!” Problem eliminated, although not the greenest solution.

More Guidelines For New Grads

An informal call to some Gen Y employees revealed that they are being better informed on how to navigate dress codes by college career centers. (Rutgers, for example, provides dress-for-success advice to its graduates). Some corporations also offer advice on employee Web sites.

A Different Kind of “Working Girl”

Generally, once an employee is off the clock, what they decide to wear is strictly up to them. Are there exceptions? Not usually, but I did find one particularly amusing instance where that wasn’t the case. It seems a young female account executive worked nights as a pole dancer. When clients became customers and someone delivered a video to her boss, out-of-the-office attire was no longer out of bounds. “I had to give her an ultimatum; you’re either a pole dancer or an account executive.” She chose her night job. “It was probably a bad long-term decision. I think AE’s have a longer career span,” he concluded with a shrug.

Watch more Working Girl videos on AOL Video

Read the column on Media Post.

Since the recession began, many companies have turned to furloughs to cut costs while avoiding lay offs. These unpaid days off were originally welcomed by many employees who would rather take the cut than be unemployed. But as the months have ticked by, many workers have been cashing their smaller pay checks without seeing that reduction in hours.

Yesterday’s New York Times uncovered this issue of less pay for the same work or, really, no pay for the same work, seeing as how these employees are missing out on entire days worth of pay but are still clocking in the hours.

“Some people take the time off but feel bad about doing so, out of loyalty to bosses and colleagues left to carry the workload. Others work quietly — and sometimes openly — through furloughs, because they fear for the long-term safety of their positions and hope their self-sacrifice impresses the management.

And some say the message from the management is unclear, leaving employees wondering: Is this real time off?”

“I think it’s a joke,” said Roland Becht, who works at the California Department of Motor Vehicles in San Diego. (More than 200,000 state employees are supposed to have two furlough days each month.) “I’ve tried to schedule furlough time and was denied because we’re short-staffed.”

“American workers are finding themselves at a new frontier, and the rules are being written on the fly. Some companies have strict policies forbidding work during furloughs, or close down for days at a time. Others simply tell workers, however unrealistically, to squeeze in furlough time when they can.”

A very interesting topic that I feel gets overlooked. With clubs, websites, support groups, and resources galore for the laid off, what happens to those that are working harder than ever but not getting paid? After all, they’re not volunteers.

“It’s not doing what it was designed to do. We were imagining three-day weekends,” a DMV worker in California told the Times. “There was some optimism. It was a trade-off for sure, but people were O.K. The mood now, I would say, is down. People are working in fear because they don’t know what’s going to happen next.”

Read the article.

Last week I posted about famed graphic designer Paula Scher and her firm belief that her failures have led to her greatest successes. Continuing on that same thought, I have this weekend’s Corner Office column from the New York Times featuring Will Wright, the creator of the Sims and other popular computer games. Wright spoke with the Times about his management techniques and how celebrating his own and his team’s failures have led to greater breakthroughs. In managing he says, seeing how his employees deal with their failures helps him to see their strengths.

“When I’m managing creative people, the way they relate to failure is very important. Because there are certain types of failure that you really want to celebrate. I personally learned a lot more from my failures than from my successes. And if you look at it that way, then all my failures, you know, in some sense brought me to my larger successes, because I recognized why I failed, and I learned from it. And so, at that point, you can even argue that it’s not a failure. It’s part of your learning process.

And so, even with interns, it’s kind of interesting to see how they relate to failure. Does it motivate them, do they go a different direction, do they give up or do they learn from it and get some insight and add it as part of their tool chest? In some sense it is an award that they’ve earned.

One of the questions I will usually ask somebody when I am interviewing them is, what was your biggest failure? And what did you learn from it and what would you have done differently? Within a team setting, a lot of times we’ll go down paths and we’ll prototype things. And at some point we’ll realize it was a bad branch and we have to back up and go take a different branch. Those forays — as a team, we can celebrate those.”

Read the full interview.

Just kidding, you’re not a dummy if you need a little extra help tackling social networks. The number of resources alone for social media help proves that you’re not alone. Let’s face it, sometimes this stuff is tricky and time consuming and busy people need quick tutorials.

Check out the video below from Howcast that Twitter has posted in its help section to cut down the number of stumped users. Its got the basics all laid out for you in an easy how-to-video format.

A little more advanced than that?

Amp up your Twitter enterprise by controlling when your tweets are sent, setting up automatic direct messages from followers (or avoid receiving them yourself), get your @replies in an email digest, track who clicks your links,  unfollow those who unfollow you automatically, and more. Visit TweetLater.com for all of these amenities! It’s a great resource if you want to use Twitter to its full potential but don’t quite have the time.

Happy tweeting!

“Here I was four hours into being unemployed and I already had a phone interview,” he recalls. “I was like, Wow, this is going to be impressive.”

“Welcome to the new rules of the job hunt. Gone are the days of simply posting your résumé on CareerBuilder, e-mailing former colleagues and trolling company websites for open slots. These days, if you’re serious about being hired, you really put your computer and PDA to work. That means getting word out on social sites like Facebook and MySpace, sending instant job-search updates via messaging feeds like Twitter, and meeting new people who might be able to lend a hand through Web-networking outfits like LinkedIn and Ryze.”

So says a recent article in Time that details the job hunt of Brian Ward, a software architect. Brian lost his job on a Friday and found a new one in only eleven days.

Eleven days!

And who does Brian have to thank for his speedy success? The old world wide web. And of course, his own perseverance and quick reaction time.

“As the sole breadwinner for his wife and three kids, Ward knew that he had to get a new job quickly. He found himself unemployed at 5 in the afternoon; by 8 that night, he’d called four people he knew in Ohio who did the same sort of computer work he did, as well as his college buddy Lyell, down in North Carolina. “I’d been using Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn, but in a very passive, extracurricular way,” says Ward. “I knew Lyell was big into the Twitter scene. He immediately began blasting information out to contacts he had, sending them back my way.” Over the weekend, Ward updated all of his online profiles. He uploaded a fresh résumé to LinkedIn, the professionals’ networking site, and sent out a message to all 200 of his Facebook friends, letting them know he was looking for work.

One of them, a pal from high school, wrote back Sunday night. He now worked for a tech company in Louisiana, and asked if Ward would be interested in being put in touch with the Web-development group. Ward eagerly agreed and had a phone interview the next day. “Here I was four hours into being unemployed and I already had a phone interview,” he recalls. “I was like, Wow, this is going to be impressive.”

Ward didn’t end up with that job and although he did find one soon after, he says it wasn’t easy. Getting laid off still stung and rejection upon rejection wasn’t the best feeling either. But to fight those blues, Ward says the social networks he was tapping into helped him form a support system. Some didn’t turn up any job leads, but he came across a lot of other people in his shoes to commiserate with.

Ward only slept a few hours every night and woke up at 4 or 5 a.m. and tweeted. He joined groups in LinkedIn, many that didn’t even have to do with his industry and soon he had a myriad of different types of people sending out his resume or putting in a good word. In the end, the job came through an old Facebook friend, and get this, it was one he hadn’t imagined would provide any leads. It’s the perfect example of why Facebook can be a valid business tool. Reconnecting with old acquaintances, colleagues, and friends made all the difference for him and it can for you, too.

Ward was also upfront when he got the interview with his soon-to-be employer: “He said he needed to find a new job quickly and was interviewing at other companies, too. The next day, he had an offer. “It’s still all about connections,” says Ward. “What’s changed is how you do it.”

Read the full article here.

What happens when you combine the tough job market and the explosive growth of social media and viral videos? You get entrepreneurial young adults, like the creators of Shirts Taste Good, who aim to capitalize on their internet savvy and the massive popularity of internet hits (like the adorable panda sneeze- Haven’t seen it? look below.) Check out their hilarious t-shirts with designs that you’re bound to recognize.

Shirts Taste Good was founded by a small group of friends with backgrounds in graphics design, web development, apparel design and screen printing (one of whom created dearbev.com!)  Their designs pay tribute to their favorite videos and they screen print them all themselves. Funny, creative, and definitely a sign of the times.