I just got back from a presentation where I asked audience members to raise their hands to show if they were LinkedIn... and as usual, several people simply sat that question out... and avoided eye contact with me.

As a follow-up, I then queried the group as to who had made their profiles robust and updated them recently. A large number of hands came down at that point. After the program was over, several people came up to me and said they had a profile up but it wasn’t something of which they were particularly proud, but they knew other LinkedIn users were looking at them, based on the stats.

My message?

With so much job search activity taking place on the internet these days, it is sometimes difficult to remember even the most tech-savvy companies still like to receive traditional resumes. And there are many companies who do not ever search for candidates online, even at business-oriented sites such as LinkedIn.

Companies like to receive traditional print or electronic applications and resumes they can scan into their computerized Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Using an ATS, the recruiter, hiring manager or human resources personnel can quickly search through thousands of resumes for those job applicants who have the skills, experience, education and accomplishments the company is looking for.

This reliance on ATS systems is, at the moment, much stronger than any reliance on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites. If you were a recruiter, would you rather hunt through thousands of tweets for the one person you need or use an ATS system to evaluate the resumes sent to you?

Do you have a hobby or two? What are they? How much time you spend doing them?

I know your reaction to this line of questions, “Lisa, why are you talking about hobbies. You are a career management coach. You help people find jobs and manage their careers. What does a hobby have to do with a career?”

I submit to you that it means a great deal. Our expression of ourselves in the activities we do, especially the ones we thrive at and get invigorated by tells us about ourselves. It tells us what we enjoy, our interests, sometimes our passions. It may even help us to find our next great career. Who knows by exploring an area of interest that you already enjoy what could be the possibilities to be involved in that industry.

When you are in school or just starting out, a lot of people will offer up their opinions about what you should do with your life. When you share your showbiz aspirations, everyone becomes an entertainment career expert. But there are four categories of people who you should not take advice from:

PEOPLE WHO HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN DASHING YOUR ENTERTAINMENT CAREER DREAMS

This could include your parents, your girlfriend/boyfriend, your best friend, or anyone else with a strong attachment to you. They don’t want to risk losing you by having you go off in a new direction, whether it involves imminently (or ever) relocating to another city or not. This also includes people who fear the presumed instability and potential heartbreak of an entertainment career. This is mostly an area your parents specialize in, as they don’t want to have to support you financially or pick up the pieces of your broken heart if things to not work out. (More on entertainment career stability and your parent’s concerns here.)

Launching a strategic executive job search – and hoping to make a splash?

In previous years, listing the size of budgets managed, divisions run, or revenue generated might have been enough for a recruiter to hunt you down, but no more.

In today’s economic climate, executives are being asked to deliver more and brand themselves as well-rounded leaders prepared to tackle industry challenges and obstacles to growth.

“Our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds, and, by means with which no man is familiar, these “magnets” attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts.”

- Napoleon Hill

Our thoughts are magnets that attract the thoughts we are thinking. Even if you want something desperately, if your thoughts say you will never get it. Guess what? You won’t.

Since most of my clients are applying to work in conservative, professional environments like law firms, investment banks, and corporations, I advise them to wear conservative, professional dress when going on an interview. That means a dark colored suit (either with pants or a skit), a white or otherwise light-colored dress shirt, and quiet, closed-toe shoes. Even within those constraints, there’s plenty of room for error for the unwary or inexperience job seeker.

Pay attention to the details in your wardrobe. Such attention has several benefits. For one, going through your wardrobe can help put you in the proper mindset for the interview. But attention to detail is more than just an exercise in mental preparation. Interviewers will notice (and appreciate) your attention to detail, which demonstrates you understand corporate culture and respect both the employer and the interviewer. Even more important is that in many work places, attention to detail is a job qualification. Being well dressed is a way for you to embody this job qualification.

So what are some ways where you can both avoid mistakes and shine. Where does this information come from? I spend a great deal of time talking to hiring decision-markers, including hiring directors, interviewers, personnel managers, and recruiters, especially as research for How to Get a Legal Job: A Guide for New Attorneys and Law School Students. So these tips aren’t just my opinion, they come from the most common complaints of the people who will be interviewing you.

Recently, I did a webinar on the unique benefits women have right now in the financial industry. In it, I outlined how women learn differently on-the-job and what must be present for them to be successful in a new industry or career path.

Watch the three-minute video below to understand what type of training women need to be successful today.

Are you a female looking for a career change? The financial education industry is hiring and needs confident, entrepreneurial women... like you!

Sure, job search can be an isolating, lonely and frustrating endeavor, I’ll grant you that, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be.

While the majority of your out-of-work friends are “going it alone,” spending countless hours surfing the web, posting to Monster.com, and sending out a suite of resumes to no one in particular, YOU could take an entirely different, more productive, and less lonely approach, and join a job club.

Job clubs have been around forever (forgive the vague timeline), touting far greater statistics and successes than their members have been able to achieve on their own. In his classic book on career transition, What Color is Your Parachute, Richard Nelson Bolles suggests job seekers experience an 84% success rate when job search activities are conducted in groups —15% higher than when they are conducted alone! And, those who have been associated with job clubs report, in fact, their membership is the key factor in their success.

Recently, I had an eye-opening experience during a coaching session with my Parenting Coach.

(Pascale Brady, are you reading this?)

My goal in hiring her was very measurable and explainable: Show me how to get my son to take responsibility in the morning, get dressed on his own, make his own breakfast, and get to the bus on time.