Here are a few links you may find to be useful tools to complement your career decision making. These are online tools but remember the best method to actually finding a job combines accessing your personal network and using online tools.

To access your personal network simply go to your family, friends, and acquaintances with a question such as this, “Who do you know at The Widget Company?” or “Who do you know in sales and marketing?” or “Who do you know who might be looking for part-time administrative help?” Customize the question to the type of position you are looking for and be sure to follow up with any leads they give after first asking, “Is it okay if I mention your name?” If they say no, you can still follow up with the new lead by reporting that you have heard their name dropped often in your personal networking so you wanted to say hello.

For online job search here are some handy sites you might want to bookmark for when you need them.

Chimby.com – career advice search engine

Fab Job – ebooks with specific insider information on a careers

Best Careers Report for 2008

FlexJobs.com – a job search site for telecommuting jobs

JobRapido.com – a great way to search many job search sites at once; send email alerts to yourself for your fav searches

InterviewUp.com – a good site to check when you are doing interview preparation

PayScale.com – very good site for salary research

Depending on what industry you are going into, entry-level jobs can mean different things for different companies.  Some entry-level jobs may consist of purely secretarial work.  After a certain amount of months, you may be offered a promotion if you have proven yourself to be a worthy employee capable of handling more complex tasks.  Receptionist work is not as easy as it sounds in many cases, which is why so few firms are hiring inexperienced receptionists, regardless if they have a degree or not.  Typically, in larger companies, the receptionist gets bombarded with phone calls, emails, faxes, and other office duties to ensure the office gets kept in running order.  Your ability to multitask and keep everything running smoothly will undoubtedly impress your boss which can lead to a promotion within the company.  If you get a job working with a company in which you have no experience in the field (such as engineering or law), it is unlikely that you will get promoted unless you receive an additional degree.

There are many other entry-level positions that require more work and can lead to even greater promotions.  Many small positions within advertising or marketing have internships and jobs that operate on the same level as most interns.  Most people start out on the bottom of the food chain in these companies and work their way up through their loyalty to the company as well as their dedication to work.  In the grand scheme of things, it is worth it to take a menial job within a great company so that you will one day move up enough to have years of experience within the same industry behind you.  Most high-level executives did not immediately gain their position after college, but had to work hard in order to climb up the corporate ladder.

This post was contributed by Sarah Russel, who writes about the best online schools. She welcomes your feedback at SarahRussel1234 at gmail.com

You ever fumble around with that “so what do you do for a living” question? Most of us have at one time or another, and not only when looking for a job or interviewing but just with meeting new people or networking in general. Well, there is a simple, free, tool online that you may want to check out. Take a look at the Pitch Wizard at 15SecondPitch.com. Push the green play button when you are on the site to be prompted with questions to help you generate your elevator pitch. You may need to edit it slightly or you may wish to generate several different pitches customized for different audiences.

In fact, let’s make it an Elevator Pitch Fest! My colleague, Susan Ireland, is collecting elevator pitches generated in the comments at her blog — The Job Lounge. You’ll find my elevator pitch at the top of the list. Please consider this a personal invitation for you to join in too. The goal is to reach 100 elevator pitches and, frankly, I think we can blow that one out of the park! Thanks much.