Our time is scarce and so what I recommend to clients is to try out whatever sites look interesting, and then see what works for them, and forget about the rest. In this case, less is definitely more.

There are hundreds of social networking sites out there. Here’s a summary of 50 of them, which are used by both businesses and individuals. Hopefully this will help you focus in on what will work best for you!

The first recommendation is to be selective. You don’t have to accept every invitation. That’s the mistake I made last year by going to 5 parties within a span of a couple weeks. So be selective – for example, make an effort to attend those “optional” work parties. I say “optional” because although they technically are optional, the unfortunate reality is that if you don’t at least make an appearance, it could have negative consequences for you and for your job.

Another tip would be to commit to a certain amount of time you’ll be there, for example one hour (or however long feels good for you.) At the end of the hour, hopefully you’ll be having a good time and will want to stay longer. Also, if you’re like many introverts, you’re a great listener. So capitalize on that strength and be an active listener. But at the same time, remember that what you have to say is interesting so don’t be afraid to share something of yourself with your fellow party-goers. Another good strategy is to ask questions. Personally I don’t like the spotlight on me, so I tend to ask questions of others partly to deflect the spotlight, which also frees me up to listen more and hopefully learn more about  others.

Introverts are not by definition anti-social or socially awkward. We just approach parties in a different way than our extroverted friends. When we experience sensory overload, we tend to seek out one or two people for quiet conversation vs. making small talk with many different people. We may not be the life of the party, but being introverted doesn’t mean we still can’t have fun and be sociable!

In between coaching sessions, I recommend  that job seeking clients ask a close friend or family member to be their “support buddy”  - someone they can trust to check in with them every day (or every other day) to give an extra shot of encouragement. A little can go a long way. And if they can find someone who has been through a job transition or has been laid off in the past, even better (in terms of being able to relate.) I also think it’s important that a job seeker’s support network not only care about what he or she is going through and can appreciate the challenge of it, but also be able to express that to them.

Is there a job seeker in your life that you can lend a little moral support to?

Unfortunately, this whole evening had failure written all over it. There was some semblance of organization with the color-coded name tags designed to make it easier to identify your target connection, but as far as I was concerned, I was happy to have any conversations. Indeed, we each managed to have a couple of conversations and exchange business cards with our fellow networkers, but I was more than happy to call it a night after that. We both literally walked out of there breathing a sigh of relief.

I guess some people like that sort of environment and make a lot of connections. Not me. I guess it’s the introvert in me that finds that sort of thing exhausting. But on the bright side, it was a learning opportunity and now I know to try to find out more information about the venue before attending the next networking event. What about you? What type of venue and/or atmosphere do you do your best networking? Find out what works best for you and place your emphasis there. That’s not to say you shouldn’t reach beyond your comfort zone sometimes, but with networking you want to make the best use of your valuable time.

I think this is a good analogy for life. Now even though some view Charlie Brown as a loser, I see him differently. Although he’s insecure and self-doubting, I prefer to see his other side: he’s someone who just keeps on going, filled with determination in the face of obstacles and adversity. So whether it’s literally or figuratively, it’s fitting that I do his dance, at the gym or facing some bigger obstacle in my professional or personal life…until I can get back on track.  If something throws you for a loop, just keep moving through it, stay positive and keep your cool. Think about the last obstacle in your life that you had to overcome. How did you react to it? Did you shut down or did you keep moving?

Here’s a sample of the Charlie Brown dance, just in case you’re not familiar with it!

Check out this interesting article from fastcompany.com called, “What Happened to Downtime: The Extinction of Deep Thinking and Sacred Space.”

Dating back to childhood, I’ve always been interested in geography. I used to (and still do) get wrapped up in looking at road maps and atlases, not for any specific reason or school assignment, but just for the fun of it. I would do things like design make-believe subway systems on paper, and draw plans of make-believe cities, plotting out where everything should be located. OK, I’ll be the first to admit that I was a bit of a geography geek…but proud of it!

When I started college, I took several Geography courses and for the most part enjoyed them very much. When it came time to select a major, however, I opted for Economics. I concluded that it was smarter to major in something more practical that would help me land a job more easily after graduation, without having to get a more advanced degree. (At the time, I didn’t imagine myself going on to grad school.) I found Economics generally interesting and got good grades in my courses. Did it help me land a job after graduation? I believe it did. Was it my passion? Not really. Looking back, I would have double-majored in Geography and Economics.

In any event, my career has taken numerous twists and turns along the way and I’ve gained experience in a variety of fields and industries. And again, being a career coach is very fulfilling and makes good use of a lot of my strengths. It’s interesting, though, that recently and seemingly out of the blue, feelings of “what-if” have been creeping into my head. What if I had stayed true to my career passions and pursued Geography as a major, and something Geography-related as a career? Who knows? The odds are I would be loving it, but there are no guarantees, and I could very well be looking for a new career now.

The point here, though, is that career passions never die. But many times, for one reason or another, they get tucked away and forgotten about for a period of time, sometimes even years.

But as experience has shown, they reappear when we least expect them and will continue to tap us on the shoulder until we pay attention to them. What if we’re in mid or even late career? Is it too late? No. That’s the good news. It’s never too late to somehow incorporate our innate career passions into our lives, whether that means going back to school for formal training and making a career shift, auditing a course at a local university, or merely reading books on the subject. The key thing is that we’re nurturing ourselves by doing what we love, in some capacity. I plan to start by catching up on geography topics through books and online resources.

Hopefully you’re already living your true career passions on a daily basis, or at least part of the time, to one degree or another. If however you’re not, or even worse, you find yourself in one of those unfulfilling, mind-numbing, soul-killing careers, then it’s time to consider taking steps to change that. Otherwise, that tap on the shoulder will most likely keep tapping. And in my work now as a career coach, I feel that going through this experience will help me be even more tuned in to those who are in search of their true calling.

I got on the subway, like every other morning, to make my way downtown to my office, which was located a block away from The World Trade Center. I came up from the subway right around 8:50 a.m. to see people running through the streets and covering their heads. I had no idea at this point what was happening, but as I looked straight up and saw a gaping hole in the North Tower, I knew at least that this would be like no other day. I soon found myself caught up in the wave of people and started to run and cover my head as well to protect myself from falling debris. I made it to my building, out of breath and confused. I saw my voicemail light flashing and listened to a message from my sister, asking if I was alright. I then ran into a couple of my co-workers who told me what had just happened. A few minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., we heard a terrible thud and felt the building shake as if an earthquake had just struck. We were evacuated soon after that, quickly making our way down from the 9th floor. In reality it took only a couple minutes to get to the ground floor, but felt like an eternity.

After about 20 minutes of watching and waiting out on the street, I suddenly felt that it was no longer safe to be even standing there, so walked up a few blocks and got on the last subway train back to my apartment, before the entire transit system shut down. I stayed glued to my TV the rest of the day and night, and as I awoke the next morning, my first thought was that this was all a bad dream, but was quickly snapped back into reality the moment I turned the TV back on. I spent the next few days in the city, which was a surreal experience in itself. Once the trains were running again, I was glad to escape for a few days at my parents house in New Jersey.

The company I was working for at the time had found temporary office space for us until we were allowed back into our building six weeks later. We were all given face masks and were advised to stay inside the building to avoid breathing the questionable air.

My company had lost a lot of business because of 9-11 and as a result I was downsized at the end of the year. This was a blessing in disguise. Coincidentally, I had just started my coaching certification program down in DC  that September, and knew that it was time anyway to explore another career. The line of work I was in was certainly my comfort zone, but it wasn’t doing anything else for me. So as we approach the 10th anniversary of 9-11, we’re reminded, of course, of the senseless loss of life, but also how fragile life is, and how important it is to love what we do and make the most out of every day. And if we’re not loving our jobs or careers, we need to do something about it…like finding something that we can be passionate about and make us happy. Do what you love. So I’ll leave you with one question. For those of you who are settling…is it worth it?

So the trick is to just let it go when you find yourself the object of scorn in the workplace. If you work (and live) in integrity and do your very best all the time, that’s all anyone…co-workers, your boss, even clients…can really expect.

—Prioritization: —Complete the most important, highest value, most time-sensitive tasks first.

—Managing Interruptions: —Do what you can to minimize them, but make sure you don’t scare people away from interrupting you with issues that need immediate attention.