Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about spotting bad (or good) advice, what to do if you get laid off, approaching people you admire without acting like an idiot, making contacts from scratch, and searching for people instead of for jobs.

From the Brazen Careerist: How to identify someone who is giving you bad advice

“I was in Menlo Park last week for the roundtable organized by Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh. They posed questions to the group of entrepreneurial types: What makes good advice? What makes bad advice? The answers were interesting, and each shed more light on why I gave Rob such bad advice. Here are some ideas that came from the group.”

Wally’s Comment: There are two things to know about this post. The first is that it’s really about identifying good advice. The second is that there’s a lot of personal fluff at the beginning of the post. If you like it fine, but if you’re hunting for the meat of the post, scroll down.

From Brittany Hite at the Wall Street Journal: Turning That Layoff into Career Catalyst

“Job counselors say an early layoff need not be career damaging. They encourage recent graduates not to take layoffs personally, to deal with the issue honestly and to quickly begin looking for another job.”

Wally’s Comment: This is aimed at recent grads who got laid off almost as soon as their orientation was over, but there’s good advice for anyone who suddenly has to seek a new job.

From Pam Slim at Escape from Cubicle Nation: How to avoid being “fan boy” or “fan girl” when building relationships with people you admire

“Whomever you note on your “cool smart I wanna be like them when I grow up” list, you can and should look for ways to build relationships with them. But, as creatures still stinging from the social dynamics of junior high, we can fall into “fan boy or fan girl traps” which not only make us feel insecure, but turn off the very people we are trying to impress. So here are my tips, learned from the school of hard knocks.”

Wally’s Comment: This is a great post because it fills an important gap in the suggestions you get telling you to search for a mentor or ask for advice. Read it, clip it and save it so you have it when you need it.

From Karen Burns, Working Girl: Creating Contacts 101

“Yeah, it does seem impossible to get to know people when you’re in a new and strange place. But guess what? No one was born with contacts. Everyone who has contacts has had to create them for themselves. And you can, too.”

Wally’s Comment: Good, practical advice.

From John Schwabel at Personal Branding: Perform a People Search Instead of a Job Search

“The process of getting hired is search, submission, contact, interview (could be multiple rounds), offer and acceptance. By searching for jobs, you will be going through this process and it might stop at the last interview, without an offer. When this happens, all you receive in return is practice for the next cycle. We don’t receive proper feedback during the corporate interview process, therefore we aren’t more prepared for next time (but mentally we think we are). It’s time to invest less in searching for jobs.”

Wally’s Comment: This is a provocative post, indeed. Read it and think about how try this out in your own world.

Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune carried an article by Ann Meyer titled: “Mentors ease path to profits.” She tells the story of two men. One is George Burciaga.

Today, he is the CEO of SmarTECHS, a Chicago-based IT firm that provides full-service, innovative technology solutions for national and local clients in both the private and public sectors. He’s been featured on the Hispanic Entrepreneur blog. He was named Illinois Small Business Person of the Year. It wasn’t always easy.

He grew up in Pilsen, right outside of Chicago. The UIC Neighborhoods Initiative web site tells us that “In addition to poverty and related social problems, Pilsen residents must cope with high levels of violence.”

Burciaga saw entrepreneurship as a way to help himself and his family. He had a strong work ethic that came from his family and culture. What he didn’t have was know-how.

That’s where the second man I referred to came in. His name is Richard Wallace, president of Beverage Consultants International in Chicago.

Burciaga says of Wallace: “He gave me a lot of business structure that I never had. He made it clear he believed in me. I couldn’t let him down.”

For his part, Wallace downplays his role. He says, “I gave him the opportunity, but once he got the confidence, there was no stopping him.”

That’s like many mentoring relationships that I’ve seen. The mentor is proud of the protégé but also gives full credit.

George Burciaga was lucky to find a mentor when he needed one. You may have to search for one, but don’t despair. You can look around where you live and work or you can visit Momentor where the purpose is to help you find mentors and other resources that will help you become successful.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week.

I’m pointing you to items about what the interviewer thinks when you say you can start right away, the value of those tests that tell you what careers are right for you, grad school, and what to do if you get fired, especially if you’re over fifty.

From Kris Dunn at Fistful of Talent: How You Quit Your Job - Things That Make Me Go Hmmm…

“I love the dance that begins once someone has accepted your offer and you’re now talking about a start date in the new role. Especially if they’re employed. Here’s the usual intervals and what they mean to me. I’m sure you’ve got some adjustments to these definitions”

Wally’s Comment: Kris Dunn is a top HR pro who’s writing for other HR pros. But you can learn a lot by looking over his impressions of what you really mean when you tell a new employer how soon you can start work.

From the Wall Street Journal: Grad Tidings: Can a Test Steer You to the Ideal Career?

“Noting that my 19-year-old daughter seemed frustrated about career choices after changing college majors a few times, I did what any good helicopter parent would do: I bought her a career-testing and counseling session.”

Wally’s Comment: We’re a nation in love with testing. We expect career tests to give us a magic answer that will end all doubt. That’s unrealistic. But testing protocols that help you sort out career options can help you understand yourself and the job market. This article is a good overview.

From the Brazen Careerist: Seven reasons why graduate school is outdated

“It used to be that the smart kids went to graduate school. But today, the workplace is different, and it might be that only the desperate kids go to graduate school. Today there are new rules, and new standards for success. And for most people, graduate school is the path to nowhere. Here are seven reasons why.”

Wally’s Comment: Penelope Trunk has some provocative thoughts on the value of grad school these days. Read this if you’re thinking about going. Grad school will mean a huge investment of time and money. If you’re considering grad school, make sure it’s for the right reasons.

From Andrew Rondeau: What to Do If You Get Fired

“How do you take a job loss in stride, keep your head up, and still go after your dreams? More intelligently, how do you approach the modern workplace where downsizing, layoffs (and sometimes firings) are increasingly commonplace?”

Wally’s Comment: A good short piece that will help anyone who’s been fired or who might be.

From MSNBC: How older workers can rebound from a job loss

“The re-employment rate among older workers tends to be slightly lower than their younger counterparts, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2006, the most recent statistics available on re-employment, 25- to 54-year-olds had the best chance of getting another job. Among this group, 75 percent had new gigs within a year, compared with 61 percent for workers between 55 and 64.”

Wally’s Comment: After reading Andrew Rondeau’s post, workers over fifty should read this fine piece that analyzes the job market for you and your age-peers and offers some ideas about what you should do and what you can expect.

When you’re growing as fast as Infosys, you’ve got to pay attention to training and development. Infosys is a multinational information technology services company. They say that they “help Global 2000 companies win in a Flat World.”

The company was founded in India in 1981 with seven employees and U$250. Today, Infosys has offices in more than thirty countries. Revenues increased by almost 8000 percent between 1995 and 2005. They hire 15,000 people a year.

They want to keep and develop those people. Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani says, “Our people are our capital. The more we invest in them, the more they can be effective.”

That’s the philosophy behind the company’s Global Education Center in Mysore. And it’s the philosophy behind a tiered mentoring program that was described in detail in Workforce Management.

Infosys splits its leaders into three tiers. Each tier mentors people on the tier below. The top tier is mentored by board members.

The mentoring program is part of a sophisticated leadership development program based on what Infosys calls nine dimensions of leadership. Leaders are evaluated on each dimension and that evaluation forms the basis for creating a personal development plan.

That’s very impressive. But what happens if you don’t work for a company that provides all those personal development resources? Then you have to develop your own plan.

What if you’re on a different Career Path than the one we call “managerial?” Then you have to develop your own plan.

But here’s something to think about. Even if you’re at a company like Infosys that has a sophisticated development program, you still have to develop your own plan.

You may need mentoring that’s different from or in addition to what you get from your company-assigned mentor. You may have strengths you want to develop, but that your company doesn’t see as valuable. You may want to spend time exploring your options.

The bottom line is that your development is your responsibility. That’s why you’ll want to check back here at Momentor as we develop a site that offers you resources and connections to help make your career the best it can be.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to posts about finding and getting value from an internship, what to do your first week on the job, blogging to find a job, and some choices you have to make on the job.

From Lindsay Pollack: Internships are more important than ever

“One of the reasons internships are so important is because more and more companies are using their intern programs to replace on-campus recruiting. An internship is now a thinly disguised audition–for both the student and the employer–rather than a charitable learning opportunity. This makes sense: what better way for both sides to find out if a relationship is a good fit than to test it out for a few months before fully committing? If you’re working as an intern this summer, here are some tips to ace your audition and earn a future offer if you’d like one.”

Wally’s Comment: This is a great post about the importance of internships and how to make your internship pay off.

From Work in Progress: A survival guide for our summer interns

“During my seven years at TIME, I’ve watched summer interns come and go, some undoubtedly enriched by the experience, others just as undoubtedly disappointed. I think this is true at any workplace. I see a lot of advice out there from bloggers and career advisers on how to handle summer internships, but seeing as my own limited knowledge is limited further to my own employer, I thought I’d spew some of that entirely unsolicited advice here.”

Wally’s Comment: In keeping with the internship theme, here’s a great post about how to get the most value from the experience, while avoiding a few pitfalls.

GL Hoffman writing at US News & World Report: 42 Rules For Your First Week

Wally’s Comment: Whether it’s your first day on the job at an internship or a regular job, GL Hoffman has advice you can use.

From Jessica Miller-Merrell at Blogging for Jobs: How Blogging Can Land You a Job

“As the hunt for talented professionals gets more challenging, recruiters and creative head hunters are turning to blogs and blog comments to connect with passive candidates. Do a Google search on the internet for “Jobs and Blogs” and you’ll find testimonial after testimonial from job seekers who have landed jobs or been contacted by recruiters from a blog or blog comment post.”

Wally’s Comment: Jessica is a recruiter. Her blog has lots of good advice about landing the job you want, including this piece on using blogs to find it and increase your own visibility.

From Make Work Better: Human vs. Robot: Who Wins the Challenge at Work?

“On the first day of my very first job out of college, my new boss offered a piece of advice: “Be careful of making any personal relationships with your co-workers.” She was telling me this for good reason; the program I had joined was a fast-track to management, and she didn’t want me to have to manage my friends once the program had finished. However, the finality of her words stuck through me for that first year at the job, and I slowly evolved into a robot at work.”

Wally’s Comment: Most people don’t get in trouble by making a few big and bad decisions. Most of us get in trouble as the result of lots of seemingly little decisions that have a cumulative effect.

I hadn’t seen Dan in at least three decades, but there he was, staring at me and trying to figure out if I was who he thought I was. We were in an airport far from our homes on our way to different destinations.

That memory popped up while reading Gretchen VanDerMeid’s fine article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle about the power of mentoring and how you can make it work for you. The article is titled “Seeking a mentor benefits personal development, advancement.” She covers the characteristics of a good mentor.

“What personal characteristics make a good business mentor? A good mentor is accomplished and successful, approachable, someone who communicates well and derives personal satisfaction from contributing to another professional’s growth.”

Zero in on that last line: “derives personal satisfaction from contributing to another professional’s growth.” It’s the key to why being a mentor is a wonderful thing.

Dan was one of my protégés. We met in a basketball league and started talking about his career during one of those after-game beer and pizza sessions.

He was in a job in financial services then, trying to decide if he should go to graduate school. I helped him decide to get an MBA, and where to go. We stayed in touch for a while, but his life moved on and so did mine.

I’ve had several protégés in my life. Some have resulted in long, deep friendships. Others have been shorter relationships. Dan’s was one of the latter.

But we’d both benefited from the relationship. I got the benefit of helping someone else move toward their goals. I also got the benefit of his fresh perspective on the business world. Like I said it was good.

Now, thirty years later, we had one of those backslapping reunions that make other travelers turn their heads. We had time to sit in the bar, have a beer and catch up before Dan headed off to his flight.

Dan was doing well. After b-school he found a job working at a company and in an industry he loved. Then he started his own company. It was doing well. Along the way he had several mentors.

I watched him shoulder his bag and head out on to the concourse and I thought to myself. “I had a part in that.” It’s the best reason I can think of to become a mentor.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. My picks this week include posts on interviewing by groups, defining yourself to succeed, interviewing with multiple companies, looking good to the boss, and the Boston Globe Magazine’s Careers Issue.

From the Wall Street Journal: For Job Hunters, The Big Interview Is Getting Bigger

“Anxious about meeting a key hiring manager? Your job-search jitters may soon intensify when you confront the ultimate stress test: a panel of interviewers. Group grilling has long been popular among academics, government agencies and nonprofit organizations — sectors that prefer decisions by a consensus of constituencies. As the job market becomes more competitive for people at every level, this practice is spreading to law firms, management consultancies and high-tech businesses. Employers, who now have the luxury of being picky with candidates, see selection committees as an efficient way to measure applicants’ mettle under fire.”

Wally’s Comment: If you interview with an organization that uses groups to interview, you need to master some additional skills and devote some extra time to preparation.

From Marshall Goldsmith: Change the Way You Define Yourself

“One of the greatest challenges that we face, when we try to improve ourselves – as leaders, partners, friends or family members – is the challenge of changing the way we define ourselves. I must have heard this phrase a thousand times, “That’s just the way I am.” As long as we keep saying “That’s just the way I am” to ourselves we increase the probabilities that “That’s just the way I am always going to be.” I believe that (with very rare exceptions) we can all change our behavior. By definition, the only behaviors that we cannot changes are either shaped by genetic preconditions (we are born that way) or environmental factors (external forces that prohibit us from changing).”

Wally’s Comment: How you define yourself can boost or limit your career achievement. This is an example of why so many of us read everything that Marshall writes.

From Microsoft’s JobsBlog: Interviewing with multiple companies

“As a job seeker, you might think you’re not harming anyone by withholding the fact that you’re interviewing with multiple companies, when in fact it could take away some of your career options. It’s exciting to have several companies interested in you, but it can be hard to manage interview and offer deadlines while trying to figure out which one really is your dream job. So here are my words of advice.”

Wally’s Comment: A helpful post about how to handle the situation where you’re interviewing with several companies and trying to decide which one you love best without getting left at the altar.

From US News and World Report: 10 Ways to Make Your Boss Love You

“Want to become your boss’s favorite? Here are 10 habits that, if cultivated, will have your boss showering you with lavish praise.”

Wally’s Comment: This is a stellar piece. Read it for a great summary of how to look good without sucking up.

From the Boston Globe: The Globe Magazine Careers Issue

Wally’s Comment: Several great articles about trends and techniques.

Mia Burroughs and Leah Storie have a fine viewpoint piece in the Miami Herald titled: “Mentors aid careers, companies.” Here’s a key excerpt.

“The numbers paint a clear picture. Research has shown that more executives are leaning on their mentors more often for career advice. For instance, a recent study by Accountemps showed that 41 percent of executives said they would consult their mentors first before making a career transition, compared with 28 percent in 2002. Promoting mentoring relationships can help all businesses retain talented associates in which they have invested precious training and development dollars.”

Burroughs and Storie are aiming their piece at corporations, but they share personal examples of their own experience with mentors. Both are attorneys. And both have benefited from assigned mentors. They’ve been lucky.

Assigned mentor programs can work, but even the good ones are an attempt to replace a natural relationship with a program. That’s why you need to take charge of your own mentoring. If you leave it to your employer, you leave it to chance.

You’re not limited to one mentor, either. Seek out mentors for different areas of your professional life.

Be sure to stop back here and check the resources we’re building at Momentor. You’ll find ways to hook up with mentors and many other resources to help make your career the success you want it to be.