Remember how your Mom used to tell you to stop fidgeting and look people in the eye?
Turns out her advice holds true – and especially if you’re at a career fair or job interview.
Lack of eye contact was the biggest body language mistake that could reduce your chances of being hired, according to a new CareerBuilder.com survey.
Skipping a smile came in second – so be sure to think happy thoughts just before your interview begins. And too much wiggling around tied for third worst with bad posture, according to the survey of 2,500 hiring managers who work full-time at non-governmental employers.
Non-verbal messages come through clearly and you want yours to say “I’m confident, competent and in control.” And you want to be seen as friendly and cooperative too. That means looking at the interviewer and smiling before you head to your chair. Then sit down easily, leaning forward  toward them to show you’re engaged and ready to begin.
A weak handshake, crossing your arms across your chest and frequently touching your hair or face also are body language mistakes that may work against you in interviews, according to the CareerBuilder  survey.
If you are shy or come from some other cultures, you may not be comfortable looking people squarely in the eye. Start working on this by looking first at the eyebrows or the bridge of their nose. Or look family or friends in the eyes and smile warmly – it’s easier to start with someone who cares about you rather than someone who’s judging your personality and professionalism.
So what else can you do to root out inappropriate body language?  Practice your smile or sitting calmly. Rehearse a handshake and an interview with a friend or friend of a friend, CareerBuilder suggests.  And if you can find a videocam, capture yourself on it – and play back your sample interview. You’ll see mistakes clearly and then can practice removing them day by day.
Forbes.com has a series on body language that offers insights on how to win an argument with your mannerisms and common mistakes women make.  Or you can check out some books on non-verbal communications – or read the full CareerBuilder materials online.
If you’re not sure whether your mannerism or body language are positive, ask a hiring manager or brutally honest friend to review your taped interview. Or go directly to your Mom – she’ll tell you what works and what doesn’t.

As a business development tool, gratitude and thank you notes sound soft and unlikely — but may make a difference.
As a way to set yourself apart from the other job candidates, they certainly work.
As a way to encourage lasting relationships with clients or colleagues, they can be remarkably effective.
And as a way to cultivate a more positive attitude and gratitude, say thank you to the thank you notes you send.
My pile of thank you notes and appreciations brings me joy for years after I received them. They came from former interns, people I’ve profiled and staffers whose jobs I have saved or created.
So when I interviewed Heidi Kallett for the Washington Post Capital Business, her message of thank you notes as a tool to build your business immediately resonated with me. The article which is out this week explains much of her thinking and approach to them.
So I decided to look further at thank you notes, and what others say about them. On LinkedIn, I found many endorsements.
“The thank you note has more purposes than to simply show courtesy and professionalism, it extends the interview. I always tell my workshop attendees that the interview is not complete until you have sent the thank you note.,” Bob McIntosh wrote in a LinkedIn Answer recently. McIntosh is a career trainer for Career Center of Lowell, Mass., and points out thank yous allow you to  correct any miscomunications that might have crept in.
“Taking the time to send a Thank You shows a lot of class and consideration,” Jason Shinn wrote on LinkedIn. He’s a business and employment lawyer in metro Detroit and has invested in them. “There are plenty of opportunities where a little appreciation for someone’s time/assistance is warranted.”
Next I did an online search and found more fans at university career centers and career coaches. Many give many sample thank you notes, which are good for starters but shouldn’t become your de facto approach to sending appreciations.
Then I returned to Heidi Kallett, a past President of the Junior League of Northern Virginia
who writes more than 100 thank yous a year to her clients, vendors and others connected to the Dandelion Patch shops. She learned to write thank you notes from her mother and has been developing her skill for years. I asked her to share her best advice in developing a thank you note habit. She suggests:
1. Choose a pen that you enjoy writing with-- ballpoint or roller ball? Blue or black? Fine or Medium point? Everyone has a preference, so find yours -have it at the ready.
2. Come up with several collections of stationery. The glittered high-heels don’t work for interview follow-up, but would be greatly appreciated by your BFF when thanking her for your birthday gift. Typically professional correspondence is either soft white or white in color with a tasteful and simple design – or only your monogram.
3.Avoid the text tokens. When writing a professional thank you note, stay away from any smiley or frowning faces, the emoticons that pop up in text messages.
4. As a habit, try to find 5-10 minutes a week to write notes of gratitude. Keep a post-it note or journal with your list of friends, associates that you’d like to personally thank. Writ notes all at one sitting– trust me, it is easier to do them all at once than to write one a day.
5. Always keep a roll of stamps ready. You don’t want any excuses as to why these notes can’t make it into the mailbox.

Very helpful advice for getting motivated to send thank yous.

Finally, I came up with a few techniques of my own for making your thank you note memorable and enjoyable:

• Make it timely. Send a note within 48 hours of the event or the favor. Don’t wait longer than a week. That will make it easier to write and it will have more impact if it arrives promptly.
• Make it personal. Don’t try the “one size fits all” thank yous. Tailor it to the person you’re thanking or the occasion you’re noting. Include specifics from shared jokes to insights you picked up.
• Make it true to you. Your personality needs to shine through in the notecards and even the stamps. Some people will never send thank you notes with angels or flowers to their corporate clients. Yet I have – and will again. Some prefer the crisp pinstripes and sincerely signature that match their dress code and approach. Others will sign off with fondly or peace.  Make yours match your professional persona.
• Make it joyful. Consider how good it feels to receive something upbeat in the mail. Think about the good things that will grow from your connections. Think about your thank you note bringing smiles and good feelings for years to come, pinned up on a bulletin board or stashed away with memorable letters and card.

Feel the gratitude and joy of the thank you note as you write them. And then feel hopeful that they will be seeds well planted that will bear fruit for you or your business.

You graduated two weeks ago and you don’t know what you’re going to do with your life, much less the rest of the summer. Or you lost your job a year ago and you haven’t gone to a job interview in three months. Or the company you signed onto for the summer just filed for bankruptcy.
Quick – let’s heat up a summer job. It’s time to create an instant internship. That’s my term for an internship that is almost as easy to cook up as a barbecue for five friends.
This quick-made internship may not spring forth from the top tier law firms or at old-fashioned manufacturing companies struggling to keep its current workers in paychecks. And they may not pay as much as you think you’re worth – but they’re not volunteer work either. It is possible to develop an instant internship with a little ingenuity, luck and sales abilities. And it’s possible to take an internship even if you’re 33 or 57, especially if you’re changing careers or have been out of the workforce for a few years.
Here’s seven strategies for stirring up a short-term assignment in a hurry:

• Search for successes. Look for organizations in your city that cannot keep up with demand. They are hot and they are in need of new staff. They may be in health care (see my article on healthy careers from the Washington Post) or mobile communications (such as those that develop advertising or specialized apps for our cell phones). Professional, scientific and technical employers are the most likely to hire this year, acccording to the Society for Human Resource Management, and that includes marketing and engineering firms and laboratories. Hint: Do some research on their products or service and growth plans so when you query them you’re already matching your talents to their success tracks or needs.

• Drop out, drop in. Major companies choose their interns in February or March. So by June, a few have thought better of it – or found something better. When they drop out, you could fill in, suggests Mark Oldman, Vault.com co-founder said.  So contact the internship coordinator now and offer to serve as the relief pitcher- which after all is the one who often wins the game.
• Go face to face.  Visit a half dozen organizations in a business park and introduce yourself as their problem-solving. high-energy intern (or other words that make you sound very appealing). Go mainly to smaller or mid-size employers and you could stumble upon a job before they’ve posted it, according to Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute? books. This direct approach is one of his top 5 best job search strategies (you can see all five as they appeared in his book  “The Job-Hunters Survival Guide.” (Ten Speed Press, $9.99, 102 pages)  which was excerpted with a Washington Post article last year.
• Get personal. Ask Dad and Aunt Sue or your neighbor whose yard you used to mow for work, or leads.  Family ties and personal connections were the No. 1 way this year’s college graduates expect to find jobs, according to a Monster.com survey. While you’re at it, find a family member or professional friend to promote you online. Ask them to send out your qualifications on Twitter’s Hire Friday or in a LinkedIn status or other posting.
• Follow in a new executive. When a new CEO or CIO joins an organization, they want to put their stamp on the organization – and fast. So often they want their own team in place. If you time it right and write an excellent letter to that executive, you could come in as an executive assistant or intern to the chief. Vault’s Oldman told me about a similar strategy: Write a persuasive, personal letter to a half dozen senior executives offering to serve as their executive assistant / intern for the summer. Choose people in fields that interest you, then Google them. The letter must be customized to that person’s specific work and explain “why you’re excited to work with them,” Oldman told me. “It shows initiative.”
• Seek a one-month assignment. Maybe this won’t be a summer-long internship but it could be a vacation relief or maternity leave replacement slot.  Offer to work the midnight shift; the dirty, undesirable clean-up job; the runner or the person who fields calls and customers who walk in. And take the job with a smile – and then come up with some ways to do it and something a little more meaningful too. You can find these directly or go to a temp firm, which is a field that’s been growing lately too.
• Win the internship coordinator’s respect. Be personable, polite and persistent. Offer her help in recruiting for future internships. Offer to carry her boxes to the next recruiting fair in your region. Show a lot of interest. “If you’re on par with 10 other people, I’m going to see that person demonstrated their interest.  not one of 20 generic applications.  you’re putting your best self forward,” said the Smithsonian’s Tracie Spinale.  Even if you cannot land a summer internship, you’re putting yourself in place for one in the fall, when the competition is less fierce.

Some of these instant internships may take a week or three to work out. And some may pay less than the $17 an hour average pay for the college-student internship, as reported by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. (That average may be high because many of the better companies respond to NACE’s surveys.)

But most are ways to find “the hidden job market” of unadvertised possibilities and openings – where by some accounts more than half of all jobs are. Learn to succeed at that and anything they throw at you in your internship or the real jobs after it will be like mixing lemonade for your barbecue – sweet and cool.

Work is work – even if it’s a paycheck from people who pushed you out the door  just months ago.

More workers are hearing “You’re rehired” these days, from employers eager to rebuild their ranks and bring in proven talent. So if you’re looking for your next gig you may want to look back at your last two gigs.

Among those laid off and back to work in the last six months, 57 percent boomeranged back to their former boss or workplace, CareerBuilder reports.

More than two-thirds of those still looking for jobs said they’re willing to be rehired by a former boss, though one in five say they’d return only if offered more money than before.

Despite such aspirations, not every employer will welcome back laid off staff with gusto – and some have policies or practices that prohibit their return. Others may bring back some staff, but others are less welcome, either because of their work history or the way they departed.

Because of lawyers and legal restrictions, some employers are unwilling to give a direct answer to the question – “Am I eligible for rehire?” said David Miles, managing partner of  The Miles Lehane Companies / OI Partners.  His firm offers career transition and coaching services from its headquarters in Leesburg, Va.

Still, the candidate must ask the question and  carefully watch the response. Enthusiasm means you’re more likely to see doors open while a “send us your information” or other basic reply that any candidate would receive may indicate you’re not eligible or not really welcome, Miles suggests.

If you’re intent on a return gig, here’s five tips for getting rehired from Miles and me:

1.  REVIEW YOUR REVIEW. Pull out your last performance appraisal and notes from your boss. They will give you a sense of how you were judged. You may have made lots of progress on arriving to work on time or shushing your sassy mouth since that review was written, but the record of it will still be reviewed. Even if your boss left the organization after you did, your employee file sleeps somewhere in Human Resources and someone will wake it up.

2.  STAY IN TOUCH. ” Chances of being rehired improve when the individual has maintained an ongoing but positive communications with the company,” Miles said. The best approach may be this: “sometime shortly after all the paperwork is signed off at termination, a person should write a a positive note to HR and/or their supervisor thanking them for the departure package and expressing a desire for rehire if the situation turns around.” Then touch base every month or so, inquiring about career possibilities and expressing a zeal to work there again.

3.  BUILD YOUR TALENTS. Ramp up  volunteering and educational opportunities – and if there are areas that you know your boss thought needed work, spend some time there. Consult. Mentor someone. Learn to tango or Twitter. Make sure you stay current in your field through a professional association, contract work or other ways. Said Miles: “This is a real big one.  If a rehire candidate can not speak to why are they viable today, they will have a problem returning to the position.”

4.  GROW YOUR NETWORK. Make yourself known to the new executives by a volunteer leadership role in a trade organization or by sending some market research or ideas for strengthening the brand. Take a short-term contract assignment at your former employer – especially if it puts you in front of new managers.

Show up at the happy hour your team frequents occasionally – but only arrive when you feel confident and upbeat about yourself. Check in with contractors, retirees who still consult with the organization and interns you hired.  If it seems appropriate, show up at company open houses or annual meetings – and call yourself a proud alumni. Introduce yourself to brass in other departments – often you may land a second chance in a different area than where you worked previously.

5.  EXPRESS EAGERNESS. ” Do verbalize your passion for what you do and how the absence focused you more on how much you enjoy your professional area,” said Miles, who has worked in career arena for decades.  Wear the company T-shirt to charity fundraisers or races. You may even want to develop an elevator pitch that is promote yourself as an adjunct member of the team or someone who’s sitting on the sidelines ready to be called back to the game.  Prepare for the  interview, addressing your reason for returning and what advancements you’ve made in the months you’ve been away. Express some empathy for the company and its managers who also suffered from the downsizings, Miles said. “This rehire interview is really critical, so practice for it.”

About half of all employers at least occasionally rehire former staffers, OI Partners research last fall shows. The main reasons for re-recruiting people let go: They have demonstrated skills and they know the organization’s culture. Many think it’s less risky than hiring new staff.

One-fifth of employers say they never rehire laid off crew, and 29 percent rarely do – among those unlikely to encourage boomeranging are government agencies and health care.

What won’t work for a return engagement?  If you expressed a lot of anger as you were laid off, that could taint your tracks back. This “depends on what level of anger and how abusive the language was,” Miles said. “Intensity matters here” as does the number of people who knew of your outburst of displeasure.

Other issues could sidetrack your return too, including questions about your ability to change and adapt to a new environment or a leaner, harder working approach.

If you want to check on your reputation and residue, quietly ask a couple of friends at the office if they will recommend you for a job – and what hesitations they have in doing so.  Be clear you want their candid feedback as well as their support in returning. Ask only those who you are certain have strong standing and careers themselves. It does no good to be endorsed by someone whose future or judgment is questionable.

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Read the CareerBuilder.com media release on returning to an old employer here.

ABC News’ columnist Michelle Goodman has a piece on going back to your former employer.

To learn more about David Miles and his company, check the corporate website here.

Ah – summer and the summer job. The first ones stay with us forever, whether we work as an admin in Mom’s business, a caddy on the links or at the Farmers Market. Some find first jobs in factories, others in candy shops.

This year, though, summer jobs look scarce for youth. Teen unemployment nationally tops 25 percent in April, and is higher than that in some hard-hit areas of California or Michigan.  So teens need help, lots of it.

That’s why Mity Nice and I are launching an ambitious series of teen job search tips. They’re culled from many sources and experts and from my life experience and expertise. After all, I’m a mom of three as well as a careers and workplace writer, and co-owner of Mity Nice, which hires teens to sell Italian ice and support charities in and around Ann Arbor. We know we can’t hire all the teens that need jobs this summer, or even a small percent of them. So we hope to help them with some advice and encouragement.

The tips will be offered on Mity Nice’s Facebook page, and also collected here. We’ll give one a day, or five each week for at least six weeks.

Here’s a sneak peak at the first three, a long-form version of what’s on Facebook:

1. Know what employers look for.

Some traits are universal:  NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, lists five top qualities: communication skills, analytical skills, teamwork, technical skills and a strong work ethic.   The American Management Association’s four Cs add to that list creativity and innovation.

Many of these are the very skills that make you a good student or the go-to co-captain of your sports team – the “soft skills” that you learn from teachers, parents, teammate. And a few requirements are specific to a job, such as lifeguard’s need for certification or sous chef must know how to chop and saute vegetables.

Either way, build these skills – and these words – into your resume and into your introduction to a future boss.

2. Develop a positive and confident attitude.

“Confidence is about trusting oneself,”" said the Buddhist monk Gayuna Cealo. You may feel very nervous about finding a job – that’s natural. When you go into a business to apply, push all that away. Take a deep breath. And fake it until you make it.

Another way to build confidence: Ask your best friend or a teacher  to list five great attributes you have. Write them down, put the list in your iPhone — and look at them often.

A third confidence booster: Practice. Recruit a friend to rehearse for job interviews. Or practice the introduction you’ll give walking into the store to  land a summer job. Or practice your affirmation – repeat it every time you wash your hands. (Yes, you can say it silently when you’re in the ladies’ room after gym.)

3. Create a resume.

Even if you’ve never held a paying job before, you really really need one. A resume is an important marketing tool – and a valuable way to gather up all the great things you’ve ever done or achieved, at least since you’ graduated from tricycle to two-wheeler. Your resume is an opportunity to tell your future boss that you’re a standout and you put extra effort in – whether it’s for a sport, a hobby, your classes, your volunteer activities or your friends.

If you can’t imagine what you’ll say, pull out your awards and recognitions. Then pull up your computer and send three adults who know you well these two questions: What have I accomplished or done that you think belongs on my resume? What three traits or qualities do I have that an employer will want?  (Yes, you may ask your BFF and your current beau those questions too, though they may not give you the best, resume-ready answers.)

Resumes are so important, Vickie wrote a longer blog post on creating a first resume. Read it soon – and then use it to create yours, or your kids.

I’ll post bonus material on this blog too, such as some advice sent to me from employment and recruitment companies, and anything that needs a little extra space beyond the short tips.

Please share these tips with teens who are searching, and with their parents, who are important career advisors and cheerleaders. And sign onto our MityNice page to see more later this week.

Teen tips are copyright Vickie Elmer, 2010. For permission to republish or use them, please contact the author.

This weekend, my younger son and I started looking for summer jobs – for him mostly, though I wouldn’t say no to a camp counselor job or maybe something selling fruity gelato and sorbet.  We looked online of course – CraigsList is our first stop – and also went to the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market.

I made him practice a few things – and pointed out the importance of creating a “cheat sheet” of names and phone numbers of the places he’s worked before. And I tried to coach him a little on what to wear and what attitude to put on to impress a shop owner or a farmer / sales person.

He’s not seeking an internship, just part-time work. But I want him to treat it as seriously as a full-time internship, which provides valuable work experience – and contacts in the intern’s chosen field. They also provide experience in different work environments – and aside from pay, three in 10 marketing professionals believe that is their most important role for students.

Internships also improve thes “soft skills” and technical knowledge, according to a Creative Group telephone survey of 250 advertising and marketing executives who work at the largest agencies and other companies.

The Creative Group, which places people in temp and permanent marketing jobs, offers some advice for landing an internship.Here’s an outtake of their tips:

·        Put on the polish. Your cover letter, resume and portfolio should be professional and without error. Likewise, your attire for for the interview.

·        Show your independent side. Many firms are stretched thin, so demonstrating an ability to work without much direct supervision can be a plus.

·        Emphasize your social media skills. Many firms seek professionals to help launch compelling e-marketing initiatives. If you’re a whiz with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, you could have an advantage.

For more advice on finding a great internship,  I checked outInternWeb.com. InternWeb offers free internship postings, and some good advice on developing a “power resume” and developing some experience through volunteer work and school projects and organizations. See all five strategies for landing “your dream internship.”

Please check my previous posts here at WorkingKind on a teen’s first resume and other internship advice.

As part of my youth jobs and nonprofit support company, Mity Nice, we will launch a series of job hunt tips for teens in about a week. They likely  will appear first on Mity Nice’s Facebook page and then will be gathered here somehow. My plan is to offer one a day, five days a week, for six or seven weeks – it’s ambitious, I know, but how else to help out young people who want jobs?

Bankrate.com via the Boston Globe offers 15 steps toward an internship – from tapping your professors and parents to introducing yourself to speakers at events – but the advice would have been more relevant in January.

And my advice to my son, on searching CraigsList jobs and gigs is simple – start by doing a word search using “summer” and then go to three to five categories and look at most of the listings.  Many won’t be appropriate and some may be bogus, but there are great possibilities there. Like our gardens in spring, we must look for the new shoots of beans, broccoli and sage and water and fertilize them — and throw out the weeds.

Note: This piece originally appeared on April 20, 2009, before my blog was hijacked. I’m reposting it here in hopes that it will be useful. It’s been updated – and the MityNice teen tips will be even more up to date starting right around May 1.

Creating a first or second resume can seem like an impossible task to a 16- year old and his mother or father.

The youth has spent most of her time on the ice, playing hockey or figure skating, or on the courts, playing tennis or basketball, except when she’s on XBox Live with friends from around the world. Or maybe he’s a bookworm who would rather go to the library than any store and whose grades shine bright but whose social skills are a bit, er shy.

Why does a teen with no work experience need a resume anyway?  First off, it shows they’re serious about their job hunt. Second, it’s a chance to show off some talents that don’t fit neatly into the boxes on the online applications. Third, it gives the teen a start on a lifelong skill – career management and job hunts.

Start with three basic truths about a resume:

1. It is a sales tool, something that should make the person look good. That means singing your own praises and highlighting successes. So you include your GPA if it’s high and mighty and include your perfect attendance awards.

2. It represents you, as you want to be seen to an employer. Think of an employer as a cross between your parents, your strictest teacher and a really cool drama coach at summer camp – because they could be like any or all of those. Think of yourself as someone who is worth hiring – responsible, hard-working, bright and kind. So by all means mention fundraising for three mission trips and how you exceeded your goal by 200 percent. And if you’re really into hand made purses or swimming, show that – and think about the values and skills you’ve learned from it too.

3. It must be honest and truthful – not comprehensive. You can and should leave off some things – such as getting fired from a job or having to attend summer school because you failed Advanced Algebra. Just make sure there’s no glaring holes or omissions that would look strange or worrisome.

Now that you have that, let’s get started.

Figure out your skills and talents and abilities, the areas where you excel, writes Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. of QuintCareers. His excellent career website offers a five-step worksheet to help Jrs. create their early resumes and a sample from Suzie Student of DeLand, Fl.

Start listing your talents and skills – and then when you have a bunch, ask three or five people for their list too. Tell them it’s for a resume and job hunt so they’ll think about the traits that will appeal to your future boss.

Ask yourself: Where have I made a difference? Who have I helped? It could be at your church or synagogue or with a club at school. It may be through the YMCA or Girl Scouts or a family friend’s small business.

Think about all the different ways you’ve worked – as a volunteer in your church or at a soup kitchen or in your aunt’s company; babysitting; lawn mowing; helping a teacher with a special project. Work experience can come from paid jobs or volunteer experiences. It can be picked up as a counselor in training at a summer camp or as helping organize the neighborhood picnic.

Ask yourself: What awards or honors have I received? What other recognitions can I mention?

I also found some fine advice on developing teen resumes on ReadWriteThink.org,  which provides teachers and students resources.

If you have more questions about resumes, JobDoggy, which focuses on part-time jobs for teens and college students, answers 10 key questions, suggesting students include jobs where they’ve been fired (and be prepared to answer questions honestly about that in the interview without trashing your former boss).

And a site called Got A Job offers lists of action words to use in your resume – from improved to founded to solved and more.

Ask yourself: Where have I demonstrated leadership?

Leadership skills also are important, NACE found, so if you were the president of the Key Club or captain of your track team, highlight that. And if you still are stuck as to what to put on your resume, go online and print out three job applications from companies in your area. When you fill them out, they’ll give you some more ideas.

This post is adapted from a WorkingKind article from May 2009.

If you want lots of vacation time for kayaking or hiking in India or Indiana, try to win a job at Great Harvest Bread, Clif Bar or New Belgium Brewery. After a year, their lucky workers earn 24 days or more of paid time off, according to Outside magazine.

Better yet, land at Livestrong, which encourages those with cancer to live well. and you’ll have unlimited paid vacation as long as you don’t abuse the privilege.

These companies make Outside magazine’s third annual best places to work list – 50 employers that understand work-life balance provides time for mountain climbing, extreme sports or travel to see untouched beaches or bayous.

The No. 1 company this year is Natural Habitat Adventures in Boulder, Colo., which grants 15 vacation days and profit sharing among other perks.  The company hires field staff and adventure travel guides who the company boasts, bring guests “face-to-face with a giant polar bear, reach out and pet a friendly gray whale, and sit amongst a family of mountain gorillas.”

Natural Habitat offers staffers free “site inspection travel,” Outside reports, and discounts of up to 80 percent for family members who want to see “wild and ancient China” or the shrines and elephants of Nepal. Neither staff nor customers are expected to rough it; they stay at hotels and lodges the company says are “specially chosen to bring you closer to nature and offer you an intimate look at the area without sacrificing comfort.”

Travel is a perk and a reward at several top companies. Staffers went whale watching days (at MindBody) or on a team-building white water rafting trip (Dominion Digital) while Realeflow took its crew on an all-expense paid cruise to the Bahamas last year.

If you’re thinking a vacation is just what you need, remember that one-quarter of American workers do not get paid vacations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Vacation time for a worker with one year’s tenure varies from nothing to 19 days, with four in ten receiving 10 to 14 paid leisure days, the BLS reported.

Unlike most other best places to work lists, almost two-thirds of the Outside employers are small – fewer than 100 total workers. Many have 20 or fewer total staffers – enough to field a really good soccer team with a few colleagues to cheer from the sidelines. Only a handful qualify as big businesses with thousands of crew members- they are W.L. Gore and Associates, Eddie Bauer, Cheaseapeake Energy and Aspen Skiing Co.

Many of the best employers are clustered in Colorado, California or Oregon, and only a smattering are found in my home region of the Midwest. (Minneapolis has two – advertising/PR firm Carmichael Lynch and Quality Bicycle Products.)

Nearly two-thirds of the employers are in the outdoors industry, and many sound like fabulous places with great practices and values. Yet I could really see myself working at Paradigm Group, a Nashville, Tenn., employee benefits consultancy, or The Dream Program, a nonprofit youth mentoring organization, and at Natural Habitat, when they’re ready to have a full-time writer / blogger aboard.

The article and list are not posted yet, but eventually you’ll be able to see all 50 workplaces on Outside’s website.

For now, I’ll share this list of the top 10 best employers from Outside:

1. Natural Habitat Adventures Boulder, CO, travel  tour operator

2. NewBelgium Brewing Fort Collins, CO, brewery

3. Clif Bar & Company Berkeley, CA, organic food manufacturer

4. Smith Optics Ketchum, ID, sunglass manufacturer and goggles

5. Amer Sports Winter & Outdoor Co. Ogden, UT, outdoor gear and apparel

6. Rally Software Boulder, CO, project-management-software developer

7. Tabar, Inc. Bethel, CT, glove manufacturer

8.  LeBoot Camp Dover, DE, online diet and weight-loss program

9.  Seventh Generation Burlington, VT, earth-friendly household products

10. Paradigm Group Nashville, TN, employee-benefits consulting

Outside’s third annual list of best places is chosen using confidential employee-satisfaction surveys and other materials chosen and analyzed by Best Companies Group of Harrisburg, Pa. The companies were ranked based on their ability to balance worker productivity with an active, eco-friendly lifestyle.

And if you don’t see a company on the list that suits you or is in your geographic boundaries,  you still can find a potential employer with high quality of worker life. A while ago, I wrote a piece about ways to scope out workplaces for the Washington Post.

And I wrote about an array of employers who make Fortune magazine’s best places to work list year after year in a blog post in January. I’m reposting it here (after a web hacker took out all my earlier posts).

After Hurricane Katrina hit, an “enormous wave of good will and generosity flooded” VolunteerMatch with people and projects.  So the nonprofit that matches people with non profit organizations and assignments itself posted some volunteer positions, for people with tech skills.

Chad, an Intel veteran, showed up, and volunteered full-time for about two months. He loved  VolunteerMatch and so when a job opening came up, he said, “I want it.”

“He got the job from the volunteering bench. We all knew how smart and committed he was,” recalled Greg Baldwin, president of San Francisco-based VolunteerMatch.  Baldwin acknowledges that Chad’s story is “one in a hundred.” A more likely scenario, he said, is someone who is actively volunteering for one nonprofit ends up referred to another with an opening, perhaps even before the job is posted.

I wrote about this job-hunters benefit of volunteering for CareerFocus in a piece titled  ” Volunteer your way to new work.”  It provides some useful advice and suggestions to those who want to make their generosity pay off.  (You can see the article by opening this rather large PDF and looking in about three pages, or searching for the term “volunteer.” CareerFocus is produced by Washtenaw Community College in Michigan.)

Baldwin, of course, believes volunteering belongs on your resume – whether you’re working or not. And so do many employers and hiring managers, especially those who are active volunteers themselves.

Truth be told people who work part-time are much more likely to help out at a non-profit, school or religious organization than are unemployed individuals, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Maybe that’s because they haven’t realized the value of volunteering to their career as well as their community.

Volunteer assignments can be used right on your resume to show how you developed new skills or kept your current ones sharp. Integrate it into the paid work area if you’ve had a significant assignment or volunteered for more than one day a week at an organization. Label the assignment pro bono but you don’t have to make that a prominent piece.  Or create a separate category and call it Community Work or Pro Bono Projects.

A third approach, for those who are less actively volunteering:  Place it in the Interests section at the bottom of the resume. Definitely show volunteering ahead of hiking or baseball or mushroom gathering.

“It definitely matters. We don’t distinguish between paid work and unpaid work generally,” said Tracie Spinale, the Smithsonian Institution’s academic program manager who helps hire 1,300 interns a year. She likes to see previous internships, and also volunteer work at local museums or science centers.

Other employers like to see community service and volunteering as a a way to develop leadership skills, add to your connections or make you a well-rounded individual.

“The people who get jobs are the people who are busy,” said Baldwin, who with his staff volunteers once a month at places such as Habitat for Humanity. “People seek those associations where people stretch beyond themselves – to see some acknowledgment that you’re concerned about neighborhood or community.”

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MORE RESOURCES:

Career coach Laura Labovich offers six ways to implement a generous job search on Careerrealism.com

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has advice on moving from volunteer to paid status, and ways to combine pro bono and paying gigs.

I wrote about the value of pro-bono and between-job assignments for the Washington Post in July. See my piece http://bit.ly/aXDMDr

If you’re not sure what kind of volunteer assignment to seek, my CareerFocus article has hints, or check out this list, which I produced for the Washington Post:

• Join a cause that is timely and relevant to the industry where you want to work. Read execs’ bios or check corporate websites to see what charities they support.
• Skip a controversial cause or charity – or at least don’t put it on your resume. Among the pass on them are abortion rights, gun advocacy, some religious groups.
• Community groups, food cooperatives, neighborhood associations can be valuable, as can chambers of commerce and business groups. They may introduce you to your next employer.
• Kids and pets are  safe popular areas, as is a professional organization or association.

Note: This post appeared originally on WorkingKind on April 1, 2009. The advice is still worthwhile so here it is for this year’s internship seekers:

If you – or your roommate, your daughter or son or nephew – are dragging their feet on going after a summer internship, here’s three good reasons to jump into one:

1. Interns often end up as the first people hired after the cutbacks stop.

2. Students who have had internships before are likely to earn more this summer, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

3. Interns this summer will earn more than last year – a 5 percent increase, according to NACE’s new research.  That means average pay of $15.93 to $18.26 an hour – much better than they’ll get at the  ice cream stand or amusement park.

The NACE research comes from surveys of 318 employers that are its members – they indicate that one-third of their college graduate hires last year were former interns. NACE contacts employers every year to ask about hiring prospects and pay – and its research gives a good benchmark for college hiring.

Yes, there are far fewer internship openings this year than in previous summers - NACE estimates a 21 percent reduction from the 2008 levelels. This reflects the lower workloads and layoffs that have claimed millions of full time jobs.

And yes, it’s late to get started on an internship search. But it’s not impossible. And many of those workplaces that laid people off in January may find by May or June that they’re short handed and need some extra help.

Here’s a Working item I wrote for the Washington Post in May 2007 that gives some smart advice on the last-minute internship:

College classes are winding down and summer internships heating up. Yet for some last minute lookers, it’s not too late to land an internship. Many organizations in and around Washington – - from the Consumer Electronics Association to Marvelous Market to some marketing firms- were advertising for for youthful talent and energy within the last week. And at some large corporations, which typically choose their interns in March or April, some inters will drop out at the last minute, leaving room for latecomers to slide in, said Mark Oldman, Vault.com’s co-founder. Vault publishes information on careers. That’s how Oldman ended up interning at MTV more than a decade ago while studying at Stanford University. “I was burning to work at MTV” with Downtown Julie Brown. Yet the music network didn’t choose him. Still, after classes ended, he called to see if there was any other work possibility, and the hiring manager told him that one intern hadn’t worked out and they wanted him to step in. “I was an internship junkie,” he said, completing six in college. Oldman, who is author of ” Vault’s Guide to Top Internships,” says finding a department head who hires her own interns – instead of relying on human resources managers – may be another door in if you’re running late. And he suggests the “create your own internship” plan. Identify nine or 10 intriguing people who are doing worthwhile or intruing work and write each one a personal letter offering to be their research assistant or intern. The letter must be customized to that person’s specific work and explain “why you’re excited to work with them.” “It shows initiative,” said Oldman, who notes that Vault still has internships to fill in New York.

-Vickie Elmer

So what are you waiting for? There’s still plenty of  time  and more than a few opportunities to find your summer internship.

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Here’s five new resources on landing a great internship this summer:

• Homework is key in the world of competitive internships. My Washington Post piece from Jan. 24, 2010
• How to Land the Internship You Want. Forbes magazine has tips and photos from last spring.
• “College Students: Do This – Get Hired!” a short book by recruiter Mark Lyden offers excellent advice and insider tips.
• The Riley Guide’s internships page offers many other resources and organizations - http://www.rileyguide.com/intern.html
• DCinternNet.  Sign up for the free daily e-tip and list of internships with deadlines soon, or view them online.

Note: I hold the copyright to my Washington Post articles and much of my other writing. If you’d like to republish a piece on your website, please contact me for details and rates.