2010 Best Companies rank: 2
Current openings: 631
Financial advisors and branch office administrators.

What are you looking for?
For financial advisors, we look for… self-starters who enjoy working with and helping other people. For branch office administrators… we look for energetic individuals who can take the initiative to anticipate client and financial advisor needs.

Any secrets to impressing your recruiter?
For financial advisors: Our recruiters approach each candidate from a career management standpoint, attempting to ensure each candidate has a solid understanding of the work, the emphasis on putting clients’ interests first and the appropriate commitment level to be successful.

For branch office administrators: Our recruiters are impressed with a candidate’s past work experience and stability or loyalty with past employers. We look for an affable personalityto meet and greet our clients. –Interview with Regina DeLuca-Imral, spokeswoman

Read more http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/fortune/1001/gallery.bestcompanies_mosthiring.fortune/index.html

Courtesy Bridgestar

Looking for a job in a down economy is tough, but seeking a nonprofit position presents unique challenges. Some job seekers use a downturn as a time of self-reflection and discover that pursuing a transition to the nonprofit world might be right for them. At the same time, while many nonprofits are seeing an increase in demand for services, they are also tightening their belts to weather the uncertain economy.

To get a better understanding of what nonprofits are looking for in candidates’ resumes today, we talked with Karen DeMay, a senior director on the Bridgespan Group’s executive search team who has worked closely with dozens of nonprofits .

In this economy, is the nonprofit sector hiring?

Karen DeMay: Yes, hiring continues. We’re seeing a lot of finance and development opportunities because of the heightened focus on cash flow and budgets, but also positions for executive directors and some for program people. Hiring has not stopped — the work still has to get done. In those unfortunate cases where organizations really have to look at all of their people and perhaps let the lowest performers go, they may have capacity to bring on more bench strength.

We’ve seen hiring freezes. For example, some organizations say, ‘OK, we’re freezing hiring for six months.’ But they then realize they really do need to bring people on board, so they resume their recruiting. So, I guess the message to the job seeker is: An organization may say it has a hiring freeze, but don’t necessarily write it off for six months. There might be an opportunity sooner than you think.

How competitive is the job market now compared to a year ago?

KD: There’s more competition, particularly in finance and development, and for the executive director and chief executive officer roles. Not only are there more people looking for jobs, but the challenges that senior managers will need to tackle in this economic environment are more complicated. This makes finding the right candidate even more critical for a nonprofit and increases demands on candidates to demonstrate their management expertise in the application and interview process.

How can job seekers make themselves stand out?

KD: All of the things that make a senior manager successful in a nonprofit — being able to manage through influence; being able to work with a variety of disparate stakeholders; managing with minimal resources; and the ability to work in a consensus-driven environment — all of those things become even more important in this environment because of the pressure and uncertainty that nonprofits are facing.

You need to go back to basics and be really clear about what you bring to the organization, your strengths and your achievements. Be clear about metrics around those achievements — that really helps you get noticed. For example, if you oversaw a cost-cutting program, give the details of what you did and how much it saved the organization. You also need to recognize that organizations conducting searches have to look at many more applicants, so the labor involved in their searches is much higher, and you should focus on distinguishing yourself in your job search. Look at those jobs where you have a compelling interest in the mission of the organization, where your background really meets the needs of the job, and where you know you can serve the organization and its mission.

What really jumps off the resume for nonprofit employers during a recession?

KD: If you’re a bridger (someone making the transition from for-profit to nonprofit work), you certainly want to highlight any nonprofit board experience you have, making clear if it was volunteer experience. If you’ve been on a fundraising committee of a board, that would be important to highlight. Executive directors and CEOs are thinking about their cash flow and their revenue projections. Demonstrating that you have capability around fundraising will get you noticed.

Another skill to highlight is the ability to reduce costs. If you come in from another organization where you were tasked with tightening a budget, saying that very clearly will get you noticed. If you have had the experience of reorganizing staff, reorganizing processes, or reorganizing programs or any type of reorganizing with an eye toward cost-cutting, you should point that out, too.

An ability to focus on core programs is another skill leaders will notice. They’re going to be looking at ’What is central and core to our mission and what are the extra things we are doing?’ Past experience in tightening an organization, from finding out the cost of human resources programs to budgeting…all of those things should be highlighted.

Another thing to underscore in your experience is if you had situations where an environment changed quickly and you’ve been able to respond to an unusual market force by successfully moving in a different direction. Show an example where you have demonstrated nimbleness. Given the uncertainty of the economic environment, some organizations may be looking for a person who has more of a risk tolerance at this point — someone who is accustomed to working in an ambiguous situation and even embraces ambiguity and challenge. If you have been in an entrepreneurial environment previously and have been successful — whether it’s a for-profit or a nonprofit — you should point that out. The experience could be a start-up or starting a new program within an organization.

We’re [also] seeing a lack of interest in relocating because of the poor housing market. If you can relocate, then that could work to your advantage. You would have to meet the requirements of the job, but if you can relocate, you may have an edge.

Do you think the current nonprofit job market is even more challenging for bridgers?

KD: I think [in-sector experience] makes a difference, particularly on the finance side because of the reporting involved and with grants. There’s always scrutiny about reporting to foundations, the government and corporations. Chief financial officer experience in a nonprofit setting could be critical, coupled with great performance at a past organization. On the other hand, there might be some valuable experience that bridgers offer in terms of cost-cutting and rigorous operational procedures, and strategies focusing on the core operations and reengineering of process. They can add a lot of value to organizations.

[Bridgestar, an initiative of the Bridgespan Group, provides nonprofit management content and tools designed to help nonprofit organizations build strong leadership teams and individuals pursue career paths as nonprofit leaders.]

If you’re laid off, resist the urge to curl up in a corner and lick your wounds — or to sit at your computer doing nothing but sifting through online ads and articles all day. Instead, reach out. The need to let others help — the central message of my book Who’s Got Your Back — is the single most overlooked insight when it comes to conventional wisdom about job searching.

Think of it this way: Just as you had colleagues at your office, you now need colleagues for your new position — Managing Director of Job Acquisition. In particular, you need a certain subset of colleagues who are mutually committed to your success and who will stand by your side to make sure you don’t fail. These are what I call lifeline relationships in Who’s Got Your Back.

While you may not already have a roster of lifelines in your professional life — and by the way, there’s no better time to get started — chances are you already have friends or associates who can be of service. Here are a few suggestions for tapping them to help you get that next gig.

1. Ask for Candor: Have friends scrutinize every aspect of the package you present to potential employers — from your cover letter and resume to the outfits you wear to interviews. Even the most self-aware among us need the broader perspective that comes with candid feedback. Many friends aren’t used to being asked for total honesty, so make sure they understand that’s what you want. If they care about you, they’ll dish. Let them know you think their candor could make the difference.

2. Build Your Work Plan Together: Staying motivated and proactive in your job search isn’t easy, particularly if you relied on bosses and colleagues to provide structure to your work in the past. You may feel like you’ve been thrown into the void. Friends can help. Sit down with someone you respect and who has “high executive functioning” — the ability to break down projects into detailed work plans. Have that person help you build a daily schedule that includes research, networking, cold calls and follow-up calls.

3. Ask Friends for Accountability: Once you’ve got your plan, set up daily or weekly email check-ins with a friend who will hold you accountable to sticking to it. Find a partner who wants you to do the same for him: He may not be looking for a job, but we all have goals that could be served by an accountability buddy. If the need for accountability is mutual, your buddy’s investment in the process will be stronger.

4. Create Your Own Friendly PR Firm: Studies have shown that close friends aren’t usually the ones who find you a new job — it’s the friends of your friends who reach a broad enough circle to overlap with your employment needs. So ask friends to become your own personal PR machine, spreading the word about your talents to their larger circle wherever it’s appropriate, such as on social networking sites, among colleagues, at their church picnic or in their book club.

5. Use Your Unique Currency — Time: That’s one thing you’ve got that no one else does, so use it wisely. Obviously, concentrate on your job-specific outreach, but also use it to build broader relationships. Constantly seek opportunities to use your free time and talent to help people you know and people you don’t know. And don’t ruin your efforts by keeping score. Doing so is deeply inauthentic and turns stomachs like cheap cologne.

6. The Fun Factor: Don’t get so goal-oriented during your job search that you forget to let loose and have a good time. Retreating into isolation will leave you unhappy and unproductive, so ask your friends to keep your dance card full. Find ways to make your job search social — AKA “party with purpose” — but also find and create activities completely outside your professional goals. Bottom line: Your life is happening right now, not the day you’re assigned a company computer. Don’t forget to live it.

Not all of your friends will be up to the task of making a deep commitment to helping you out, but some of them certainly will be, and asking is the only way you’ll find out. In doing so, you’ll have taken a giant first step toward creating those lifeline relationships — an inner circle of deep, trusting friends and colleagues who will do everything imaginable to help you succeed.

When it comes to connecting with the right job opportunity, timing isn’t everything, but it’s certainly something. Tuning into industries’ and employers’ annual recruitment cycles just might give you a decisive edge.

That’s the consensus of recruiters and employers with fingers on the pulse of seasonal variations in hiring. Here’s a quarter-by-quarter summary of how these hiring dynamics play out.

First Quarter: A New Year’s Wave of Hiring

Sometimes peaks of hiring correspond with workplace factors that are only loosely related, like when people take vacation. “Hiring seems to be done by consensus more than any other decision,” says Scott Testa, chief operating officer of Mindbridge Software in Norristown, Pennsylvania. “So most hiring decisions have to be made when people are in the office.”

Major hiring initiatives may follow close on the heels of the holidays and summer. “The big months for hiring are January and February, and late September and October,” says Testa. “Job seekers who make contact right at the start of these cycles have the best chance of being hired.”

Strong hiring periods like the first quarter, when demand for talent may outweigh the supply of qualified candidates, may be a good time to go for a job with more responsibility or higher pay. “If you’re currently employed and looking to improve your status, you’ll want to look during the peak hiring season,” says Glenn Smith, president of search firm Precise Strategies in O’Fallon, Illinois.

Second Quarter: Gearing Up for Summer

For those whose livelihood depends substantially on fair weather, spring is when hiring peaks. In the construction industry, hiring in April, May and June proceeds at double the pace of December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).

Tourism and hospitality hiring is also very strong in the spring. And businesses looking to hire professional workers before fall often do so now, before key decision makers start rotating out for summer vacation.

Third Quarter: Recruiters Relax a Bit, and Vacation Plays a Role

Hiring slows down in July before picking up at the end of August. For those with nontraditional but impressive employment backgrounds, there’s an advantage to looking in relatively slow hiring months like July and December, says Smith.

For example, recruiters, less pressed for time than in peak months, may be willing to take a longer look at an experienced professional woman seeking to return to work after taking years off to care for children.

Fourth Quarter: A Rush, Then a Lull

The fourth quarter presents the most complex hiring dynamics of the year, with its mix of fall activity, holiday retail hiring, Thanksgiving-to-New Year’s slowdown, and end-of-year financial and budget maneuvering.

“Hiring managers and bank CEOs will typically try to reduce their operating profits by incurring search fees towards the end of each year, to avoid paying taxes,” says Josiah Whitman, an executive recruiter with Financial Placements of Lake Oswego, Oregon. His firm’s job orders are distributed this way: first quarter, 23 percent; second quarter, 21 percent; third quarter, 20 percent; fourth quarter, 36 percent.

Although December hiring is at low levels in many industries, recruiters are determined to fill the year’s remaining openings by December 31, and the supply of applicants dwindles as Christmas and the new year approach.

Major industries classified as information, financial services, and professional and business services, having hired heavily in the second quarter, see their lowest level of hiring in December, says JOLTS.

But December isn’t as slow as it used to be, say some observers. And applications tend to slow down during the holiday season more than openings do — tipping the balance in favor of those who do apply.

“It seems that business just keeps going through the holidays,” says John Challenger, CEO of outplacement and search firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago. “There doesn’t seem to be the kind of letup that there used to be.”

So playing the recruitment peaks doesn’t mean waiting out the rest of the year. “You need to be out there looking for opportunities, not finding excuses to avoid looking,” says Tom Johnston, CEO of SearchPath International in Cleveland.

The end of your college sports team days doesn’t have to mean the end of playing your favorite game. You can take your love of nearly any sport into overtime by landing a job in a sports-related profession. A communications major who played baseball — just not well enough to land a spot on a professional team — will still head to the ball field everyday if he’s working in the publicity department for a pro team. A career in sports medicine will have science and pre-med majors working with athletes all day. And sporting-goods manufacturers can be excellent employers for jocks of all types.

Employers want the skills jocks learn playing sports, says Randy Gartz, vice president of permanent placement services for Robert Half International in Menlo Park, California. “Some of the key hiring qualifications requested by employers in today’s market include leadership, perseverance, dedication to continuous improvement and strategic thinking, all of which you learn early and often in athletics,” he says.

Employers are also looking for professionals who work well with others, inspire those around them and show calm under pressure. “People who have excelled in sports are consistently put in situations that require quick thinking and the ability to comprehend concepts instantaneously, which aids them in accelerating their career,” Gartz adds.

Searching for jobs on Monster can help you find jobs related to a single sport. Start at the Job Search page, and use your sport as your key search term. For example, a recent search using “soccer” as the key search term pulled up jobs posted by a company with its own soccer field, one that promises you’ll get home in time for soccer practice as well as an indoor soccer arena.

Here are seven great jobs for jocks, suggestions for how to search Monster for those jobs and a glimpse at what they pay.

1. Athletic Trainer

You can still be at the big game — just on the sidelines ready to help injured student athletes — when you work as a collegiate athletic trainer. Start out as an assistant athletic trainer and you’ll earn about $39,879. Move up to head trainer, and your salary will rise to approximately $52,230, according to the Salary Wizard. Find a job as an athletic trainer.

2. Corporate Communications Manager for a Sports-Related Company

Put your powers of persuasion to work when you share your love of sports as a communications manager for a sports-related company. Great written and oral communication skills and a marketing or public relations degree will help you create plans that bolster the brand and support marketing efforts. The average communications manager earns about $86,342, according to the Salary Wizard. Find a job as a corporate communications manager.

3. Event Marketing Associate for a Sports Company

Put on entertaining events for a sports magazine or other sports-related company as an event marketing associate. You’ll work with advertising sales, public relations, creative services, client marketing, legal and the business office. On average, meeting and special-event planners earn approximately $53,741, according to the Salary Wizard. Find a job in event marketing.

4. College Coach

You can stay in college sports forever when you become a sports coach of a major college team. Start out as an assistant coach earning about $48,086. Move up to an estimated $66,196 when you’re the head coach, according to the Salary Wizard. Those who coach minor sports earn about 25 percent a year less than those who coach major sports. Search for coaching positions at all levels.

5. Gym Teacher

If you like children, you can get paid to play sports all day by getting a teaching certificate, and then landing a job as a physical education teacher. The average salary for US teachers is about $50,288, according to the Salary Wizard. Find a job teaching gym.

6. Wall Street Sales and Trading

College athletes have the reflexes and confidence to do well in this very high-pressure environment. “They’re comfortable going with their gut instinct, and there’s a fit culturally,” says Patrick Perrella, senior associate director of MBA career development for the University of Notre Dame. Typical starting salaries for the athletes he’s placed in sales and trading positions are about $95,000 and the bonuses for successful fixed-income, equities, commodities and foreign-exchange traders are “enormous,” he adds. Find a sales and trading job.

7. Sports Medicine

If you were intrigued by what you experienced when you were injured playing your sport, consider working with patients as a sports medicine physician or nurse. Salaries for sports medicine MDs average approximately $235,566; salaries for RNs average $62,163. Find jobs in sports medicine.

Job hunting becomes harder than usual when you have to confine your search geographically. But you can find a job under such constraints with the right strategy.

Start Sooner Rather Than Later, Especially If You’re Moving

After graduating from Brown University in 2004, Stephanie Harris looked for a job long distance for about four months, “doing interviews over the phone and squeezing them in during one trip out to California to visit my fiance.” She used Monster Job Search Agents to monitor listings for publishing positions in Orange County, California — a strategy that resulted in a few solid nibbles but no offers.

Still, by the time she moved early that August, she already had a pretty good sense of the types of publishing companies and jobs there. So in November, when she saw a Monster job ad from Entrepreneur Media, she suspected the position and organization would be a good fit.

“The job description just happened to match perfectly with my duties at an internship the previous summer, and so I applied online,” says Harris. “I got the job [marketing associate for Entrepreneur Press, the company's book publishing division], and I’m very happy with it.”

Tap Local Job Search Resources

Many communities offer some job search resources. For starters, every state has a government department devoted to labor and workforce issues. Most of these agencies offer Web sites that list local job opportunities. You can also search by location on Monster.

But don’t just search on the Web, stresses Liz Ryan, CEO of WorldWIT, a free online network for professional women in business and technology.

“Find all the local job search resources you can,” says Ryan. For example, “purchase a copy of [your target city's local business publication's] annual ‘Top Local Employers’ list. This list is invaluable for learning a lot about the top employers in your city.”

Network Using a Variety of Methods

Networking is vital to your success in finding a job in a limited geographic area, says Marcia Merrill, president of eCareerCorner.com and a former career counselor at Loyola College. You can begin by attending local chamber of commerce events, Merrill says, or by asking your school’s career center to help you get in touch with alums in your target city.

You can also add a bit more creativity to your networking strategy. “[A former student] went to a company’s Web site, found bios of several employees and saw that one of them lived near his hometown,” says Merrill. “So he called that person, and the guy was so impressed, he brought [the student] in for an interview.” Four days and three more interviews later, the student was hired.

“Networking is the best way to get a job anywhere, but even more so when your geography is limited,” says Robert Zuckman, president of publishing company Zenergy Interactive.

Ryan stresses the importance of telling everyone about your job search, “from the people at your gym to the people at church,” not to mention the people you might meet through organizations like WorldWIT and the local chapters of industry professional associations.

If you follow this advice, your geographic limitations will eventually give way to interview invitations and the job you really want — where you want it.

A resume refresher doesn’t need to be painful. And your efforts could pay off with big dividends. Arm yourself with an updated, high-octane resume, and 2009 could be the year that you land a better job.

Now is a great time to reflect on your recent accomplishments and add them to your resume. Let these ideas guide you.

Find Your Passion

Make sure your resume instantly communicates your career target with a descriptive headline (e.g., “CPA Backed by Corporate Audit Experience”) and adequately reflects your depth and breadth of experience in a brief, hard-hitting opening objective highlighting your top selling points.

If you’re thinking about changing careers or industries, be sure you’ve clearly defined your goal. Your job search will be more successful if your resume targets a specific field instead of being a one-size-fits-all document. Research positions to gain a solid understanding of what you want to do as well as the qualifications employers are seeking. Once you identify your career target, assess your background and identify transferable skills and experience that will enable success. Add an opening objective that spells out your goals and shows the relevance of past experience. For example: “Award-winning educator seeking to leverage five years of teaching experience to transition into corporate training.”

Add New Employment, Skills and Accomplishments

Refreshing your resume also means keeping it current. If you’ve changed jobs during the past year, earned a promotion or expanded responsibilities, your resume should reflect this. Even if you’ve remained in the same position, you’ve probably achieved noteworthy accomplishments in the last year.

Don’t forget about your new skills, including technical and computer ones. Add your new skills to the Skills section on Monster’s Resume Builder. Survey your Skills section to ensure your proficiency level and years of experience are current.

Keep Keywords Up-to-Date

Industry-specific jargon, buzzwords and technology keep changing, and your resume should be rich with these keywords. Study job postings on Monster that match your career target, and note which keywords appear repeatedly. Incorporate those keywords that match your background into your resume.

Include New Professional Activities

Add professional-development activities you completed last year, including certificates, degrees, courses and in-service training. Also include organizations joined and industry conferences attended. List training programs you’ve begun, even if you haven’t completed them. This shows your commitment to ongoing professional development.

Edit Ruthlessly

As you add new information to your resume, also consider the usefulness of older or less relevant experience. This will ensure your resume doesn’t become unwieldy. Unless you want to return to a former career, decrease the amount of detail you provide for older experience. For job seekers with 10 years of experience or more, this may mean setting up an Early Career section, where you briefly summarize employers, job titles and employment dates. Other expendable items include obsolete technology and your high school diploma once you’ve earned a college degree.

Proofread your resume carefully to ensure it’s error-free. Watch for information that needs to be updated from previous versions. For example, if your old resume included a summary that stated your years of experience, increase this number if necessary.

Start a Kudos File

Resolve to start a file for projects and successes you achieve during the year. Copy performance reviews and keep them in this file. Print out complimentary or congratulatory emails and file these away. List new committees you join. Jot down assignments you complete during the year. Include details of quantifiable results (e.g., percentages, dollar amounts, before/after comparisons) of your efforts while still fresh in your mind. Your kudos file will remind you where you excelled so you’ll be ready to punch up your resume.

Update Regularly

You should refresh your resume throughout the year, not just at the beginning. You never know when opportunity may come knocking.

It may be summer, but it’s cold out there: Thousands of companies of all sizes have frozen hiring and salaries, putting many workers’ earnings expectations on ice for the time being.

But many employers continue to make job offers even as they reduce overall headcount. More than 4 million hires were made in April 2009, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

So what’s it like to enter a salary negotiation in these gloomy times, and how can you make the best of a bad situation? Let’s take a look at the frigid compensation landscape and then get some expert advice on how to navigate this terrain.

Pay Freezes, Reductions, Uncertainties Abound

Salary trends in 2009 are dismal, but not uniformly so.

Whereas professionals in marketing, finance and sales are suffering declines in pay, positions in manufacturing, information technology and engineering are showing modest increases of up to 2 percent, according to Mercer’s June 2009 Market Pulse Report.

About one-third of companies covered in the Mercer report are projecting salary freezes for 2009, a powerful show of cost containment. But a Watson Wyatt survey indicates an even larger shift: Companies reporting salary freezes rocketed from 4 percent in October 2008 to 60 percent in April 2009; firms reducing pay jumped from 2 percent to 21 percent over the same period.

Whether corporate workers will be made whole in the long run is an open question, according to the Watson Wyatt report. Of responding employers that have cut pay, 37 percent say they will eventually reinstate salary levels and build from there; 19 percent say they’ll permanently retrench and build on current, reduced salaries; and 44 percent say it’s too soon to decide.

Recognize the Realities of the Recession

Before you take your seat at the negotiating table, consider what you’ve got going for you and what you don’t. Given the severe recession, “candidates need to be cautious about how demanding they are in negotiations,” says Susan Haberman, Mercer’s US regional leader for information product solutions. No matter what your house payment, many employers simply can’t pay you more than they are offering.

But if you’re negotiating from a position of strength, there may be hope. “The fundamental dynamics of negotiation haven’t changed — your leverage has changed,” says Robert Hellmann, a career coach and adjunct professor at New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. “Can you walk away from the opportunity? Can you be easily replaced? Have other things in the works so that you can walk away.”

How to Make Your Case

In these times, should you consider a salary offer or raise to be final? “It couldn’t be easier: You pretty much just say yes,” says Athar Siddiqee, strategic client services executive at Salary.com, which powers Monster.com’s Salary Wizard.

But even with more qualified candidates on the market than usual, “a significant number of people are counteroffering, but they’re not nearly as aggressive as they used to be,” Siddiqee says.

Don’t be afraid to make the business case for a higher number, says Ford Myers, author of Get the Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring. “Tell a lot of accomplishment stories backed by quantifiable results,” he says. “Show that you understand the employer’s needs and challenges, and think ahead of time about proposed solutions.”

If a final salary offer comes up a little short “but it’s a good job with a great company, consider asking for an accelerated performance and salary review in six months,” Myers says. “Be sure to get a specific offer of future consideration in writing.”

Don’t Short-Sell Yourself

Keep in mind that in good times and bad, top candidates for critical positions are in demand. “It isn’t worth it for a company to nickel-and-dime you and lose a good candidate,” Siddiqee says.

When will labor-market conditions improve for workers at the bargaining table? “Based upon our conversations with clients, we’ll continue to see organizations be extraordinarily conservative through 2009,” Haberman says. “In 2010, we may see increases at a modest level.”

You may look good on paper or in your suit, but if you’re looking to nail your big interview, looks aren’t everything. How you sound is often more important. But many job seekers let careless speech habits sink their chances of landing that plum job.

Here are six common language mistakes and how to keep them from sabotaging your interview:

1. Non-words

Filler words such as “um,” “ah,” “you know,” “OK” or “like” tell the interviewer you’re not prepared and make you sound like a Valley Girl (or Boy). A better strategy is to think before you speak, taking pauses and breaths when you lose your train of thought. Everybody utters an occasional “um,” but don’t let it start every sentence.

2. “Up-Talk”

A singsong or rising inflection at the end of every sentence creates a tentative impression and makes it sound as though you’re asking a question instead of making a definitive statement. You need to speak with conviction when selling yourself in an interview. Bring your intonation down when ending a sentence to avoid talking up.

3. Grammatical Errors

The interviewer may question your education when you use incorrect grammar or slang. Expressions such as “ain’t” “she don’t,” “me and my friend” and “so I goes to him” aren’t appropriate. Be sure you speak in complete sentences and that tenses agree. The interview is not the venue for regional expressions or informality.

4. Sloppy Speech

Slurring words together or dropping their endings impairs the clarity of your message. To avoid slurring and increase understanding, speak slowly during an interview. Make a list of commonly mispronounced words, and practice saying them into a tape recorder before the interview. Some common incorrect pronunciations include “aks” for “ask,” “ath a lete” for “athlete,” “wif” for “with” and “dree” for “three.”

5. Speed Talking

While everybody is a bit anxious during an interview, you don’t want your information to fly by like a speeding bullet. A rapid speaking rate is difficult to follow, and speed talkers are seen as nervous. Slow down your racing heart by doing some breathing exercises before the interview. To avoid rushing, listen to the question, and then count two beats in your head before answering. When you finish a sentence, count two beats again before continuing. Don’t be afraid of silence. Pausing is an effective communication technique. The interviewer needs a few seconds to process what you just said anyway.

6. Weak Speak

Wimpy words modify or water down your conviction and in the end your position. When you pepper a conversation with “hopefully,” “perhaps,” “I feel,” “kind of” and “sort of,” the message you convey is a lack of confidence. Use power words such as “I’m confident that,” “my track record shows,” “I take the position that,” “I recommend” or “my goal is.” The language you use gives the listener an impression about your level of confidence and conviction.

The Bottom Line

You don’t have to study elocution to speak well. Simply slow down, take time to pronounce all the syllables, and leave slang at home.

Companies want job candidates who are well-spoken and articulate, and recruiters won’t represent a job candidate if they don’t match the client’s profile. According to Lori Zelman, vice president of human resources at Strategic Workforce Solutions in New York City, “The people most highly sought after are the ones who are succinct in the explanation of their work experience.”

We’ve all been there. It’s a beautiful day, and you can’t bear the thought of going into work. So you call in with some excuse about feeling ill, but you know in your bones that your boss doesn’t buy it.

The feeling ill excuse is a short-term solution that won’t win you any fans at the office — someone else will have to pick up the slack, or you’ll miss deadlines. And it won’t help your career any. Here are 10 excuses — five smart and five not-so-smart — to help you save face and your sanity.

Smart Excuses

* I’ve Earned It: No one can argue with performance. Come in two or three hours early — or stay late — for a week or two. Then negotiate a day off in advance. “Really work when you’re there, so you’ll be able to feel good about taking time off,” says Andrea Nierenberg, president of The Nierenberg Group, a management consulting and personal marketing practice.
* I’m Playing Golf with a Client: For this one to work, you’ve got to have a job that requires you to meet and court current and prospective clients. Neil Simpkins, an account executive at Oxford Communications, has used this one successfully. One note of caution: Meet the client; don’t just say you did.
* I Have a Doctor’s Appointment: This excuse will get you out of work for a half-day or so. Make the appointment first thing in the morning or late in the day, say around 3 p.m. You can leave the office by 2:30 p.m. and get home (hopefully) by 4 p.m. The shortened day will help you recharge, especially if you schedule it on a Friday afternoon.
* I Have Cramps: Before you dismiss this one, think about it: Who can argue? “It’s such an embarrassing topic that nobody will ever challenge it,” says Jennifer Newman, vice president of Lippe Taylor Public Relations. She has used this excuse — and had it used on her — successfully. “It’s one of those things that men honestly have no clue about, and women can sympathize with.” One important point: Don’t use this one if you’re a man. It’ll never work.
* I’m Working from Home: This is an excellent way to give yourself a break if your company allows it. Although you’ll need to do some work, you can generally get away with a shortened day. And you’ll eliminate your commuting time.

Not-So-Smart Excuses

* There’s a Death in the Family: Don’t ever use this excuse if it’s not true. Your employer will lose all trust in you. “I had an employee whose mother died — twice,” says David Wear, a Virginia PR executive. “He also had the misfortune of losing all his grandparents — 12 of them — during a two-year period.”
* I’m Too Sleepy: When she was a manager at IBM, Marilynn Mobley heard it all. This one still makes her laugh: The employee apparently took Tylenol 3 with codeine instead of a vitamin, because the bottles looked alike.
* I Can’t Get My Car Out of the Garage: This is another one that Mobley didn’t buy. An employee said that a power failure was preventing him from opening his power-operated garage door. “I reminded him that there’s a pull chain on it for just such cases,” she says.
* I Can’t Find My Polling Place: Mary Dale Walters, a communications specialist at CCH Inc., couldn’t believe this one. A former employee needed an entire day to figure out where she had to go to vote in the 1996 presidential election.
* I Have a Personal Emergency: This one is so vague that it rarely works. It could mean anything from fatigue to an appointment with your hairdresser, and your boss knows it.

Don’t lie, no matter which excuse you use. “I’m not a believer in playing hooky, because it always comes back to you,” Nierenberg says. “Don’t lie to your boss, your supervisor or your clients. You’re guaranteed they will be the ones you’ll run into while you’re walking down the street in your jeans.”