Photo: Matthew RalstonIn 1996 when she first walked onto her set, Rosie was the 34-year-old single mother of one adopted son. She'd already shown her talent on TV (as a VH1 veejay) and in movies (as the loudmouthed third baseman Doris Murphy in 1992's A League of Their Own), but she wasn't exactly a household name. And though everyone close to her knew she was gay, it wasn't something she talked about on TV.

RELATED: Watch a Sneak Peak of The Rosie Show

Fifteen years later, Rosie is the mother of four children-Parker, 16, Chelsea, 14, Blake, 11, and Vivi, 8-and a vocal champion of gay rights. She came out to the world in 2002, by which time she'd been with her partner, Kelli Carpenter, for almost five years (the couple would later marry, in San Francisco). After leaving her TV show that same year, Rosie retreated to her home in Nyack, New York, to be a full-time mom-a dream she'd had since losing her own mother to cancer when she was only 10. But life, she says, "didn't go according to script." She and

Read More »from Rosie O'Donnell and Oprah Talk About Reentering the Spotlight

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By Meghan Casserly

You can pick your friends; you can pick your job. But you can't pick your colleagues any more than you can the next assignment to come down from upper management. It's no surprise, then, that not every colleague is a good one. A recent study cosponsored by TODAY.com and SELF.com revealed that 84% of women have a friend who is "toxic" in their lives-and many of them are found on the job.

And when workplace friendships go sour, job performance can suffer. One in four people in the survey said that ending a workplace friendship at work left them in a strained "working" relationship as well.

Read More »from Toxic Colleagues: Nine Coworkers To Watch Out For

By Amy Levin-Epstein for CBS MoneyWatch.com

With hiring all but at a standstill, job seekers can't afford to miss any tools available for promoting themselves. And according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is the newest way that employers are reaching potential employees. So if your Facebook page is just a way to stay in touch with friends from high school, you're missing a great opportunity.

-- 4 Things NOT to Share with HR

-- Biggest LinkedIn Mistakes You're Probably Making

-- 6 Things Never to Post on Facebook

-- 9 Great Job Interview Tricks

-- 6-Figure Dream Jobs You Can Actually Get

The first step is hiding personal information, especially wall posts, through stringent privacy settings - for example, by specifying that tagged photos of you are visible only to you.

Then, develop the rest of your page to appeal to recruiters that might be using Facebook to find Read More »from Job Hunting? 9 Changes for Your Facebook Profile

by Brynn Mannino

Looking to earn a few extra dollars in the pre-holiday months? If so, you may want to consider applying for a seasonal job. Not just a great opportunity to supplement your regular income, period-specific positions like these are also a smart way to explore an industry, expand your skill set and network. "[It] could lead to something bigger down the road," says Kerry Hannon, author of What's Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job and job columnist for AARP.org. From summer gardening centers to tax preparation services, here are 11 industries that hire temporary employees throughout the year.

Fall

Halloween Stores

During Halloween season, party stores are looking for employees as fervently as their customers are looking for costumes. Party City, for example, hires 15 to 50 extra Halloween sales associates per average-size store; the associates take on a variety of roles, including cashier, greeter, roadside character, customer service and stock

Read More »from 11 Seasonal Jobs You Might Not Know About

Coolhaus co-founder and CEO Natasha Case turned her recession woes into something sweet. She jumped full-time into her hobby of making gourmet ice cream sandwiches after her job at Disney dried up. "I didn't look back…I just sort of went for it."

Related: Retail success started in a dorm room

Case approached her friend, Freya Estreller, who was then working in real estate development for a private equity fund, with the idea of launching an ice cream truck business. After talking it through and running the numbers, Estreller was on board. She recalls thinking, "Let's give it a shot! Let's reinvent the ice cream cone."

Not everyone was so enthused. The women's parents were skeptical. They had invested time and money into supporting the development of their daughters' professional careers. Case had been in architecture school for seven years before getting the job at Disney. "My parents were concerned…they kind of had a little intervention with me. Like, 'what are you

Read More »from Friends ditch careers to reinvent the ice cream truck

Photo Credit Jonathan ExleyBy Patricia Sellers, FORTUNE

What is the No. 1 trait that has led to your success?

Warren Buffett's is focus-according to Alice Schroeder, author of the Buffett bio Snowball, who spoke, as I did, at a corporate event at the U.S. Open last week.

Getting ready to go on stage, I thought, what's my key trait? Curiosity, I guess. It keeps a journalist alive and open to ideas.

So I was innately curious to interview Billie Jean King that afternoon at the Open. As soon as we took the stage, to the blare of Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" and a standing ovation for the tennis champ, I asked her what is her No. 1 trait. "I love people," she replied.

It wasn't the answer I expected, and I didn't understand it at the time. Though it is an appropriate one for this audience, which was convened by Adecco (AHEXY), the global staffing giant. ("Did you customize your answer?" I asked. King swore she did not.)

For the next hour, King rushed the net, interview-wise-volleying

Read More »from Billie Jean King's surprising secret to success

The job market may be tight, but you can be a winner.
-Dr. Anne K. Gross, BettyConfidential.com

job interview

You buy a new suit. You sprinkle your resume with flavorful verbs. You wake up every morning with a renewed sense of optimism. But the phone never rings, the suit stays hanging in your closet, and you end each day with a feeling of failure. You're looking for a job, and no matter how hard you try, you can't keep up your sense of self-esteem.

In search of help, you Google self-esteem and job search. Article after article admonishes you to think positive thoughts, to "surround yourself with positive people." Expert after expert warns you that the worst thing you can do is let your positivity wane, for nothing decreases your possibility of success more than a deflated self-image. You now feel worse, for not only do you blame yourself for not landing that perfect position, but you add insult to injury by berating yourself for feeling down.

Don't worry; you are not alone. Most of

Read More »from How to Keep Up Your Self-Esteem While Job Searching

President Obama on Thursday urged Congress to pass his $447 billion American Jobs Act to help a flailing economy where unemployment still hovers around 9 percent. Many people are out of work, while others who are still employed are hoping they're not the next wave of people to get the pink slip.
We turn to Peter Sheahan branding expert, author of Making It Happen: Turning Good Ideas Into Great Results, and CEO of ChangeLabs.

For those of you fearing a pink slip or looking for a job, respond in three ways:
1) Get narrow (2) Get clear (3) Get moving


Narrow: When bosses are watching their dollars, they much clearer about their needs and much more discerning about who they hire or partner with to solve them. Pre-2008, we may have said, "I need some smart young MBA to help keep us on the edge." Today, they are likely to say, "We need a lateral hire with very specific skills in the area of data and analytics to exploit the opportunity we have with Client X."
As a result, if we want to take

Read More »from 3 job tips that work when times are tough