By Patrick Doyle

Most people think they know the keys to career success: Keep your head down and nose to the grindstone. Avoid personal, emotional, or awkward subjects (in fact, any elephant in the room) at all costs. Well, guess again. Here, experts reveal five on-the-job maxims that are worth challenging.

Stay Away From Emotional Topics
In my opinion, you should always bring a problem out into the open, even if it's personal, difficult, or awkward. Say you and a colleague have different work styles or have clashed over a project, and as a result there is serious tension between the two of you. Tiptoeing around the issue may cause your productivity to suffer, so it's crucial that you confront your coworker. You can say, "You seem to dispute every point I make, and I don't understand. Did I do something to upset you?" If you talk about it, the situation won't spiral out of control or become a pattern.

Sean O'Neil is a management consultant based in Pelham, New York, and a

Read More »from 5 work rules you should break

By Amy Levin-Epstein for CBS MoneyWatch.com

Do you agonize over your resume, formatting and editing it just so, but leave your cover letter to the last minute? Dashing off a quick email and pressing "send" should be done for confirming Friday night drink plans - not for landing your dream job.

-- 4 Things NOT to Share with HR

-- Biggest LinkedIn Mistakes You're Probably Making

-- 20 Best-Paying College Degrees

-- 9 Great Job Interview Tricks

-- Dream Jobs: 6-Figure Salaries You Can Actually Get

"Cover letters are interesting, in that so many people dismiss them as not important. They are an important sales tool," says Dale Mayer, author of Career Essentials: The Cover Letter. Here are her 4 no-fail steps to a "must-hire" cover letter:

1. Make It A Priority
Take the time to think about your message, craft it and refine it, just like you do with your resume or any other business document. Read More »from 4 Rules for a Great Cover Letter

Susan Gregg Koger, founder of the online vintage and indie designer clothing purveyor ModCloth, was born with bargain hunting in her DNA. "Growing up, my mom and my grandmother used to take me thrifting," she says. "They definitely taught me the thrill of the hunt and finding a great bargain."

The summer before she left home in Florida to attend Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Koger found herself thrift shopping "all the time" and amassing a collection of fabulous vintage items whether or not they actually fit her. Her boyfriend (now husband and business partner) suggested she start an e-commerce website. At summer's end, Koger loaded up her car with her finds, headed to school, and started ModCloth out of her dorm room.

She recalls, "The customer care number was just my cell phone number. I'd be in the library and have to sneak out and be like, 'Thank you for calling ModCloth. How can I help you?"

In 2005, after graduating from college with a degree in

Read More »from Retail success started in dorm room

Is working worth it if childcare puts you in the red?Mommyish, a parenting site recently launched by B5 Media, ran an interesting post yesterday titled, "My Babysitter Makes More Money Than I Do." In it, writer Angela Arsenault admits, "it costs me money each time I write one of these posts," but, she says, "I don't care, because sometimes this written thought is the only one I get to complete all day."

I understand where Arsenault is coming from. Often times the money I make from a stand-up set doesn't entirely cover the cost of childcare, but I'm so happy to be out of the house and doing what I love that I've learned to make it work. (I don't mean to brag, but comedians typically make anywhere from $20 to a whopping $25 for 10 minutes of work. Never mind that I have to invest three hours including travel time in order to do that 10 minute spot, which means I'm out $5 or $10 in babysitting money.) The idea of "paying to play" got me thinking about whether or not losing money on creative ventures is an integral part of the game, or if

Read More »from Could a Job Ever Be Worth Losing Money On?

By Sara Reistad-Long

Of the 37 percent of college-educated women who quit their jobs, many to raise children, 93 percent are ready to go back to work within about two years, according to data published in the Harvard Business Review. But by most accounts, trying to re-enter is highly stressful-from facing down the "What have you done lately?" question to shaking off the kind of insecurity that comes with years of speaking mainly toddlerese. And most women who find new jobs, research shows, end up taking a marked pay cut.

RELATED: Sign Up for Oprah's Lifeclass!

To the rescue, fortunately, is a whole new slew of crash courses specifically designed for reentering women. O checked out a few of them to wrangle some tricks of the trade.

RELATED: Resume Dos and Don'ts

1. Make a Life Map
Plan logistics like who your babysitter will be or what you'll do about dinner well before you start looking for a job. "A sense of preparedness will, however subtly, translate to confidence," says Monica

Read More »from 3 Ways to Get Your Career Back on Track After the Mommy Years

Source: 4 Ways Job Hunting Is Like Dating

Dating and job hunting both have their ups and downs, and sometimes both of them can feel like emotional rollercoasters. It's really hard to find a job that's just right for you, and the journey to find it can be as hard as looking for love. Here are a few ways finding your potential partner is just like looking for a job:

• There's a criteria. People have checklists in their heads for a potential partner and have certain criteria such as religion or family values. Keep in mind that your employer is also looking at you to see if you meet the requirements they're looking for. To get a better sense of the kind of person they want, carefully look at the job description, read more about the company and its culture if you can find information on it online, and look up LinkedIn profiles of people who hold similar positions in the same company.
• You wait by the phone. After the interview, you're left hanging and waiting for your potential

Read More »from 4 Ways Job Hunting Is Like Dating

By Annie Finnigan Turn Your Idea into a Business

You have a great idea and you're ready to dive in. But before you take the plunge, follow four steps that will save you time, money and a lot of heartache.

1. Imagine It

Figure out if this is really what you want to do.

"You don't have to have a passion for your particular product or service," says real estate guru and star of ABC's Shark Tank Barbara Corcoran. "But you must be excited about making your business a success, which gives you the stamina you need to get through the ups and downs."

Is the business a good fit with your life? To find out, try the U.S. Small Business Administration's Starting Up Assessment Tool, which evaluates your skills, personal traits and experience.

Take this quiz to find out what your undiscovered passion is.

2. Research It

To determine if your idea is a winner, you need to know if it fills a need, and if there is a market for it. You also need business sense. So talk to everybody. "Don't be afraid to

Read More »from Turn Your Idea into a Business

Twitter tales of job leads. (Thinkstock)By Amy Levin-Epstein for CBS MoneyWatch.com

I used to think of LinkedIn as a career tool, Facebook as a way to catch up with friends, and Twitter as an outlet for procrastinating. Over the six months I've been writing On The Job, however, I've learned how Facebook can help get you hired, and how we can all use LinkedIn more effectively.
I still had my doubts about the usefulness of Twitter, but I've discovered that Twitter can be a wonderful way to promote a work project, publicize your "brand" as a freelancer or small business owner, and learn about potential employers. Still, I wondered - can Twitter help you land an actual job? After putting feelers out, the resounding answer is yes!

-- 4 Things NOT to Share with HR

-- Biggest LinkedIn Mistakes You're Probably Making

-- 6 Things Never to Post on Facebook

-- Dream Jobs: 6-Figure Salaries You Can Actually Get

-- 9 Great Job Interview Tricks

Read More »from 5 True Tales: How Twitter Got Me Hired