It’s disturbingly easy to spend hours watching and responding to your Twitter stream—it’s as easy as spending hours applying to positions online, or as easy as spending far too much time Web surfing. We like the concept of spending 15 well-planned, solidly productive minutes a day on Twitter, at least initially, because it imposes a strategy and discipline that keeps you focused on the big picture—your job search—rather than the procrastinator’s playground of the Web.

These nine steps will make your 15-minute-a-day Twitter approach simple, swift, and strong:

• Know what you want to accomplish and track your progress. Monitor your momentum and value. Twitter provides instant feedback: You can tell if you are reaching your intended audience by the number of @replies, DMs, and retweets you receive. Who needs Nielsen research?

• Know your limits. What’s your attention span? Should you be tweeting at work? Do you get lost Web surfing? Are you easily distracted? Don’t let yourself get sidetracked dreaming of tweets while you are taking care of other things. Bookmark or star favorites online, and keep a notebook or file of topics and themes that you would like to tweet about later.

• What’s your best time to tweet and how often? When are most of your targets online? Are you going to break up your tweet times during the day? Are you going to tweet once a day? Of course, you’ll have a better chance of having your tweets seen if you tweet several times throughout the day or schedule tweets to be sent later. (If you are in an active job search, your Twitter time may be fundamentally different than using it for your job or for fun.)

• How will you schedule your tweets? You don’t need to be online to tweet. You can do so from your mobile device, or jot down what you want to share and tweet later.

• Find and create content. Tongue tied? You’re not alone. That’s often what halts people in their tracks as they begin to use Twitter. If you find yourself on the verge of tweeting about what you had for lunch, take the advice of Heidi Richards Mooney of SpeakingWithSpirit.com, who recommends getting up from your desk and getting a breath of fresh air.

• Find and follow people. Be selective about whom you follow. If you have too much information in your stream, you’ll miss much of it and risk overwhelm. Use Twitter Lists or Twitter APIs to organize and review your stream by follower, topic, and more.

• Share the glory. Maximize your time—and develop your community—by making it more about them and less about you. Don’t spend all your time creating your own tweets; participate in the community dialogue and disseminate ideas and news from others by retweeting.

• Don’t share too much! Don’t populate your entire Twitter stream with retweets or @replies. With too many retweets, people will think you don’t have anything to say, whereas too many conversational @replies will make people feel left out—neither of which are great impressions for a prospective hire.

• Give of yourself. Join @JobAngels and other philanthropic groups and give back when you can.  Watch for opportunities to offer a tip, insight, job lead, or helping hand.

Although much of the power (and fun) of Twitter is in its spontaneous conversation, there will also be times you’ll want to schedule tweets to go out later.  SocialOomph, formerly TweetLater, allows you to do just that. Set up an account (it’s free); then schedule a few tweets of an informative nature to go out throughout the day.

The Twitter Job Search Guide: Find a Job and Advance Your Career in Just 15 Minutes a Day is available at Amazon.com, in all major bookstores and from the publisher (www.jist.com or 1.800.648.JIST).  The authors are three of the career industry’s most renowned leaders. They possess extensive career and personal branding expertise and social media savvy and have empowered thousands of people across the nation to find good jobs more quickly.

The English sheepdogs who live on Manor farm find that they are charged with training some new foreign dogs who join them on the farm. They are eventually replaced by the newcomers and they need to find how the skills they learned in the country might be applied to life in the city.

Here is the moment when the new dogs arrive on the farm:

It was dawn. The piercing whistle of the farmer brought Winston, Charlie, and Blair running from the barn where they liked to sleep. The barn was more comfortable than the farmhouse, even though the farmer would never mind them entering the house. In the barn they had protection from the cold, the sun, fresh water, and just the occasional rat to chase when they were not working – the young rats that had yet to learn about avoiding the dogs.

The farmer was down by the house and he had three dogs there alongside him. They were all sitting in a line looking rather like sentries guarding some historic treasure. These dogs were new on the farm. None of the Collies had ever seen them before.

Winston was perplexed at the strange sight. A sheepdog should only look like a Collie. A Collie can vary in height and weight a little and can be a mixture of black and tan and white, but a Collie is always a Collie. What could the farmer be doing with these strange new animals? They were all clearly dogs, but for certain none of them was a sheepdog.

One had long shaggy hair. It looked a complete mess. His hair was so long it covered his eyes. He kept flicking his head to move the hair away from the front of his face – as if a fly was constantly buzzing around his face. One was quite similar to the Collies, perhaps with a shorter coat, but still quite similar. Certainly dog-like. It was even a similar black and white to the markings of Blair and Charlie’s coat. The other dog just looked plain strange. It had a face that was squashed, squashed flat with rolls of skin lolling around his cheeks and chin.

“What kind of dogs are you?” Winston asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog like any of you before, especially not around here. Are you here to work with us on the farm? Are you sure you know how to herd sheep.

The big hairy one responded first, with a warm smile on his face.

“Hello. I’m very pleased to meet you. My name is Lech. I know all about herding sheep, and my friends here do as well. I’m known as a Polish Lowland Sheepdog, or a Nizzy if you prefer. My breed has been herding sheep in Poland for centuries. I’m surprised you have never heard about us – in Poland we know all about the famous Border Collies from Scotland.”

“This is England, not Scotland.” Winston grumpily retorted. This hairy Polish beast was a bit too good, just too polite, for his own good.

“Yes of course I know that. In fact, I know that this farm is located in Bedfordshire; we are not very far from London, your capital city. An old Border Collie once taught me the history of your breed so I know all about your ancestors on the Scottish borders. You are quite a long way from home as well!” Lech carried on: “Let me introduce you to my friends here. Pandit and Mozi, why don’t you introduce yourself to the Collies?”

“Thank you brother.” The dog with the squashed face stepped forward a single pace. “Hello. I’m Mozi. I’m a Chinese Shar Pei. We have a proud history stretching back thousands of years as herding dogs and as expert guards to people and their property. The Chinese nobility have valued our protection for longer than China has been known as China. Forget about your tiny highlands in Scotland. Try herding along the Mongolian border and you know what it means to herd dumb animals.”

Mozi started scratching his body with a hind leg. The folds of skin on his body sagged and rolled with each scratch. The third dog in the makeshift line grinned and stepped forward a little. He coughed and introduced himself to the Collies.

“I am very pleased to be meeting you. My name is Pandit and I’m known as a Dhangari dog. My own heritage is Indian. To be more precise I originate from a place known as Maharashtra. That’s the name of a state in India. You may be aware of Bombay, or Mumbai as it’s known now. That’s the closest big city to my home. Well, actually Aurangabad is probably the closest big city to my home, but I guess you have never heard of the place. It’s very nice – there are some impressive caves nearby. Everyone knows Bombay… sorry Mumbai…”

Lech coughed and interrupted Pandit’s flow. It seemed he was used to his Indian friend talking too much and they had an agreed way to end these streams of canine consciousness.

Winston, Charlie, and Blair stared at the dogs – if they could be called dogs – with a sense of disbelief. They were very friendly, but they were not Collies. One had more hair than the sheep he claimed to have experience of herding. All the Collies were thinking the same thoughts without speaking. The sheep must be very strange in Poland. The Shar Pei was so majestic and controlled it appeared as if he could never have really known life on a farm.  The Indian dog seemed earnest and hard working and he looks a bit like a Collie, but he sounded very indecisive. Sheep don’t let you get away with indecision out in the field. They thrive on it.

Winston wondered out loud: “What is the farmer doing?” Just then, the farmer explained what he was doing.

“I’m glad to see you all getting along with each other. Winston, I’m leaving it up to you to ensure that these new dogs learn about the farm. They need to understand how English sheep behave and how we work around here. Make sure they all feel comfortable on the farm and make sure that all three of them learn everything they need to know. I’m depending on you to do this for me.”

So, the new dogs joined the Border Collies on Manor farm. They found another spot within the barn and created their own home there. All six dogs now slept in the barn, but in two groups of three, the English old-timers and the foreign newcomers…

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary (www.markhillary.com) is a director of the UK National Outsourcing Association and visiting lecturer at London South Bank University.

Alexis de Bretteville, CEO of the Americas at Michael Page International in New York is a case in point.  The European born executive, who heads up the Americas region for one of the world’s largest executive recruiting firms, addressed the American Business Forum on Europe recently on the Risks & Opportunities of Managing an International Career.

When it comes to exporting globally experienced executives, we’re a little undersupplied. “Companies are always struggling to find good people to move abroad,” says de Bretteville, who offers advice about positioning yourself for a global opportunity.

“Offer or propose new products for new markets abroad,” says de Bretteville. “Show interest, passion and commitment and make people (especially your mentors) aware that’s what you’re looking for. Show that you have language, skills, adaptability to moving to new environments. ”

A lot of U.S. executives do the math and decide against pursuing global opportunities, often because they’re not multilingual or worry it will derail their career. “It all comes down to risk and opportunities,” says de Bretteville. “Some people have the fear to move abroad because they think that they will be forgotten by their home country.”

Expatriating American executives is nothing if not complicated. “International mobility is still not as easy as it looks, especially for top executives,” says de Bretteville. “It’s easier for younger people because they have less links or ties – but for senior people it’s harder because of some issues – spouse’s career is sometimes an issue.” A survey they participated in showed that in 80 percent of cases the spouse’s career was the key reason an executive refused to move abroad.

“Mostly people recruit locally because it’s less risky and less expensive,” says de Bretteville. “We do have some [multi-country] assignments in high tech or IT sector, some sales people with tech skills. These are the kind of people you can move globally.”

Michael Page’s clients are often multinational or global companies seeking third-party expertise in sourcing global-ready talent. Most of the candidates they place don’t repatriate, says de Bretteville.

How do you manage a successful international career? There are three main principles according to de Bretteville:

1- The Mentor

• The person who sent you abroad, often someone who was an expatriate himself
• Keep him informed of your actions
• Ask for advice, get your mentor involved

2- Keep an active professional network

• Continue to attend conferences or fairs in your home country
• Develop contacts in your sector, stay visible
• Keep in touch with your colleagues in your company
• Write them emails; send them interesting articles, etc…
• Share your experience, the trends of your sector

3- Stay visible at the headquarters

• Keep visiting on a regular basis
• Expose yourself to those who matter in the organization
• Organize meetings, or lunch/ drinks in advance of your visit
• Propose think-tank meetings, lead projects, etc…
• Send emails and memos (above and below you)

My advice is to take on an assignment where you can open up new markets or expand existing ones – or even find a way to cut costs overseas. Distinguish yourself, if possible, but mostly immerse yourself in another culture and learn what you can about how to thrive in the global economy. (Want to see if you’re “global ready”? Check out our free tool.)

It helps to work at a company that has a global DNA, says de Bretteville. Michael Page International, for instance, promises to move its high performing recruiters to other country assignments after two to three years.

The book might also be called Get Your Act Together, Dude!

Marty, the father, is an executive coach and clinical psychologist, skills that must come in handy in many boardrooms. His son, Joshua, is an endurance athlete, champion cyclist, and trainer.  Together they offer practical insights about mind, body and career management that break little if any new ground yet usefully survey a lot of recent thinking in a wide range of areas – down to yoga in the office and stretching exercises.

Take for example their observation that every day your body replaces 1 percent of its cells. “That means in three to four months you have an opportunity to regenerate most of your body’s building blocks. Are you going to strengthen them or allow them to get weaker?” That’s a perfectly good question and like most people I tend to get stronger in the summer and weaker in the winter when as a knowledge worker I’m even more sedentary. I lack a fitness plan.

The authors outline fitness plans – not just for health but also for time, stress and career management among other topics. “Simply put, if you don’t have a plan for your time, someone else will,” they observe, correctly. The Seldmans offer productivity suggestions including, interestingly, advice to “never say yes quickly. Few of us can judge accurately how long an assignment or project will take based on someone else’s description of it. Even after close scrutiny, we underestimate the time required to complete a task.”

Ultimately the best thing in the book is practical advice about how to stay physically fit and achieve peak performance while working a busy, executive career.

For more information about the Seldman’s strategies – I should have given myself more time! – check out Executive Stamina.org.

If avoiding the unemployment line is the main reason you’re hanging on to your job, you are at risk of losing it at any time–to someone who is enthusiastic and passionate about work. Employees who lack passion are prime targets for layoffs.

The time to look for a job that fills you with passion is now. Here’s a proven, structured process that can land you your dream job.

Step 1. Think of yourself as a business and assess your strengths. Imagine you are a business and your managers are your “customers.” What do they need most from service providers such as you? To what extent do you meet those needs? How would they rate you in relation to your competitors, that is, your fellow workers? In which areas do you shine? Where could you shine even brighter with a bit more focus? These are your strengths.

Step 2. Identify a whole range of jobs where your passion may lie. Make a long list of all those jobs and businesses done by friends, family, colleagues, fellow interest-sharers, people in newspapers or on TV, fictional people in books, movies etc. that you find exciting, and rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 by the amount of passion you would feel if you were doing them. Now rearrange them in order of passion rating. Hopefully you will have at the top of the list at least a dozen or so jobs you have rated a 4 or 5.

Step 3. Screen these jobs for ballpark market attractiveness and fit with your strengths. Gut feel is all you need at this stage. You won’t have detailed information, but you don’t need it yet. The aim is to find out whether any of these top dozen jobs is a runner. Under job market attractiveness, consider such factors as job market size, growth, competition, and risk. For fit, don’t be too harsh on yourself. This is a new job so you won’t be a stellar performer on day one, but does the job play to your strengths, current and/or potential? Identify a short list of 2 or 3 jobs.

Step 4. Do some serious research on the one or two most promising shortlisted jobs. Talk to practitioners, talk to their customers. Just what are the capabilities required to do the job? How would you fare? What entry strategy should you deploy? What should you be doing now to strengthen your positioning before you take the leap? Think of yourself as a business again: Would you invest in yourself?

Step 5. Use your passionate interest in the job to sell yourself–and get hired. You will have an edge over many in the job, those who over the years have grown jaded. But not you. You will be fired up, full of passion and enthusiasm. Join Toastmasters International and speak to fellow members about your new job, your passion. Improve your presentation skills, increase your self-confidence, build your brand. And go land that dream job!

Vaughan Evans is a renowned economist, business and career strategist, speaker, and author of Backing U! A Business-Oriented Guide to Backing Your Passion and Achieving Career Success (www.backingu.com).

If avoiding the unemployment line is the main reason you’re hanging on to your job, you are at risk of losing it at any time–to someone who is enthusiastic and passionate about work. Employees who lack passion are prime targets for layoffs.

The time to look for a job that fills you with passion is now. Here’s a proven, structured process that can land you your dream job.

Step 1. Think of yourself as a business and assess your strengths. Imagine you are a business and your managers are your “customers.” What do they need most from service providers such as you? To what extent do you meet those needs? How would they rate you in relation to your competitors, that is, your fellow workers? In which areas do you shine? Where could you shine even brighter with a bit more focus? These are your strengths.

Step 2. Identify a whole range of jobs where your passion may lie. Make a long list of all those jobs and businesses done by friends, family, colleagues, fellow interest-sharers, people in newspapers or on TV, fictional people in books, movies etc. that you find exciting, and rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 by the amount of passion you would feel if you were doing them. Now rearrange them in order of passion rating. Hopefully you will have at the top of the list at least a dozen or so jobs you have rated a 4 or 5.

Step 3. Screen these jobs for ballpark market attractiveness and fit with your strengths. Gut feel is all you need at this stage. You won’t have detailed information, but you don’t need it yet. The aim is to find out whether any of these top dozen jobs is a runner. Under job market attractiveness, consider such factors as job market size, growth, competition, and risk. For fit, don’t be too harsh on yourself. This is a new job so you won’t be a stellar performer on day one, but does the job play to your strengths, current and/or potential? Identify a short list of 2 or 3 jobs.

Step 4. Do some serious research on the one or two most promising shortlisted jobs. Talk to practitioners, talk to their customers. Just what are the capabilities required to do the job? How would you fare? What entry strategy should you deploy? What should you be doing now to strengthen your positioning before you take the leap? Think of yourself as a business again: Would you invest in yourself?

Step 5. Use your passionate interest in the job to sell yourself–and get hired. You will have an edge over many in the job, those who over the years have grown jaded. But not you. You will be fired up, full of passion and enthusiasm. Join Toastmasters International and speak to fellow members about your new job, your passion. Improve your presentation skills, increase your self-confidence, build your brand. And go land that dream job!

Vaughan Evans is a renowned economist, business and career strategist, speaker, and author of Backing U! A Business-Oriented Guide to Backing Your Passion and Achieving Career Success (www.backingu.com).

Furthermore, the individual attention a student can receive while having a tutoring session at home is much more beneficial to that child’s school work and learning development than if they were in a group setting, it is well worth the effort and small added expense a parent puts forth.

Washington DC private tutoring provides students with the one-on-one learning and interaction that benefits the majority of students no matter what they are learning; math, science, social studies or English. There are fewer distractions with a one-on-one tutor-student session because other students are not in the room requesting help or making noises that some children find distracting.

Another element that in-home tutoring offers student is that no one needs to know that they are being tutored unless they offer that information to their friends. Sometimes, kids can be mean, even to the most popular and well-liked children and if they find just the slightest thing different with a student, they could use that to humiliate them. Private in-home tutors will keep their sessions private and children can feel safe knowing they don’t have to tell anyone about the tutoring sessions if they don’t want to.

School work is mostly focusing their minds and energy at a task that must be completed and when there are too many distractions, their young minds tend to wander, even in the most dedicated students.

Additionally, Washington DC in home tutors will work with parents to come up with the best possible place to have their children complete their required assignments in an undisturbed environment. Parents also get the support they need through monthly seminars given by the tutoring office so that the parents can continue to support their students and do what is necessary to help boost their confidence in themselves, their school work and their future.

Many young people are suffering from a hearing impairment due to prolonged exposure to loud music, loud factory machines or construction machinery in which proper ear protection is not worn. Additionally, many young people are listening to personal music devices which ‘pump’ the music directly into the ear canal with small ear-buds, however these are large sounds coming out of them. Many young people simply don’t know what they are doing to their ears until it’s too late and they are asking for answers as to why they are hearing impaired.

Hearing aids of years ago would typically pick up sounds and transfer them to the ear; however those hearing aids did not decipher between noises and voices and in general, the hearing impaired person would have to read lips to figure out what a person was saying.

Today there are many new advancements in technology for hearing aids and several new digital hearing aids which are more comfortable because they go in the ear canal verses lying on the back of the ear where a lot of people find it to be very uncomfortable, especially if they wear eyeglasses or sunglasses. An audiologist could help adjust the feel and fit of a hearing aid as well as the amount of hearing and static or feedback a person might experience. There are always dials on a hearing aid in which the person wearing it could adjust the ‘feedback’ themselves and often should in different surroundings and when they are with different machinery.  

The place to begin if you are suffering from a hearing loss is a doctor of otolaryngology which is an ear, nose and throat specialist. This visit will rule out things such as tumors or bacterial infections which could also cause hearing loss.

Example questions are: “Tell me about a time where you confronted an unexpected problem,” “Describe an experience when you failed to achieve a goal,” or “Give me a specific example of a time when you managed several projects at once.”

Equip yourself to answer the questions thoroughly. Obviously, you can prepare better for this type of interview if you know which skills the employer has predetermined to be necessary for the job you seek. Researching the company, studying the job description, and talking to people who work there will enable you to zero in on the kinds of behaviors the company wants. In the interview, your response must be specific and detailed. Candidates who tell the interviewer about particular situations that relate to each question will be far more successful than those who respond in general terms.

Ideally, briefly describe the situation, the specific action you took to have an effect on the situation, and the positive result or outcome. It’s also helpful to think of your responses as stories. Frame each example as a three-step story, usually called a S-A-R, P-A-R, or C-A-R statement: 1. situation (or problem, challenge), 2. action, 3. result/outcome. Become an engaging storyteller in your interviews, but be careful not to ramble.

It’s difficult to prepare for a behavior-based interview because of the huge number and variety of behavioral questions you might be asked. The best way to prepare is to arm yourself with a small arsenal of example stories that you can adapt to many behavioral questions. Despite myriad possible behavioral questions, you can get some idea of what to expect by looking at Web sites that feature behavioral questions. Knowing what kinds of questions might be asked will help you prepare an effective selection of examples.

Interviewers will expect most of your examples to spring from your professional experience, but it’s acceptable to draw a few responses from such activities as volunteer work and community service. Wherever possible, quantify your results. Interviewers especially want to hear these outcome metrics.

Remember that many behavioral questions endeavor to probe the way you responded to negative situations; you’ll need to have examples of negative experiences ready, but try to choose negative experiences that you made the best of or–better yet, those that had positive outcomes or that you learned from.

Here are 9 effective steps to prepare for behavior-based interviews:

1. Identify up to 20 examples from your past experience in which you demonstrated top behaviors and skills that your research has indicated that the targeted employer seeks. Think in terms of examples that will exploit your top selling points.
2. Half your examples should be totally positive, such as achieving accomplishments or meeting goals.
3. The other half should be situations that started out negatively but either ended positively or you made the best of (or learned from) the outcome.
4. Vary your examples; don’t take them all from just one area of your career.
5. Use fairly recent examples–within the last year is best. Some employers, in fact, specify that candidates give examples of behaviors demonstrated within the last year.
6. Describe examples in story form using a PAR/SAR/CAR structure.
7. Write your example stories down and give them titles. Though you don’t want to use these written versions as scripts or memorize your responses, you’ll find that writing them helps organize and crystallize them in your mind. Giving them titles will help you recall them from your memory bank more easily.
8. To cram for a behavioral interview right before you’re interviewed, review your resume. Seeing your achievements in print will jog your memory.
9. In the interview, listen carefully to each question, and pull an example out of your bag of tricks that provides an appropriate description of how you demonstrated the desired behavior. With practice, you can learn to tailor a relatively small set of examples to respond to a diverse range of behavioral questions. Expect interviewers to pose several follow-up questions and probe for details that explore all aspects of a given situation or experience.

Once you’ve snagged the job, keep a record of achievements and accomplishments so you’ll be ready with more great examples the next time you go on a behavior-based interview.

Katharine (Kathy) Hansen, Ph.D., is the author of Top Notch Executive Interviews (from which this post is adapted), as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes, and six other books. Kathy is creative director and associate publisher of Quintessential Careers. She is an educator, author, and also blogs about storytelling at A Storied Career.