It’s that time of year again! As various commencement speeches circulate online from graduation ceremonies, one speech in particular resonates with us from two years ago.

Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler dished some advice to Harvard students:

“All I can tell you today is what I have learned. What I have discovered as a person in this world. And that is this: You can’t do it alone. As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people’s ideas are often better than your own.

Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life. No one is here today because they did it on their own. Okay, maybe Josh, but he’s just a straight up weirdo. You’re all here today because someone gave you strength. Helped you. Held you in the palm of their hand. God, Allah, Buddha, Gaga.”

Congratulations to our Yankees vs. Mets subway series tickets winner David Ortiz, human resources generalist at Harlequin. David has been using Mediabistro’s job board since he joined Harlequin because it “ensures that our career opportunities reach a large pool of qualified candidates.”

When we asked him how he felt about winning the tickets, he said, “I was very surprised to receive the call. It put a big old smile on my face. I’m grateful to have won the contest.” We’re glad he won, too!

If you didn’t win, you still have many chances to win one of our fabulous giveaways. Keep posting jobs with us, and we’ll continue to enter you into our contests as a token of our appreciation.

Happy Friday one and all!

When we read this piece on Forbes, we got inspired. After all, as the weekend approaches with a nice break from the daily grind, we have recreation and errands on our minds. Well, apparently there’s a connection between successful people at work and how they spend their weekends. Let’s become part of that group, okay? Read more

Time to let it shine! And by “it,” we mean you.

That’s right, it’s time to let others see your true potential. According to a Harvard Business Review post by Dorie Clark, strategy consultant and author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future, there are a few ways to ensure people take notice.

1. Create content. Sure, it’s important to showcase your expertise to your boss but there are other people, too in the vast world of ours. As in the internet.

In the piece she writes, ”Just as a graphic designer has a portfolio she can display of her best logos and brochures, you should be creating intellectual property (blog posts, podcasts, videocasts — even a savvy and professional Twitter feed can count) that demonstrates your expertise.” In fact, creating content gives people the opportunity to see your new skills and knowledge especially if you’re in the midst of a career change. Read more

When we heard about this study pointed out by Forbes, we simply had to share. The Marchex Institute, the research branch of Marchex, relied on Call Mining technology to pull data from 600,000 phone calls from consumers to businesses spanning 30 industries.

Making the connection between curse words and their frequency of use to 50 states, they concluded people in Ohio are more likely to swear than people from another state.

In case you’re wondering, people from Massachusetts came next in terms of the highest frequency, followed by Arizona, then Texas and Virginia.

As for the state where people are least likely to curse? Well, that would be people from Washington state. They curse so infrequently (or maybe it’s just that Ohioans curse more robustly) equating to about half the amount of their Ohio counterparts.

According to the piece, John Busby, senior vice president of the Marchex Institute explained, “Ohio’s state slogan was once ‘The Heart of it All.’ One could argue this data adds an extra layer of meaning to that.”

Forget the doom and gloom, according to Snagajob, a site that publishes employment opportunities for hourly job seekers, prospects for summer hiring are up, up and away!

Let’s get a few things straight: Is it full-time employment? No. Benefits and paid time off? No and no. That said, we are talking about opportunities for seasonal work for people who are on the bench and looking to get in the game.

As per a piece on Fortune, the number of companies seeking to hire summer help has risen significantly and average pay is $11.50 per hour (this is compared to $10.90 one year ago). Read more

As you read this post, if you’re not running to an appointment or standing, how are you sitting? Really take notice of how you are sitting and poised. Are you legs crossed? Is your back hunched over as you read this? Or are you sitting up straight?

Mladen Golubic, medical director for the Center for Lifestyle Medicine at Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute, talked to The Wall Street Journal about posture tips.

1. Practice relaxed, straight sitting. Although he alluded to technical studies on Sedentary Death Syndrome which highlighted hours worth of sitting which resulted in lower back pain, diabetes and obesity, sitting for a long time is simply not healthy regardless of the position.

Realizing it’s a fact of life, in particular for cubicle dwellers, he emphasized “relaxed, straight sitting.” Here’s how to do it: Sit away from the chair back so you’re not slumped over and keep both feet placed on the ground. Read more

As recruiters interview numerous candidates for a job, sometimes they hear redundancy as well as faux pas. Well, your friends here at MJD are nudging you to please don’t become that guy or gal.

According to a piece on Fortune, there are several ways to show a possible employer you an contribute to their organization. In doing so, please promise you’ll tweak the following statements.

“I am interested in everything this company does.” Really? Everything? The piece points out that hiring managers are looking for someone who is passionate for a specific role. Saying you’re interested in everything may come across as — gasp — desperate. Read more

Have you ever had colleagues who became friends? How about friends who became colleagues? We all have, right?

Welcome to living in the grey.

Last night at the Delta T4X Pop-Up Lounge in downtown Manhattan, the founders of Live in the Grey, a new online community offering resources, tools and inspiration for passion-driven individuals, hosted an event featuring executives from BuzzFeed and Vimeo, along with a Grammy-nominated artist.

We talked with co-founder Maneesh Goyal who explained his partnership with co-founder David Munczinski: “There was a kinship and we vibed with each other.”

Goyal continued, “Our friends kept asking, ‘How do you have a job that’s so good for you?’ We were surrounded by people who hate their jobs….Gone are the days when you have a life and a job and they don’t intersect.” Now, they seem to blur.

As they aim to propel a movement for people to find fulfillment in their careers, their panel featuring Melissa Rosenthal, managing creative strategist at Buzzfeed, Chris Diken, director of brand messaging at Vimeo and Emily King, Grammy-nominated musician, focused on their own careers, definitions of success and professional gratification.

Rosenthal mentioned she started out as an intern at BuzzFeed and feverishly posted six stories each day. “It captivated me from a user experience.” Indicating there’s so much learning involved and “if you never fail, you never learn,” she talked about her passion for taking a risk with content.

“If you’re not going to stand out, you might as well not be giving it.” Pushing outside your comfort zone, she said, is where the growth process begins.

She added, “There’s no predictability in what’s going to happen next. That’s exciting! I thrive on that.”

Diken thrives on individualism. He manages to keep his personal passions intact such as writing one poem every day and alluded to working in an environment as a holistic self. That is, a persona that doesn’t draw the line between his professional brand and personal one. One that can technically be described by wearing pizza socks. Yes, you read that right.

The Vimeo exec revealed he enjoys wearing his pizza socks and more importantly, he likes the fact that he can be himself at the office. Describing the old adage of a separate “work self” from the “home self,” well for him, they’re one in the same.

“I love working where you feel normal and can wear pizza socks and express your opinion.” Instead of minimizing a screen while pretending to work on spreadsheets while he’s taking a break watching skateboarding videos, Diken cherishes being able to work in a creative environment where individualism is not rebuked.

Maybe Goyal and Munczinski are onto something by living in the grey where your personal and professional passions fuse with your whole self.

Sure, there are surveys about the best companies to work for but how about the best workplace on the planet? This month’s issue of Harvard Business Review revealed research conducted by Rob Goffee of London Business School and Gareth Jones of IE Business School.

They asked executives if they could design the best company on earth to work for, what would it be like? Results showed six virtues of dream companies:

• You can be yourself.
• You’re told what’s really going on.
• Your strengths are magnified.
• The company stands for something meaningful.
• Your daily work is rewarding.
• Stupid rules don’t exist. Read more