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.

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.”

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

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.

Now that spring has sprung, maybe you put on a few pounds over the winter? We’re not suggesting you look a little heavier, we’re just saying in case you feel slightly plumper, it’s not your job’s fault. Really, it’s not says Yoni Freedhoff, MD and contributor to U.S. News & World Report.

On the flip side, copious amounts of physical activity don’t translate into significant drops on the scale either.

For instance, last month the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study which investigated the impact of exercise on weight in half a million men and women. Participants in China self-reported their amounts of daily physical activity broken down into four categories: Work, housework, active transportation and recreation. Read more

Okay, maybe you’ve tried everything to get hired like cold calling a hiring manager, tweeting your prospective employer and snail mailing your resume. When it comes to thinking outside the box, have you considered commenting on a site?

As per a post on paidContent, the new weekend editor at Gawker Media’s auto-focused site Jalopnik got hired because he was a regular commenter. Simply stated, Mike Ballaban apparently got his new job for being an active participant and engaging with the site. Read more

Ever have one of those days? You know the type: All of the sudden it’s time for lunch but you never would have known because your breakfast is still sitting idle at your desk. Meanwhile, you’re wearing your coffee (yeah, spilled again), and the deadline at 1 p.m. is quickly approaching…

Well, our friends at Brazen Careerist outlined a few ways to manage chaos on the job.

1. Prioritize. Yes, this entails planning ahead even during the most chaotic of times. Vishnu Subramaniam writes in the piece, “Not all tasks are created the same. You must determine what your ultimate goal and objective is for the day. Is your job to advocate for a policy, improve turnout for a community event or sell a product or service?”

Once an objective has been identified, it should be crystal clear as to what you should work on first. Looming deadline? Time to work on it first. Read more

According to a new study by Workfolio, more than half of the hiring managers surveyed are more impressed by a personal Web site than other branding tools.

As pointed out by a post on U.S. News & World Report, Charles Pooley, the founder and CEO of Workfolio indicated a few things are musts to include on a personal site: Your interests, a photo, your career results and achievements and a short bio.

As for social media, you can include links to platforms you’re active with but try to only include ones that are relevant to the job.

Lindsay Olson wrote in the piece, “You can also show off your expertise by including blog posts on topics that relate to the field you work in, or want to work in. Even if you don’t have a ton of job experience, well-written and well-informed copy can go a long way in impressing a potential employer.” Read more