The other benefit to constantly working to improve your skills and your overall marketability is that your employer may suddenly perceive you as more valuable. People tend to find others who are aggressive about going after their career goals attractive and more capable than people who seem to be content with their current station in life.

2. Aim to work on projects that are very important to success of company/organization. If you're working on projects that don't really matter to big brass, you won't get noticed. You might not always have a choice. But if you find yourself in a meeting and projects are being given out, and you could at that point recommend yourself for a project that would have more of an immediate impact on company's bottom line or other success factor, that project would be preferable. The big brass at your company are more interested in getting to know people who are working on critical projects than people who are working in areas that are not on their radar screen.

3. Look for ways to get recognized by important people. For example, volunteering to give a presentation or working on a special project. If there are no special projects available, consider suggesting one yourself. Ideally you want this to be a project that would involve making a presentation or getting yourself other exposure that higher-ups will notice. It could also be spearheading a company-wide or department-wide initiative to improve quality, sales, etc. Or sharing a technique you learned at a seminar or class that others could benefit from.

4. Determine metrics for measuring your effectiveness. Aim to exceed expectations. Most likely, you will need to talk to your boss to determine what these metrics should be. Just fact that you initiate a conversation with your boss about this will make you come across as a high-performing and valuable employee. If metrics are established ahead of time, there will be an objective way to measure your performance. You may also be able to get your boss to agree to set your bonus and/or raise based on how well metrics are achieved.

5. Always keep your options open. One of most important principles is you never want to get into a position where you're dependent on your job. If you have other options, you will be more confident at work and that confidence will shine through in your interactions with other people. In scenario J.S. wrote about, his co-worker most likely has other options - or else she wouldn't be coming in late every day. One way to keep your options open is by posting your resume on job sites confidentially. Using PutMyResumeOnline.com service is one effective way to post your resume without revealing your name or contact information.

BEING THE CANDIDATE THE RECRUITER CAN'T WAIT TO TALK TO

When your resume is one of few that come up in a recruiter's search for resumes, you become prize recruiter wants to win. This is reverse of scenario you find yourself in when you reply to a job ad - in that case, job is prize. You gain significant power by being customer recruiter wants to sell job to. Here are some tips for structuring your resume so recruiters will find you in searches and then want to offer you job:

1. Your primary skills should be mentioned several times in your resume, and in different ways. For example, if you're an attorney, you should use that word several times in your resume as well as word "lawyer."

2. Even if you only used a particular skill briefly (like for only 3-6 months), mention it on your resume. If you learned about a certain technique in a continuing education course, that can be mentioned on your resume. Of course you should make clear in text of your resume what specific, albeit limited, experience you have with skill. A company would rather hire someone who has some exposure to a skill than none at all, and by mentioning skill you increase chances you'll be found in recruiter's search for resumes.

3. Your previous job titles need to be congruent with type of job you're seeking. If you're looking for a job as an Administrative Assistant, it would probably be better to have "Administrative Assistant" listed as your current job title than "Office Manager." There are fewer office manager jobs than admin assistant jobs available, and you don't want recruiter to think you're overqualified when they look at your current and previous job titles.

4. Make sure your resume has been checked for spelling and grammar errors. Use spell check in Microsoft Word. Have someone who's a good writer review your resume for grammatical errors.

5. Make it easy for someone to skim your resume quickly. If you have a lot of different skills, having a section where your skills are listed with bullet points can make it easy for recruiter to see at a glance that you have skills they're looking for.