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50 Ways to Get a Job | Created by Dev Aujla

smartdept. inc. celebrated its 12th anniversary earlier this year! I’ve been fortunate to be part of this company for the past 7 years—and during this time, I’ve had the opportunity to be part of many exciting moments. Today, I’m honored and excited to announce the launch of our new website.

When companies redo their websites, usually a lot of time goes into thinking about the company brand. We were no different. We found ourselves asking a lot of questions about the message we wanted to convey:

Are we the same company that we were 12 years ago?  

How have we grown?  

Who’s been there to share these experiences?  

I had a lot of fun working through these questions, and I’d like to share a few thoughts about them as we launch our new site.

I think the core ideals that Eric and Michelle Pairitz started the business with still hold true today: They believed in running a company in which all clients, candidates and employees would be treated with respect.

We still don’t have voice mail, because we want to be approachable during and after business hours. And we’ve worked with many of the same companies and candidates since opening our doors, too, because building long-lasting connections is important to us. For our internal teams, we’ve had office makeovers in both Chicago and Seattle, giving us a great environment to work in. But I have to say I’m most thankful for Eric and Michelle’s willingness to take risks. Whether it was starting a Marketing Division—or adding to our company insurance so we could work with larger clients—Eric and Michelle have given smardept. inc. every opportunity to be successful.

smartdept. inc. has also been fortunate to work with many terrific organizations over the years. We truly value our client relationships, something that’s pretty evident in the longevity achieved with many of our clients. We’ve enjoyed getting to know you both professionally and personally, and have been happy to be there during the good times as well as the bad. You’ve helped us attract better talent, grow into a much bigger company, and drive us to do our best—because we never want to let you down. Whether we work with you once a year or every week, each client is equally important, and we’ll never lose sight of that.

I especially want to tell you how lucky I’ve been to work with a lot of great people over the years. Our Chicago and Seattle teams are made up of dedicated and caring people with whom I look forward to working every day. I’m very proud to have had such a stable team over the past few years, and to see them grow within our company. I’ve also enjoyed watching them grow personally, as we’ve shared in weddings, the birth of babies, and the growth of families. From “beer-thirty Fridays” to sunny afternoons at Wrigley Field, I’ve enjoyed all the fun perks of being part of this team—those little things that make it so unique!

So, as we launch our new website, it becomes clear: Our success and growth have been all about people. From our internal team and leadership to our clients and talent, I’ve been very fortunate to be surrounded by great people. And while we’ve grown into a larger, more sophisticated company over the past 12 years, we will never change our “niche” company ways. We’ll always be the company that’s approachable, reachable and cares about your needs.

We’ll always be smartdept. inc.

Mardi Gras kicked off for smartdept. inc. in a chilly warehouse in SoDo. “Produce to the people,” we chanted, as we sorted cherry tomatoes and bananas. We were there because we’d committed to join the Food Lifeline team in their daily routine of receiving food donations from manufacturers, farmers, grocery stores and restaurants, and then repacking them so they could be distributed to Food Lifeline’s network of food banks, food pantries, hot meal programs, shelters and after-school programs.

Our team of three repacked 1,342 pounds of produce and worked with another volunteer team from Seattle Academy on Capitol Hill to repack another 2,340 pounds of dry products. We provided 2,318 meals to western Washington families, and had a blast doing it!

We discovered some interesting things about ourselves today – our recruiters sort tomatoes faster than our business developer, and you can’t get Mardi Gras beads for packing dry goods on Fat Tuesday!

This year, Seattle’s smartdept. inc. is partnering with Food Lifeline to donate our time and help fundraise in July. We welcome any of our awesome candidates and clients to drop us a line if you’re interested in joining us on one of our volunteer adventures.

Who knows, you might discover something interesting, too!

-This was an update from Meghann Kern, a Managing Consultant in our Seattle office!

How to Stop the Rambling, Multitasking and Zoning Out

The conference call is one of the most familiar rituals of office life—and one of the most hated.

Abuses are rife. People on the line interrupt others, zone out or multitask, forgetting to hit “mute” while talking to kids or slurping drinks.

Sales executive Erica Pearce has seen teleconferences interrupted by home FedEx deliveries, crying children and the sound of a co-worker vacuuming his house. “Nobody could hear,” she says of the cleaning. As leader of the meeting, she said into the phone, “If you’re vacuuming, I appreciate that, and you’re welcome to come to my house afterward. But you need to be on mute.”

Read the rest on wsj.com!

Like flowers in early spring, new social media job openings are sprouting across industries as companies of all sizes look to create or expand their social squads.

The undeniable success and innovation of high-profile social media campaigns — from such brands as Old Spice, Google Chrome and Starbucks — have inspired this ongoing push for companies to hire people with social media skills.

If you’re seeking a gig as a community manager, public relations representative, marketing person or any other social media position, check out these resumes for inspiration on how to stand out from the crowd. Also, let us know in the comments about any creative tactics you use to promote yourself and your skills.

Check out the rest on mashable.com!