For CIOs who experience some kind of enterprise IT failure in the course of their careers-whether a high-profile security breach, massive network outage, or multi-million dollar ERP boondoggle-the incident can feel like a career killer. But unless a CIO repeatedly makes the same mistake, or the failure stemmed from some illegal or "just plain stupid" action, it won't end a CIO's career, says Mark Polansky, senior client partner and managing director of Korn/Ferry International's Information Officers practice.

When you're involved in a job search, meetings over lunch or coffee with contacts in your network-and with your contacts' contacts-can help you uncover job opportunities or lead you to people who work at desirable organizations. Depending on how you approach these meetings, your networking will be either tremendously productive or a painful waste of everyone's time.

IT recruitment company Candle has launched a mobile-friendly version of its job search website Candle.com.au.

The holiday season is an ideal time for re-connecting, making new contacts and strengthening relationships. Networking is, in fact, the best job search method: It generates more than 80 per cent of new hires.

If you've recently begun to update your résumé, you've probably encountered conflicting opinions on how to write a résumé for a CIO position so as to attract an executive recruiter's attention. For example, you may have heard or read that your résumé needs to tell a story about your work experience, and thus needs to include specific details about your professional accomplishments. Yet you've probably also read that a résumé, by nature, should be brief, and that the goal of your résumé is to give the executive recruiter just enough information to make him want to call you to find out more. Such contradictory advice can curse even the most effective communicators with writer's block when they have to re-write their résumés.

LinkedIn announced this week a new paid account exclusively for job seekers called the Job Seeker Premium Account. The upgrade, LinkedIn says, is intended to help LinkedIn members stand out from the crowd, reach out to hiring decision makers and manage their job search more effectively.

Social networking is a key component of today's job searches because job seekers want to be where hiring managers can find them, and increasingly, hiring managers are cruising social networking websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter to source and vet candidates.

Job loss and unemployment hit their victims hard. When people lose their jobs, they also lose a significant component of their identity, along with their daily routines and financial security. Job loss and unemployment upend people's feelings of self-worth, comfort, security and personal control.

No one likes to talk about their job search, especially when they're not making much headway, which is unfortunately the case for most unemployed professionals these days. But talking about your job search with your immediate family can be particularly frustrating. After all, they're the ones who have the most to gain or lose from it.

For 25 years, Kim Seltzer always had a job. But Seltzer's long tenure ended last spring, when she was laid off from her job as the IT infrastructure director of financial services company IHS Global Insight.