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Experts foresee the job market being more competitive than ever in 2014. With 10.9 million Americans unemployed, it is important to take a fresh look at your job search strategy. Now is the perfect time to develop an effective plan for success.

How can you set yourself apart from the competition and position yourself for finding the best next step in your career?

Here are seven tips to help you refresh and refocus your job search in 2014:

1. Don't be a copycat candidate. Job searches are a very personal experience and one-size-fits-all strategies will not help you stand out among the competition. Even though a certain interview tactic or style was successful for one candidate doesn't mean it is the best strategy for you. Take into consideration your personal experiences, preferences and career goals and use them to position yourself as a unique candidate. READ MORE

The new year is all about reinvention, and what better way to remake oneself than with a new job? The best way to successfully find a new job is to know what jobs are most in demand, and where the competition for those gigs is least intense. Jacob Bollinger, a Senior Data Scientist with Bright.com took the trouble of sifting through more than 70 million job postings, as well as information on job applicants found on sites like Bright.com, to create a picture of the job market in 2014. Here are the five most in-demand jobs, grouped by the Labor Department’s “Standard Occupational Classification.” READ MORE

OK, you’ve been looking for a new job for a while, doing what all career specialists say you should: networking. You attend events, hand out business cards, and try to make as many connections as you can that might lead to a job.

But it’s not working. Few interviews. No job offers. And sometimes not even an acknowledgment of follow-up e-mails after a networking event.

Career and human resource specialists say they meet a lot of frustrated job seekers who spin their wheels while networking. The problem, these specialists say, is not networking itself, but rather flawed approaches, attitudes, and expectations behind unsuccessful networking strategies. READ MORE

Instead of making and breaking your new year's resolution, approach the new year with a new method of making improvements to your life and career. Only 8 percent of Americans actually achieve their new year's goals, according to a recent study by University of Scranton.

Here are some ideas to help you establish habits that will stick, and maintain focus for the best year ever.

Revel in the glory. Maybe last year was great. If you had a stellar year and met all your quotas, or most of them, document it. Add your achievement to your LinkedIn profile right now, before you forget. Capture it with a photo or screen shot of the award and upload it under your most recent job. Be sure to thank people who helped make it possible. Thanking others is a great way to demonstrate your gratitude. If you want to continue on this same successful path, focus on what you excelled at doing. What skills or talent got you there? Do more of that. This sounds simplistic, but sometimes we get so caught up in "fixing" ourselves and taking on the next new challenge that we overlook the good stuff. Part of managing your career is actually documenting it and letting people know. READ MORE

Nearly half the Latinos who graduated from California’s top high schools went to community college, unlike Asian-Americans and non-Hispanic whites and blacks, who had majorities attend four-year higher-ed institutions, the Southern California Public Radio reported.

The radio station noted that 46 percent of Latinos who graduated from top-ranked high schools enrolled in community college, compared with 19 percent of Asian-Americans, 23 percent of blacks and 27 percent of whites.

Community colleges offer Associate Degrees, which usually are awarded after a two-year program. Many students begin their college careers at them, since they are dramatically less expensive than four-year schools, and then transfer to one of them in order to receive a Bachelor’s. READ MORE

When I first moved to Houston in 1981, it was pretty much a good ol' boy town. But about a year later, Kathy Whitmire was elected mayor — and the city has never been the same since. Now, in 2012, Houston again has a female mayor and a deep bench of women leaders in almost every area of city life. Even though few Houston women are ranked among the city's highest paid executives, there are female decision makers at every level of government, business and education.

That point was brought home to me when I was asked to help pick 10 Women on the Move for 2011. Texas Executive Women has saluted Houston's female leaders since 1985 with an annual list, but this is the first year they asked a man to be a judge. READ MORE

When you’re on the hunt for a new job, I’d argue that having an optimized LinkedIn profile should be one of your top priorities. Most of the other social networks – Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. – pale in comparison when it comes to your job search opportunities. Here are some simple ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile for optimal job search effectiveness:

1. Update Your Personal URL

Already have a LinkedIn Profile? Well done! Now it’s time to go a step further and personalize your LinkedIn URL to include your name. Don’t forget, custom public profile URLs are available on a first come, first serve basis. Your custom URL can have between 5 – 30 letters and numbers and you can’t use spaces, symbols or special characters. I suggest using your first and last name and including your initial if needed.

2. Include a Recent, Professional Photo of Yourself

There’s nothing worse than visiting a LinkedIn profile without a picture. Actually, visiting a LinkedIn profile that includes a bar-star or shirtless picture is worse, but you get the idea. Make sure you include a recent, professional picture on your LinkedIn profile. READ MORE

People are always looking for ways to get better at selling. After all, developing your sales skills is as good as money in the bank! But for every good piece of sales advice out there, there are two crazy or downright wrong ones.

Here are six classic sales tips that won’t let you down.

1. Get criticism
Either record yourself and review the video, or have someone watch your pitch and critique it. This way, you’ll get a clear look at how your pitch is received, and some mannerisms you might not be aware of. The best sales pitches are natural and delivered without artifice, and criticism will help you root out the behaviors and words that you might think are solid gold, but that are actually hurting your sales pitches.
Be honest with yourself, and be open to change, and your pitch will continually improve. And so will your conversion rate!

2. Study your product
Many salespeople know what they want to say about their product, and leave it at that. But the best salespeople keep up with studying their product and industry. This can mean reading reviews, catching up on innovations, testing competing offerings, and more. READ MORE

As females continue to gain momentum in the classroom and the boardroom, understanding how to network across a spectrum of diversity becomes critical. While women continue to lean in, particularly during this continued period of economic distress, it's essential they also network out. Eight pieces of advice for women (though, many apply to men as well) to start 2014:

1. Showcase your work

Athena Vongalis-Macrow wrote in a post at the Harvard Business Review Blog that research indicates "[women's] networking actions were ineffective in helping them achieve their aims." Women are naturally drawn to helping, but simply supporting others and giving career advice doesn't effectively showcase one's work. READ MORE

Networking is a key business tool to use when you are looking for a job. Of course, if you wait until you’re actively looking for a job to start building your network, it may not be of much value to you.

Networking is a process of relationship building. People who may be part of your network include:

■ A co-worker who has been a mentor. He may still be at your place of work or may have moved on.

■ A boss whom you have come to admire for her work ethic, ability to solve problems, or people skills.

■ A client whom you have appreciated for the way she conducts business.

■ A friend who is respected within the broader business community. READ MORE

A diverse and inclusive workplace is good for business. And according to Eddie Pate, vice president of diversity and inclusion at Avanade Inc., because people want to join diverse organizations, it’s a quality that not only makes institutions like Harvard destination employers, but is also synonymous with excellence.

At a recent Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Diversity Dialogue session, Pate delivered a presentation called “Mentoring and Relationship-Building in Culturally Competent Organizations.” In it, he said diversity and cultural competency must be an integral part of the education process at Harvard, which teaches people to serve a multicultural society. If it’s not, he told the audience, the University isn’t doing its job. READ MORE

The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in Illinois is small compared to the Hispanic population, but the growth of those businesses is nearly three times that of all other companies in the state, according to a study by a new entrepreneurial support center.

Hispanics own 5 percent of the state's companies, but are 16.3 percent of its residents, according to The State of Hispanic-Owned Businesses in Illinois, a report by the Center for Hispanic entrepreneurship and DePaul's College of Business. Preparers surveyed 102 hispanic-owned businesses in July and August, and used U.S. Census bureau data. READ MORE

1. It's got some of the world’s finest dining — at affordable prices. Lima regularly has several restaurants ranked in the global top 100, and you won’t be breaking the bank if you visit them.
2. There are some of the best waves known to surfers anywhere.There are breaks for all levels, but the most spectacular are at La Herradura beach.
3. For ceviche, Lima is the capital of the universe. Many restaurants here offer a dozen or more types of this classic, marinated seafood salad. Don’t forget the cold beer! READ MORE

While there is solid proof that board diversity is good for business, in 2014, it is still uncommon to find Hispanics sitting on corporate boards, according to a new study.

In fact, Latinos hold a mere 37 out of 5,511 board seats in the Fortune 500, according to findings from the 2013 Corporate Governance Study (CGS). The study, conducted by the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), reveals... READ MORE

Six years ago I visited an indigenous village in southern Mexico called Santa Cruz Mixtepec. It was, or used to be, one of those impoverished rural hamlets that sent most of its population over the U.S. border to find living-wage work.

Until somebody got the bright idea to start promoting small businesses there. Through micro-lending and other assistance, Santa Cruz Mixtepec began sprouting small but viable enterprises. A carpentry shop. An irrigated tomato greenhouse. A window-frame maker.

More important, migrant workers started returning. Even if they didn’t make as much as they did in the U.S., many found that they could at least make enough to live, and start families, at home instead of al otro lado -- on the other side. READ MORE

We’re getting to the final hours of 2013, and — no surprise to me — I am looking backward, not forward as I hope to do on New Year’s Day. But this year, the backward glance is not filling me with melancholy. Instead, I am feeling amazed. For anyone following Latino tech — I have several beats, but in 2013 the Latino tech beat kept me quite busy – this was a pretty remarkable year. Not to mention the new pope (Latino), several great memoirs by Latino leaders (Sonia Sotomayor, Luis Guttierez, Rick Najera), and the occasional rave/rant about Latino food; that stuff kept me busy, too. But the big action was in tech. Here’s summary of what happened in that part of the world, from my POV, in 2013... READ MORE

There were problems at home: domestic violence, emotional abuse between the mother and father. By the time the mother reached out to Mujeres Latinas en Accion, the issues had intensified, not only for her but for her 12-year-old daughter.

At Mujeres, a nonprofit that serves Latina women in the Pilsen neighborhood, it's not unusual for abused mothers seeking support to try to find solace for their children.

"A lot of times, they don't come in just thinking about themselves," said Estela Melgoza, the domestic violence program director for the organization. "They're thinking, 'How can I keep myself and my whole family safe?'"

The 12-year-old had become isolated. She kept to herself and spent a lot of time in her room, the mother recalled in an interview. She didn't want to talk with anyone. She was sad. READ MORE

Herman Aguinis, the John F. Mee Chair of Management and the founding director of the Institute for Global Organizational Effectiveness at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, has been elected president of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management.

The Iberoamerican Academy of Management fosters the advancement of knowledge in management theory and practice with a particular regional emphasis on Iberoamerica, which is defined broadly to include all of Latin America, Latino populations in North America, and Spain and Portugal.
Last year, Aguinis -- who also is a professor of organizational behavior and human resource management -- was honored by the Academy of Management with its Research Methods Division Distinguished Career Award.

"It is a great honor and a privilege to be able to serve the Iberoamerican Academy of Management as its president," Aguinis said. "This is an exciting opportunity that I will use to further strategic goals of the Iberoamerican Academy as well as the Kelley School of Business and IU regarding diversity and globalization, among other issues." READ MORE

January can be a game-changer for workers looking for a career break and moving on to (hopefully) greener pastures.

A U.K. study estimates that 25% of the British workforce calls January the best month for a "fresh start" to leave one job and start a new one.

That process usually starts late in the previous year, when workers feeling unsatisfied over their jobs start networking by sending feelers out on LinkedIn, reshaping their resumes and cover letters and scheduling job interviews. The executive search firm ExecuNet says November and December are highly active months for job changes too, with 62% of recruiters saying hiring decisions and hiring budgets are made in the last two months of the year.

To the in-house recruiters at Progressive Insurance, that means employers who want to change teams have to be ready to roll before the New Year. Progressive's job-search team offers the following New Year's tips for job hunters at year-end: READ MORE

With new found representation in politics, trailblazing reforms in Latin America and new inroads in the entertainment industry, 2013 was a great year to be a Latino. Relive 11 moments that made us proud to be Latino this year. READ MORE