Aside from your job interview, the conversation in which you give notice is one of the most important ones you will have while working at a company. Learn how to do it well, and you’ll keep contacts open for future opportunities each time you move. Do it poorly, and you’ll burn bridges and condense your possibilities even as your work experience expands. Here are 3 good tips to consider:

Give the news face-to-face
Part of keeping doors open is showing respect for your soon-to-be former boss. So don’t just slip a resignation under his or her door or e-mail your two weeks’ notice to avoid confrontation. That’s like dumping someone by text message. Instead, schedule a meeting with your manager to tell them eye-to-eye you will be leaving. From there, a resignation letter is appropriate to make things formal. Have it ready for the meeting. Giving notice in person may be awkward, but it is essential to leaving on good terms.

Pave the way for your replacement
Even if you’re not training the person who takes your place, you want to make his or her transition as smooth as possible. Your old colleagues will appreciate that and remember it if you ever work together in the future. Plan for your absence as though you’re going on vacation. Create a how-to manual of your responsibilities and how you do them. Reach out to specific people on your team and key outside contacts/clients to see if they have any questions or would like to train with you before you leave. To address any issues after you leave you should leave your contact information.

Be as positive as possible
If you’re looking at your exit interview as a time to air your grievances and tell your HR manager why you hated your job, don’t. It’s too little, too late, and could cause your reputation damage — and you won’t be around to repair it. If you’re asked why you’re leaving, be objective, calm and professional in your explanation. You never know when the person asking the question will be in a place to help you advance your own career in the form of another, future opportunity or a reference. A good rule of thumb: Pretend your words will be replayed to every single co-worker and superior at the organization. Because they very well might be.

Imagine you’ve been on the job market for about six months. You are paying your mortgage on your credit cards at this point. Your unemployment benefits are about to run out and your job prospects remain dismal, no matter what you seem to do.

Finally, you land a killer opportunity, pass the phone screen and show up to an interview with a hiring manager. Just as you think you’re about to close the deal, she spins her computer screen around and asks you to login to your Facebook account.

What do you do?

This is common enough that it now has a name:  shoulder surfing.  According to Lori Andrews, a law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law specializing in Internet privacy, this practice is “coercion if you need a job”. Not to mention the violation in Facebook’s privacy policy, albeit unenforceable.

Facebook’s official statement is that shoulder surfing “undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user’s friends” and “potentially exposes the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability.”

The ruling, made by the FTC in May, 2011, was that companies can use social media information as part of a background check but this information must be available from public databases. In other words, strictly speaking, it could be illegal for companies to use private social media information against you without your consent. (I say could be because I am not a lawyer, I just pay attention.)

However, there are some cases wherein this type of deep probing could be deemed appropriate; for example law enforcement or defense. In this case, it would be easy for the employer to defend their request to access private data as it pertains directly to the candidate’s qualification to perform the job.

But when Justin Bassett, a statistician based in New York, was asked for his Facebook password he refused. And so should you. Many states are already in the process of introducing legislation against this practice, and if you live in Illinois and or Maryland, such legislation already exists.

Success takes time–sometimes longer than you’d like. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to become discouraged, and that makes it harder to achieve the success you deserve.

Here’s a simple, seven-step plan to get your mojo back:

1. Define your purpose. Why are you working? Why are you doing this work? Only you can answer these questions. Some individuals are drawn to certain kinds of work, while others are individuals are simply looking for a payday or to feed their families. No purpose is inherently “better” than any other–but you need to know your purpose, so that the prospect of fulfilling of that purpose keeps you motivated.

2. Tie your purpose to your company’s goals. Now that you’ve identified why you’re working, deliberately envision your company’s offering (what it makes, provides or sells) as the vehicle through which you can fulfill your purpose. The more closely you associate, in your mind, your purpose with your company’s product, the easier you’ll be able to motivate yourself to do what’s necessary to get your job done.

3. Tie your purpose to your team’s success. If you’re working with other people, they’re depending upon you to get your job done. Fulfilling your purpose thus helps them become successful too–which means that you’re having a positive impact on other people’s lives.

4. Create ambitious goals for yourself. Now that you’ve got everything aligned, it’s time to set ambitious goals that, if achieved, will create success for yourself, your products, and your company. Pick exciting goals that will will inspire you to achieve them.

5. Create a workable but flexible plan. Now that you’ve got goals, create a step-by-step plan that constantly brings you closer to your goals. That will help you build additional confidence, commitment and the feeling that you’re in control of your destiny. Hint: If you aren’t sure how to build a plan that will work, get the help of somebody who’s already achieved what you want to achieve.

6. Take massive action … starting now. Success is now just a matter of executing that plan, adjusting as necessary to achieve your goals. To start on the right foot, as soon as your write your plan, immediately take some action to achieve that plan. Motivation feeds on action. You want to build momentum that will continue to carry you toward your goal.

The main point here is to do all of this consciously, to make certain that everything in your work life is aligned.

Great News for the Restaurant Industry!