• Take charge of your professional development
  Assess your professional skills and come up with ideas for gaining experience in the areas where you're deficient, whether it be through training or a new work project, Emily Co writes. Talk with your manager to see if your company will help pay for your professional development. "There's always room for learning, and bettering yourself will give you more focus and drive towards your job. It's also a chance for you to revamp your career, feed your brain, and gain confidence," Co writes. Business Insider/Savvysugar.com (9/7)      

• How to deliver a speech like Bill Clinton
  Former President Bill Clinton earned rave reviews for his speech at last week's Democratic convention, but can business leaders learn to deliver a speech like Bubba? Clinton uses multiple techniques to make his public speaking more effective, writes speaking coach Sam Harrison, including carefully judged pauses, expansive body language and subtle facial expressions that complement the words he's saying. Fast Company online (9/6)      

• Other News

• Why work meetings are often unproductive
  The Washington Post (9/10)      

• Join LinkedIn, but don't toss out your Rolodex
  For small-business owners, social media can be "like putting your Rolodex on steroids," Melinda Emerson writes. Still, forging and maintaining social relationships with clients or customers requires hard work, Emerson warns: "[B]uilding meaningful relationships in social media can take more effort than meeting people face-to-face." The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/You're The Boss blog (9/7)      

• Analysis: Lower unemployment rate suggests job seekers are giving up
  The economy added 96,000 job in August, less than forecast by experts and a decrease from the 141,000 added in July, the Labor Department reported. The unemployment rate decreased from 8.3% to 8.1%, but economists say the drop was mostly because of frustrated job seekers leaving the workforce, not people finding jobs. Reuters (9/7)      

Featured Content

• 2 words every employer wants to hear: "No problem"
  If you're willing agree to everything employer asks, with no "complaints, caveats, explanations, ifs, ands or buts," then you're much more likely to get a job offer, Steve Tobak writes. "When you've hooked them and they're actually offering you the job, that's when it's time to tell them what you need from them if they want to get you," he writes. CBS MoneyWatch (9/7)      

Click here to view more job listings.

• Be more present to be happier
  Don't check your smartphone for messages in front of your children and don't look at e-mail at bedtime and you'll find better balance in your life, Gretchen Rubin advises in her new book, "Happier at Home." The book stresses why "it’s especially important that we make an effort to be mentally present in each moment," Alexandra Levit writes. Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom (9/7)      

Top five news stories selected by SmartBrief on Your Career readers in the past week.

• Close every interview with these questions (U.S. News & World Report)

• Could your low Klout score cost you a job? (MarketingProfs)

• 8 tips to help you get a promotion (The Arizona Republic (Phoenix))

• What hiring managers are really thinking (U.S. News & World Report)

• 6 ways to get noticed by upper management (U.S. News & World Report)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

• How good oral hygiene saved the International Space Station
  Astronauts aboard the International Space Station ran into trouble last week after part of the orbiting contraption's solar-energy system broke down. The flight crew embarked on lengthy spacewalks to inspect damaged parts, culminating in success only by scrubbing away debris using a spare toothbrush. "It's been like living on the set of 'Apollo 13' the past few days," one astronaut said. TheAtlantic.com (9/6)      

Ill habits gather unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run into seas." --John Dryden, British poet, critic and playwright       Have a favorite famous quote? Share it and we may publish it here!