Remember the school playground bullies who terrorized the smaller kids? Some of those bullies have climbed corporate ladders and continue terrorizing others, but on bigger playgrounds–workplaces.

Now they use more subtle psychological weapons; and unlike their days on the playground, they often have the support of the organizational hierarchy.

We all hear that networking is the key to finding a (good) job. Yet it often doesn’t work. Upon closer look, however, the problem is not that networking itself doesn’t work; it’s that it’s done ineptly.

Networking does NOT mean: Imposing on others. Acting like a beggar. Accepting a friend’s offer to “circulate” your resume. Going to meetings you’d normally shun just to give out your resume and collect business cards. Asking family and friends if they know of openings. Requesting a meeting to pick someone’s brain.

Spring’s arrival signals growth and renewal; this newsletter’s topic addresses career growth, renewal, and advancement. Whether it’s getting re-employed, promoted, or moving in a new career direction, apply this stealth approach: pursue a learning agenda.

I don’t mean the regimented, highly-structured, formal classroom, high-tuition, graded, stress-inducing graduate degree type that may first come to mind. It’s the learning that YOU CHOOSE: new or refined skills and new or refined content.

It’s common to think that with solid career goals and plans to reach them, all will be well. Whether you plan or go with the flow, you can count on unplanned, unexpected events – both good and bad – to affect your career.

Key to career success and satisfaction is the ability to respond to happenstance and chance encounters, to learn and respond in constructive ways, recognizing opportunities in them.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan or have goals. It DOES mean that even if you do, unpredictable experiences will surely affect your career decisions.

With the holiday season upon us, conventional wisdom says to forget about finding a job at this time of year. Supposedly, this season is the bane of the job seeker, the time when it is impossible to reach anyone, when the conscientious job hunter’s efforts inevitably stall because no one is hiring until January.

All that gloom and doom often stops job hunters dead in their tracks. Savvy job hunters, however, have reaped great benefits from recognizing that much of conventional wisdom is outdated or false information.

A severance package (a bundle of pay and benefits offered to an employee upon being laid off) can ease the financial burden of departing an organization. It may even take the edge off the emotional impact, especially if the time leading up to the layoff or termination is stressful.

In the case where the severance agreement is generous, it’s tempting to take a break — to recover, get things done around the house, reorient, etc. Without guidelines, however, the break can dissolve into inactivity, depression, or wasted time.

This subject may seem odd, given our current social and economic conditions. It’s tempting—and understandable—to scale back plans and dreams in times of change and uncertainty. You’re grateful to be alive, to have a job, any job.

Career restlessness seems minor compared to worrying about losing your job and/or medical benefits, long-term unemployment, or the loss of a general sense of security. You may feel apprehensive about the future or even guilty or greedy about wanting more for yourself at a time of large-scale economic uncertainty and hardship for others.

When times are tough it’s tempting to scale back hope that your work might have anything to do with what you love or care about. Instead, you think it’s better to “be realistic” and be grateful for any job, no matter what.

It’s at just these times that paying attention to what you care about is more important than ever.

Here are four ways that you can leverage what you love–what captures your attention, excites you, or breaks your heart–in your career.

A friend I’ll call Marissa recently resigned from her high-level position that she’d held for less than a year. After a great start on her job, contact with her boss grew strained, especially after Marissa noticed the poor performance of some key company investments. Although her relationships with colleagues thrived, interactions with her superiors cooled to ice-cold. No longer included in key business decisions, Marissa knew it was time to look for another job.

Interviewing is a bit like dating: people are on their best behavior, sizing each other up while minimizing risk. At the least, the goal is another interview (second date); at best, a job offer (a longer-term relationship).

• Candidates want to appear competent and confident. Employers present their company (organization, division, department) in the best possible light.

• Candidates are concerned about what questions might be asked and answering in the “right” way, or at least not losing the chance to move on in the process. Employers need capable, motivated employees.