Almost everyone I know who currently hates his or her job had a premonition that things wouldn’t go smoothly when they first signed on to the company.

Why did they take the job, then? In most cases, the answer was money, plain and simple. And if you’ve been out of work for a prolonged time and can’t afford to look for the really, really right place, then taking a job to bring money into the house just makes sense.

In a few cases, however, employees left perfectly good jobs to join their new companies. Again, the answer for their switch was money: the new companies paid more of it.

It’s easy when you’ve been working at a job for some time – perhaps perfectly happily – to begin to feel disenfranchised when another company swoops in and offers more money. The new company, you think, understands me. They know my worth.

So, the resentment at your current company, which does not understand your worth, which has provided only cost-of-living raises from year to year and minimal bonuses, grows. Yes, they let you leave the office to take your daughter to the dentist and gave you the chance to work from home for two weeks when your wife broke her ankle – but they don’t understand your worth.

Before running off to join the highest bidder, you need to know exactly what you’re getting into. I once took a job in part because the boss said I could work from home when it was necessary for family reasons. Once I’d joined the team, however, I found that the corporate culture of the company required me to show up two hours before my workday began, stay late every night, and show up at least twice during the weekends. The face time was so important that some mid-level employees simply came in on the weekend and browsed the Web.

Had I spoken to employees from the company, I would have been better prepared to make a decision about whether the job was right for me. Because the boss really wanted me to join the team, he told me exactly what I wanted to hear. Would I have been fired had I taken him at his word? Probably not. Would I have reached the heights in the company that I had been promised.

Probably not.

Other messages that can be hidden in a job offer – but detectable if you do your research – include a dearth of long-term employees. High turnover at the new company could indicate less than ideal working conditions, unrealistic expectations of results by management, or financial problems that could affect the future of the company. Working with a number of short-term employees may give you a greater opportunity to shine, but it also means fewer mentors to acclimate you to the company’s culture and policies.

You should also do a background check of the company’s finances, especially if you’ve heard on the street that there could be problems. A friend of mine showed up for her first day of work to find herself in an emergency company meeting in which the chief executive officer told the staff – by telephone – that the company was being placed on the auction block. There are times during mergers and acquisitions that an employee can make a quick climb up the corporate ladder, but a new employee is always at risk in such situations because any cuts are likely to start with the newest members of the team.

You should also be on the look-out for possible tension between you and any member of the existing team. You may be able to replace a low-level employee, but if that employee’s behavior has the potential of affecting your job performance, you need to go into the situation on your guard. If the problem exists between you and a fellow manager, it may not be worth making the jump to the new company.

Money is a great reason to work – in fact, most of us expect it. However, with the long hours we all put into our workday and the high expectations of companies for success, it only makes sense to look beyond the almighty dollar when making a career decision.

To ensure flexibility in such situations always keep your resume up to date with VisualCV. You can keep it private with the sharing management functionality to ensure that only those you want to see your resume, have access to it.

I was reading a blog the other day written by a woman who was livid, positively livid, that a prospective employer had made a comment that she says alluded to her less than stellar wardrobe.

I don’t know what the comment was. The post was a rambling invective against the interviewer – another woman – that referenced the jealousy of females in general, the rudeness of that particular interviewer, and the unfairness of being judged by one’s looks.

So, I – intrepid I – dared to ask the question that just had to be on everyone else’s mind: what did she wear to her job interview?

Nice new T-shirt, aqua. Capri pants, aqua stripe. Sandals, aqua. New straw tote bag. She had done her research on the company, and she knew it was Casual Friday. Her outfit was completely appropriate, and moreover, it was brand-new.

So I sit here, hands above my keyboard. I want to ask for her phone number, because there is nothing I can type that will express the depths of my internal screams. NO! It was not appropriate!

The fact of the matter is that we are judged by the way we present ourselves. With just a resume and a browse through our networking sites, an employer has just a few minutes in an interview to determine whether her company is going to spend the time and money involved in hiring us. Why risk putting any doubt into her mind by showing up in clothes that are too casual, poor-fitting, poor-quality, or just plain inappropriate?

A Friday job interview does not qualify as an excuse to meet your interviewer in flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt. Casual Friday is for employees. They have earned it by working at the company. The employer knows what they look like in their workday wardrobes.

You, as the candidate, however, have just one chance to make a good impression. Yes, your resume is perfect, it’s posted in all the right places, and you’ve got a terrific homepage. I guarantee you that all the effort of intelligently marketing and branding yourself flies out the window when you show up – stupidly – at your interview in an inappropriate outfit.

Dress for your job interview as if you were meeting your company’s most important clients for the biggest deal in industry history. If you don’t know what the company dress code is, go sit outside their door and watch the employees going in and out. The ones in the best – most professional – outfits are the ones you should emulate.

A suit is never a bad idea for a man. The level of formality should be equal to the industry. If you are applying for a job in a law firm, a well-cut dark blue or gray suit that fits well, with a complementary shirt and tie and black shoes is the only way to go. Actually, if you are a woman applying for a job in a law firm, that would work for you, too. Suits should never be tight-fitting, loudly patterned, or made of shoddy fabric.

Jewelry should be minimal. Nothing throws off an interview like the jangling of earrings and your grandmother’s charm bracelets.

If you are in a more creative industry, you have more leeway to show self-expression through your wardrobe. Don’t get nutty with it, though. If you have a tendency to flamboyancy, edit yourself four times before you leave the house. Jewelry, funky hair, short skirt, torn clothes, and too much make-up are all deal-breakers. Picking a neutral suit or pants or jacket or skirt and jacket combination and popping it with one color is never a bad way to go. It also allows you to buy a very good piece for your interviews – which you can carry with you into your professional life – and accessorize it in several different ways.

And as for Casual Friday – hmmm. I had a boss once who, when asked if our company could adopt a Casual Friday policy, said, “We’re professional the rest of the week. Why would we not be professional on Friday?”

How to present yourself is important with tools like VisualCV as well. If you’re an artist, posting a personal photo of you in an artistic setting might be appropriate but for other professions you may not want to use the cell phone pic from your last fishing trip. A little common sense can go a long way.

Carmen Kontur-Gronquist, the former mayor of Arlington, Ore., knows from personal experience how dangerous it can be to not monitor one's online presence. Kontur-Gronquist was removed from office in February after a firestorm erupted - much of it via the Internet - when some snooping citizens found photos of her posing in her lingerie on one of the town's fire trucks.

Those photos were taken in 2004, long before Kontur-Gronquist, a 42-year-old single mother, ever considered a run for office. However, all it took was a cruise through MySpace to find the photos, which at the time were still available to the public.

It was a hard lesson for Kontur-Gronquist, but a good one for the rest of us. With more and more companies conducting background checks on a regular basis - even for long-time employees - it only makes sense to keep tabs on what's floating out there about you.

It goes without saying that the fastest way to give a prospective employer information about your private life is to provide him with an e-mail address that offers a glimpse into parts of your life that you may want to keep secret. E-mail addresses with such monikers as racymom4477 and divorcedhotguy2323 should definitely be avoided, as should such seemingly harmless but needlessly telling names as iloveteddies9087. These kind of e-mail addresses just tell the boss too much about your non-professional image, which is not what you want him envisioning if you want a job offer.

You also need to look for any information that may be available about you from search engines. You may need to change the content of some of your Web pages. There may also be Internet hits that you can't hide or don't want to hide - so you'd better be ready to answer them.

I had a friend who was a journalist - and a very vocal member of a political party. He wrote a daily blog that shared his somewhat controversial thoughts about various candidates, policies, and other issues. That he was excellent at his job was unarguable. However, journalists are supposed to be neutral, and his editor was pretty ticked off that her employee was out discussing his views. She also seemed fairly annoyed that he was online for all the world to see, spouting a philosophy that conflicted with her own.

There was no company policy that supported the editor's demands that the employee refrain from publicly taking a political stand. The reporter had the First Amendment on his side, and he was allowed to continue writing his blog. However, there is no question that his broadcast of his views, on a blog with his name and his photo clearly displayed, had a negative impact on his career with that company. When he ultimately chose to leave for a new job after five years of employment, he was the only reporter on the staff who had not been offered a merit pay raise.
The information available about you via social networking sites can also jeopardize your career search. Sites such as MySpace - which provided the suicide blow to Carmen Kontur-Gronquist's political career - can and will be trolled by prospective employers. If you have information that you don't want others to see, don't make it public. And beware - even if your site is a model of decorum, you may be done in by your friend's pages. Diligent monitoring of potential public gaffes - even if it takes a few hours of your life every few weeks - is certainly well worth it for the future of your career.

In the Information Age, it is common for someone to Google you as a quick background check. It's unlikely that you will be able to leave no trace on the Internet so instead it is important that you choose wisely where you post your information online and to associate with sites that present you in the way you want. VisualCV is one such online service that allows you to manage your online presence with public and private versions of your biography and resume information and combines it with the ability to attach multimedia.