"The following is an excerpt from The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead [Crown Business, $17.

"As your role grows in scale and influence, so too must your ability to listen.

"If you’re like most job seekers, you approach your job search with a set of beliefs about how the hiring process works, what responses from employers are good signs and what responses are bad.

According to Stephanie Buck (photo, left), "LinkedIn has developed a killer resource of 225 million users, one you absolutely should take advantage of when it comes to your career.

"Worry is, sadly, an inevitability of life.

"Securing a job is the tough part, but scouting an open position?

".

"Because leaders are often juggling so many things and are under constant pressure to make decisions, they sometimes function in a mode of overwhelm.

"It's the Internet of the Ephemeral—the side of the Internet that gives us Snapchat and Confide and other apps that owe their popularity not just to the fact that they are not Facebook, but also to the fact that they trade, specifically, on their impermanence.

Ric Dragon (photo, left) gives a report on his conversation with Christi McNeill, project lead of social business and listening at Southwest Airlines.

"To listen with intercultural ears and see with intercultural eyes means to limit your interpretations to content and to ignore tone, body language and form, which I admit takes practice.

"According to Fast Company, Instagram is becoming an important part of the hiring process for some employers, especially in more creative fields.

"Observing individuals who lead a creative life, we can identify elements of expertise, grit, an understanding, and passion.

"Want to win friends and influence people?

Stephanie Walden discusses customer relationship marketing (CRM) in a piece at Mashable.

"At some point I mentioned to everyone that I am very introverted and used to have a huge fear of public speaking.

According to Naomi Garnice (photo, left) of the Daily Muse, "Considering that email is the primary form of communication in most offices, we don't always choose our written words as wisely as we should.

Christian Ryan Jyoti (photo, left) covers the topic for FastCompany.

"There are about 11 million meetings taking place in America every day, and a third of them are unproductive.

"Forget distinguishing the salad fork from the dinner fork.

"There are hundred of apps that claim to "increase productivity" and "optimize company workflow," but how many apps actually do?

"Each of the wordy phrases below can be replaced by one word.

"Even for those who are "in the know" about the benefits of Plus, many have difficulty learning how to use Plus effectively.

"It’s hardly an overstatement that social media has taken over our personal lives," writes Chris Riback in a piece at TheWeek.

"I hate negotiating.