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&lt;p&gt;Trying to take charge of your career? Look again—you may have missed a spot.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s easy to be on guard at the office, but chances are you&#39;re messing up your work trajectory in your down time, or getting lazy about dressing in the morning, which is sending out all the wrong messages at work. Here are a few trouble spots to check in on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Excessive and pointless tweeting and Facebook posting&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All those updates don&#39;t make you look busy—they make you look lonely. Get away from your computer until you have something more interesting to post than &quot;Dinner time! Love my wonderful family.&quot; Try &lt;em&gt;eating&lt;/em&gt; dinner, then posting about something you&#39;ve heard or seen, that you have interesting thoughts about. Bonus points if it&#39;s related to your industry (thought not your company, please).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Lazy weekends&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No, we&#39;re not suggesting you work weekends. But you might want to reconsider your Netflix subscription. You know all those mental lists of things you&#39;d like to try, like rock climbing or a cooking class? Maybe it&#39;s just the book that&#39;s been sitting on your night table for weeks, un-cracked. These are activities you should be using your weekends on: they enrich your life, recharge your batteries, and give you interesting stories for your next interview. But you won&#39;t ever quite get to them if you park in front of the TV indefinitely.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Sloppy dressing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When was the last time you took a look at your work wardrobe? Chances are the mud and slush have taken their toll on your dress pants or work shoes, and 2011&#39;s sweaters (which seemed perfectly serviceable in September) are getting a bit faded and pilled.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A couple of fresh new shirts, clean leather bag, or a cheerful new sweater can perk up your attitude getting dressed in the morning, and project an &quot;I&#39;m excited to be here!&quot; message at work. And if you&#39;re looking for a new job, consider smartening up your daily wardrobe too: you never know who you&#39;re going to run into on a grocery run.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. Staying home&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whether you tend to decline invitations or just don&#39;t ever make the plans yourself, you&#39;re missing opportunities when you don&#39;t socialize. When you make regular dates with friends, acquaintances, and old work contacts, you remind friends that 1. you&#39;re alive, 2. you&#39;re amazing, and 3. yup, you&#39;re still on the prowl for a new gig. And you can do this much more organically in person than on Facebook. Tell your buddies that friends of friends are welcome to drinks and you&#39;ve just doubled your chances for hearing something big.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As Christina Wayne, former senior VP at AMC, wrote in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/life-skills-ivanka-trump-thich-nhat-hanh_n_2341108.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Huffpo&lt;/a&gt;, &quot;I took everyone I knew in New York, where I&#39;d just moved, to dinner or drinks or tea. I explained that I was open to anything. Six months later, one of those dinner dates called about a possible job at AMC.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. Not being choosy about who you spend your time with&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You know how they say you should dress for the job you want?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hang out with the people you want to be.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if they&#39;re in a different line of work, smart people are a good influence on you: they&#39;ll help you learn to think in new ways, they&#39;ll be excellent sounding boards for ideas, and you&#39;ll get more bang for your time buck just having a stimulating conversation over coffee with them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That doesn&#39;t mean you have to cut your fun-but-lazy buds loose—just make sure you&#39;re working some good influences in there too.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;--Cathy Vandewater, Vault.com&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read More: &lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/life-skills-ivanka-trump-thich-nhat-hanh_n_2341108.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Life Skills: Ivanka Trump, Thich Nhat Hanh And Others On The Things Everyone Should Master By Age 40 (Huffpo)&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/job-search/mean-mentors-why-jerks-are-good-for-your-job-search/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Mean Mentors: Why Jerks are Good for Your Job Search&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/workplace-issues/vaults-top-blogs-of-2012/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Vault&#39;s Top 10 Blogs of 2012&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Cathy Vandewater

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