Today's job market is tough. And there's no reason to imagine that it's going to get any easier any time soon. There's only one reliable way to get a job. We all know what it is, and mainly we try to ignore it, because it feels uncomfortable. It's about going out there, talking to people and making new contacts.

I often quote the words of former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright who once said: "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."

News has broken that David Cameron is to set up his own personal Twitter account, much to the horror of the political journalists on the Telegraph. They tell me that Twitter is where all the "conversations" are happening so I suppose it makes sense to be part of it. But not everyone agrees. My cynical and unemployed friend Derek was unsurprisingly scornful.

One of the biggest challenges faced by working parents is how to boost visibility and confidence, and how to rebuild and strengthen relationships.

It's almost exactly a year since I started my "Notworking Blog". Its first incarnation was in the Guardian Work section which followed a career trajectory similar to my own, folding quietly in June.

Once in a while, Twitter throws up something that grabs my attention. Take Stephanie Flanders for instance, BBC economics editor. "A 501,000 rise in employment in 2 yrs when the economy is supposed to have not grown at all. What on earth is going on?"

An inspiring breakfast meeting at the Herts Coaching Club last Friday at the Red Lion Inn in St. Albans. Guest coach Doug took us through the importance of goal setting in order to achieve one's objectives in life and, of course, to help our clients achieve theirs.

Followers of this blog (previously in the Guardian Work section - read the archive here) will know that I've recently joined an exciting new business breakfast group that combines face-to-face networking with instruction in how best to use social media to grow your business. Yes HashtagConnect is taking the St. Albans start-up community by storm and, naturally, I popped along to the Red Lion Inn for its second breakfast meeting last week.

On Thursday 8 March I was lucky enough to go to the WIE Symposium. WIE stands for Women: Inspiration and Enterprise. The two women behind the day a...