To quote a famous frog, “It ain’t easy being green.” I see tons of advice blogs on the interwebs every spring on how new grads can ace that first job interview or snag that first job. What I’ve found lacking is some office guidance for the newbie on the payroll. So for all you recent grads who have already landed that first job, here are a few tips to help you hang on to it.

One of LinkedIn’s greatest and possibly most underused features is its groups. Used in the correct way, LinkedIn groups can help you successfully reach almost any social media marketing goal, especially when it comes to networking.

LinkedIn limits users to 50 groups. I am a member of 50 groups, so I know a useful LinkedIn group when I’m in the middle of one. Anyone can join 50 LinkedIn groups, but doing so can be like having 100,000 Twitter followers. You can’t successfully be a part of that many conversations, so choose carefully.

The highlight of last month’s RSA Conference for me by far was Cisco Systems Senior Vice President, Chris Young’s keynote entitled, Securing the Data Center’s Future Today. I heard of the former RSA VP and VMware exec at the 2012 RSA Conference. The Harvard and Princeton grad is a compelling speaker, and this year’s keynote was no different.

Young focused his attention on software-defined networking which is the “game changer” for the next generation of data centers.

It’s an exciting time to attend the RSA Conference next week in San Francisco. With a theme of Where the World Talks Security, RSA realizes cybersecurity has never been more important in our world than it is now. Even the mainstream media is taking notice of major data breaches.

Companies, as well as government agencies, all face a questionable budgetary future and have to take a different look at cybersecurity. It’s become a vital issue organizations have to balance, finding better ways to stay safe while at the same time being pushed to the limit financially.

Last week in my post Low Tech Solutions to Survive a High-Tech World, I shared some common sense ways to avoid identity theft from a workshop at AFCEA’s West13 conference lead by Jeff Moulton, principal research associate at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. This week I’m going to share the second part of his workshop, “Seven Habits of Highly Secure People.”

“Identity theft sucks. If you’ve ever been through this, you realize how painful this truly is.”

And with that, Jeff Moulton of the Georgia Tech Research Institute began his identity theft workshop at AFCEA’s West 13 conference in sunny San Diego. I was fortunate enough to attend the identity theft workshop where he shared some simple, common sense ways that even the “most technologically-challenged” folks can utilize to reduce their exposure to identity theft.

In the last two years, I’ve been to my share of IT tradeshows and conferences. Las Vegas. San Francisco. Dallas. DC. San Diego. Of all the cities I’ve traveled to for work, I enjoyed San Diego the most, so the fact that my next conference is AFCEA’s West 13 in the San Diego Convention Center is a great way to start off my 2013 business travels.

Sometimes work sucks. No shock, Sherlock.

I don’t know how your 2012 turned out work-wise, but if it was less than perfect, I wouldn’t bet on 2013 being a walk in the park either. While your co-workers are preparing for the zombie apocalypse (Who needs a Mayan calendar right?), I’d suggest you take a moment or two to reassess your job satisfaction and consider a few ways to make 2013 more rewarding.

Luckily, I love my job, but on more than one occasion, I’ve had managers tell me they’re surprised at how well I evaluate my position. I grew up on a farm so I know there are way worse places I could be on a winter’s morning than a cubicle at Global Knowledge headquarters in Cary, NC.

If someone who is as jaded and sarcastic as I am (okay, at times I’ve even been called an insatiable whiner) can see the bright side of my job, surely I can help you do the same:

Blood-sucking freaks, man-made undead creatures with bolts in their necks, and beasts that only come out certain days of the moon cycle can be just as common in the workplace as they are on the silver screen or at your local Redbox kiosk.

Whether it’s that maniacal, foaming-at-the-mouth ogre in Finance trying to deny your latest expense request or the Creature from the Black Boardroom questioning the ROI of your CapEx proposal, there can be spooks, ghouls, and goblins at every turn in the workplace. Their attempts to terrorize the haven you call work can distract you from your real duties at hand.

Maybe I can help:

When Cisco Systems does an infographic, they do it right. Earlier this year, they released Demand for IT Networking Professionals in USA. The infographic was created using data from their own VNI (Visual Networking Index) forecasts as well as data from CareerBuilder, the US Bureau of Labor, Robert Half, and Global Knowledge’s 2012 IT Skills and Salary Report. That’s pretty elite company to be involved with I’d say.