Today the WSJ picks up on a trend that most Go-Getter Girls already knew all about: the blowout. Or as some like to call it, getting your “hair did.” This is one of the easiest, most effective ways to take your glam factor from zero to wow– and to avoid the stress of bad hair days. We saw GGGs designer Liz Lange and beauty entrepreneur Polly Blitzer “can’t live without” their blowouts. And you know that I’ve gotten my hair blown out in salons all over the world, enduring awkwardness and language barriers if need be, to avoid doing my hair myself.

Spending an hour in the salon a few times a week is actually both time and opportunity cost efficient: Unless you’ve got major skills, all the right products and tools (and a healthy dose of patience), chances are a professional blow dry will look way better than you can do yourself. Plus, you’ll have more time to focus on more important things, like what outfit you’re going to wear, what you’re actually going to say during that big presentation.

Are you annoyed by the messy microwave or noisy co-workers chatting on their cells? You’re not alone. LinkedIn released a global survey of 17,000 workers today on the top office pet peeves. Here are the top five:

1. People not taking ownership of their actions
2. Constant complainers
3. Dirty common areas
4. Starting meetings late or going long
5. People who don’t respond to emails

LinkedIn’s survey also found interesting correlations related to gender. For example, 62 percent of U.S. women were bothered by “clothing that’s too revealing for the workplace,” while only 29 percent of U.S. men surveyed said that was a problem (Is this really surprising?!).

There are also many cross-cultural differences. Americans are particularly bothered by people stealing food from the communal fridge. Swedes are less bothered by revealing clothing in the workplace. Germans are most annoyed by dirty common areas.

Job seekers should also take note: hiring managers were more peeved than others by people who were late.

To see the full press release, visit LinkedIn’s site.

So, what are your top office pet peeves?

Loved this New York Times magazine article about writer and actress Mindy Kaling, who stars as Kelly Kapoor on The Office. A GGG through and through, she’s a Dartmouth grad who clearly loves what she does. A few very interesting nuggets from the piece:

• She routinely works 18-hour days writing for the show, starting at 10 a.m. and leaving after 7 p.m. On days when she acts in the show, too, she starts at 6 a.m. for hair & makeup, then jets back and forth all day between the writer’s room and set. She never volunteers to leave early.
• Her big break came just one year after college, when a goofy short play she wrote about Ben Affleck and Matt Damon became a surprise hit at a New York festival. The producer of The Office hired her as a writer two months later.

I think there’s a great lesson in this latter story: start doing your own thing (just do it!), and it could be the unexpected audition for your dream job.

Mindy has a memoir coming out in November called Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (and Other Concerns). It will definitely be on my reading list!

Photo: Justin Stephens for The New York Times

Last week I attended an amazing conference, the Atlanta Urban Entrepreneurship Forum, featuring keynote speakers Tyler Perry and one of our own featured GGGs, dancer Ofelia de la Valette. As I was sitting here going through a zillion business cards gathered throughout the day, I thought of how often people ask me, “how do I follow-up when I meet someone new at an event?” For my debut video tip, here’s my answer.

Warning: the production values ain’t no Today Show!

Stacii Jae Johnson believes careers always come full circle—and mentally, you should start at the end point and work backwards. Few understood why after acting in shows including Martin and ER, and a number of films, Stacii took her current role as Director of Special Events for Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. But Stacii knew better. “My life is always intentional, though I follow the natural direction and patterns that emerge,” she says. “If you allow yourself to flow into different things, it still gets you to the same place but you have a more interesting path and stories to share.” Case in point, she’s about to become the commissioner of Atlanta’s new Office of Film, Television, Music and Digital Media Development where surprise, surprise, all those Hollywood connections she forged 15 years ago will come in pretty handy. Here, Stacii shares three great lessons she’s learned along the way.

Act Like You Own the Room

To this day, I still use an acting tip I learned from Suzanne Batson [acting coach to the likes of Nicole Kidman]. You know how a room has four corners? When you walk into the room, visualize that you are stretching and shooting your energy out to each one of those four corners. I literally look in each direction—as if I’m shooting a web of energy like Spiderman. Then, I’m bigger than the room. If you walk in feeling you’re bigger than the room, you have more confidence and command your audience.

Follow through—and check your pride at the door.

Here’s how I got my first job as a production assistant on Martin: I’d call up the production coordinator to beg for a meeting, and she’d shoo me away and say call her back. So, I’d set my alarm to call her back when she told me to. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes later, the next month. I always called her back. I never thought “Who does she think she is?” or that she was blowing me off. Eventually she invited me in for a meeting, where I talked non-stop about how much I wanted to work on the show. I got the job, and they later told me it was because they were amazed by my energy and just wanted to be around me!

Make Friends on the Way Up

When I started doing fundraisers for politicians like Hilary Clinton, people were shocked by how many celebrities I could draw to events. But these were people I knew from my days coming up. I can call actors like Taraji P. Henson and Martin Lawrence and say, “Hey, do you want to do this for me, please?” and they say yes because we’re friends, and they remember how we all were broke together. They remember when we went to Boston market and had to split a chicken dinner! It’s the truth. You might not know right now why you need a certain relationship. But know that as you get older, as long as don’t burn those bridges, those relationships will be the key to your career.