A Week's Worth

• Revving up: The economy got back on track, creating 274,000 jobs last month - nearly 100,000 more than expected. That spurred Wall Street to solid gains for the week, but sparked concerns about future inflation. To head it off, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter-point - the eighth such rise in the past year.

• Privacy concerns are picking up. Two-thirds of employed Americans tear up credit-card offers or convenience checks before discarding them, says an Office Depot survey. Some 37 percent mail their letters at the post office instead of leaving it in their mailboxes.

• Junk: General Motors and Ford saw their stock prices tumble more than 4 percent after a major debt-rating agency said their debt was no longer investment grade. But so far, the move hasn't created a selling panic among big institutional investors, according to Lipper.

• Join the club? It can help your career to get involved with a trade association, said 86 percent of hiring managers in a survey for Accountemps, a temp staffing service.

• Job interviews: Be well-prepared, serious, but above all, avoid making faux pas. Among the real-life doozies uncovered by CareerBuilder.com, which surveyed 600 hiring managers: a job-seeker who asked for directions to his next job interview, a woman who confessed she wouldn't pass the mandatory drug test, and a candidate who brought his mom to the interview.