Newest (free!) Book:

If you are still employed but your employer has started “cutting back” or having layoffs, you should read this short ebook.  It is the second edition of this Job-Hunt 15-Minute Guide, written by 2-time layoff “graduate” Susan P. Joyce, Job-Hunt’s editor.

Layoff Self-Defense: 7 Facts You Need to Know + 7 Steps to Take
(this link opens a new window or tab)

More free ebooks for job seekers…

Career Spotlight:

If you love working with computers, staying on the leading (or the “bleeding”) edge of technology, you may want a career as a Computer Systems Manager.  Computer systems managers earn an average of $112,000/year, and the US Department of Labor predicts a 10-year job growth of 16%. Over 70% of computer systems managers hold at least a bachelor’s degree. More about this and other careers in Job-Hunt’s Career Changers’ Guide to Careers.

Quote of the week:

Another gem from a fortune cookie, whether or not you’re in a job search right now -

Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.

New Articles: Three great new articles this week:

• Volunteering: Giving Back Can Pay Off
  Job-Hunt’s Fired-to-Hired Transition Expert Tory Johnson offers strategies for filling in that “employment gap” between your layoff and that new job.  Learn new skills, expand your network, and fill the gap by volunteering.
• Strategies for Competing with More Experienced Job Seekers
  New grads and job seekers starting their careers often feel like they are in a lose/lose situation when competing with older and/or more experienced job seekers.  Not really, as Job-Hunt’s Job Search for New Grads Expert Chandlee Bryan explains in this article.
• Networking Lessons from Frankenstein’s Monsters
  Job-Hunt’s Job Search Networking Expert Robyn Greenspan offers an early Halloween treat in this article which shows the networking lessons we can learn from a very unlikely source – Frankenstein’s monsters, in their various cinematic variations.

Meet all of Job-Hunt’s  Job Search Experts.

And, of course -

Good luck with your job search!

Many people are losing their jobs right now, through mass layoffs, corporate restructuring, and other events outside of their control.  If possible, finding the new job before the old one evaporates is the best strategy.

4 Layoff Facts:

1. Layoffs should NOT be taken personally, except by the CEO. For everyone else, a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time – not bad performance!

2. A job seeker is more interesting to another employer when still employed (a.k.a. “passive” job seeker). Unemployed (a.k.a. “active” ) job seekers are less desirable.

3. Employers are NOT be happy to discover that an employee is looking for a new job, and that can hasten the  job loss.

4. Once the layoffs have begun, the longer an employee stays in that situation, the greater credibility gap they will have with potential new employers. The logic is that the people who leave earliest are the best performers with the most salable skills while the ones who stay until the end are the poor performers with few options (or they’d have left sooner).

3 Layoff Survival Strategies

1. Run a “stealth job search” so the current employer doesn’t terminate employment for “disloyalty.”

2. Practice Layoff Self-Defense -

Set up a job-hunting-only e-mail account at Yahoo!, Google, MSN, etc.

Print (or have printed) job-hunting “networking” business cards with personal contact information on it, like the job-hunting-only e-mail account, and even the new job target.

Start collecting the personal contact information of co-workers, “just in case” the workplace relationship disappears.

Increase networking outside the employer’s organization –  attending professional, industry, local association meetings.

Expand the LinkedIn network; set up (or revise and update) Facebook, Twitter, etc. profiles and visibility.

3. GET FOCUS! – Figure out what the next job should be and who good potential employers would be. An unfocused job search (“Oh, I could do anything you need…”) is a VERY long job search.

For more information and practical advice from a 2-time layoff “graduate” (me), see Job-Hunt’s Layoff Center

Good luck!