ExitBuddy

On another blog I run, I've posted the search results from Indeed.com. I've stopped sending this RSS feed to the blog. Instead I posted how to do this yourself. It is a teaching to fish, kind of thing... In order to view these results and have them sent to your email follow these easy steps. 1. Go to the Indeed site. Type in your search words in this case    What : PM OR Project Manager    Where: California 2. Click on the link at the top of the page Get new jobs for this search by email Fill in your email address. 3. That's it. Now your job search will come to you every day. BTW, those search results have produced 20 or more project management jobs in California every day for the last 4 months.

Original Post: Here Initially when I was studying for a diploma, every time anyone asked me “What’s your plans after this?” , I used answer confidently that I’m gonna work for sometime then continue with my studies. My reasoning was simple, that I would be more matured by then and working experience would help me understand my subjects better. So now here I am, straight after graduation in the media field – even got a job I exactly wanted. But somehow, I’m not as ecstatic anymore. I have to be honest and say that it was hard for me to accept that I’m working now, instead of having a jolly good time in uni. Suddenly reality set in and the torture of sitting in one place the whole day facing your computer screen began to crush me. So you hate your job? Don’t take me wrong that I don’t like what I do as a digital planner. (Okay, doing the excel sheets are bit boring but…) I’ve been exposed to so many new, interesting & challenging stuffs that I would have never known if I wasn’...

Original Post: Here Learn how Lists make job searching with Twitter so much easier. If you’re new to Twitter Lists, first read my handy guide How To Best Use Twitter Lists and then come back here. In this article you’ll find: Job Search Benefits of Twitter Lists 10 Ways Twitter Lists Can Build Your Personal Brand 10 Twitter Lists Best Practices for Job Seekers 17 Kinds of Job Search Twitter Users to List (with example Lists!) A Can’t Miss Twitter List Strategy for Job Seekers Which Twitter Lists Tools You Should Use and How More Reading About Twitter Lists & Job Search Job Search Benefits of Twitter Lists You’ll be better organized Use Lists to categorize the Twitter users that you follow specifically for job search purposes and keep them separate from the other users you follow. Simplify your Twitter usage By organizing your tweets into relevant Lists, you can better focus on getting things done such as following up on job listings and networking with people ...

Get Work By Getting To Work image by  assbach Recently through my one of networks, I was introduced to a person who required some assistance with his resume and cover letter. I was quite happy to provide this person with some practical advice and scheduled to meet him at a local café. It wasn’t long after we had finished the introductions that I wondered whether it was indeed his marketing documentation that was letting him down or his overall mannerisms, professionalism and communication abilities (or lack of). After initial introductions and the ensuing handshake he commented “I’m really sorry to take up your valuable time. I know you must think I’m a nuisance, and I don’t mean to be such a bother.” Even his body language indicated a serious lack self confidence, which was really saddened me. I could just imagine him repeating this comment at a networking meeting or worse yet, at an interview. Whether you are representing yourself at a network meeting, an interview or e...

Original Post: The Interview Of Tomorrow Image by  re-ality Someone referred me to an article in Time Magazine entitled How Skype is Changing the Job Interview . The title gives it away: the article is all about how Skype is seeing a lot more action in the interviewing process for organizations. After all, it’s free to use (so long as both parties have it) and it simulates an actual face-to-face meeting. Seems like a logical step, right? Video conferencing is becoming more and more prevalent in businesses for internal communication, especially now with companies seeking to reduce their overhead costs. High-profile, mega-companies like Deloitte have gone to great lengths to get video conferencing in place in its offices. I read an article from the New York Times last year that talks about how much video conferencing has come to replace airplane travel – again, in an effort to cut costs. So why should interviewing be any different? Let’s be practical here. A company can’t...

Original Post: Why Companies Still Aren’t Hiring (And What You Can Do About It) There are two words that most job seekers should fear more than any other, that permeate the current domestic (and to some degree, global) work climate, and can spell certain doom for almost anyone who is complacent in their current position. Those words are “lean production.” If you had an introduction to business class ( or checked Wikipedia ), you may remember lean production being defined thusly (on Wikipedia): Lean production (or manufacturing) is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. But in this case, we’re using the term lean production in the context of human capital. And as companies are tightening their wallets, the chances of them using this practice increase. Here’s a fake-textbook example: Herman and Martha both work for the Acme Company ma...

Job Seekers Are From Mars, Recruiters From Venus image by  paulisaac333 After a great weekend in New York and a really fun, informative, idea-filled day at the Social Recruiting Summit on Monday I’m still processing many of the conversations I had and sessions I saw. In two sessions, one led by Carmen Hudson and one led by Susan Burns , attendees were asked to think about recruiting from the job seekers perspective. For me this is really easy, as I’ve never been a recruiter…but have often been a job seeker. After 20 years and 8 employers, I consider myself pretty well versed in the act of job-seeking, both passive and active. So I offered my two cents to some of the attendees. And it was greeted with a look as if I was from Mars. My take was that while career sites are great…it’s not where I turn to to get a job. Here is how I did it and what I believe many others do, as well: Job 1 – fresh out of college, in a recession no jobs to be found (sound familiar). So I...

I found this fascinating quote today: We all have them—”social media friends”—people who we talk to online but most likely have never met in person. We connected with them because of a common interest via Twitter, engaged in interesting conversation with them and shared a bond, but we don’t really consider them a true friend. twitip.com,  Twitip , Nov 2009 You should read the whole article.

Give Me My Time Back! Image by  tdub303 One of the more interesting posts I read today was from David Spinks and the debate of why 9-5 should be eliminated . It took on the idea that the 9-5 should be set aside for the sake of personal lives/lifestyles, work preferences, and getting-things-done how the employee feels comfortable. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m currently not a 9-5er and love workshifting on days I feel the need. Doing work in the digital space gives me the freedom and flexibility to do so. It’s how I stay connected with my community, how I continue to learn and grow, and how I’m able to get closer to that next opportunity. Most would probably think that I’m an advocate of this lifestyle – but I’m not all for it, as I question this logic with this piece of my comment: We work at all times of the day because we’re able to. But does that mean we have to? We’re wanting and given this flexibility so that we can adhere to different work and life s...

Original Post: Here Intelligence is your capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding and mastery. It’s your aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts and meanings. Knowing a great deal is not the same as being intelligent; intelligence is not information “alone,” but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used. -Dr. Carl Sagan This article will offer you five ways to increase your intelligence by showing you how to enhance your capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding and mastery. 5 Ways to Become More Intelligent Read Often Do you realize that through reading you can learn in a few hours what took someone decades to learn? Reading not only informs, but it also increases your capacity for learning, thereby increasing your intelligence. Although knowledge is not the summation of intelligence, it is the foundation of intelligence, so it’s crucial that we cultivate the joy of reading. It’s an amazing thing, people who become successfu...

Original Post: Here Do you like your job? Do you enjoy the people you work with? Would you want to have lunch with them? Every day? Alex Papadimoulis thinks that Fog Tyler Griffin Hicks-Wright Creek’s free lunches are “cultish,” but everyone at Fog Creek loves them. Maybe it’s the mandatory brain implant we install in each new worker, but I like to think that we just enjoy eating together because we genuinely like each other and like spending time together. If you can’t imagine eating lunch every day with your coworkers, I hate to break it to you: you might not like them. Is it OK to spend most of your waking hours with people you don’t like? Do you actually enjoy doing your job? If you wake up an hour early in the morning, do you think, “Yay! I can go in early and get another hour of work in!” Or does that sound ridiculous to you? Are you learning? When was the last time you had to learn a new skill? Is this year kind of like last year, or are you doing something new, str...

Original Post: Here Even in the best of times, a freelance web worker’s income can be spotty and irregular at times. Unlike salaried employees, contractors are subject to sudden and frequent variations in the amount of revenue they can generate at any given time. Those variances can be mitigated, however, by buttressing your revenue through a few out of the ordinary sources. Before you get your hopes up, let me warn you that this post isn’t going to turn into an episode of “ Weeds .” Instead, it’ll provide some much more tame (but workable) suggestions about how to make a little passive income on the side while you continue your main pursuit of a career on the web. Write and Publish an e-Book It may seem like a daunting task to write and distribute a full-length e-book, but look around. Just about everyone who works with social media seems to have managed to release at least one e-book. The reason it appears to be such a popular endeavor for those working in the social web is...

Original Post: Here The ego is one of most self-destructive mechanisms of a person's character and his or her abilities. In fact if you look at some people who've achieved massive success only to lose it all at the end of their lives, it's almost always a function of the ego that results in this. As strange as the following examples might be, drug dealers, and gangsters in the movies are blatant examples of people whose egos have ruined their success. There are two characters that really exemplify this: George Jung (Johnny Depp in the movie Blow) and Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington in the movie American Gangster). If you have seen the movie Blow, you know that the life of the main character is driven by the desire to never to be poor after growing up in financial dire straits. As a result he chooses a career as a drug dealer. Early in the movie, he becomes quite successful, ending up with a dream home, his dream girl, and almost everything you think would be enough in...

Original Post: Here Image by lindstormORG September is right around the corner – you’ve been out there looking for a job all summer (or maybe even longer) only to be met with a barren wasteland or fully-staffed companies and limited opportunities. Companies are cutting the fat and streamlining work to the fewest number of people as possible these days – which means working longer hours and Outlook calenders full of meetings and appointments. If an HR rep is barely coming up for air, how are you supposed to expect them to schedule an hour or two of their day for an interview with you. There are a million people out there giving job and career advice – telling us how to nail an interview and find a job we love. But what if getting the actual interview is the problem? We’re so concerned with ‘getting the job’ that sometimes we fail to realize that the people who would be hiring us are human beings – people who need their morning coffee, a tasty lunch, or a couple happy-hour beer...

Original Post: Why Temp? Image by stewartstone   I've come quite a long way in my job hunt since I first started looking back in April, even before I came back to New York. Initially, I had a rather narrow set of criteria for job openings I would apply to, and since I initially got three interviews right off the bat, I was lured into a very false sense of security. Well, sure enough, it became abundantly clear that a job wasn't going to come easy, so I gradually expanded my search, until it became much broader. I applied for some short term jobs, but decided against temping, since my rationale went that I had no idea when I would get a full time job and wouldn't want to be caught in between a temporary, part-time job and the goal of a full-time, long-term job. That ship has sailed, and I recently began pursuing temping opportunities. The two most important factors are that I managed to pull myself out of a sad little unemployment funk and that it has been five ...

Original Post: Here A new survey from employment site CareerBuilder has some cheery news: About 61% of employees live paycheck-to-paycheck, and 21% of workers are stealing from their retirement funds to make ends meet. And these are the lucky folks who still have jobs. According to the survey, even workers making over $100,000 are feeling the pinch; 30% are living check-to-check, up 9% from last year. 'Workers are employing a variety of tactics to help make ends meet in this economy,' said Rosemary Haefner, VP of human resources for CareerBuilder. 'Whether it's by keeping a tighter budget, finding ways to bring in additional income or adjusting their savings strategies, workers are doing their best to weather the current storm.' What was it Bernanke said the other day? Oh, right. Recession's over ! Too bad it's Friday, or we'd have enough cash to pick up some ripple to celebrate! 61 Percent of Employees Live Paycheck to Paycheck [Nielsen Busi...

Original Post: How to Make Yourself Indispensable At Work During credit-crunch times, you don’t want to just be an anonymous face in the crowd at work. Whether you’re desperate to avoid a pink slip, or whether you’re chasing after a promotion, you need to make sure that you’re indispensable to your manager. Here are five different ways to get started: Do Your Job – And Do It Well It might seem so obvious that it’s not worth saying – but it’s crucial to actually do your job, and to make sure you’re performing to a high standard. You’re not going to become indispensable to your company if you coast through each workday, Twittering about how bored you are, and updating your Facebook profile. (Watch your use of social media sites in general: they could cost you your job .) If you’re doing your best but you know your performance is under-par: Ask for help from a more knowledgeable colleague Ask your manager about training opportunities Let your manager or team leader know if you...

Original Post: Here Image by Bistrosavage   You only get one chance to make a first impression. You have all heard that saying before and I’m willing to bet that most of you don’t find much insight in those words. And at first glance you would be right – but lets dive deeper and look at this statement in context of our personal brands. If I were to ask you to think about the saying, “you only get one chance to make a first impression” and visualize it playing out between two people, many of you will form a picture in your mind of two people physically meeting for the first time. Maybe you get a picture of two people shaking hands for the first time, or hear the small talk as they greet each other or maybe you imagine the interaction going smoothly or poorly. No matter what you see, the vast majority of you when asked to do this exercise will think in physical dimensions – you will picture two people physically meeting for the first time. But, when taken in the cont...