How to get a job in this economy

Here is an incomplete list of what is awaiting some of our neighbors, friends and family this holiday season. Hint: It is not good.

Sharper Image is going bye-bye and following in the footsteps of more familiar and affordable places, like CompUSA, Linens & Things, Mervin's, etc.

Major Layoffs are in the works for Sony who will be cutting over 15, 000 jobs, 3M is letting over 1,800 workers world-wide, Dow Chemical and Dupont are going to let go almost 10,000 people. Circuit City already filed for bankrupcy and closed down a huge number of stores and the few that are left are not that secured.

Other retailers have seen and felt the crunch consumers are in and acted accordingly by closing doors, places where luxury items are found are going bye-bye too, we can all say our collective goodbyes to Zales and Wilson's leather and one I have always meant to go in but now will not get the chance, Fashion Bug.

(T)RUSTED SKILLS need to be sharpened.

Aside from the fact that there are fewer opportunities available and greater competition, the basics of getting a job in this economy are the same as always:

Personal presentation, Resume presentation and use of language (both verbal and written)

1. Personal presentation

We all know the old axiom; "you only get one chance to make a first impression" and yet, sometimes we fail miserably due to lack of time or forethought.

Presenting ourselves is the first package we are selling, true it is unfair, but the fact is that a well groomed individual that is dressed appropriately for the job is the first impression that sticks in the interviewer's mind as well as those of the staff that we maybe working with.

I'll give you an example; my boss once refused to interview a lawyer because she was dressed in what she interpreted as "nightclub" clothes and would send the "wrong" signal to the board of directors. In other words, it would reflect poorly on my boss. Her judgement would be in question and she would be the one fighting scrutiny and perceptions. Being a "good fit" for any company starts with how we present the whole package and the first part of the package we are selling is ourselves. The contents of the package comes shortly afterwards and is revealed by body and verbal language.

In these days of economic upheaval, we need all the help we can get and even though it is not fair to make assumptions about people because of the way they show up dressed to an interview, the fact is that this is not going to change any time soon. In my opinion, why take a chance? Those first steps should be carefully orchestrated to our advantage and not to the advantage of our competition.

Resume

I can't tell you how many people's resumes ended in the "no way, not now, not ever" pile because of the improper use of grammar and spelling errors. Some of us think that these spelling errors can be easily remedied with a spell checker, unfortunately, many of us make the mistake of assuming that the spell checker knows what we mean to say and since the word is spelled correctly, we must have done the job right.

Nothing can be further from the truth, since many words with similar spelling carry different meanings. How many times did we meant to say "too" (as in "also") and wrote "to" (as in going somewhere)? That maybe an excusable error among friends but one that denotes lack of education or carelessness to a prospective employer.

Verbally speaking.... (Redundancy). How we express ourselves matters and if we say things such as "the installation is adequate" when we mean to say "the insulation is adequate", we may get a quizzical look and elicit an unwanted impression from our interviewer.


I like to try things first and see if they work for me. Espindle is one of those things that costs nothing to try out and for the first time ever, I am actually advertising something that I have chosen to advertise. Espindle is the first product I have chosen to endorse because a) it is free to try for 10 days and b) sharpening those job hunting skills never goes out of style.

ON THE NEWS

OBAMA

Let's leave the man alone. Let's wait to pounce on him once he takes office, say... around January 20th?. Let's all demand perfection on the 21.

PAULSON

Another day, another dollar. Or in his case, the other half of the gizillion dollars this Congress sought to give him to stimulate the economy without oversights, a plan, or a clue.

Are we sufficiently sick to our stomachs yet? I know I am.

The BIG 3

Thank Goodness it is over! we are loaning them the money with restrictions and oversight. Wish we had done that with Paulson and friends. Don't you?

CHICAGO

Lovely city, great people and .... a governor that wants to sell the vacant seat in the Senate left by Obama to the highest bidder.

What works here? Fitzgerald! the Attorney General that seems to be determined to make sure this bozo does not hold another job in government. Glad to see we are cleaning house in a bipartisan way and we are getting all these trash out to the curb.

Some days, there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is not an incoming train. (At least for us)

Unfortunately, there are some very real human beings sitting in a freezing cold warehouse demanding that the company that fired them without sufficient warning pays them what is owed to them.

This Governor was making the news by backing them up in their time of need. Who better than their Governor?. And now the guy gets arrested and some seem to think that the timing not only sucks, but is incredibly suspect. I am not given to conspiracy theories and like to have the facts on hand.

The fact is that Governor Rod Blagjevich was arrested based on how openly he has been taped demanding money for favors. For Goodness sake! when are these people going to realize that it is a lot harder to rewrite history now than it was in the past due to the advance tehcnology that recalls verbatim everything we have ever said and done at the push of a button?

Speaking of clueless idiots... Have you heard about John Thain? He is the CEO for Merril Lynch and seems to think that he is entitled to $10 million dollar bonus after he (and his team) lost over $10 BILLION dollars last year. The disconnect between the reality for millions of Americans whose pensions they squandered and lost and these CEO's lifestyle is bigger than anything we can think of. (A black hole million years away from the Milky Way seems about right)

Clueless does not begin to address this type of mentality and their sense of entitlement is in dire need of mental health services. (or a firm hand with a sharp stick, followed by a long stretch in prison).

This type of disconnect seems to afflict everyone in those circles, apparently the words "Are you kidding me?" do not flow freely from the lips of those in charge of handing out bonuses to these embezzlers, so instead, they are just "reluctant" and "considering it". You can read about it here.

THINGS WILL GET BETTER

Yes, much better and we are going to do it together, so let's all hang in there and keep the faith.

PEACE