Career Collective post: Once a month, a group of career professionals blog on a subject topical and timely for a job seeker. We’ll post our thoughts on our own blog and link to the post of our colleagues on the same topic.

This month’s topic: How are you fooling yourself about your career/job search? What can you do about it? “How to avoid being tricked by common job search blunders?” Responses from others contributors linked at the end. Follow the hashtag #CareerCollective on Twitter.

Imagine my surprise the other day when I received an eletter from an organization chastising the subscriber base. Here’s what it said: “After three days less than a third of you even opened the last newsletter…you voluntarily signed on ….” <italics theirs> In essence the sender thought it OK to impose their schedule on the readership and publicly lamented the fact everyone didn’t drop everything and read what this organization had to say immediately.

I sat there in stunned silence. I read it again. Surely I was reading it wrong. No. There it was. Someone was “yelling” at me for not reading what they wrote on THEIR schedule. Someone, knowing nothing about anyone’s schedule or email volume, deemed three days an adequate amount of time to open this document. And were so convicted in that belief, they thought it OK to chastise the entire readership for not adhering to their arbitrary schedule. Really? I signed up for this eletter more than three years ago and suddenly, by virtue of that sign up, they get to tell me what to do??? About 10 minutes later, as I was digesting this craziness, I received an email from a friend who was on the same mailing list, with a note saying, “Seriously? I’m being lectured?” She unsubscribed. I didn’t … yet.

So what does this have to do with being foolish in a job search? Let’s change up the players a bit. The organization is the job seeker, the eletter their resume. I’m the hiring authority.

I personally get more than 100 emails a day (and that’s a minimal volume compared to most HR professionals.) I run a business. My priority is client and colleague correspondence. I read all the other “stuff” when I can. Sometimes it takes a day or so to plow through everything. Sometimes, I look at content through the Outlook preview box. If the information doesn’t grab my attention or convey value to me in 10-15 seconds (sound familiar???), I hit the delete button and move on to the next email without ever opening the email.

Now, imagine I’m a busy HR professional or hiring authority with a full plate – a notice insurance costs are rising yet again, an overflowing inbox, budgets are due, an argument is brewing between staff members, a toilet backed up in the employee bathroom AND 300 resumes to review for an opening in engineering … and that’s a slow day. Rather than get a document that understands my pain and brings a solution to ease that pain, I get a cover letter with “I, me or my” mentioned 21 times in two paragraphs – basically a mini-opera all about me-me-me – accompanied by a me-centered resume, starting out with: “Seeking a position where I can grow personally and professionally while helping the company grow.” My HR world is imploding (as it frequently does) and a person I don’t even know, haven’t even engaged on any level is telling me what they want. I know nothing of them and their introduction is “gimme”. Sounds sort of like that organization deciding I “should” have opened the email already with absolutely no regard to my own personal circumstance or pain.*

I tell my clients (potential clients, strangers while out shopping – it’s happened … anyone who will listen); a job search is not all about you. (WHAT?? It’s not all about me?) I go on to explain, the beginning of the search is yours – you get to decide (or circumstances do) it’s time to launch a job search. The end of the search is yours – you get to decide which offer you accept. BUT, for all points in between, every word out of your mouth, every email, every voice mail, every conversation with every person even remotely affiliated with the target organization had better deliver, repeatedly, a “this is what I bring to your organization, this is what I can do for you, this is how I can make your life easier” message or you’re destined for the delete button. In this job market, with 6.3 individuals for every open position in the US today, you’ve got to sell your value, not pound your chest, stomp your feet and scream “I want.”

Don’t be an April Fool … or even a May, June or July fool. Convey your value. Think about your audience and don’t impose your agenda on others. Remember, in addressing their needs, your agenda is handled too.

*(BTW – I was one of the 33% that had opened the email, read it and forwarded the info along to a few others who might find it interesting BEFORE they yelled. Know what? Most likely, I won’t do that again. I won’t risk my friends and associates being yelled at for not jumping through imaginary hoops ever again. Do you think the harried HR manager will save or pass along your information to a colleague? Hmmm. The unsubscribe / delete button looms … )

Here’s what my colleagues have to say:

Walter Akana @walterakana Same as it ever was

Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter @ValueIntoWords Mirror ‘their’ needs, not ‘your’ wants in #Jobsearch

Laurie Berenson @LaurieBerenson Don’t get tricked by these job search blunders

Chandlee Bryan @chandlee Don’t Kid Yourself! (The Person You See in the Mirror is a Good Hire)

Martin Buckland @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes April Fool’s Day — Who’s fooling who?

Katharine Hansen @Kat_Hansen Don’t be fooled: Avoid these 10 job search blunders

Gayle Howard @GayleHoward If It’s Not You and It’s Not True, You’re Fooling Yourself

Heather Huhman @heatherhuhman 9 Ways You Might Be Fooling Yourself About Your Job Search

Rosalind Joffe @WorkWithIllness Trying hard to be nobody’s fool

Susan Joyce @jobhuntorg Avoiding Most Common Blunders

Erin Kennedy @erinkennedyCPRW Stop Fooling Yourself about your Job Hunt: Things you may be doing to sabotage yourself

J T O’Donnell @careerealism 10 Ways to tell if your job search is a joke

Meg Montford @KCCareerCoach Is Your #Career in Recovery or Retreat? (All Joking Aside)

Hannah Morgan @careersherpa Job Search is no joking matter

Barbara Safani @barbarasafani Job seekers: Are you fooling yourself if …

Miriam Salpeter @keppie_careers Are you fooling yourself? Bored at work? Is it your own fault?

Rosa Vargas @resumeservice Hey, Job Seeker — Don’t Be a Fool!

Career Collective post: Once a month, a group of career professionals blog on a subject topical and timely for a job seeker. We’ll post our thoughts on our own blog and link to the post of our colleagues on the same topic.

This month’s topic: What do you do when you’re really, really, really discouraged about your unsuccessful job search? How do you overcome the negative aspects of job search? Responses from others contributors linked at the end. Follow the hashtag #CareerCollective on Twitter.

Discouraged is a difficult place to live. We all visit occasionally, but wallowing in a cesspool of negativity doesn’t solve anything. And yes. I realize that leaving “discouraged” is a lot easier said than done. This in no way is meant to diminish personal circumstance, but I do know it’s much more difficult to sell your skill set when you’ve lost confidence in you and it’s difficult to have confidence in you when you can’t sell your skill set. Add to that, it’s not easy to network when your confidence level doesn’t register at all. It’s a vicious cycle. And only you can break out of it. So how do you do it? I’m not 100% sure either, but I’ll tell you what works for me.

As I’ve said in tweets and past posts, attitude plays an important role in a job search and career management. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll be the first one to endorse a “pity-party”, but you can’t carry that woe-is-me mentality everywhere you go. Acknowledge the pain, for a moment, but eventually, perspective has to change. In addition to making internal adjustments, be sure to engage your network to support the changes. Accountability and camaraderie are important on any journey.

For a long time on Twitter, I started the day with a daily gratitude. (#dailygratitude) No matter how I woke up feeling, I sat and thought about something for which I was grateful. One morning, it was the vacuum cleaner and its ability to tame dust bunnies. Now how can I have a bad day when I start it out with the word “bunnies”? (See, it even made you smile just then.) One smile leads to another and eventually I’ll forget what made me grumpy. Or in relaxing for a moment find the remedy for the point of consternation. (Hmmm. Might be time to revive that practice.) Even if you don’t tweet your gratitude for things, big and small, at least take a moment to find a flash of wonderful in the midst of the insanity. I’ve also found, when you notice one good thing, two or three other good things show up, eager for attention too. Before you know it, you’ll find a respite from despair and perhaps stumble on the motivation needed to move out of discouraged. It’s not easy being crabby with a smile on the outside. It eventually seeps inside.

This past month, I’ve been walking most mornings with my neighbor Brenda. We walk a loop through an open field, near the Black River and up and down the dirt road. We go for about a half-hour and Brenda sets a heck of a pace. As pleasant and bucolic this setting is, some days, we don’t feel like walking. We usually go anyway (yea us!) but change our route a bit. We’ll go in the opposite direction, add a new landmark or take a different path home. One morning, after changing the direction of our walk, we both remarked it seemed much easier coming at it from a different direction. And so it goes with a job search or career management. If the approach you’re using is daunting, then change it. There is more than one means to an end. Explore them until you find what works for you.

What doesn’t work is curling into a fetal position wondering why me? Believe me. I’ve been there. Even I couldn’t stand being around me for very long. I had to make changes. It wasn’t easy. And I didn’t make all the required changes all at once. I did little thing like changing my internal sentences, (would I talk to my best friend the way I talk to me???). That changed my perspective. A new perspective attracted different opportunities and so it goes. Look long enough, you’ll find good and bad in most everything. Small changes lead to big things and one foot in front of the other will take you anywhere. It’s OK to visit discouraged. With a dependable network and an escape plan, you won’t hang out too long. It’s up to you.

Here’s what my colleagues have to say:

Walter Akana @walterakana Light at the End of the Tunnel

Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter @ValueIntoWords Restoring Your Joy in Job Search

Laurie Berenson @LaurieBerenson 3 Ways to Keep Your Glass Half Full

Chandlee Bryan @chandlee Strategy for Getting “Unstuck” and Feeling Better. Watch Lemonade

Martin Buckland @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes Job Search Made Positive

Megan Fitzgerald @expatcoachmegan  Dealing With Job Search Stress: Getting to the Source of the Problem

Katharine Hansen, PhD @KatCareerGal Job-Hunting in a Weak Job Market: 5 Strategies for Staying Upbeat (and Improving Your Chances of Success)

G L Hoffman @GLHoffman How to Overcome the Negativity of a Job Search

Gayle Howard @GayleHoward Job Search: When it all turns sour

Heather Huhman @heatherhuhman 10 Ways to Turn Your Job Search Frown Upside-Down

Rosalind Joffe @WorkWithIllness Finding Opportunity in Quicksand

Susan Joyce @jobhuntorg Just SO VERY Discouraged…

Hannah Morgan @careersherpa Mind Over Matter: Moving Your Stalled Search Forward

Erin Kennedy @ErinKennedyCPRW Dancing in the Rain–Kicking the Job Search Blues

Heather Mundell @heathermundell Help for the Job Search Blues

Meg Montford @KCCareerCoach You Can Beat the Job Search Blues: 5 + 3 Tips to Get Re-energized

Barbara Safani @barbarasafani Making Job Search Fun (Yeah, That’s Right!)

Miriam Salpeter @Keppie_Careers What to do when you are discouraged with your job search

Rosa Vargas @resumeservice Don’t Sweat The Job Search

When Susan Whitcomb, Deb Dib and Chandlee Bryan put out a call for job search tweets for inclusion in their upcoming book, The Twitter Job Search Guide: Find a Job and Advance Your Career in Just 15 Minutes a Day, (set for release early March 2010), I gladly dug through my Twitter stream and found 10 to submit. Guess what. Five of the following ten tweets were selected. Not only will this be a great addition to your personal library, it’ll give you the Twitter handles of the top names in the career business so you can keep on getting great information from them thanks to social media. Definitely worth the cover price.

This is especially thrilling for me. You see, Susan Whitcomb’s book, Resume Magic was the book that launched my resume writing business. To now have my name in one of Susan’s books is quite an honor. And I’ll tell you, Deb and Chandlee are well-respected in the career community. Suffice it to say I’m in good company and I couldn’t be prouder.

In excited anticipation of the book’s release, here are my submissions. Of course I won’t tell you which five will appear in the book. You’ll have to buy it and see. For now, here are a few job search tips in 140-characters or less.

Category: Personal Branding Tip

1. #Jobseekers: Don’t under estimate power of simple thank you when differentiating self from rest of pack.

2. If you use Firefox, download the Search Cloudlet http://is.gd/4HKFf Then Google UR name. R the words displayed the image U want to present?

Category: Job Search Strategy Tip

3. #Jobseekers: You’ve got 2 believe what U bring 2 an employer is special & you’ve got 2 sell it. If not U, who?

4. #Jobseekers: If you share a phone with your spouse, be sure UR voice is the one on the outgoing voice mail message. Avoids confusion.

5. #Jobseekers: Knowing where you want to go is equal to or more important than telling where you’ve been.

6. #Jobseekers: It’s good to have Plan A for re-employment. It’s even better to have Plan B, Plan C … Work ‘em all. Don’t limit to one.

7. #Jobseekers: Don’t forget to smile. That comes though on the phone too. Exude positive energy & remember, it’s all about them.

8. #Jobseekers Copy & paste job postings into Word docs & save. No guarantee it’ll still B up when U interview & may contain needed info.

Category: Networking Tip

9. #Jobseekers: Networking doesn’t end when you land a job. Effective network=career-long process, cultivated w/occasional, thoughtful contact.

Category: Resume Tip

10. Stuck on key words? Go to the company Web site and review Meta tags in the source code for inspiration. (View, Page Source)

Well there you go – a quick glimpse into the great information and categories covered in the book. Susan produces top-notch material. Several of her books are included in my own career resources library. I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait to read the rest of it.

I went to my computer early last Monday morning (12-20) around 2:30 a.m. I live with six dogs and an “old bladder” so middle of the night computer visits are normal for me. I check email or catch up on Twitter until I get sleepy again. Sometimes, on Twitter, I’ll find another night owl or someone on the other side of the world willing to chat.

When I moved the mouse to wake up the computer, I was greeted a black screen with white writing. For those of you have seen this type of display, you know the terror starts now. I tried everything I knew to revive or restore the “sick” machine … to no avail. I went back to bed for a few hours hoping it would “miraculously” heal. No such luck.

Grabbing the yellow pages I started dialing. I left a message at the first shop (has YET to call me back) and then called a shop advertising 24/7 service. I dialed 910.367.2365. After the second ring, a cheery “Paradox Computer Services” greeted me. It was 7:30 a.m., Monday morning, Christmas week. From that point on, Gary Webb, one of the Paradox owners went above and beyond in getting my computer back operational. Over the course of the week we upgraded to Windows 7 and Office 2007. We installed a higher level anti-virus program and added an external hard drive. We also downloaded infinite files from my off-site backup storage (THANK GOODNESS FOR Carbonite!!)  We tweaked, restored, reset and reloaded all week. He met me and returned my computer on Christmas Day for heaven’s sake!

I’d had computer troubles back in September and put in place some stop gaps then. I thought I had it under control. Boy was I wrong! Downloading one file from Carbonite … no big deal; restoring an entire hard drive … BIG deal. I’m on a high-speed satellite, not broad band or DSL connection, what should have taken less than 24 hours took 3 days to download. At one point, I did “something” and had to restart the backup making it take even longer. Ugh.

On top of the download adventure, we’d make a change, I’d take the computer home, hook it up and something else, unexpected would happen. I’d call Gary, and we’d arrange to meet at a point between our two locations (I live 30 miles from town, 60 mile minimum round trip). I went to Wilmington five out of six days last week. On the fourth trip, Gary, handed me a $25 gas card to help defray the cost of schlepping the computer back and forth. We’re still not sure the cause or reason for the ghosts in my machine, but it was a challenge. I wasn’t giving up. Neither was he.

Every day last week I planned around getting my computer back and what I could do in the interim. I rearranged my schedule so I could prepare for Christmas, meet an urgent client deadline, get my computer repaired, remain current with emails and take care of other client needs. Oh, and did I tell you, at the same time the computer crashed, I noticed my phone wouldn’t send emails from my business account? I was in technological purgatory. Gmail worked on my phone, but the account I’d need the most for responding was down, and nothing would fix it … expect a master restore. I wasn’t willing to do that until I could get my computer back up since I wasn’t sure I might loose/had already lost. Ironically, that’s what the computer needed too.

Nope. This isn't part of my plan, but then again ...

It was a full week of, “OK … this isn’t working. What can I get done today in spite of that?” and then “dropping back and punting.” I couldn’t sit down and sulk. (Believe me. I wanted to.) I had to keep moving. Events of this past week give a nice parallel to the job search. I had a plan. I’d prepared, yet the unexpected happened and I had to scramble.

We prepare. We plot a course. We envision the outcome. Then we remember, “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans”. It’s good to have a plan.  It’s better to have three or four (or more) to keep you on your feet and moving forward. I managed to get it all done. I learned A LOT about adapting and redundancy in planning for the worst. With plans B, C and D firmly in place, I “think” I’m ready for anything now. This may never happen again. Or worse may happen. Who knows? At least now, I have a few different paths established for recovery. You can do the same in your search. Map out multiple if/then scenarios. Hopefully, you won’t have to do everything you planned before you attain job search success, but with several things in place you’ll be able to exhale instead of gasping the next time things don’t go your way.

The Professional Association of Resume Writers had a great conversation on their elist about how to identify companies in a specific geographic areas – like San Francisco metro and in a specific industry — life medical device or biotech – recently.

The ideas for conducting targeted searches were so good, I consolidated all the posts and am share the information here.

Linkedin: Create an account, if you don’t already have one. Log in, look for link to “Companies” across the top menu bar. From there search companies by zip code, industry, company size, and whether or not there are posting job openings.

Public Library: (Yes, the library). Locate The Standard Industrial Classification Manual (SIC). Please note, the SIC codes could be now be referred to as by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

The government assigned a SIC code to each industry. Ask the reference librarian for (specific to your geographic location) the equivalent of “The Greater San Francisco County Directory of Business and Industry” broken out by SIC code number.

The book is huge, but contains company name, company president’s name, street address and phone numbers for every business in the county that does business within that SIC code. There are letter codes for the size, number of employees, numbers of branches.

There is also ReferenceUSA. The database has a wealth of information on US and Canadian businesses. Try college and public library to see if they subscribe to this. Searches include business name, industry, geographical location and the like.

And another source for business information is the local Economic Development Corporation. They could have different names in different areas, but are usually affiliated with state or county government. Google: Economic Development Corporation and your geographic area and you’ll locate information about local organizations. They sometimes publish a list of employers and their sectors. Dig around for similar publications in different areas. The usually list employers by type and include other helpful information.

Search Chambers of Commerce for business lists online or call and ask. Search the Job Bank site for the state. (Enter “city name” as a keyword and the state abbreviation in Job Search box and you can locate job in your city.) There’s also information available on the One-Stop Web site. Here’s the link to the main map. Click on your state and explore.

You can learn a lot about a company and an industry prior to turning in an application, prior to an interview. In this day and age, there’s no reason for being uninformed.

Bart wandered in our lives on a Saturday night. Strangely enough, he appeared on the eve of the day we said good-bye to Sadie. It was almost as if he knew there’d be an opening for a dog at our house and he was Johnny-on-the-spot ready to fill it. We had and now, thanks to Bart, still have six dogs …

At first glance, I thought he was a young dog. Always smiling, tail wagging, full of energy and happy, incredibly, smile-inspiring happy. A good friend and veterinarian was kind enough to make a house call and help us with Sadie. When he finished he gave Bart the once over. Turns out Bart is an old dog. His front teeth are worn to nubs. He coughs like an old man who smoked three packs of Camel no-filter cigarettes, every day of his life since birth. He’s blind in his left eye and has very limited, if any, vision in his right eye. His previous owners “lost” him. And now he’s joined a family of five other dogs – all female and one of them a brat. You’d think he’d be crabby. In human terms, he has valid reasons for a dour disposition right? But, did I mention he’s always happy?

Watching Bart stumble around the house the past six months has made me think of how his new life parallels a job search. He’s in uncharted territory; someplace he’s never been before. I’m sure he bumped around in the area surrounding our house until he found his way up our driveway. Almost like a job seeker looking for the next opportunity. We don’t train to be unemployed. It’s not something studied, but suddenly, there you are stumbling around in a place you’ve never been, frightened at what’s around the next corner and not sure exactly where you’ll end up. The security and comfort of life as you knew it, gone. Did Bart get frustrated in his search? I can’t answer that, but can assume he probably did, plowing through dense woods and rough terrain, tripping and falling. But he didn’t stop until he found the right driveway. Ours. Not bad for an old, coughing, blind dog lost in the middle of nowhere. He stuck with it and forged on. I’m sure his happy outlook got him through many briars.

Living with an active blind dog is interesting. I’ve learned many lessons watching his approach to things. He plows through the house, running headlong into things, hitting with such a thud I wince. Does it stop him? Nope. He backs up, shakes it off and changes his course just a bit. Almost as if to say, hmmmm, that didn’t work, let’s try this. Sound like a job search? This isn’t working, let’s tweak the strategy a bit and get back out there.

Lucy, my brat dog, is frequently annoyed with him bumping into to her. She growls and postures and sometimes pushes back to let him know her boundaries. Bart takes it with a grain of salt. She gets crabby; he backs up and goes a different way or waits his turn. Every now and again he pushes back. He goes with the flow, demonstrates patience when required, yet fights for himself when necessary. Sound like a job search strategy?

Bart has a deep, menacing bark, one that hangs in the air and resonates for a moment before it fades. If he’s outside and you ride past my house, I know it. He barks at anything that goes up or down “his road”. And if you dare pull in his driveway, he leaps to his feet and barks fiercely – usually facing the wrong direction – but no less convicted in his approach and belief he is protecting his people. Sounds like he’s pretty sure of his ability to protect (his skill set) and is not afraid to bark it from the mountaintops. Isn’t that how a job search ends in success, confidence in skills and a bold demonstration of said skill set?

Because he’s the only dog I haven’t trained to the Invisible Fence, up until recently, he stayed inside when no one was home. That is until he discovered we keep the dog food in the pantry. The pantry has a sliding latch that had been successful in keeping all of the dogs out, until Bart. He figured out how to push on the doors in a certain way, rendering the latch ineffective. OK. He beat the latch. Next we put a folding table in front of the doors. When we came home, he’d knocked that out of the way, and got into the food. Then we put a heavy, four-case stack of bottled tea in front of the doors. You guessed it. Pushed aside. The next time we left, we enlisted the aid of Heidi, our ferret, and put her six-foot tall cage, squarely in front of both doors. She enjoyed the ride around the kitchen and Bart enjoyed a snack once he’d moved her cage out of the way. Harrumph. What to do now? I took a six-foot leash and tied the door handles together. Hubby came home and found one of the louvered doors completely off the track, laying in the floor … and a smiling, full Bart. He now stays in the pen outside when we leave. Although, we discovered he likes to dig, not sure how long that will hold him. Oh to have that level of commitment, tenacity and focus about getting what we want in a job search or life in general for that matter.

So what job search lessons does Bart teach, just by being Bart? A happy disposition and a desire to get along will endear you to those around you. Had he been a grumpy, crabby dog, who picked fights with everyone and chased the cats I would have made a different decision about keeping him. He was in the right place at the right time because he kept trying. I’m sure he’d been up and down the road for a while. He was mighty hungry when he got here, but he kept trying until he found a welcoming home. He doesn’t let blindness, lack of teeth or a debilitating cough stop him. He backs up, changes his path, stops to hack a moment and keeps on moving. He may be an old boy, but gives off a youthful air and approaches things with a joie de vie I can only hope to duplicate. Overall, after getting to know Bart, I’ve decided we could all use a little more Bart-itude in our lives.

PS – For those concerned about Bart’s cough, it’s a sure sign his previous owners didn’t have him on heartworm prevention. The vet said, with the way he coughs and his age, he probably wouldn’t survive the treatment. He’ll live out his days here, giving and receiving unconditional love until he draws his last breath. He’s where he’s supposed to be.

Today, I’m sharing some observations and insights gained while volunteering to do resume reviews at a local mall for a job fair. To say I’m disgusted by what I saw is an understatement. And I’m not talking about the resumes. I’m used to seeing boring career autobiographies, all out career confessionals and self-centered, “this is what I want” documents. That’s not what bothered me. That can easily be fixed. That’s what I do. What got to me was the sheer laziness of the job seekers I met. I am appalled and want to use them as a good lesson in how NOT to approach a job fair, or a job search for that matter.

I understand, from here on, I am generalizing. I also get there are people who understand a job search requires effort and time and energy and follow-up and more effort and some research and more follow-up and even more effort. I’m not talking to them. Those enlightened, focused searchers can stop reading now or pass the link along to a friend who isn’t quite up to speed on the fact that jobs don’t magically appear and the world doesn’t owe them a living.

Now, on to things I learned at the job fair:

1. Show up when offered an opportunity to network with business owners, employers and career people. In 4 hours, I spoke with only 12 people. (I kept a tally to measure efficacy of the event versus my time to participate.) Every exhibitor there commented on the lack of traffic and the lack of participation by local job seekers. If I were not an eternal optimist, I would have packed up after the first hour. I believed things would pick up. They didn’t. And the event was well publicized.

2. Dress the part. Do you know how many flip-flops, t-shirts (with questionable logos), ripped jeans and halter-tops (on women who had NO business in halter-tops) I saw? People, if you want a job, look the part. Slovenly is NOT business casual. If you don’t care enough to look your best, how are you going to convince a potential employer you care enough to do a good job for them?

3. Be able to articulate what you do and what you seek. I sat next to a woman who was recruiting for a local power company. She politely asked everyone what s/he did; what type of position s/he sought. One guy said, “I want a job in business”? What the ____ does that mean????? Prepare a 30-second elevator speech to sell your skills immediately. Don’t know what an elevator speech is? Google it. There’s plenty of info out there; even some YouTube videos to help you boil down skills and express the value you bring to an employer in 30-seconds. By the way, “I’ll do anything” (another frequent refrain) is NOT a job search strategy and makes you appear weak and desperate.

4. Leave your bad attitude at home. One attendee stormed over the power company booth and demanded to know why the booth, two spaces down, was unmanned. “I filled out this application and now I don’t know what to do with it.” To Yolanda’s, the power company rep, credit, she got up, went to the other booth and tried to show the woman what she needed to do and help her figure out where to turn in the application.

True the booth sponsors should have been there or left better instructions, but Earth is a tough town and sometimes the difficulty in the application process is part of the screening. If you can’t figure out how to handle something that is going to benefit you on your own, how effective are you going to be when it comes to problem solving for a potential employer?

Anyway, this woman became more and more agitated. Finally, rather than breathe any more of this Negative Nellie’s venom, Yolanda agreed to take the application and turn it in for her. Yolanda then spent 15 minutes walking to and from the mall office to turn in the application. Frankly, she was much kinder than I would have been. I probably would have trashed the application. (Not really, but I would have thought about it really hard and at least editorialized when I did turn it in ….) NO employer deserves to be subjected to that “the world owes me” attitude. Here’s someone trying to her best help and all this attendee can do is spit venom and whine about how inconvenient things are for her. Later!

5. If you’re going to a job fair, bring your resume. Pretty obvious, but I overhead, several attendees say, “No I didn’t bring my resume with me today.” Hello. You’re attending a job fair and you left your resume at home??? I have no words.

6. When offered free job search advice jump on it. I have an interview prep package I provide all my resume clients as a thank-you for doing business with me. It’s also available on my Web site for the nominal fee of $20 for non-clients. Part of my giving back to the community was to give anyone that spoke with me that interview prep package for free – FREE. I started out making an email sign-up sheet, but decided I was taking already a day out of my work week to help and really didn’t want to end up with a typing project when I got home after volunteering. (I was anticipating a lot more traffic than materialized.)

What I did instead was hand every person a business card, told them to send me an email requesting the interview prep info, letting me know they’d met me at the expo – didn’t have to be pretty, didn’t have to be properly punctuated. I wanted them to take some initiative and save me having to type in their email address. After all, I’m giving them something for nothing. The only requirement was to go home and send a simple email. Did anyone, ANYONE do it??? You guessed it. Not one unemployed, job-seeking soul took the initiative to send that simple email and request a valuable package of interview information. (And I waited six days before I proclaimed no one took the initiative.) Guess they’re too busy lamenting the sad state of affairs to actually put fingers to keyboards and do something about it.

7. Say thank-you. Not as proof that you’re polite, but as a way to network and reinforce and resell your value. Of the 12 resume reviews I did, not one person sent a follow-up email. Remember, I gave them a business card with my name and email address. If no one emailed me, it’s a safe assumption no one took the time to a send thank-you to the people who interviewed them or provided information about open positions either.

In not following up, they missed an opportunity to grow their network and have an extra set of eyes out there helping them find gainful employment. I may appear to be out of the loop because I work out of a home office, but I talk with people around town and across the country every day, via telephone and various social media outlets. Frequently, I’ll have worked with a client, hear about a job that fits their skill set and send them the lead. I won’t recommend people I’ve not actually worked with outside resume creation, but I will share job leads when I get them. None of those 12 unemployed, people I spoke with will ever have the benefit of that resource because none of them made the effort to follow-up or expand their network.

To say I am disappointed by what I saw at this particular event is an understatement. Now, when I read unemployment figures are at 9.1% (or whatever it is for this week), I not only mentally correct the perspective – 9.1% unemployment is 90.9% EMPLOYMENT – I silently add … “and probably a good portion of that unemployed figure stems for the ridiculous lack of initiative I witnessed on June 25^th”. What a sad testament to the American spirit. The America I know pulls itself up by the bootstraps and makes things happen. The America I saw on the 25^th saddens me.

Would I participate in this event again? Probably. It’s that indomitable Pollyanna perspective I possess. I do truly want to help others, so yes, I’d put myself through this again. Besides, sometimes, bad things are good examples of how not to be and I can share that experience with my readers. This was one of those bad things/good examples times.

For now, thanks for letting me vent.

When I first took a teleseminar on blogging, one thing the instructor said was if you disappear from your blog for a while, don’t call attention to it. Start again like you posted yesterday. Sooooo, here I am calling attention to the fact it’s almost been two months since I’ve pontificated … to help make a point for job seekers.

What got me back on track was a simple tweet sent by my Twitter friend, @jlipschultz this week. He politely asked wasn’t it time I posted something (@jlipschultz is Jeff Lipschultz – you’ll find his blog link on my blog roll.) I thanked him “sarcastically” for the thunk on the side of the head, but it worked. A support team (I didn’t even know I had) helped get me back on the blogging track. OK, so what does that have to do with a job search?

Sometimes, after spending all day at the computer writing resumes, responding to email and tweeting, in between morning and evening pet sit rounds (my other business), I’m just not up to blogging too. That’s fine. When I started this, I knew I’d not be an every day blogger. I knew I’d have to grow into that level of commitment. I started blogging because I wanted a place to point clients for help with their job search. Rather than give out all the great links in my blogroll to every caller or explain the same concepts over and over again, verbally or via email, I started a blog. Now I have somewhere to send clients in support of their search and am able to give them detailed responses to frequently asked questions through my writing – saving them and me time. Added bonus, I’ve given them clickable links to some of the best information on the Internet from the top people in the career industry. So … what DOES all this have to do this with a job search?

I understand the “I can’t do another thing today feeling”. And I battle procrastination – fiercely some days – too. Taking this (finally) to the job search side, I get how you can feel like “if I have to respond to one more Monster board alert or read one more article about how to find a job my head is going to explode”. I empathize with the need to take a break. But don’t do as I did and let that “break” turn into a two month sabbatical. It’s so easy to look at your to- do list and move the more difficult, thinking-required tasks to tomorrow and jump on the easier, fun things. That’s OK in moderation. Be easy with yourself. But don’t cut yourself so much slack that tomorrow never comes.

Face it, if you’re on day one of a six-month severance package, just started collecting unemployment insurance or have “plenty of resources to help you ride the wave” putting something off one day really isn’t that big of a deal. Or is it? A day here and there to exhale and focus on something other than your search is healthy. Moving that “develop targeted searches-research companies, markets and salaries-practice negotiation skills-network-volunteer as a part of networking-scour niche job boards-respond to specific postings-take classes to gain new skills-harness the power of Web 2.0 social media” item on your to do list can quickly go from only a day’s delay, to a week to a month, to (for goodness sake) two months, in the blink of an eye.

Something else I learned in this little procrastination adventure is the importance of support. In this life, you really don’t have to go it alone. People are more than willing to help. (Sometime you don’t even have to ask.) Make yourself accountable to someone. Ask a friend to be your search buddy and check on your progress as you wade through the quagmire that is the search process. Make it an upbeat, positive friend who won’t cut you any slack and won’t let you wallow too long. Let them know your boundaries and your goals. Know there’s someone there watching your progress, pulling for you to succeed and helping you get back on track when you stumble.

Now that I know Jeff is paying attention, I’m committed to being a more frequent blogger again. I may even walk on the wild side and add blog posting to my schedule. Regardless. Jeff’s 140-character nudge through the Twitterverse did wonders to help me. Imagine what a good friend or two checking on your search progress will do for you.

Stay focused. Plan. Enlist the help of friend. I did not do any of these and look what happened … This is truly a case of do as I say, not as I do. (Up side: I got a blog post out of procrastinating a blog post. How cool is that?!)

PS – Lest you think I’ve been loafing, I’ve been very active on Twitter, participating in lots of career initiatives to put America back to work and help job seekers succeed. And I’ve been raising four orphaned baby opossums. (Yes, you read that right. I’ve got possums.) My next blog post will cover all the places other career professionals and I are posting information and for fun, I’ll throw in the possum story. I assure you, and Jeff, that will happen soon.

Thanks Jeff!

If you’re a frequent visitor to this blog, you already know I’m an avid Twitter user. I view my Tweeps as important assets in my life and love the wealth of knowledge – interesting, unusual, helpful and odd – shared daily.

Wednesday, Jeff Lipschutlz, founding partner of A-List Solutions, a recruiting firm, and fellow Twitterer suggested I comment on his most recent blog post, “Recruiting your recruiter in the job search”. I followed the link to a very informative article on proper expectations and considerations when working with recruiters. Having been a professional recruiter, I could not have done a better job of putting together a guideline for how to work with one than Jeff did. Sooooo, today I’m sending you to his blog to read:

“Recruiting Your Recruiter in the Job Search”

Make sure you read through all the comments (mine is #16). There’s wonderful information added by other career professional. All in all, Jeff and his commenters created a one-stop guide for what to expect when working with “headhunters.”

And if that’s not enough, Jeff did a follow up post today: “Recruiting Your Recruiter in the Job Search, Part II”

Jeff summarized the comments from the first post (including mine) and added more info. Then, frosting on the cake of this information, he combined both posts into one for his A-List Solutions Web site (gotta love an engineer).

If you’re job searching or thinking about job searching, this is a MUST READ!

Thanks Jeff! For the great information and the opportunity to contribute.

In the last of a month-long series of guest posts (including mine) on G. L. Hoffman’s What Would Dad Say? blog, Seth Godin closes out the month with some RADICAL job search advice: “Don’t Try to Get a Job.” Run over there, check it out (GREAT READ!!), then come back and find out why this resume writer whole-heartedly agrees.

You’re back? Good. Here’s my story …

In 2000, I left a “safe, secure” corporate position to try my hand at recruiting. By June of 2002, I realized professional recruiting was going to be the first “major failure” I’d experience in a career spanning more than two-and a-half-decades.

Well. Let’s see. I left a good job, with a large company and a good salary for the potential to make big money recruiting and found out I didn’t have what it took to ride the roller coaster of the hiring / recruiting process. I was too attached to my clients, spent too much time coaching and spiffing up rezs and not enough time doing the work of recruiting. Anyway …

Bewildered, and always an animal lover, I took a part-time office management position in a local veterinary hospital for … I won’t even tell you the hourly wage … so I could sort out what to do with me, and my career. Well, answering that vet’s office phone day in and day out, giving out phone numbers for kennels and knowing most rural clients had more than one animal – yard dogs, barn cats, pot-bellied pigs, chickens, etc. – sparked an idea. One client led to another and my pet sitting business quickly grew: “Snug as a Bug – In-home pet sitting services”. (The “Start a dog poop shoveling business” line caught my eye in the Godin article.)

Shortly after I stopped recruiting, the idea to use resume writing skills, to make some extra money also surfaced. “The Write Solution” started with the referral of a friend of a friend. I continued working the part-time position (chicken entrepreneur) while I grew both businesses and earned my Certified Professional Resume Writer credential. In June of 2007, I quit the part-time job, taking both my pet sitting and resume writing businesses full time.

Today, I have more than 40 core pet sitting clients calling on me regularly to care for their animals and check on their homes while they’re away. In between pet sit rounds, I write a resume for someone almost every day. Hardly a week goes by when I don’t get a referral or hear back from former rez clients. Last year, my first full calendar year running two full-time businesses, I surpassed what I earned when I left my customer service manager position in corporate America.

Was it/is it easy? No. Do I work entirely too many hours? Yes. Can I take a nap in the afternoon? Not often enough. Did I wrestle, at the beginning, with losing a corporate identity and the part of my self-worth that came from my job title? Abso-freakin’-lutely. Would I change my decision to NOT to go back to the corporate world? Never in a hundred-ba-jillion-million years.

Mr. Godin is right about the opportunities out there. Shut your mouth. Stop whining about … well, everything. Stop expecting someone else to do it for you and open your eyes. Know what you’ll see? Opportunity a-plenty. It may not be in a cushy, corner office and you many not need a three-piece suit, but the money you earn will be by you, for you.

Absolutely, don’t get a job. If you’ve got the guts and the willingness to explore a whole different side of you, go for it. My mantra: “Leap and the net will appear.”