One of my favorite posts is Depression Clouds Everything, which currently has 377 comments.  The followup to that post is Dealing with Job Search Depression, which has 9 ideas from me and 34 comments.

Sadly, this is much needed information.  Recently, on Depression Clouds Everything someone left a terrific comment.  Thanks to “Struggling To Stay Positive” for this comment:

Dear Friends:

Here’s a list of resources that have helped me, and maybe they might be useful to you and some other people reading this message thread –

Books (mostly available on http://www.amazon.com as paperbacks for pennies if you buy a used copy. If you can’t afford to buy one, even for pennies, ask a friend or family member to purchase it for you):

1. “Getting Up When You’re Feeling Down,” by Dr. Harriet Braiker — a wise book, written for women dealing with a depression, but men can benefit from it as well.

2. “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy,” by Dr. David Burns — a collection of useful techniques for dealing with depressing moods and shifting into a more positive outlook.

3. “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living: Time-Tested Methods for Conquering Worry,” by Dale Carnegie — an “oldie but goodie” written during the Great Depression and WWII, full of basic techniques for diminishing worry thoughts and focusing on solving problems.

4. “Happy for No Reason,” by Marci Shimoff — summary of her interviews with “100″ people, many of them now “New Age” teachers, who had various techniques for being happy even in really, really bad situations.

5. “The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want,” by Sonja Lyubomirsky — summarizes basic optimistic thought techniques that have been tested by rigorous scientific research — the author is a research psychologist — the techiques are very simple and almost ridiculously easy.

The author summarizes research that shows that positive thinking, even in very negative situations, improves your life. Brain research indicates that as you shift to positive thoughts, new neural pathways are created in your brain, gradually making negative pathways less powerful.

6. “Learned Optimism: How To Change Your Mind and Your Life” by Dr. Martin Seligman. One of the first books of the new scientific “positive psychology” movement, discussing how to shift a person’s pervasive pessimistic thinking to optimistic thinking.

7. “The Miracle of Mind Dynamics,” by Rev. Dr. Joseph Murphy — for Christians and other people inclined to spirituality, an “oldie but goodie” connecting prayer and meditation with ways to increase positive thinking.

8. “Building Your Self-Image and the Self-Image of Others,” by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin — for Jews and other people inclined to spirituality, a very good mix of practical instruction on maintaining positive thought patterns in a spiritual context, even in really bad situations.

Websites:

1. The Good News Network — good news not covered by the mainstream media –

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

2. Positive Thinking Radio — really good free podcasts to listen to when times are tough –

http://positivethinkingradio.com/

3. Positive Psychology News — free daily email newsletters on positive thinking techniques from the new scientific positive psychology movement

http://positivepsychologynews.com/

4. American Happiness Association — provides free resources, such as teleconferences, for people who are having a tough time –

http://www.americanhappiness.org/

Finally, for everyone who may be feeling so depressed that suicide is looking good or someone you care about may be reaching that point:

1. “Suicide: Read This First” — a no-nonsense website that speaks directly and respectfully to peoples’ pain

http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/

2. “Lifeline Gallery: Stories of Hope and Recovery” — a website containing podcasts from people who either attempted or survived suicide attempts; also contacts podcasts from family and friends dealing with the aftermath of suicide attempts and completed suicides of friends and family members.

Website is sponsored by Dr. Phil, the podcasts are free to listen to, and other resources are provided on the website.

3. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline — practical, common sense website filled with free resources for people dealing with a suicidal crisis, including a free 1(800) line to call.

http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/GetHelp/Default.aspx

4. Suicide.org — a very kindly, warm website jammed with resources for people feeling suicidal and people trying to help suicidal family members

http://www.suicide.org/

Discouraged [referring to someone else who left a comment on the original thread], I hope that you and anyone else reading this resources list may find some of them helpful. I wanted to “give back” as this message thread as been so helpful to me.

Many blessings to everyone on this message thread.

Hopefully this continued discussion helps someone – a job seeker, a spouse, a parent, a child, a neighbor, who faces this today.

A few days ago I wrote “Cancer Sucks.” as a sole tweet. I got a number of private responses asking if I was okay – yes, I’m okay, no cancer that I know of – but I have a number of friends and family who struggle with cancer, and it … well, it sucks.

I wish that we could just figure this one out… can you image a world where cancer wasn’t such a killer?  Can you image a world where getting a diagnosis of cancer resulted in “okay, let’s treat it” with a 99.9% chance that you would indeed get cured?

It’s scary.  Especially to a job seeker who is “in-between” health insurance policies.

I’m not going to talk about my family and friends who are struggling with cancer right now, with the exception of one friend, my video editor Bong.  His father was diagnosed with cancer and is starting treatments.  Bong is working hard, as are others in his family, to figure out how to pay for this treatment.  Bong has not asked me for more money, or for a raise, he has actually asked me for something very simple – a vote in a video contest.

Why?

The winner gets a Sony laptop.

How is that going to help Bong?  He writes:

If I win the prize (a Sony Vaio), I’m planning to sell it so I could help my mom with all the hospital bills.

How cool is that?

So please join with me and either rate or comment on Bong’s video on YouTube (it is a 50 second video, which is his idea for a commercial for a bank in the Philippines) – you either have to have a YouTube account OR YOU CAN LOGIN WITH YOUR GMAIL ACCOUNT!

Each rating or comment on this YouTube page counts as a vote.

Again, any comments or ratings on this video goes towards Bong winning the laptop.

And that laptop would help pay for his dad’s cancer treatment.

Please spare a few minute to help out Bong and his family… thank you.

I came across a listing of the “20 best job search websites,” according to PCMag.com (see Cheezhead’s comments here).  I think this list of sites is… well, junk.

Seriously, I would not recommend many of these sites to anyone who is starting a job search.  If you find them on your own, and find value in them, great.  But none of them are on my top list of anything.  Here’s what they are:

1) Beyond.com Beyond claims to be the “largest network of niche career communities” on the Net. It essentially hooks together different organizations like PRJobForce.com and PhillyJobs.com all in one place, which makes it easy to find leads in your community.

2) CareerBuilder.com As the Web’s biggest job site, CareerBuilder gets more than 23 million visitors a month. The company has been around since 1995, and has developed an incredible network of listing sources and job search centers since that time.

3) Craigslist.org The granddaddy of online classifieds gives those who are focused on searching for jobs within their communities an easy way to look. It might be one of the least-polished entities listed here, but the sheer number of local job listings makes up for it.

4) Execu|Search This site looks to be a selective, higher-tier job search property. Execu|Search screens and reviews every resume that is submitted, and helps employers find the best possible candidates for their open positions.

5) Hound Hound’s search engine shows jobs from employer Web sites only. In theory, this cuts out duplicate listings and shows opportunities that are not posted on other job boards.

6) Indeed Indeed works as an aggregator for listings from major job Web sites, company Web sites, associations, and other online sources. Its simplicity and ease of use are its best features.

7) JobCentral JobCentral is a service formed by a nonprofit consortium of U.S. corporations like IBM and Dell, which makes it ideal if you’re looking for corporate job listings.

JobServe JobServe claims it was “the world’s first Internet recruitment service.” In 2008, JobServe advertised more than 2.5 million jobs across 15 industry sectors.

9) Jobster Jobster uses an active approach to help employers and recruiting teams of all sizes find their candidates. The company calls its method “social recruiting,” and it services 24 different job categories.

10) LinkedIn Best known for being a social network for professionals, LinkedIn also has thorough job listings, some of which are exclusive to LinkedIn.

11) Monster In addition to being arguably the best-known global job-listings site, Monster also offers advice on resumes, interviewing, and salary information.

12) Oodle Oodle, which specializes in online classifieds, includes a job classifieds section that finely cuts job opportunities down to job title, category, industry, and company. Did you know, for example, that Best Buy has nearly 10,000 openings?

13) onTargetJobs onTargetjobs owns a lot of smaller niche sites like BioSpace.com and MedHunters.com. Its expansive niche database allows users to find compatible job listings more easily than with general sites.

14) Simply Hired SimplyHired is similar to Indeed, as it also aggregates listings from major job Web sites, newspapers, company Web sites, and associations. However, the site goes a little deeper and allows users to send their resumes out for posting on five other sites for free.

15) SnagAJob SnagAJob is basically the antithesis of sites like TheLadders and Execu|Search, as its focus is on hourly employment only. The site has partnered with companies like 7 Eleven, Red Lobster, and AMF, to bring the most up-to-date hourly job openings.

16) TheLadders This job site has branded itself as the place to look for $100,000+ jobs only. Job seekers have to pay $30 per month to fully take advantage of the site’s services.

17) Trovix Trovix’s free search engine makes the job-search process more personalized. Users input their work experience and qualifications and the site matches results to what info they have given. Trovix also has an innovative feature called Job Map, which allows you to type in your location and see on Google Maps how many jobs are available in your area.

18) TweetMyJobs One of the newest sites to take advantage of social media, TweetMyJobs supplies Twitter users with instantaneous job listings that are derived from TweetMyJobs’ Job Channels.

19) USAJobs.com USAJobs is the official job site for the U.S. government. With the government looking to significantly increase spending during the next few years, looking at federal jobs might not be a bad move if you’re in a tough place.

20) Yahoo! HotJobs As one of the biggest job sites on the Web, HotJobs distinguishes itself by focusing on features such as status (which shows how many times one’s resume has been viewed) and the ability to block companies from seeing your resume.

Out of this list, here’s what I’d recommend:

Indeed (#6) or SimplyHired (#14): using one job board aggregator instead of poking around dozens of job boards makes a lot of sense. For some reason I’ve migrated to Indeed, but I last I’ve seen, SimplyHired is just as good.

LinkedIn (#10): of course. No explanation needed. If you don’t get it then buy my LinkedIn book or get the new LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD.

The Ladders (#16): I think their resume reviews are shady (more on that later), and not everyone is getting value out of them, but many are. Not free, but could be valuable if you are a six-figures person.

That’s it… from my last 3 years in this space I can’t say that hear any career experts evangelize any of the rest (and some are harsh on The Ladders)… I’m kind of surprised at the suggestions in their article but this seems on par for articles like this.

What sites would YOU suggest?

I came across Mark Beckford a few months ago, as he is a client of one of my partners, Deb Dib.  Mark immediately struck me as very nice, very ambitious, very successful, and very unemployed.  I watched as he started his blog, Disruptive Leadership, and remember his first post wasn’t even the awkward “I’m here, blogging, now what do I say” post.  He jumped right into it, with an analytical, opinionated view on current events that he had professional passion about.

Very nice start, I just wondered if he would be able to keep up the momentum.

Well, he has kept up the momentum, and he stays true to his name Disruptive Leadership.  Very impressive.  Just about everything he has on his blog is impressive… I love the name, colors, look-and-feel, etc.  He is fearless in what he blogs about, has a great style, knows when to write a lot and when to write a little… he has an excellent blog.

And that’s all I’m going to say about why his blog rocks. If you want more substance into what makes a great professional personal branding blog, you can sift through the last 2 years of award winners.  For now, let’s shift gears a little and move from technique to RESULTS.  Because RESULTS is what this is all about.  Mark gets the customary 6 months of JibberJobber premium (transferrable), the highly sought-after link to his blog in my blogroll, a cyber-high-five, and a Blog Marketing 201 – 501 webinar… not too shabby for Mr. Disruptive.

Now let’s get down to RESULTS.  I’m going to let Mark share, in his own words, the results he got.  This is kind of long, but it’s a great read.  This is exactly the type of story I look for to quantify the value of having a strong personal branding strategy.  Mark, take it away!

After 11 years with Intel and a 3-year assignment in Shanghai starting up a new business group and turning around a few businesses, I found myself unsatisfied.  Being in China with Intel was a great experience, but a combination of things, including a dearth of entrepreneurial opportunities, led me to take a year off.   So I pulled the plug on Intel and China and returned to my home in California to spend time with my family (not much opportunity to do that as an expat or Intel executive), dabble in some hobbies (drawing, blogging, and cycling), and do some self-exploration.

I have read more books on various topics in the last 9 months than I have in 20 years.  Some of the standouts tended toward common themes:

• Networking: Never Eat Alone; The Go-Giver; How to Win Friends and Influence People
• Social Networking: Groundswell
• Career Development: I’m on LinkedIn, Now What? Career Distinction; Ask the Headhunter; Now Discover your Strengths; Uniting the Virtual Workplace
• Global Perspectives: The World is Flat; Post-American World; One Billion Customers (how to do business in China)
• Social Capitalism: The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, Creating a World without Poverty

As I started thinking about getting back into the job hunt, I realized that for the first time I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do.  I  have always been very goal oriented, knowing what I wanted to do or be in 5 years, yet here I was, unsure of what I should do next. Join a startup?  Go back to a big company?  Do consulting?  Go international again? And what type of function (biz dev, general management, etc.)?  It was an uncomfortable place to be.

I joined a six-week teleseminar in March on career management for execs which I found on Blue Steps, led by Louise Kursmark.  Deb Dib presented at the first session and gave an update on personal branding—my first intro to it.  Louise recommended Jason Alba’s book on LinkedIn, and suggested I use VisualCV because my career had strong visual elements.

I agreed with Deb’s approach ideas about branding, but I was daunted at the thought of doing it by myself. I knew that at work I was at my most creative when I was bouncing ideas off people.  In 2006, I had hired a resume writer, Gloria Gordon, to update my resume for the first time in 10 years (never updated it after business school… just got promoted within Intel and never really needed it.)   Gloria did a great job both on the resume and the cover letter—from scratch—for about $600.  They got me interviews and a job offer, but it wasn’t about branding.

I looked at several brand experts and went with Deb Dib (the most expensive, but I believe that you get what you pay for). In April, I then began the branding process which started with self discovery and included doing things that were very uncomfortable but rewarding. For example, I didn’t like sending Reach’s 360 out to my friends/colleagues.

Bottom line: it helped me realize I had an entrepreneurial passion for growing for-profit tech businesses in emerging markets, creating a wildly successful business while doing good by helping people in need.  The interesting thing is that once I discovered this, I found that there is a huge movement out there to bring business principles to do social good, mixing the dynamics of creating sustainability and growth through capitalistic principles while promoting a social mission.  It is called a “double bottom line” business (i.e. using both profitable and social measurements for success).

So originally, the idea was to take a year of—the first half of the year to hang out with my family, and the second half to do the job search.  I originally figured it would take a few months to find a job.  I had already gotten offers before I left Intel, and headhunters were calling me here and there.  But by June, the phone was no longer ringing, and I realized that this was going to take awhile.  Then things got ugly as the economy ground to a halt and all the companies went on hiring freezes (great for JibberJobber).   The home equity loan I had planned to tap into in case my nest egg for the year got dented decreased due to the decrease in the value of our house.  My wife and I started letting go of all the “help” (gardner, housecleaner, pool man).  I watched my 401K get whacked 20 percent in one week.  Anyway, the financial crisis train was on its way and it was the worst time in 20 years to be looking for a job, especially an executive level job.

The one light for me in all of this was that I now knew exactly what I wanted to be now … CEO of a startup selling computing devices to underserved populations in emerging markets.  The intermediate step given my finances was to work for a startup (preferably) doing this, or a big tech company like Adobe, Google, Facebook that was already doing it (more likely scenario).

But as you know, looking for a job completely SUCKS.  It is demoralizing and boring to boot.

I had become fascinated with web 2.0 and online social networking.   I joined a bazillion social networking sites, but found zero value in 90 percent of them.  The exceptions have been LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.   I finally decided to do a blog, with Deb’s urging, and it has been the most enjoyable thing I’ve done this year.  It has allowed me to express myself and create something that people are actually interested in.   It took a long time to come up with the name, Disruptive Leadership, that fit my “brand”.  I fell into it as I started googling names like Disruptive Marketing, etc.   So 22 posts later, it’s growing and I’m meeting new and interesting people.   It has gotten me noticed by well-established sites in my space such as http://www.nextbillion.net where I’ve been brought on as one of a handful of staff writers.  One measure of how it has impacted my online brand is that if you google my name in quotes “Mark Beckford” my blog is the second result after my LinkedIn page.

I have been invited to moderate two panels on the role of computers for development.  One was at a conference two weeks ago called “Social Capital Markets 2008″ which brought together investors, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurs for which I wrote an article titled Pathological Collaboration about how necessity is forcing two previous “enemies” together: capitalists and nonprofits.  The second panel will be at the Net Impact conference (a global network of leaders trying to change the world through business) in Philadelphia next month on the role low cost computing in development in emerging markets.

I am now working on creating a professional network to complement my blog that will bring together like-minded professionals and executives in the technology business who are growing their businesses in emerging markets and looking to use their products to promote development.   Something like Technology for Development or something sexier.  Nothing out there combines technology, for-profit business principles and emerging markets.  I’m taking a slow approach on this as I think social networks are a tougher nut to crack than blogging.  For example, how do you create an active and vibrant community?  What’s the value proposition?  The technology is easy (Ning.com).

And finally, I just received a job offer with a startup called NComputing that sells low-cost computers to schools and other sectors in emerging markets.  I believe they offer a true “disruptive innovation” to the PC world and I am tremendously excited to make their vision a success.

So, in summary, I would say my “success” in creating my brand, online and otherwise, was due to my:

• Risk-taking – willing to quit my job which was draining me even though I was working in one of the most dynamic countries in the world.
• Introspection – willing to peel back the onion to see what makes me tick.
• Willingness to seek help – hiring an executive CEO coach to help me do that introspection (and taking the risk that the BIG investment would be pay later).
• Passion for networking – reaching out to people in my area of interest which has lead to great things.
• Being bold, brash and edgy – abandoning the first name I suggested to Deb Dib for my blog (”Digital Opportunity”) and accepting her criticism of it (”boooorrrrrinnnng!!!”)  which led me to come up with “Disruptive Leadership” and pushed me to be edgy in my writings that convey more powerful things that create interest.
• Giving more to your network then you receive – Volunteering for a ton of things and looking for ways to give back to my network vs. only take, which isn’t easy when you are looking for  a job, but I’ve seen how this pays off.

The result is I am better grounded in who I am, have built a solid online presence, have found the perfect job, and hopefully become a thought leader in this space.

Excellent! Inspiring! Great job Mark!  And congrats on being the Oct 2008 Winner of the Month!

A professor at Owen asked “how do we get students to care more about networking?” He was probably even asking how to encourage them to DO IT — grow their network, nurture relationships.

My response started off with “you know the complaint about most professors is they don’t seem to care about career stuff. They teach their discipline, but don’t even talk about job search, career management, networking, or any of that stuff. How many professors actually network on their own??”

I probably started that response off wrong, however, I’ve heard it a lot and I saw it at Idaho State University, where I got my undergraduate and my MBA.

The last part of my response was better: “Let them know that they’ll probably be changing jobs every two years, for their entire career.” He liked that answer more

Two points about those “every two year” job changes:

1. They might be with the same company. I don’t want to preach doom and gloom about this – it still is possible to stay with one company for a long time. But you’ll probably be in different departments of capacities during your tenure there.
2. The job changes are not all going to be on your own terms. Getting laid off, downsized, reduction-in-forced (RIFed) are all in your future (probably).

It’s a lot easier for me to sell someone on the concept of JibberJobber after they’ve been beat up a few times in their career… maybe the message to students would be better accepted after they’ve been working at a few different companies.

Finally, I regularly ask myself how to get older professional to care about networking :p

This post is brought to you by Wendy Terwelp, the Networking Coach and founder of Rock Your Network®.  Wendy Terwelp helps execs network without begging online and off. And she is only two degrees from Kevin Bacon. Since 1989, Wendy has helped thousands be rock stars at work and get paid what they’re worth through networking, branding, and coaching. Wendy has been quoted in The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Fast Company, The Business Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Careerbuilder.com, Monster.com, as well as several radio shows. She’s written countless articles for numerous career websites, blogs, and publications. Speaking gigs include: Barnes & Noble, Women’s Life Expo, professional organizations, universities, and more. Visit her web site at www.knocks.com for tons of free tips to help you get ready for your next big gig.  Wendy is a JibberJobber Career Expert Partner.

Norman Reiss is a non-profit professional.  Want to know how good he is?

Want to know how much he knows about and thinks about the non-profit space?

All you have to do is check out his blog.  You get a good sense of his depth (how well he knows certain topics), breadth (how many topics he knows about in this space), and professional passion.

Norman’s blog is excellent – it puts his brand out there as a subject matter expert and a though leader in the non-profit space.  His tagline is “Bridging Technology, Communications & Development to Implement ePhilanthropy Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations,” and all of his posts are so on-brand it’s awesome.  

Here are some recent posts, and my comments on how/why they really show Norman’s brand:

• Mistakes Nonprofits Can’t Afford to Make – shows he is a thought leader… and if he is YOUR nonprofit executive, you know he’s strategy-minded.
• More ePhilanthropy Ideas from Around the Web – keeps up with industry chatter and ideas – remains current.
• Examples of Nonprofit Excellence – in this post he has suggestions for the org that recognizes the excellence – he’s thinking about how to improve what’s already there.
• Integrated Fundraising – No Longer Optional - understands industry issues and transformations.
• Notes from Fundraising Day, ePhilanthropy Symposium – he works to stay current on industry trends, affairs, news, etc.
• Blackbaud to buy Kintera, but… – understanding of the technology issues in fundraising… 

Seriously, Norman gets it.  I’ve been impressed for a long time, and I’m happy to give him this award!

Norman Reiss, congratulations! You join a special group of professionals and have earned a coveted link from my monthly winner’s blogroll area (on the left), six months of premium JibberJobber (you can transfer/award this to someone else), and a cyber-high five! And, a new addition to the prize list is the two hour (!!) minute recording of Blog Marketing 201 – 501 (part of the CEO Training for Me, Inc. - listed at $49.95 (but much more valuable than that!).

Feel free to post the You Get It award on your site!

Here are the past winners:

• September 2006 - ClickDave - my review
• October 2006 - Kent Blumberg - my review
• November 2006 - Heather Henricks - my review
• December 2006 - Adelino de Almeida - my review
• January 2007 - Rob Humphrey - my review
• January 2007 - Ariel Meadow Stallings - my review
• February 2007 - Mike Schaffner - my review
• March 2007 - Susan Johnston - my review
• April 2007 - Thomas Clifford - my review
• May 2007 - Rob Frankel - my review
• June 2007 - Trent Hamm - my review
• July 2007 - Katie Konrath - my review
• August 2007 - Robb Hecht - my review
• September 2007 – OOPS! I took this month off and didn’t realize it! Lucky me 
• October 2007 - Tanya Ferrill - my review
• November 2007 - Sean O’Donnovan - my review
• December 2007 - Andy Shaindlin - my review
• January 2008 - Kate Herrick - my review
• February 2008 - John Halamka - my review
• March 2008 – another OOPS!
• April 2008 – another OOPS!
• May 2008 - Morty Schiller - my review
• June 2008 – Heather Gardner - my review

I met Phil801 a couple of years ago, and we’ve bumped into one another a number of times over the two years. He’s a short, stocky wrestler-type. I met him when he was employed, but just a few months later he had started his own company, and has since worked for himself.

He’s a software guy, and a visionary. He loves the mountains, has a large family, and used to have goats and chickens (not sure if he still does). Phil801 is a blogger, in fact, one of the bloggers who got me started blogging.

Of course Phil801 is on Twitter. And that is how I found out his daughter has cancer.

My heart goes out to Phil801 and his family. Not to sound sappy, but I cried yesterday as I read through his recent blog posts, where he is sharing the experience, and pictures. As a father, I can’t imagine the pain he is going through. Here is a picture of Phil and Serenity, in the hospital bed:

From her dad’s blog post this morning:

Serenity – Go, Fight, WIN!!!

While Phil801 says he hasn’t really thought about the money part of this ordeal, it is something that has terrified me for over two years.

Phil801’s experience reminds me of the time I cut my hand open two years ago. I had been unemployed for a while, had no health insurance, and was long-past the time when the money ran out (or at least it felt that way).

I was also in the low part of my job search where there was significant despair… I *should have* landed my job by then, but no one was even looking at my resume!!

One evening, as I was trying to separate two frozen hamburger patties with a very sharp knife (dumb, I know), it happened.

I found myself leaning over the sink, washing my wound, wondering how I would explain how dumb I was. I was nauseaous, and wondered if it was because of the blood and gore (okay, it wasn’t that bad, but I was getting lite-headed), or because of the money.

As an unemployed chump, with no money in sight, and no insurance, it made me sick to think about how much this was going to cost.

That’s why I chose to use super glue instead of going to the doctor. I finally dragged myself to our doctor a few days later when I was sure it was infected (it wasn’t). He said to keep up the super glue treatment. And he didn’t charge me for the visit.

Otherwise that would have been a $80 visit. Stitches would have probably been a few hundred dollars. But what if something worse happened?

When my then-three-year-old fell off the bed and broke her arm, it was an excruciating $500+ bill.

What if there were something else? A skateboard accident for my son? Cancer, or some other very expensive health condition for any of us?

Accidents and illnesses have been a major concern since I got laid off, since we didn’t have that insurance safety net.

Luckily the government was kind enough to have come up with COBRA, but seriously, that is an absolute joke. How would I pay $700+ each month for sucky insurance coverage? I have heard others say they have paid over $1,000 per month for crappy COBRA coverage.

What do you do, declare medical bankruptcy?

What is an unemployed family supposed to do to get healthcare so they don’t become a burden on society? Heck, what is an employed family supposed to do?

It is scary. I’m not a pessimist but this is a huge issue that I don’t see a good resolution for anytime soon.

And for that, I’ll continue to live in fear.

Dan Schawbel is the kid who took personal branding and Gen Y by storm not too long ago. He came into the blogging space with an ability to comment on just about every career blog in a way that made me tired just watching!

He’s done a lot since then, but today I want to highlight his Personal Branding Magazine. This is the fourth issue he has released. In the full magazine there are 25 articles, but you can get a sample with 5 articles by clicking over to the the Personal Branding Magazine Sample page. From that page:

This Sample Issue Includes

Cover Story: Job Hunting in a Brand YOU World

An exclusive interview with Robert McGovern

Articles:

• 3 Tips for Visibility, Memorability and Credibility in Your Job Search
• How Can We Use Technology to Recruit Others?

Interviews With:

• Joel Cheesman, Blogger, Cheezhead.com
• Chris Russell, Founder, Jobs in Pods
• Ben Yoskovitz, Founder, Standout Jobs
• Paul Forster, CEO & Co-Founder, Indeed
• Phillip Merrick, Co-Founder and Chairman, VisualCV
• Jim Ambras, CEO and Founder, Notchup.com
• Sam Blum, Founder and CEO, Razume LLC
• Alex Rudloff, CEO and Co-Founder, Emurse.com
• Sanjay Sathe, Founder, RiseSmart

I haven’t read my copy yet but these are some pretty big names in the career space… I would say that I’m impressed but this is on par for what Dan Schawbel puts together. If the sample isn’t enough for you, you can get the full version (issue 4 is released on May 1) at the Personal Branding Magazine homepage, and subscribe to one year of personal branding magazines (4 issues) for just $12.95.

Jacob Share, Israel’s most popular job/career blogger, had a good post a few weeks back about showing compassion to job seekers. I’ve talked about this a number of times, in the depression post and the “religion’s role in a job search” post, in another post that I can’t find, and in passing in a bunch of other posts. But his list (you can find it here) inspired me to create my own list.

This post might come across as a little sappy, which is not my intention. But the idea of showing compassion indicates that there is something wrong, at a personal level. Here we go:

1. Take the person to lunch. Buy the lunch. And make good use of this time. DO NOT preach. DO NOT dig. Don’t try and find out why the person is in transition – it just doesn’t matter. I would even suggest that you don’t have to help “solve the problem” with your tactics and techniques.
   

   One of the first lunches I went to was with a wealthy friend. I didn’t know what I was doing, and it turned out that he didn’t know anything about a job search. But I left that meeting rejuvenated. This turned into a one-meeting mentoring session – after lunch we never touched bases again (even though I tried). It was just what I needed, helpful, non-judgmental, and with a big-picture perspective. I would suggest that the job seeker would either need that or tactical help. Best thing to do? Open up your little black book, figure out five professionals that you could introduce the job seeker to, and then do it that day.

2. Be honest and helpful. Too many people have that nice smile with a look of pity in their eyes. The job seeker is already going through enough emotions to fill a room, and they’ll probably read more into it than you intend. But there is a feeling of “everyone’s talking about me.” Sometimes it even feels like man’s best friend, the family dog, will walk away when you (the job seeker) come in the room.
   

   I remember one of the most important phone calls I had was with Ed Ekstrom, partner at vSpring Capital. Surprisingly, Ed spent about 30 minutes with me on the phone. There was no role for me there, and my school wasn’t ivy league, which meant he wasn’t interested in me as an employee. But in that 30 minutes the honesty and guidance that he gave me was critical to help me understand how I (with my credentials and experience) was perceived.

3. Don’t try to replace Monster.com. I’ve had people send me job leads they found online. The thing is, I was already spending 10 hours a day online, and knew about all the leads that were posted. The hidden job market includes all the jobs NOT posted, supposedly with 85% of the opportunities. If you have a way to help me bust into that hidden job market, please help!
4. Cash helps, too. I always feel weird writing about this, as I’m not asking for money, and your job seeking buddy probably won’t either.
   

   My family was the recipient of two very generous gifts. The first gift was three gift cards for the local grocery store, maxed at $200 each. The second we found out about when we got a utility bill and found that someone paid it in advance… for a few months. I can’t even tell you how amazing those gifts were. When you get into a situation where no money comes in, and plenty has to go out, it’s very, very scary. How many months can we survive? Being on the receiving end of those gifts changed me as a person, and helped give a little bit of piece of mind to my family.

5. A special note for the spouse. The problem, as the spouse, is that you are TOO CLOSE. Normally a spouse knows the personal weaknesses, doesn’t understand the strengths, and is closer than anyone to the emotion. That’s why they say that a spouse cannot be the job search coach.
   

   I didn’t realize this at the time but my wife and I did not talk for about the first month. We were trying to be strong for one another, and there wasn’t really much to say that month. Realize that this is a very difficult time, but there are things you can do. One of the best things my wife did for my job search was to network with her friends. It was very cool to have her friends husbands get in touch with me, as that helped jump-start my networking.

6. A special note for family (brothers, sisters, parents, etc.). This is tough because some of you are in a position to help, or family relationships have been strained for years. I won’t even pretend to know the right answer for you, but I can share one experience. This is not the time for tough love.
   

   I was talking to my dad one night and he said “I will expect you to be unemployed for at least six months.” No way, I thought, I’d have a job much earlier… but just knowing that he was supportive, and helping, and not expecting results immediately was very, very comforting. As a side note, if you can help financially, now’s a great time to help with car payments, house payments or some other significant bill.

7. A special note for religious leaders and congregation members. Go read religion’s role in a job search. Additionally, realize that this is no time to judge or shun. No matter how good or bad the job seeker has been in your congregation, now is not the time to teach a lesson or turn your back. This is a very humbling time, and it can be hard for the person to drag himself to church, just to feel judged by all those people with a job. My religious leaders were awesome but after my religion’s role post I got a number of e-mails from people who had been shunned. Don’t ignore this, if you are a church leader, ask the person to meet with you, seek to understand, and figure out how you can help. This is a great time to really love that person.

So there you go. Again, Jacob has some other ideas, as do his commentors. That post was inspired by a group writing project by Wade of The Middle Way, Kenton of Zen-Inspired Self Development, and Albert of Urban Monk.Net. I haven’t checked yet but he asked a few others to participate, including Vivien, Pearl, Isabella, Miriam, Ronald, Vivian, Kate, Shelly, Robert, Pete, Carolyn, Jennifer, Yvonne, Etienne and Simonne.

I’m sure I missed stuff – how can you show compassion to someone in a job search? Or, when you were in your own transition, how has someone shown compassion to you?

Let’s wrap the year up with an excellent example of a professional who is a Subject Matter Expert (SME) and Thought Leader in his space.

Andy Shaindlin is the Executive Director of the Caltech Alumni Association at the California Institute of Technology, a role he’s had since 1999. He has been at Brown University, and the University of Michigan, and has been very active in the alumni space. Is he the smartest, most active alumni professional out there? Probably not (I only say that because there are a lot of very smart, very active alumni professionals). But his blog, Alumni Futures, sure makes him look like he is one of the smartest, most active.

Andy’s blog helps shape him as the SME. He’s clearly a thought leader.

It reminds me of something I heard Phil Windley say last year in a presentation about blogging (major paraphrase here):

I’m the same person as I was a few years ago, before I started blogging. Only now, I get paid to speak at events, present, keynote. I have the same ideas and opinions, but now I’m perceived as a SME.

See, that’s the thing. You may be a SME, but are you perceived as an SME in your industry? Check out Andy’s blog as an excellent example of how to develop that perception, that brand, even the personal brand! My comments about his blog:

Relevant Information – Andy is definitely not a “cheerios for breakfast” blogger – he brings relevant information to the alumni director’s attention. Alumni directors are extremely overworked (I used to sell software to them and was always amazed at how many hats they have to wear), so the last thing they have time to do is read a bunch of blogs. Andy keeps it short and relevant.

Job Postings – I almost put it with relevant information but decided to break it out – when he learns of a job posting he puts it on his blog. Why is this important? Because some (most?) alumni directors are on a contract, usually pretty short, and knowing who’s hiring is always a topic of interest.

Guest blogger(s) – okay, he’s only had one guest blogger, but it was an excellent post, and the fact that the guest was from Princeton adds credibility to the blog. I’d like to see more guest bloggers on Andy’s blog in the future, I think it adds great perspective and each blogger is like a vote of confidence in the overall blog.

The layout – it’s simple and nice… nothing special but it’s clean and not distracting from THE MESSAGE

Links out – Andy is the master of linking out (I recommend linking to more BLOGS and BLOG POSTS), which is great for page rank, but more important, it adds more value to readers

Additional information – Andy hit the mark with his Additional Information section, including information about himself (and his CV (resume)), consulting services, recent presentations (shows he is a thought leader in other places, aside from his blog), and upcoming presentations (means he’s still an active thought leader)

Other useful sites – bloggers can’t horde, they have to share. And we share information. Don’t like what I write? Here are alternatives! Andy does a great job putting important resources together (he doesn’t share hundreds, which is overwhelming, he shares his favorites)

Bottom line? This blog is doable … you can do it, you should do it, and Andy’s blog is the perfect model, and I know you can mimic some of this stuff!

Andy Shaindlin, congratulations! You join a special group of professionals and have earned a coveted link from my monthly winner’s blogroll area (on the left), six months of premium JibberJobber (you can transfer/award this to someone else ), and a cyber-high five! Feel free to post the You Get It award on your site!

Here are the past winners:

• September 2006 – ClickDave – my review
• October 2006 – Kent Blumberg – my review
• November 2006 – Heather Henricks – my review
• December 2006 – Adelino de Almeida – my review
• January 2007 – Rob Humphrey – my review
• January 2007 – Ariel Meadow Stallings – my review
• February 2007 – Mike Schaffner – my review
• March 2007 – Susan Johnston – my review
• April 2007 – Thomas Clifford – my review
• May 2007 – Rob Frankel – my review
• June 2007 – Trent Hamm – my review
• July 2007 – Katie Konrath – my review
• August 2007 – Robb Hecht – my review
• September 2007 – OOPS! I took this month off and didn’t realize it! Lucky me
• October 2007 – Tanya Ferrill – my review
• November 2007 – Sean O’Donnovan – my review