Introduction

Since at the moment (August 2009) I am unemployed, I have had time to learn a lot about resources for unemployed people, especially in Massachusetts.  Here are some that I have found helpful.

Table of Contents

How to Look for a Job. 1

Training in Looking for a Job. 1

... and Keep Learning. 2

How I Found My Job. 2

Networking Resources. 2

Professional Contacts

Networking Support Groups (Eastern Massachusetts) 2

LinkedIn. 2

Twitter?. 2

Extended Unemployment Benefits. 2

Social Security and Government Pensions. 2

Personal Information. 3

Age and Date of Birth. 1

Protecting Your Facebook Info. 1

How to Look for a Job

The rules for finding a job have changed since, say, ten years ago.  And this is especially true because of the downturn in the economy.  Some major differences:

• It’s an employer’s market.  In the past you could get hired if you matched, say, five of eight of the listed job qualifications.  Now most employers have enough choice that they can match all eight.
• For most professional jobs, you apply on the internet rather than by snail mail.  But a good clean resume still matters.
• Employers actively use the web to search for qualified candidates.

Training in Looking for a Job

If your former company paid for you to benefit from an outplacement agency, take advantage of it.  I think very highly of the training I got at Lee Hecht Harrison; others have spoken highly of their experiences at

• Keystone Associates
• Right Management.
• R.L. Stevens and Associates.

If your company has not provided outplacement training, see if your state provides job search training for unemployed workers (or even for employed ones).  In Massachusetts, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development funds a number of independently operated Career Centers.  I have found several of the courses at Career Source at Fresh Pond in Cambridge to be very helpful, but talk to fellow job seekers about the advantages and disadvantages of particular centers near you.

... and Keep Learning

The job search process is continuing to change both because of technological advances and because the current flood of job seekers is overwhelming Human Resource departments.  So just in case you’re not fortunate enough to get reemployed quickly, plan to keep learning even after your initial training.  Networking groups such as those listed below often have additional training built in with featured speakers or with exercises such as mutual resume reviews. Be prepared for lots of conflicting opinions; you’ll have to average out what people tell you!

A webinar that spurred me to specific actions more than any other was the O’Reilly seminar on “Radical Career Success in a Down Economy.”  While the webinar is tailored for experienced software engineers, other professionals can benefit as well.  Specifically, after listening to this seminar, I got more serious about creating a web presence, which is reportedly helpful for us technical professionals nowadays.

How I Found My Job

How are people making the initial contact that leads to a job, and not just to an interview?

An article by CareerXroads surveys the mechanisms companies used to fill their open positions in 2009.  The number one source (26.7%) for filling from outside the company is referrals, followed by the company’s own career site (22.3%) and postings on job boards (13.2%.).  Contacts via social media were not big yet in 2009.

Recently I decided to do my own survey of people who have landed jobs since roughly the fall of 2009.  This survey is unscientific, being limited to people I know mostly through job search networking groups.  These people are primarily professionals below the executive level, and most are over 40 (Thanks to David Fulton for his demographic survey of Acton Networkers Group).  The results appear in the following table (updated 8 March 2010).

Networking Resources

Professional Contacts

The best source of contacts for getting a new job is people who already know you (See "How I Found My Job" above). This includes both former colleagues and people you know well from other activities. Use LinkedIn to keep track of your former colleagues and where they're working now.

Also, get involved in local meetings of your professional society or societies.  If you want to be employed in developing medical technology, and especially if you want to develop medical devices, I especially recommend

-        The Medical Development Group.

Networking Support Groups (Eastern Massachusetts)

The best general professional-level networking support groups that I’ve found in Eastern Massachusetts are

-        WIND .  This was originally “Wednesday Is Networking Day,” although the geographically dispersed groups now meet on various days.

-        The Acton Networkers Group.

I recommend picking at least one networking support group that you attend regularly.  You may get some job leads or contacts there, but even more important is coming regularly lets some people get to know you and give you ongoing moral support.  (WIND and ANG also typically have programs that will help refine your job search techniques.)

LinkedIn

Join LinkedIn.  Use LinkedIn to connect to people you’ve worked with or people that you just know.  Your LinkedIn connections can be valuable for learning about a company that you’re interested in and for moving your resume to the top of the pile.  In today’s economy, companies receive an overwhelming number of resumes for each open position, and having an employee of the company submit or call attention to your resume makes it more likely to get some real attention.

Another reason to use LinkedIn:  Some companies actively search LinkedIn for potential candidates.  For this reason, your LinkedIn profile must clearly represent your specific skills and interests.

There are two philosophies for using LinkedIn:

-        You can limit your connections to people you actually know well enough to do a favor for.  (This is the way I use it myself.)

-        You can be an Open Networker, supporting a large number of very weak connections.  People refer to LinkedIn Open Networkers as LIONS.

For other hints on using LinkedIn, see the Boston Globe article on "Make Better Introductions" -- although I haven't tried all these myself yet.

Twitter?

Can you use Twitter to help you find a job? Maybe.

To learn how to use Twitter for professional purposes, rather than just reporting everyday life, see "A Quick Twitter Guide and Glossary for Business Users." (A tip o' the hat to Randall Warniers for this one.)

Extended Unemployment Benefits

For a clear statement of the current state of extended unemployment benefits, I recommend “Laid Off & Left Out: America’s Workers Deserve Better: Resources for Workers”.  This site clearly delineates both of the extended benefit programs, along with state-by-state variations.

You may not be eligible for extended benefits if your prior work was highly seasonal -- particularly if most of the earnings in your base period occurred in one quarter. California's Employment Development Department has a very clear write-up on the eligibility rules in California as of mid-2009;  calculations for other states are probably similar.

The eligibility calculations use something called a “base period,” which each state is free to determine on its own.  A list of the base period definitions by state appears at http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/uilawcompar/2009/monetary.pdf.

Social Security and Government Pensions

If you’re thinking of taking a government job that has a pension, this can affect your future Social Security benefits in one of two ways:

• If you get a pension from a government job or from any other job that did not also pay Social Security taxes, your Social Security benefit can be reduced according to the number of years that you did not have “substantial earnings” on which you did pay the taxes. For this, see the Social Security write-up on the Windfall Elimination Provision. However, if you had 30 or more years of substantial earnings in jobs that did pay the Social Security taxes, there is no reduction.

• If you will be qualified for a spouse’s or widow’s (widower’s) benefit, that benefit will be reduced by two thirds of whatever your government pension benefit is. See the Social Security write-up on Government Pension Offset.

Personal Information

Age and Date of Birth

If you’re a seasoned worker and are concerned when an employer asks for your age or date of birth, here are a couple of things to consider:

• The EEOC (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) does allow the employer to ask for your age or date of birth, but employers are not supposed to use it to discriminate when hiring:  http://www.eeoc.gov/types/age.html.

• Your age is pretty much a matter of public record anyhow.  For example, look yourself up on the Switchboard white pages ("Find a Person"), then click on one of the sponsored links.   It’s highly likely that one of them will list an age for you, even if your phone number is unlisted.

Protecting Your Facebook Info

If you have a Facebook account, check out "10 New Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know".