The Top 10 Most Important Things I’ve Learned from Editing Career Books

Last week I spoke at the monthly meeting of the Indianapolis chapter of the ExecuNet business networking group. When I was invited to speak back in January, I decided that my particular expertise on the subject of job hunting is that I have been reading the collective wisdom of the top minds in the careers business for 11 years. Ten things stood out to me as being the most essential but overlooked secrets to all aspects of job hunting. For your reading pleasure, here's my outline for the speech:

1. Keep your network in good repair.

• Don’t wait until you need help to reach out to your network.
• Networking should be a constant reaching out to people you know (former coworkers, family, friends, service providers) and people you don’t (people you share something or someone in common with).
• Networking is about giving, too.
• Networking yields up to 80 percent of all jobs landed.

2. Treat your job search like a job.

• Spend 40 hours a week on your search.
• Get up on time, get dressed, and work in your “office.”
• Make a search schedule and stick to it.
• Don’t underestimate how long it takes to find a job.

3. Write a customized cover letter for every opportunity you apply to.

• Resumes can still be more general, but the cover letter must be very specific.
• Write to a specific person—get a name (hiring manager, not HR).
• Show, point by point, how you are a fit for the job.
• Show your enthusiasm for the job.
• Close actively rather than passively.

4. Emphasize accomplishments on your resume rather than job duties.

• Just one or two lines for your job duties. Use bullets to emphasize accomplishments (six for current job and three for past jobs).
• Accomplishments show how you affected the bottom line: How you made money for the company, saved money, grew customer base, created products, developed procedures, won awards.
• Accomplishments must be quantified with numbers.

5. Build a professional and appealing online presence.

• Get on LinkedIn, create a professional profile, reconnect with your colleagues, and get recommendations.
• Make Facebook settings as private as possible; still, don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your mom to read. Untag unflattering photos.
• Use Twitter to show your industry knowledge, connect with decision makers, and find out about job openings.
• If you are good at writing and information sharing, showcase your knowledge in a blog. Again, show some personality but don’t ever say anything that makes you look like a bad employee.

6. Use the Internet the right way in your job search.

• Professional networking
• Company research
• Applying for jobs directly with companies

7. Don’t waste a lot of time chasing job postings.

• Competition dramatically increases once a job is posted online or in the classifieds.
• Use your network to find the opportunities before they are posted.
• Don’t spend all day hiding behind your computer. Get out of the house and make connections.

8. Be prepared to back up anything you say about yourself in an interview with an example.

• Behavioral interviewing: Tell me about a time when you…
• Develop a success story to illustrate your top qualities and skills.
• Challenge, actions, result format.

9. Put off talking about salary as long as possible in the process.

• Most employers that ask for a range in the ad will still consider you without one (except those who state explicitly that they will not).
• Whoever mentions a number first, loses.
• You might name a number that is out of their range, and they will not consider you.
• You might name a number that is lower than they were prepared to offer.
• Defer the question by saying you want to focus on whether you are a fit for the job first. Can talk salary later.
• If you have no choice, name a range.

10. Hiring experts to help you with your search can be worth the investment.

• Trying to write your own resume is like cutting your own hair—difficult, and it probably won’t end up looking great from all angles.
• Professional resume writers can be objective and cut what needs to be cut, prompt you for accomplishments, and present you in the best light.
• Career coaches help you get to the truths inside you, promote what’s most impressive about you, show you the best ways to search, hold you accountable, and offer encouragement.

How Brad Stevens Got His Dream Job

It's going to be hard to think about much besides basketball in Indianapolis this week. We already knew we'd be immersed in the Final Four hullaballoo by virtue of the fact that March Madness, as it often does, ends here. But little did we suspect we'd be cheering for the home team--the Butler Bulldogs--as well.

It's an irresistible story: A small school (4,500 students) led by a young coach (33-year-old Brad Stevens) defies the odds and makes it to the NCAA Final Four—just miles from their own campus. The national media has already begun to tire of its own parallels to the movie Hoosiers (part of which, of course, was filmed in Butler's home arena). But perhaps the most fascinating element is the coach himself.

Brad Stevens played high school basketball in Zionsville, where he is still the all-time leading scorer. (My brother-in-law Andrew Hand played on the high school team with him, but I haven't yet managed to parlay that into an introduction.) Brad went on to play basketball in college at DePauw while majoring in business. Upon graduation, he joined Eli Lilly in a marketing capacity. But his heart was still on the basketball court, and he volunteered as a high school coach and also in administrative roles with the Butler team.

Within seven years, he had been hired by Butler and moved up the ranks to head coach. And now, just a few years later, he's led the team to its first-ever Final Four.

I can't help but think of the book I edited, Your Dream Job Game Plan, in which sports agent Molly Fletcher puts forth the five tools you need to get your own dream job:

• Passionate style
  
• Fearlessness
  
• A game plan
  
• Flawless execution
  
• Managing choices
  

I haven't met Brad, but it's obvious that he used all five of these tools to reach—and excel in—his dream job. Imagine how scary it must have been to give up a secure and lucrative business career for a shot at coaching. He had a passion for basketball, he managed his career choices, he had a plan, and he executed his plan flawlessly. And now all of Indiana is cheering him on as his team faces Michigan State (ironically, Molly's alma mater) in the first game of the Final Four.

Reached for comment this afternoon, Molly had this to say:

Brad Stevens is a “5-tool-plus-some coach." Getting to the final four--as Brad Stevens has done--requires passion, game plans, fearlessness, execution (married with a little luck sometimes). Brad gets it. He is a heck of a x and o coach--but an equally good motivator--and has gelled his guys together to find himself home in Indianapolis living out a dream. But, as a former Spartan, I must add, so has Izzo. Go Green!

Brad and his team are already winners in our eyes, regardless of what happens on Saturday.

Want to Be a Marketing Assistant/Coordinator?

Coincidentally, I ran across two different postings today for marketing assistants at publishing companies. The first is at EMC Publishing, our parent company in St. Paul, Minnesota:

Educational publisher seeks Marketing Communications Coordinator. This person will be responsible for working with the Marketing Communications Manager to coordinate the implementation of the EMC Publishing marketing plan through the design, copywriting, production, mailing, and tracking of all marketing projects through multiple channels. Assist the Marketing Communications Manager with special projects as assigned. Duties include:

• Develop, execute, and evaluate direct mail marketing materials (including catalogs, brochures, flyers, and letters) for new and backlist titles that generate sales leads and product orders, and support the sales representatives.
• Collaborate with all internal teams involved in the product development process to determine the conceptual and copy direction of branding and advertising initiatives.
• Develop online web content for emcschool.com including new product copy, promotional pages, and event announcements
• Write and conceptualize emarketing campaigns including emails, web site landing pages, and social media platforms.
• Proofread and fact-check product information in all EMC marketing materials.

Bachelor's degree required in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, or related degree. Must have at least two years of marketing communications experience with a demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and effectively primarily in written form. Must have knowledge of mailings, project management, and promotions. Must have very good knowledge of technology to include computers and software programs such as MS Office. Requires exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail to coordinate phases of projects with others under tight deadlines. Apply here.

The second marketing job is at Wiley in Indianapolis:

Provides general administrative support to marketing department, including processing bills and monitoring promotion expenses, special sales events [workshops, author tours, conventions, and book fairs], and advertising schedules. Assists in the implementation of marketing plans, including coordination of author promotion initiatives, preparation and distribution of sales tools, including sales sheets, product kits, and competitive information. Provides back-up copywriting [space ads and sales letters], proofreading, and basic design support.

Requirements: 1 year of marketing or publishing experience. Proficiency on MS applications. Ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline driven environment. Excellent communication skills required. Apply here.

These two jobs are at slightly different levels and have different entry requirements. I found these two postings informative (not to mention encouraging, from an economic standpoint) and thought you might, too.

Libraries and the Job Hunt

I'm back from Charlotte and have much more that I want to say about what I learned at the Baker & Taylor vendor summit. As you know, B&T is a major library wholesaler. So as I worked the vendor fair yesterday, many of the people stopping by the table were librarians or people who sell to librarians. I cannot count how many people said "Oh, resumes and job search are hot right now. A lot of libraries have job search centers in them." Of course, we've been reading that in the media. But it's good to hear it validated over and over again.

After the fair, Tom (our rep) and I had time to kill before our flight. So we drove to downtown Charlotte and hit the streets. Serendipitously, we walked right to the main branch of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library (love the reading-related quotes from Samuel Johnson and others on the pillars outside). Immediately we saw a sign pointing us to the career center. It was a huge space with lots of resources and computer terminals, as well as a medium-sized collection of job search books (including a good representation of ours, thank goodness). It wasn't overrun with people, but it was being used.

We walked around a bit more and found another area with computers for public use. Standing behind 36 users and looking at their screens simultaneously drew a gasp from me. "Tom, they are all on Facebook," I said. "I think we've got a national epidemic on our hands. I can't wait to go tweet about this!"

I'm not sure what conclusions to draw; maybe only that Facebooking was a more popular activity than job hunting in Charlotte yesterday. Certainly, there is value in any sort of networking. But there are so many distractions online. Hopefully all those people already have jobs.

Good Connections and New Experiences at the Wisconsin Careers Conference

Last week I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel north for the University of Wisconsin's Careers Conference in Madison. Now that I think about it, after nearly 11 years at JIST, it was my first conference aimed at the people who serve institutional job search customers--such as students and workforce development clients.

My main purpose in going was to watch several of our authors in action: Dr. Laurence Shatkin, Dr. John Liptak, and Dr. Richard Deems, in particular. Dick Gaither and Dr. Bob Orndorff presented pre-conference workshops; and sadly, I didn't get to see much of them. But it was great to see three of our authors doing well-received presentations. I also enjoyed the two keynotes and several other featured speakers.

For the first time ever, I decided to live-tweet this conference (since I finally have a laptop with a battery that lasts all day and working wifi). What an interesting exercise that was! It was hard work keeping on top of the most relevant and interesting points from each speaker, packaging them into tweets, and trying not to make any errors of fact or grammar. I think I'd give myself a solid "B" for my efforts. I realized that it takes a lot of skill to do it well. And I wondered whether there might be a market for freelance tweeters to go around publicizing conferences. I think I would enjoy doing that. You can get a feel for what I learned by taking a look at my Twitter stream from last week.

A side benefit from the firehose of tweets I was sending out was that it raised my Twitter profile. A dozen or more people retweeted my tweets, asked questions, and made jokes while I was in the midst of reporting the conference. It made it an interactive exeprience for me, and it informed a lot of others who couldn't be there. I think I even got a few more followers as a result.

Unlike the other conferences I've been to, people were not as open to networking and didn't necessarily know who I was. That was kind of nice. Sometimes letting a bunch of professionals know that an acquisitions editor is in the house is like throwing chum on the waters. But I did make one new friend: Leslie Bell, associate director of the career center at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Coincidentally, Leslie is starting a blog for her career center; so I was able to offer some tips. She said I inspired her; and if that were the only good thing to come of my trip, it would totally be worth it.

I also connected with at least one potential author and talked about book ideas with an existing author. And you know what else was fun? The six-hour drive to Madison with my co-worker Bob Grilliot. He was there to connect with customers at our booth, so he had to rent an SUV to haul the books. It just so happened that the SUV was equipped with heated seats and satellite radio. So we cruised in comfort while reveling in New Wave tunes, deliriously oblivious to the certain death that would await us should we break down or slide off the road in the frozen tundra of Minonk, Illinois. For me, an enduring image of the trip will be watching the wind turbines turn to the rhythm of the Smiths's "How Soon Is Now?" Pure poetry.

Gearing Up for the Wisconsin Careers Conference

A week from today I'll be hitting the road with my coworker Bob, bound for Madison and the Wisconsin Careers Conference. This will be my first time at this conference (nay, my first time to even set foot in the state), even though it's been buzzing along happily without my presence for the last 24 years.

The thought of heading north in January has always made me seize up. But ever since I took over our workbooks a couple of years ago, I have felt that I wasn't quite in touch with the people who use those books. This conference is aimed at K-14 teachers, HR professionals, counselors and guidance staff, college and university educators and advisors, career counselors, career center personnel, and many others. So this is a great opportunity to immerse myself in their community.

JIST will be well represented there in addition to Bob in the booth and me in the sessions. Coworker/author Laurence Shatkin will be one of the featured speakers, sharing his research on the Best Jobs for Renewing America. Author Richard Deems will be leading a roundtable on his Job Loss Reaction Cycle (which is featured in his book, Make Job Loss Work for You). Our assessment guru, John Liptak, is hosting a roundtable on integrating spirituality into career counseling. And authors Bob Orndorff and Dick Gaither will be presenting preconference workshops. I'm looking forward to taking them all to dinner or lunch at some point in the conference.

I'm planning to bring along my laptop and tweet up a storm about what I'm learning. So look for me on Twitter next Tuesday and Wednesday (@loricateshand).

Job Opportunity: Book Acquisitions Editor, Sigma Theta Tau International

Are you a nurse in Indianapolis who's always wanted to work in book publishing? Have I got a job for you! Check out this posting with Sigma Theta Tau, the nursing honor society:

Sigma Theta Tau International

Reports to: Publisher

Time: 20 hours per week

The Acquisitions Editor will work closely with STTI staff, authors, and reviewers as well as the top nurse leaders, CNOs, researchers, and clinicians in the field of nursing to acquire books for the STTI publishing program and support them through publication.

Working under the guidance of the Publisher and in close cooperation with the book editors, the acquisition editor's responsibilities include timely collaboration with key STTI marketing and sales staff members and commitment to internal deadlines. The acquisitions editor will also:

• Seek out, research, conceive, and champion approximately 13-15 books per year, consistent with the interest areas set forth by the Publisher, market conditions, and sales and guided by the Sigma Theta Tau International Board of Directors.
  
• Guide authors through the proposal and publishing process.
  
• Research, write, present, and otherwise prepare business plans, financial statements, tip sheets, book summaries, outlines, and other relevant information for each book, under the guidance of the Publisher and in collaboration with authors.
  
• Compile ongoing research on nurses and the nursing profession to assist with long-term publications planning.
  
• Serve as an author advocate, managing and guiding authors through the proposal and publishing process.
  
• Manage and review content prepared by authors and editors to ensure manuscript submission on schedule and in the agreed-upon format.
  
• Contribute input to the design and functionality of each book.
  
• Contribute editorial input regarding the writing, organization, and content for each book.
  
• Implement the long-term and short-term editorial plan for Publications in collaboration with the Publisher.
  
• Identify and facilitate the creation of critical author relationships around the world.
  
• Provide ongoing communication with authors on book performance, marketing opportunities, and speaking and signing opportunities at STTI conferences, etc.
  
• Solicit manuscripts for publication, as well as assess the potential for new and revised editions of existing STTI titles.
  
• Ensure that all necessary intellectual property permissions have been obtained prior to publication.
  
• Negotiate financial and contract terms with authors on projects as directed by the Publisher.
  
• Coordinate the work of a panel of reviewers and/or international editorial board by the STTI President and/or CEO.
  

  
  

In addition, it is the responsibility of the Acquisitions Editor to:

• Review proposals and manuscripts submitted for Publication and those solicited by STT.
  
• Oversee the review and market survey process.
  
• Serve as a primary contact and support for authors.
  
• Evaluate user satisfaction and needs periodically.
  
• Prepare marketing copy, summaries, book reviews, author letters, and other collateral material for books as needed by publishing, marketing, and sales.
  
• Send author questionnaires and other marketing related documents to authors and coordinate their return.
  
• Submit an editorial report to STTI at the end of each quarter outlining primary activities (including, but not limited to the number, nature, and status of all proposals), and accomplishments of the Acquisition Editor for the quarter ending and plans for Publication for upcoming quarter.
  
• Submit an annual report summarizing the accomplishments of the year and outlining plans for the upcoming year and other reports as requested by STTI.
  
• Submit the biennial report for inclusion in the House of Delegates biennial report.
  

  
  

  Some travel required to key STTI or other nursing meetings, nursing schools, or other centralized locations to meet with several current or prospective authors;
  

Compensation based on experience and degree.

Nursing and publishing experience are recommended. A minimum of a bachelor's degree is required.

To apply, send resume or CV and cover letter to Laura Thurman, STTI HR at laurat@stti.iupui.edu. For questions or more information, contact Renee Wilmeth, STTI Publisher, at renee@stti.iupui.edu.

Calling All Twitter Fans

I've been keeping this under my hat, but now that the book has been launched to the trade buyers, I can officially annouce one of the exciting additions to our spring list: The Twitter Job Search Guide. You'd be amazed at how you can make connections and establish your career brand on Twitter. I'm excited and proud that three of the foremost career experts and social media evangelists will be sharing their wisdom in this new book in March.

Meanwhile, they are looking for people just like you to contribute helpful tweets to the book. See their call for contributors. And while you're on Twitter, go ahead and follow all three of these expert authors:

• Susan Britton Whitcomb
• Chandlee Bryan
• Deb Dib

Story of Hope: Marian Uses Online Social Media to Land an Awesome Job

I met Marian Schembari through Twitter last week. She discovered my blog and was excited to find someone else who has been writing about getting a job in publishing. So she followed me on Twitter, I followed her back, and we ended up chatting over e-mail. I checked out her blog and was mightily impressed: Here was someone who had used online networking sites in an innovative way to break into the publishing industry—at a time when, let's face it, jobs are hard to come by.

So I asked her to tell her story here. Check it out and get inspired!

I really wanted to get into publishing. Like, a lot. Never mind that the industry is slowly dying, the economy sucks, I had zero experience and the pay is (and always will be) crap. No, I'm a book lover, and in my naïve - but enthusiastic - mindset, I thought that was all I needed.

So I spent the three months after my May graduation carefully editing my resume, crafting the perfect cover letter, and applying for every single job at every single publisher in New York. I stalked mediabistro and bookjobs, made a ton of contacts and... well, that was pretty much it. I had one interview in 3 months.

I got bored of that real fast. Even though I was working all day every day, I just felt like I was waiting... So I took out a ton of books (of course) from the local library on finding a job, marketing yourself and personal branding. I designed a website with my resume, references and writing samples. Then, with Facebook's enormously helpful targeting options, I was able to post an ad on the profiles of people at places like HarperCollins, Random House, Penguin, Rodale, Macmillan, etc.

And I got responses! At least one person from every publisher I focused on emailed to say they passed on my resume, wanted to meet, or even just to say they liked my idea. The encouragement was fantastic, and within a week I had four interviews and a freelance gig.

Of course, advertising yourself to get a job is a little weird, I have to admit. It's one of those stories you hear about people wearing their resume on a t-shirt or taking cookies to an interview. No one wants to be that person.

Except I was that person. And an article written about my search on the HarperStudio blog resulted in a lot of lovely and encouraging comments (many of which said they weren't hiring. Figures). Only two people were cynical, not much liking my use of wording, but the ad generated much more positive feedback than negative, so I'm over it.

After the novelty of the ads wore off, though, I knew I needed something different to get people's attention. So I started a blog, chronicling my search and talking a little about publishing and where it's headed. Then I (reluctantly) signed up for Twitter, which 1 week later landed me a sweet interview at Penguin.

One month later and I'm employed. Long story short, a woman at Rodale saw my ad, emailed me and thought I should consider book publicity. She passed my resume on to an old employer who ran a book PR firm. One thing led to another and I'm now in my third week as associate publicist.

I couldn't be happier now that I'm officially "in" publishing. I also know I'm enormously lucky. The thing is, I don't actually know one person who's gotten a job the old-fashioned way. Sorry HR, but it's true. Plus, it makes for an interesting story. My campaign made me consider a career I had never considered and now I'm loving it. All in all a pretty successful endeavor.

Inside INdiana Business Internship

A coworker let me know about the following internship posting for Inside INdiana Business, which produces TV, radio, and print reports featuring business news and interviews with Indiana's movers and shakers (and yes, we have some):

Indiana's business news leader is looking for an intern for our content team. This self-starting individual will assist the IIB newsroom on a variety of market-leading business news products, including the INside Edge Morning Briefing and Mid Day e-newsletters, Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick television, Inside INdiana Business Radio and InsideINdianaBusiness.com. Please forward a cover letter and resume to Assistant Managing Editor Wayne Pratt at wpratt@growindiana.net.

O'Reilly's Data Gurus Report on Online Job Market

I have it on good authority that the people at O'Reilly Media are a bunch of stone cold geniuses. So it was a thrill to see Ben Lorica analyzing trends in online job postings in this blog post.

Click through and just take a gander at that first chart. The number of jobs posted online ticked up a bit in July. But look how this entire year is lagging below the preceding three. It's dramatic.

His entire post is full of other good insights, especially the last chart, which shows the percent decline in job postings by state. Places like Oklahoma and Virginia look best, whereas Wyoming, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and DC show postings declining by as much as 58%.

What Ben and the rest of us know, of course, is that not all job openings get posted online--or posted at all, for that matter. You'll fare much better if you can use your network to root out the jobs that haven't been posted yet. But his statistics are an interesting snapshot of one aspect of the current job market. Thanks for sharing, Ben!

Are You a Senior Sales Manager in Publishing?

I know of an opportunity for a top-level sales manager here in Indianapolis. The ideal candidate will have trade and school sales experience, as well as personnel management, marketing, operations, and possibly even editorial. If you are interested in knowing more, give me a shout-out at loricateshand-at-yahoo-dot-com. I will put you in touch with the right people.

Job Hunting? "Look to Your Library"!

Hooray for the King County Library System in Seattle, which is doing its part to help job seekers by opening an hour early every day this week, demonstrating job search tools, putting together a list of job search books and online resources (see here), and responding with vigor to a community that needs help. Have you hugged a librarian today? If you live in Seattle, I think you should!

Thanks to @danschawbel via NWjobs.

Leaving for the Career Management Alliance Conference

I'm leaving tomorrow for the Career Management Alliance annual conference in San Antonio. I'm looking forward to mingling with leaders in the careers industry, learning about emerging trends and techniques for helping people find jobs. Clearly, this is an industry in the spotlight right now.

When I return, I'm sure to blog about what I've learned. But if you want to follow along on Twitter, be sure to follow @CMA09, or search for the #careers09 hashtag. Barbara Safani and Deb Dib, two of the most respected careers professionals, will be tweeting "highlights, insights, and a-ha moments."

See you next week!

Jessica Faust on Getting a Job in Publishing

BookEnds agent Jessica Faust (whom I have worked with as both an editor and an agent through Alpha Books) recently posted her advice to recent graduates hoping to get a job in book publishing (read it here). Basically Jessica says you need to move to New York City, where the big houses are, and also consider applying for jobs with literary agents. You know how I bristle at the first point, but fair enough. Your odds probably are better there--although the downturn and the digital revolution are turning all that on its head.

Commenters added another good point that I have mentioned before: Work in a bookstore. We're suckers for people who can profess to bring us knowledge of how booksellers think.

20 Facebook Apps for Your Job Search

Oh no! Someone's trying to turn the Facebook party into a work party! Amid all the fun and games, it seems there is real professional networking value to be found on Facebook. AskBINC, a recruiter/technology blog, becomes the official wet blanket with this post: 20 Facebook Applications to Assist in Your Job Search.

A quick skim reveals that all the major job boards and aggregators will let you put a jobs feed on your page--helpful, I guess, if you use Facebook like a home page. I'll have to study all of these further; for now, the idea of adding a link to my LinkedIn profile, which I've worked much harder on, sounds like the biggest winner of the bunch.

Lest you pooh-pooh the idea of the professional value of networking on Facebook, I have to brag that yesterday I was able to connect a friend in need of legal services with a relative who is a lawyer--all because of Facebook. There is wheat among the chaff!

Thanks to @lindseypollak for her timely tweet on the subject just minutes ago!

Not Hired: Get a Laugh and Learn Something, Too!

So, it's Friday and I don't know about you, but I'm intellectually fried. Thank heavens for Krisan Matthews, who (via Facebook), showed me this site. Not Hired is a blog featuring the worst collection of job search blunders I've seen yet. If you need a primer on what not to do, sink your teeth into these: people who drone on and on in their cover letters, send suggestive photos of themselves, and drop the f-bomb on their resumes--repeatedly. And this is just from the past week of postings.

Where is this stuff coming from, when posting it is surely a violation of some confidentiality agreement? Taking credit is an anonymous bunch of "HR monkeys and hiring managers who have worked with some of the largest search engines, vertical portals, and social-networking sites on the Internet, as well as for hardware and software manufacturers, universities, federal agencies, and accounting and consulting firms."

If you don't want to end up here, use some common sense and read some career-advice books.

Skills-Marketing Workshop for Media Professionals

I know I keep harping on knowing your skills and finding ways to adapt them so that you will be employable in the future. Well, at least I'm not the only one. MediaBistro is offering a workshop next Tuesday, March 31, tailored to just that topic (see details here).

"Same Skills, New Career: How to Market and Update Your Current Skills for a Changing Job Climate" promises to offer basic job-hunting advice paired with how to develop a media career-change plan. You'll also learn how to create and optimize your online presence, which is vital in the new recruitment paradigm (in other words, most potential employers are going to Google you at some point--look busy).

Consultant Jeff Lundwall leads the seminar at the MediaBistro offices on Park Avenue in NYC. Cost is $65 ($50 if you are a member of Avant Guild).

Navigating an Interrupted Journalism Career

As bad as things are in book publishing now, I think we can all agree that our cousins in the newspaper business are ahead of us on the curve of career misery. But these are people with skills similar to ours, so it pays to look at some of the advice that's being given to them now.

The Neiman Journalism Lab blog features an interview with author Marci Alboher by Joshua Benton on navigating a disrupted journalism career. You can watch the 10-minute video or read the transcript. Marci's a career expert as well as a journalist who's no stranger to the end of a steady gig: The New York Times discontinued her "Shifting Careers" blog/column back in December. Here she gives some great advice on retooling and using your writing skills in other ways.

The best line is one she picked up at Neiman's recent conference: "Severance package is the new book advance." In other words, if you're lucky enough to get a chunk of cash on your way out the door, use it to help create the career or enterprise (maybe even a book) that you've always wanted to try.

Recommended Career Books from Examiner.com

Heather Huhman is the entry-level careers columnist at Examiner.com. She just tweeted that she keeps a list of her reviews of recommended career books here. Many of the books on the list are ours; however, she's an unbiased reviewer whose opinion you can trust. If you're befuddled by all the career books out there, check out her list.

Also, she has been sending out a ton of PR job and internship opportunities over Twitter, so if you're interested in public relations and media, you should be following her here.