Four Tips To Compete for Philly's Knowledge Jobs

In his 1969 book, The Age of Discontinuity, Peter Drucker made the distinction between knowledge workers and manual workers. Knowledge workers were hired for their information and ability to manage and make decisions. Manual workers, on the other hand, were hired to follow instructions and work with their hands. He predicted that the future belonged to knowledge workers as we shifted from an industrial base to a knowledge and information driven marketplace.

According to the Select Greater Philadelphia website, Peter Drucker’s prediction has come true. Their data shows 75 percent of the employment in the Philadelphia area is due primarily from the importance of a knowledge-based economy. While employment in education and health services, professional and business services, financial and information technology traditionally require highly educated and skilled workers, manufacturers such as Boeing and DuPont are requiring more knowledge based workers to operate computerized and high-tech manufacturing equipment.

Job seekers who are considering relocating to the Philadelphia area would find this information helpful to determine whether they have the skills, education and knowledge required to compete for knowledge-based jobs. Local job seekers, frustrated in their job search, may not realize that 75 percent of companies are looking for individuals with good skills and knowledge to function in an increasingly technical environment. If your resume puts you in the manual worker category, your opportunities may be limited and shrinking. Here are some things you need to do now to compete in the knowledge-based sector:

1. Evaluate your own knowledge base. Like it or not, a degree or certificate from an accredited university, college or technical school is still required to prove you have knowledge in a certain area or profession. If you’ve taken some courses in the past but never finished your degree, now is the time to request your transcripts and get back on track.
2. Do some research on major companies in the area and what types of jobs are available. You may be drawn to a company because of its location, benefits, salary, opportunity, eco-friendly or one with a social conscience. Check the minimum job requirements for current job postings. This information, along with your transcripts, will give you an idea of what courses you need to take and how long before you can get your degree or certification.
3. Get started now. Enroll in classes for the next semester. If you are still working, you may be able to take classes on a tuition reimbursement program. It may take time and money, but getting your degree is an investment in your future. You can add ongoing education towards a degree and a projected graduation date on your resume.
4. Volunteer for cross-training or lateral job changes. There may be a freeze on pay raises or promotions, but you can gain valuable knowledge outside your area or field through in-house training or transfers to other areas.

Mary Nestor-Harper, SPHR, is a consultant, blogger, motivational speaker and freelance writer for phillyjobs.com. Based in Savannah, GA, her work has appeared in Training magazine, Training & Development magazine, Supervision, BiS Magazine and The Savannah Morning News. When she’s not writing, she enjoys singing with the Savannah Philharmonic Chorus and helping clients reinvent their careers for today’s job market. You can read more of her blogs at phillyjobs.com and view additional job postings on Beyond.com.

Three Ways to Absolutely Derail Your Job Search

The best jobs, as everyone knows, aren’t in the newspaper. More companies are using online job boards, like Phillyjobs.com, to post job openings because that’s what applicants use to find jobs. They may insist that you apply for a job on their website. It is a way of screening applicants for the basic understanding of the Internet, how to follow directions and tasks like uploading documents, editing and written communications.

When you begin your job search, and periodically along the way, make a list of companies that you would like to work for. Those are companies that share your values, have a good reputation, are stable financially (or as good as it gets in this economy), and offer the job, salary and benefits you are looking for. Divide them into three categories. Your “A” list are the “to die for” companies, “B” are acceptable, and “C” you’ll consider if “A” or “B” don’t pan out. The “C” companies are a good place to start to test out your resume and interview skills, since there’s not a lot of pressure. The B’s are next, and save the A’s when you are polished and confident.

Before you click on the next job opening, consider the other side of the connection. What does the hiring manager or HR generalist see when your resume or application ends up in their Inbox? Even though you are ready to go, you may have already made some serious errors. You can derail a job search, especially in a targeted industry or company if you make these three mistakes:

1. Sending our your “C” resume. I work with a lot of clients who are anxious to get a job. They dust off their resume and maybe even tweak it a little, and then start sending it out. When they don’t get any results after a week, or a month they come to me, frustrated and frantic. The resume you used to land your last job may not be ready for prime time anymore. If you’ve changed jobs in the last two years, the technical skills and experience section of your resume is probably outdated or lacking. The way work is done has changed dramatically. Your resume should be updated with your latest work experience, highlighting any technical, Internet, digital or computer experience.

2. Saturating the market. Some job seekers make the mistake of thinking more is better. They find three jobs at one company listed on their website and apply to all three—at the same time. This is confusing to human resources and can make you look a little desperate or confused. Multiply this by five target companies and your name begins to get familiar. HR professionals communicate, and if your name becomes a household word in their circle, it may not be a good thing.

3. Letting yourself go. Job searches can take months, even years. After awhile, you get used to having your last cup of morning coffee in your pajamas with Hoda and Kathy Lee. The nails, hair, skin care and yoga classes cost money, and after awhile, you may not feel that the person in the mirror who hasn’t found a job YET isn’t worth it. When the phone does ring, it isn’t easy to snap out of that mindset and become a confident, determined person who can conquer the world.

Attitude speaks louder than your resume. Take care of yourself, body, mind and spirit. Confidence is easier to pull off with a good manicure.

Mary Nestor-Harper, SPHR, is a consultant, blogger, motivational speaker and freelance writer for phillyjobs.com. Based in Savannah, GA, her work has appeared in Training magazine, Training & Development magazine, Supervision, BiS Magazine and The Savannah Morning News. When she’s not writing, she enjoys singing Alto II with the Savannah Philharmonic Chorus and helping clients reinvent their careers for today’s job market. You can read more of her blogs at phillyjobs.com and view additional job postings on Beyond.com.

Living The Laid-Off Life No More, Part II: Electric Boogaloo (The Conclusion)

"I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition."

Read Part One here.

Last week I announced to you that I was leaving the Laid-Off Life for greener pastures, or at least to go work the fields. It’s been a long, hard road from Laid-Off to Newly-Employed. By government definition, the 'long term unemployed' is anyone who has been out of work and looking for new employ for over a year. I outdistanced that statistic by nearly 150%, having been 'In Search Of...' for 16 months. And, in some strange way, I am taking all of you with me into the land of office chairs, coffee makers, and casual Fridays. The thing I can hang my hat on the most is that as I was sitting here alas these last 25 weeks doling out advice is that truly following the advice I’ve meted out is what got me to where I’m going. And that comes as validation of the work I’ve done to share with you what I know.

But that’s a misnomer. I haven’t been sharing with you what I know. I’ve been sharing with you what I’ve experienced. I’ve said time and time again that I’m no expert; that’s what the actual experts at PhillyJobs.com are for. All of the guidance I’ve divvied out comes from what I’ve learned rolling down the Laid-Off Life Expressway, truths and realizations I’ve come across both through research and from my own Adventures in Wonderland. And the lesson I impart to you is that if I can do it, so can you.

So, previously on '24', I spoke about all the things you can do to get your résumé noticed and be considered worthy of the next step: the interview. That’s when the real work starts.

Before you even look up the directions of how to get to the interview, you must do all the research you can on the company again. Make sure you know as much as you can. Do research on your interviewer. Find out where they went to school and learn something about the strong programs-of-study or the football team. Find out what their interests are and casually slide them in to conversation. Find them on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn (but don’t contact them, just glean information). Try to get a feel of what kind of person they are so you know what to expect. Do the same for anyone you may interview with. Be up on what the company does and where they fit in within their industry. Be able to answer simple questions from your interviewer like "Tell me in your own words what you feel like we do here at Strickland Propane." Dress appropriately, and shake hands professionally. And make sure you leave the room with an outstanding final impression. After the interview, do your own post-mortem, figure out what you did good and not so good, and email your interviewer a thank-you note. Want a great way not to get the job? Don’t follow up with a thank you. For a second or third interview, lather-rinse-repeat. Keep on the company if you don’t hear back and make sure they know just how much you want the job, and more importantly, why they should want you.


And when you finally get that job offer, congratulations. It’s hard out there, and you should be very proud. Just make sure it’s where you want to be. Crunch the numbers, petition for opinions. Talk it over with your family. Make sure it’s right for you, and not just better-than-nothing (if you have the option). Often being depressingly-employed can be worse than unemployed. You don’t have to jump at the first job that comes your way if something just doesn’t feel right about it. Be sure it’s what you want. The funny thing is always that as soon as you find one opportunity, several more can be right behind it, so other options may soon be available. When I accepted this new job of mine, I got three more phone calls that same week about job opportunities and freelance work. The grass may not always be greener on the other side, but there is always a different lawn right in the next yard. And if you currently have a job you are unhappy with, there is no shame in looking for a better – or even just different – one. The economy is still tough even though the recession apparently ended last year. Don’t feel like just because you have a job and eight million or so fellow Americans don’t, that you’re obligated to just sit down shut up and be happy with what you have if you are not happy with what you have. Be smart about it, but if you don’t like your job, find another one. Don’t settle for something that’s killing you inside little by little.

The job hunt, as I’ve mentioned, is about selling yourself. That’s one reason they say it’s a full-time job in itself. Everything you do, everything you present as part of yourself – telephone conversations, job applications, résumés, cover letters, portfolio – are all pieces with which you sell yourself and promote the brand of 'you'. Always remember that anything that people see is what they judge you on. Be professional. Write professionally. Speak professionally. Don’t be stupid with the things you post on Twitter and Facebook; they may come back to haunt you. And make sure you have a professional sounding email address. No one who replies from HelloKittyLover@hotmail.com gets a job (unless you’re applying at the Hello Kitty store). You are constantly selling 'you' to the potential employers out there. Make sure they’re interested in the commodity known as 'you'. The sooner you realize your job search is really just a PR campaign with the goal to market 'you' and get 'you' a job and make an employer want to be in the business of 'you', the better off you’ll be.

For many, including myself, the job search is long, tedious, difficult, and depressing. I’ve said many times in my columns that the one thing you need to remember is that you are not alone. Millions of Americans are also unemployed, with millions more underemployed or 'marginally employed'. It’s hard out there. The best and brightest among us are in the same shaky boat. I know they are just words, but try to stay positive and try to stay upbeat. The search can beat the strongest of us down. Work hard when you can, and take time away from the search when you can. Consider looking for work in another city: the change of scenery may do you some good. Lean on your support system, whether it’s family or friends or even former co-workers. There are so many of us out there looking that you must come to the realization that your unemployment situation is often not of your own fault. The right opportunity just hasn’t presented itself yet. It will, with patience and work. And take rejections with several grains of salt. Keep your chin up and remember that there are a lot of people going through the same things you are. Try to keep from spiraling down an unemployment depression cycle. You are not alone. Unemployment – for the time being at least – is the new normal.


So how did I do it? How did I finally find my next position after 16 months of long-term unemployment? Patience, of course. Good fortune. Serendipity. Hard work. And doing the smart things. I found this particular job through a listing on PhillyJobs.com (Srsly. I’m not just saying that because they’ve been allowing me to keep the lights on for the last six months). I applied through the website’s application, but what got me the job was doing more. I found the company on LinkedIn, and found the President. I googled his name and the company name and found his work email address. And then emailed him directly. I told him I applied for the job online, but that I wanted to contact him to tell him how interested I was in the job and what hiring me would do for them. They were impressed by my initiative (see how easy?) and asked me in for an interview. A good first interview (using all the tips I mentioned above including the research and preparation with the appropriate thank-you emails and follow-ups) led to a second interview which led to a job offer. And it all came about because of using very simple extra effort to show them that I was really interested in the position and found a way to stand out from the crowd. It’s not a huge secret a lucky few are privy to; but the sad fact is that only a very few take the time to make the effort. It’s not rocket science people, just do it. And keep doing it.

So, I guess that’s the end of the chapter entitled 'Laid-Off Life' for now. I started writing this column weekly around the start of the baseball season, and here we are nose-deep in the playoffs. I’ve been imparting my tidbits of wisdom for 25 weeks, and I thank you for allowing me this soapbox from which to speak. I’ve said over and over that I’m no expert, just a guy with experience over expertise, sharing my stories with an audience of fellow travelers. My job was to tell you what the search has been like for me, and hopefully within that you’ve found some scraps of advice to which you can relate and use successfully in your own search. If I found a job worthy of 'yes', so can you. Patience my friend, patience.

I’ll leave you with a bit of sage wisdom I wrote in a previous column: "Prepare as best you can to walk out the door and face the world, adjust to challenges as they come at you, and do the best you can. And sometimes, on those worst of days, when you feel you’ve tried your best but failed nonetheless, someone will point at you and say 'That’s my guy'."

Good luck, keep in touch. And I’ll be back from time to time to impart more wisdom your way, if the powers that be allow me to do so. Thank you, friends.

Michael Hochman, employed person.



Michael Hochman
LaidOffLife@yahoo.com ◙ Laid-Off Life on Twitter ◙ Laid-Off Life on Facebook

Michael is a Copywriter, Creative Marketer, and Broadcasting Professional who has finally found a full-time job after 16 months of full-time job hunting after an "involuntary career sabbatical". A Philly native and Syracuse graduate, Michael is happy to be rejoining the rat race as a slightly older, slightly smarter rat.

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"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." - Drew Carey

Living The Laid-Off Life No More, Part I

"Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes, I’m afraid it’s time for goodbye again." - Billy Joel

Well, after nearly (500) Days of Unemployment, your friendly neighborhood columnist is leaving The Laid-Off Life for full-time employment. Monday-to-Friday, 40-hour week, health-insurance-and-401(k) kinda stuff. The Laid-Off Life will now be The Newly-Employed Life, at least for an audience of one. Excuse me if I throw myself a party.

How did I get so lucky, you ask? Simple. Persistence, hard work, smart work, laboring through rejection, staying focused, and doing the little but often overlooked things that help you get an interview and get hired. I’ve been pushing these concepts for many months now, the ways you can and must make the extra effort. Many of us – myself included – are excellent interviewees. But you’re never going to get to show off that talent until you get your résumé noticed and are heard above the din. Let’s take a look back at a collection of the things that not only I have been doing, but the things I’ve encouraged you to do as well. Class, please open your textbooks and follow along.

Use social networking and its tools to the best of your advantage. Be on Facebook and Twitter and follow/friend/like all the job-hunting sites to keep apprised of jobs, leads, and news. 'Like' PhillyJobs.com and your specific Beyond.com interests on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. Do the same for all the great organizations out there like HireFriday, TweetMyJobs, and TweetAJob. Sign up for job tweets, and read all the useful columns and stories they provide and repost.

Post your résumé online and Tweet it on #HireFriday and #FF hashtag lists. Find a great site on which to post a public résumé to send people to, like on Beyond.com and great portfolio sites like WritersResidence (where I host my résumé). Make sure you make your résumés keyword-friendly, simple to find, simple to read, and simple to peruse. Make yourself a personal business card.

Use your own social network to stay up on goings-on in your industry, or in the job market in general. And the hard truth is that the number-one best way to find a job is through real-life or social-life friends. Don’t be afraid to hit up all of your social network friends about your job search. They may have a job at their company available, or they might be passed on a job by a friend that they are not interested in but you may be, or they may hear of something around that you’d be perfect for. Or maybe they have something they can even hire you directly for! Everyone – everyone – in your life should know you are looking for work because anyone could be the key to that elusive opening.

Augment your favorite job search aggregation sites like CareerBuilder, Monster, or PhillyJobs with smart searches through Craigslist. So many good jobs are listed there because it’s a) easy and b) cheap. Don’t forget to keep looking through newspapers (and their websites) because their job classifieds are still relevant. And search the trade magazines in whatever field you are in for jobs that may not be listed elsewhere. Trade journals are a much-underutilized source of job listings, and info about your industry.

Use LinkedIn wisely. Use it to find companies that you’d love to work for, and see who works there and if you share LinkedIn groups. Group what now? Go join all the LinkedIn groups that you can that apply to you. Industries you’re in, interests you have, alumni groups of former employers and schools. Not only can you get tips on jobs you might not find elsewhere, but if you find a company you’re targeting for work, you can find employees who share a group and contact them directly because you share a group. You never know when you can get an 'in'. And when applying to jobs, use LinkedIn to research as many aspects as you can about the company and use the information you find in applications, follow-ups, and interviews. LinkedIn is where the adults are. Use it.


Smartly and surgically find reputable placement and temp agencies to help in your job search. They don’t get paid unless you do, so they are on your side. There are agencies that specialize in temporary or freelance work, and others that stick to a specific industry. Contact them, and ask to join their bullpen of talent. And keep on them to make sure you’re name is constantly on the top of their placement lists. Many of their jobs are freelance or part-time but can easily turn in to full-time opportunities. Take advantage of this. And while you’re job searching, file for Unemployment Compensation benefits. Contact your state UC office and make sure you are getting everything that you have coming to you legally. And don’t believe the news hype: there are still plenty of UC benefits out there to be had. Food stamps? You’re not too good for it. Apply, and if you qualify, that’s another hundred bucks or so a month off your plate. Take freelance jobs if you wish, take part time jobs if necessary. Just because finding a job is a full-time job doesn’t mean that you have to start living out of cardboard boxes in the ally behind Subway.

When applying to jobs, do so smartly. Customize your cover letter to the job you’re applying and the person you’re applying to. Do the research and make sure your emails have someone’s name on them; that they are addressed to a particular person. Keep your cover letter short, and use it as an intro to your résumé, not as a rehashing of it. And make sure your résumé is targeted at that specific job. Highlight what makes you best for the job, and gives the reader information specifically molded to easily and simply show that your skills and experience match the skills and experience of the job you’re applying to. And sprinkle your résumé with keywords, even ones directly lifted from the job listing. Chances are, your résumé will be read by a keyword-searching computer before it ever gets to a person.

Don’t be afraid of cold-calling (or cold-emailing) companies you are interested in working for. Find email addresses online on Google and LinkedIn. Find people you know at the company on LinkedIn, or find people that work there on Twitter and follow them. Then email them and tell them how much you love their company and not only how much you want to work there, but why they’d be better off with you than they are without you. That’s a key when talking to companies about positions: it’s not about how great the job is or even how great you are. Don’t tell them what the company can do for you, but what you can do for the company. Every point should reinforce the fact that you can make them better. You’d be surprised how often cold calls or cold emails get results (foreshadow!). What it shows is that you want to work there, you are interested in them, and who doesn’t love that?

So, my friends, that’s a good, concise look at many of the things I encourage you to do to help attract attention to your most wonderful qualities and to your résumé for a greater chance of catching the eye of someone who wants to know more about you. In Part II of 'The Laid Off Life No More', we’ll touch on what to do once you’ve snagged that ever-elusive interview, to set you on the path to full-time employed person.

Sorry boys and girls, that’s all we have for story time today. So, much like 'Back To The Future', we’ll pick up right here with 'Part II: Electric Boogaloo' in the next column. (After Friday October 15, 8amET, click here for Part Two: Living The Laid-Off Life No More, Part II). But you will have to supply your own hoverboard.


Michael Hochman
LaidOffLife@yahoo.com ◙ Laid-Off Life on Twitter ◙ Laid-Off Life on Facebook

Michael is a Copywriter, Creative Marketer, and Broadcasting Professional who has finally found a full-time job after 16 months of full-time job hunting after an "involuntary career sabbatical". A Philly native and Syracuse graduate, Michael is happy to be rejoining the rat race as a slightly older, slightly smarter rat.

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"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." - Drew Carey

The Laid-Off Life: Old Logos Never Die, They Just Get Rebranded

A lady once asked renowned industrial graphic designer Raymond Loewy, "Why did you put two 'X's in 'Exxon'?"
"Why ask?" he replied in return.
"Because," she said, "I couldn't help noticing."
"Well," he responded, "that's the answer."
- Alan Fletcher, The Art Of Looking Sideways

We speak a lot about personal branding when we’re positioning ourselves for job hunting. Whatever we present ourselves as – our résumé, our portfolio, our cover letter, what we wear to an interview – becomes our 'brand', the impression people remember about us in a concise thought.

Social Media expert Lon Safko once said, "We don't control our brand; our customers do." And that’s the truth. We can present ourselves any way we choose, but it’s not the impression we give, it’s the impression those we’re trying to affect receive, and those could be very different messages. Because, believe me, once your brand is out of your hands, it's like trying to take pee out of the pool - you can't undo it.

Companies spend millions and millions of dollars trying to affect our impressions of them, to solidify their brand in our eyes, minds, and, almost more importantly, in our hearts. Sometimes we control our message, sometimes our competitors control it. It’s all about perception. Macs are for hip, trendy people; PC’s are for stodgy business people. Dunkin’ Donuts is for the working man; Starbucks is for tree-huggers. Red Roof Inns are for thrifty travelers; Super 8 Motels are for the transient. University of Phoenix is a progressive new form of education; ITT Tech is for dropouts. Do your best, but what people feel a company’s brand is – or what your personal brand is – is the impression you leave.

You may not have a personal logo (unless you’re a creative like a graphic designer or typeset artist, you may), but a corporate logo is often the lasting impression a consumer gets from a company. A logo can express so much in one design, be it the Golden Arches of McDonald’s, the dot-matrix simplicity of IBM, or the colorful text of Google. And that’s why companies change logos with the times to reflect new environments, new design sensitivities, or new directions (or occasionally to distance themselves from old public impressions – see: Altria née Phillip-Morris, or eliminating, well, stupid names – see: Yahoo née Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web).

All of the well-established companies in the grid below have extraordinarily world-wide recognized logos, but they have taken a winding path to where they are now. How many of the companies below can you recognize from their original logos?

(Note: Some logos altered to remove the company name. Click on the graphic to see a larger version. The answers are at the bottom of this page.)

Quiz: What Companies Original Logos Are These?

In completing this quiz, what impression did you get from the logos above? How different are the impressions you get from the old logos than the ones you get from the current, established, recognizable logos? It’s no wonder that companies spend a fortune on logo design and implementation – and protection.

So think about how this relates to you: what impression does your personal brand give potential employers? How much of the impression you wish to impart is in your control and how much of it do others control? You may not have a logo, but everything you do and everything you present constitutes your personal brand. Read over your resume, your cover letters, your attachments and additional materials you’d use to apply for a job and ask yourself what is your brand and how does your brand stick out above your competitors?

Because - trust me - you don't want your brand in someone else's hands:


(Logo quiz answers at bottom).

Michael Hochman
LaidOffLife@yahoo.com ◙ Laid-Off Life on Twitter ◙ Laid-Off Life on Facebook

Michael is a Copywriter, Creative Marketer, and Broadcasting Professional still in search of full-time employment after 15 months of full-time job hunting, thanks to an "involuntary career sabbatical". A Philly native and Syracuse graduate, Michael will gladly accept any job offer you may have for him. Any. Really. Please give me a job??

"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." - Drew Carey

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(Click on company name for current logo)

a: IBM (International Business Machines)
b: Shell Oil
c: Kodak (initials of Eastman-Kodak Corporation)
d: Pepsi-Cola
e: Starbucks
f: Canon cameras and copiers (in the original Japanese: 'Kwanon')
g: Xerox
h: Nokia
i: Apple Computers (Isaac Newton sitting under a tree)
j: Ford Motor Company
k: LG (in it’s original 'Lucky Cream' Lak-Hui logo before merger with Goldstar)
l: Microsoft
m: FedEx (the full name 'Federal Express' was dropped in 2000)
n: Walmart (the one-word-no-hyphen name was official as of 2008)
o: Volkswagen
p: Mercedes
q: General Electric (note the original stylized G-E)
r: Boeing
s: Mazda
t: Firefox from Mozilla

Twitter Archives Are Being Given To The Library of Congress

You may not be aware of it, but starting 10/10/2010, the Library of Congress is planning to start archiving all messages sent on Twitter that are over 24 weeks old.

The Library of Congress is one of the oldest federal cultural institutions and the largest library in the world. The Library maintains a copy of every book, pamphlet, map, piece of music that is registered in the U.S. If you open any book or CD you will see a Library of Congress ID number. The Library's goal is to archive everything, and it does a wonderful job of it.

On the official Twitter blog, the company explains:

"Since Twitter began, billions of tweets have been created. Today, fifty-five million tweets a day are sent to Twitter and that number is climbing sharply. A tiny percentage of accounts are protected but most of these tweets are created with the intent that they will be publicly available. Over the years, tweets have become part of significant global events around the world—from historic elections to devastating disasters.



It is our pleasure to donate access to the entire archive of public Tweets to the Library of Congress for preservation and research. It's very exciting that tweets are becoming part of history. It should be noted that there are some specifics regarding this arrangement. Only after a six-month delay can the Tweets be used for internal library use, for non-commercial research, public display by the library itself, and preservation."

This is exciting news for archivists, historians and for Twitter itself. I can see the benefit of being able to go back and search for tweets about subjects to find out how people felt about world events in the past. Tweets can provide an amazing time capsule for our culture and allow Twitter users to have a had in creating our own autobiography.

That being said, there are times when you may not want to have a tweet archived. Perhaps there is information about your specific location or other private information. In order to not have your tweets archived, you would have to delete them before the 24 week deadline. But, how do you keep up with which ones need to be deleted and when?

Well, no worries on that front. If you are going to tweet something that you don't want archived, simply tweet it with the #noloc. Noloc.org is a free service that will delete your tweets after 23 weeks, so you don't have to worry about it. Alternatively, you can use #noarchive, #noindex or just #n.

So, be aware of the new change, and happy tweeting!

What do you think about the Twitter archive being given to the Library of Congress? Do you think it is a good thing or a violation of privacy? Let me know in the comments.

If you want to find a job in Philly, check out PhillyJobs.com.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

The Laid-Off Life: Browser Envy

"The Internet browser is the piece of software that puts a message on your computer screen informing you that the Internet is currently busy and you should try again later." – Dave Barry, humorist/columnist

Is your Internet slow? Is your Internet busy? Have you reached the end of the Internet and need to start over? Well, just go to giveusallyourpersonalinfo.com and we'll fix your computer right up over our personal Internettes.

The problem with most computer users is that their computer is not slow and confusing, it is that they are slow and confused. Despite calls for a return to sending 'classic' mail and filling out applications in person, 99% of your job hunting will be online. And if you're gonna spend that amount of time online (and of course not on Facebook or YouTube or ICanHasCheezburger), you need to browse smarter and better.

Have you been using the power of your browser to help you search for jobs more efficiently and with greater organization? No? Well, you have no excuses. Let's talk browsers, job hunter.

First, quick: what browser are you using?

If you don't know, I'm sorry but a) how did you find this website and b) why are you wearing leg-warmers and Jams?

If you answered Microsoft Internet Explorer, please go to the back of the line. Unless you have a specific reason for using IE (like you work at Microsoft or you’re online at the public library), you should not be using the grandma of browsers. Ever. No, not then. Never. Just stop now before your IE crashes both our computers.

If you answered Safari, you’re a Mac person (or a crazy person, or likely both). I’m sorry, but you’re in a minority since only 4.3% of you out there use Macs. On the good side, most viruses aren’t created for Macs since there’s so few of you. The bad news, developers don’t care about you.

If you answered Opera, you’re either an anarchist or you’re web browsing on your Wii and I can’t help you.

But if you are one of the 63% of web users using Mozilla’s Firefox or Google’s Chrome browsers, then you know about the power of add-ons. Third-party add-ons are probably among the top reasons that the market-share for Internet Explorer has dwindled from nearly 85% in 2004 (when Firefox was introduced) to merely 30% as of August 2010. I don’t care what industry you’re in, that’s a huge loss of share.

Like applications in the Apple Store, for most anything you need, there’s a Firefox add-on for that, whether it be to make your browsing faster and easier, or to make your layout look prettier. And there are several great add-ons or extensions made just for job hunting. If you go to the Firefox Add-On homepage, you can search add-ons for 'job search' or 'employment' or 'jobs' and find a bevy of helpful extensions and toolbars like JobSpeaker (a search organizer), Indeed Job Search (a job aggregator), DoNanza (for freelancers), Search4Jobs (an extension for Monster.com), oDeskJobs, and JobsBridge. And these add-ons work great to help you aggregate from your favorite job-search sites like PhillyJobs.com.

There’s also a myriad of tools to help your social media job search with add-ons for LinkedIn (Companion for Firefox), Craigslist (CraigZilla), and of course Twitter (TwitJobSearch, JobTweet, and more). There are also a plethora of extensions for Google Chrome as well. Not as many, but as Chrome’s popularity increases, more and more third-party developers will create versions of their add-ons for Chrome.

Do yourself a favor… first, if you’re not using Firefox or Chrome, start doing so now. Secondly, take a browse through the Mozilla add-on site and give a few of these job search helpers a try. And don’t stop there. There are so many tools in add-ons that make life on the web so much easier and smoother, like Hyperwords, CoolPreviews, Paste Email, Undo Closed Tabs, Stop AutoPlay, Ad Block Plus, and my favorite, Lazarus (which I’d be lost without). Making your browsing experience simpler, faster, and less frustrating will only lead you to more job opportunities for you because you'll be browsing just that much smarter.

(PS: I also highly highly suggest installing a utility program to clean unwanted files and registry errors to speed up your computer and your browser. My recommendation is the wonderfully-useful 'CCleaner' program from Piriform, as well as their defragmenter called 'Defraggler'. Do it now.)

And in the end, that's the goal, for things to be simple so you don…


Michael Hochman
LaidOffLife@yahoo.com ◙ Laid-Off Life on Twitter ◙ Laid-Off Life on Facebook

Michael is a Copywriter, Creative Marketer, and Broadcasting Professional still in search of full-time employment after 15 months of full-time job hunting, thanks to an "involuntary career sabbatical". A Philly native and Syracuse graduate, Michael will gladly accept any job offer you may have for him. Any. Really. Please give me a job??

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"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." - Drew Carey

The Laid-Off Life: Burnt Offerings

"The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn." – David Russell, Scottish classical musician

It’s that time of the month to break open the Laid-Off Life mailbag. I received this question from a fan (long time listener, first time caller) in Philly:

"I find myself a leading candidate for a position I'm pretty sure I'm not qualified for. I haven't lied on my résumé or to any questions asked of me in any interview. But in getting to understand the position, I'm pretty sure I am under-qualified for the job, and there's a lot I'd be expected to do that I don't know how to do. Maybe they think that they're pretty sure I'd be able to do anything I knew how and figure out anything I didn't, but if that was the case, I'm not sure I'd agree with them. I haven’t brought up these concerns to the interviewer (obviously). Would I be wrong to take the job if offered? Lord knows, I need the money, and I need a job, but I'm stressed as to what I should do. Should I accept a job offer for a position for which I'm pretty sure I'm not qualified?"

(Editor's Note: above letter not actually from Kevin Kolb. But it could be.)

Wow, I don’t even know where to start. First, I would suggest asking someone much smarter and with more experience in these matters. I don’t have human resources experience, nor any inside-knowledge above my own personal understanding.

However, that previous paragraph starts to answer the question itself. I have sat here for 23 weeks now writing pseudo-advice columns about job hunting even though I’m "under-qualified for the job" and even though there’s a lot about writing this that "I’d be expected to do that I don’t know how to do". My only expertise is my own life experience. And I would suggest that follow that same advice. Take that life experience – or work experience – and use it to learn as-you-go. Use the skills you have, and develop the ones you don’t.

I’m going to try to expand on this, coming from both sides of the equation. First, I suggest you take the job, no reservations. You say you didn’t lie on your résumé or in your interviews. I’m going to go out on a limb and also say that you didn’t lie-by-omission either. I’m not suggesting that you give your interviewer a laundry list of all the things you don’t know how to do, but there’s a fine line between making yourself look good and perjuring yourself, between under- and over-selling yourself. I trust when you say you didn’t lie, you didn’t fail to mention any huge elephants in the room. It’s a moral question, I suppose, and only you know if that is the case.

One would have to think that given all of the information on hand available to a potential employer – your résumé, your interview, follow-up conversations, background checks, social media searches, LinkedIn listings, industry contacts, recommendations, references, psychic readings – that the onus at the end falls on the employer. Caveat emptor can go both ways (caveat employertor?).

There are two ways that this can go at this point:

They were right (and clearly very visionary) and you wind up thriving in your new job, learning quickly as you go, and using your already-established skills to excel at the position. The things that you didn’t know how to do you learned, and they weren’t the hurdles you thought they would be. Your new employers were aware of your theoretical shortcomings, even if you didn’t think they were. See, you had nothing to worry about.

They were wrong (and clearly without insight) and you wound up over-your-head in your new job, fell behind before you even started, and it was a bad match for all involved. You were assigned tasks you didn’t know how to accomplish, and needed to ask for help so often, you were starting to get a reputation as a time-waster and a liability. Your shortcomings became quickly apparent, and it was true that they had expectations of you that were unrealistic. There were things they thought you knew and skills they presumed you to have. If you’re lucky, they’ll realize they overestimated you but know how much time and effort they’ve already enlisted in your hiring. Maybe they’ll have patience and allow you to learn the skills you didn’t before and give you the chance to catch up. If you’re less lucky, they will decide it is best for all to part ways, no-harm-no-foul. They know it was their fault (again, assuming you didn’t lie about yourself), and they just have to bite-the-bullet. You were just an employee that didn’t work out, and you go your separate ways.

Regardless of whether you are over- or under-qualified for a job, the burden is on the company to shuffle through the haystack to find the right needle for the job. Despite all the analytics and research that goes in to filling a key position, it’s a crapshoot. Sometimes the house wins, sometimes the house loses. They’re going on a small percentage of information they’ve gleaned from you, and making a best-guess. Most of the time, they’ve hired the right person for the position, and things proceed seamlessly. Sometimes that doesn’t happen, and a smart company will know that it’s not your fault (again, if you haven’t lied) and sometimes crap happens. Then it’s up to them whether or not to continue the experiment or cut their losses. And hopefully they won’t be bitter or retaliatory if you aren’t the right fit (or, more directly, just can’t do the job).

Which brings me to the other alternative: Don’t take the job. If you really honestly think that you cannot perform the duties as assigned, even if the employer seems to think you can, pass. You know you much better than a company will ever know you before you start. They’re opinion is based on a one or two page résumé and a couple hours of speaking with you. There’s bound to be a lot of things about you and your skills that just don’t come up, or aren’t delved into deeply enough. Even if you’re the greatest idea person in the world, it will never come through if you don’t have the skills to implement them. Only you can be the proper barometer as to whether you can really do the job or not.

"But Michael," you ask, "why not just give the job a shot and if it doesn’t pan out, then you admit the error and quietly have the job annulled?" Good question, you. If you take a job and fail, you’re affecting three different sets of people: you, your employer (or lack thereof), and other job seekers.

If you take a job you shouldn’t have, picture the impact on the person that finished second. It’s possible they were actually the perfect person for the position, they just didn’t express that as well as you apparently did. In the time between you decide to take the job and possibly fail at the job, that person may have taken another not-as-good job, or they may have moved on to something else unknowing how that will end. Maybe they were generally excited about the job, and could have taken the company to much higher places. And maybe losing this job was their last straw and they’ve just had enough and… well, I’ll let you fill in the rest.

What about how it impacts the employer. They’ve spent money, time, and resources hiring you, training you, and accommodating you. They’ve planned work and projects around the assumption that you’ll be there and doing the job well. Your failure or departure leaves a big hole in their plans and could have a ripple effect on the work produced by having to cover your sudden not-there-anymoreness. Depending on how far in to the job you would get, all other appropriate candidates may have moved on and they’ll have to start the process all over again. And one guess who they’ll blame.

And of course, there’s the affect on you. Primarily on your reputation. Whether or not it’s true, the perception will be that you sold them a bill of goods, you bait-and-switched, that you’ve Rick-Rolled them. And remember how small a world this is, especially in the social network cloud. You never know when your perceived transgressions are going to follow you, and you never know who will pop up again in the future at a different company. The person you let down at Initech might very well show up when you’re interviewing at Taggart Transcontinental. Be careful reaping where you’re sowing.

So there are the various states of affair on both sides of the coin. I have no specific advice further than do what you feel is right and best for you. You can decide that if the company sees something in you, who are you to argue, or you can decide that walking in to a job you have no business having is bad business for everyone. But no matter your choice, the outcome will come back on you.

But like I said, I’m not an expert, I just play one on TV.



Michael Hochman
LaidOffLife@yahoo.com ◙ Laid-Off Life on Twitter ◙ Laid-Off Life on Facebook

Michael is a Copywriter, Creative Marketer, and Broadcasting Professional still in search of full-time employment after 15 months of full-time job hunting, thanks to an "involuntary career sabbatical". A Philly native and Syracuse graduate, Michael will gladly accept any job offer you may have for him. Any. Really. Please give me a job??

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"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." - Drew Carey

The Laid-Off Life: Second First Impressions

"Look at the tested and think, 'There but for the grace go I'." – Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Impression That I Get

You may never get a second chance at first impressions, but you’re sure to be doing well when you get a first chance at a second impression.

Last week, I discussed first impressions and last impressions, and the pitfalls within. This week I want to revisit those impressions, and making more, in that wondrous, hopeful, limbo known as 'The Second Interview'.


I have a second interview this week for a job I have a feeling I’m really close to. Second interviews are a fluid thing that can be strikingly different than your initial interview, a different animal all together. Or they can be the same with different people. Or it can be a test to see if a first (and last) impression holds up under different circumstances. So, how does one prepare for a call-back and what should one expect? I’m no expert (as I’ve mentioned many times before), but I have certainly been on enough to be able to give some first-hand advice.

First thing’s first: congratulations. You clearly did something right. The person or persons you interviewed with liked what he saw the last time. You’ve impressed them enough with your résumé to have you in to interview, and you wowed them in the interview to where they want to know more about you. In the timeline of job hunting, you’re half-way home. Experts say you have between a 25% to 50% chance of landing the gig at this point. Now, keep an eye on the third base coach, and look for the ball in the gap that’ll bring you in to score. Make sure you don’t undo any brand-building you’ve already erected, and prepare yourself to add on to the foundation you’ve already poured.

Baseball and construction metaphors aside, your goal in a second interview (besides, you know, getting the job) is to reinforce everything the person you interviewed with the first time 'round liked about you, and give the same personally-tailored impression to the other people you meet and interview with. So, who might that be? There’s a good chance that you’ll speak with a spectrum of new folks your second time in, like your potential boss’ boss, the human resources director, would-be fellow co-workers, a head of the department you’d be working in, other senior management, a diversity manager, a client, the president or CEO, and basically anyone else, so be prepared for anything and anyone.

What exactly are they trying to find out from you? They already have your résumé, portfolio if that’s your thing, and a good chunk of time already having spoken with you. Considering all the other people you may meet with, the biggest thing they are looking to see is if everything that your original interview said about you holds true. It’s like meeting a potential boy or girlfriend, and running them by your buds, entourage, posse, whathaveyou, to see if they approve, or more likely, to see if there’s anything glaring about them you’re missing ('Dude, didn’t you see that extra finger growing out of her shoulder?'). The original interviewer wants to make sure everyone else sees everything they saw in you. When you see a great new armoire at Ikea, be sure to bring the wife back to check it out with you, and come back more informed the second time.

They also want to glean deeper information from you. Most interviews come off boiler-plate, and only skim the surface of what they wish to know about you, getting a good general impression. The second interview will dig much deeper, get more specific about what they need to know and how it relates to the job. Questions will get more specific, and pressure will intensify, even if the atmosphere comes off more relaxed. And don’t be surprised if you’re asked to take psych and personality tests, something becoming more and more common in the business world. How do you prepare for that? Well, you don’t. You can try to find some practice tests online, but this ain’t the SAT’s.

Ahead of time, make sure you go over everything from the first interview. Give yourself a good post-mortem. Recall anything that you had trouble with or couldn’t quite answer with specifics the first time. Expect these things to come up again. Do your research on the company from scratch, knowing now what you didn’t know then. Review everything you learned that you didn’t find on their website or by talking to other employees. Go back to the company’s LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, and Twitter feed. Review anything you see, and gather as much information about other people you may be interviewing with as possible. Think about anything new you can bring with you this time: new accomplishments, recent projects, anything you’ve learned in the mean time, and questions about the company you didn’t ask the first time to show you did your follow-up homework. Plan to meet with multiple people, even possibly at the same time.

Be sure to prepare for a very-likely question about salary. If you’re lucky, they will give you a figure or a range and ask you if that’s copacetic with you. But there’s a good chance you’ll get the dreaded open-ended question, "What is the salary you’re expecting for this position?". I’m not going to tell you how to calculate that figure, but it goes something like take your cost-of-living expenses, your last salary, your experience, the research you’ve done about compensation for similar positions, what a job posting might have indicated, and what you’re willing to take, then figure out a high-end, and a low-end, and be prepared with a number or range right back at them. And, similarly, if they come right out and give you a figure they're expecting to pay, you'll know if it falls in your range. But I do suggest you Google how to decide on a figure best for you, because I don’t want any angry emails from you saying you got lowballed for a salary and it’s my fault. I’m just a columnist, believe me, we’re nobody.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve seen about second interviews comes from Katharine Hansen, Ph.D. who says in her article 'Do's and Don'ts for Second (and Subsequent) Job Interviews':

"Remember these three more words: Fit, Fit, and Fit. A major reason for the second interview is so the employer can see how well you fit in with the company culture. Put yourself inside the employer's head and realize that the interviewers at your second interview want to learn how well you will get along with other team members with whom you'll be interacting with every day."

That’s a great summary of the purpose of the second interview in a nutshell. They already like you, they already think you got skills, they already are impressed at first shot. Now they really want to know if you’re gonna fit in with them, fit in with the department, fit in with the salary range, fit in with the job, fit in with the culture, and fit in with the collective personality. She goes on to say, "Remember that it's ok not to fit. If you aren't a good fit with the employer, you probably wouldn't be happy working there anyway." And that’s the truth: just because you’re offered a job, doesn’t mean you should take it. It’s also a second chance for you to interview them and see if it’s somewhere you want to spend the next 5, 10, 50 years of your life. As always, come prepared with more questions for you to ask them.

And this may or may not be the end of the line. You could get a third interview, or more. But if you are starting to feel like your time is being wasted, go with your gut. Maybe this is not the place for you.

So, when you’re in for your second interview, remember that you’re making new first (and last) impressions again all over the place. Remember all the things you said the first time that impressed them, and cover and highlight them once more. You’re halfway to the win now.

Just be sure, when you are sliding home, to touch the plate with your winning run.



Michael Hochman
LaidOffLife@yahoo.com ◙ Laid-Off Life on Twitter ◙ Laid-Off Life on Facebook

Michael is a Copywriter, Creative Marketer, and Broadcasting Professional still in search of full-time employment after 15 months of full-time job hunting, thanks to an "involuntary career sabbatical". A Philly native and Syracuse graduate, Michael will gladly accept any job offer you may have for him. Any. Really. Please give me a job??

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"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." - Drew Carey

It's Amazing What Soup Can Do- Campbell Soup's Struggle With a Decline In Soup Sales

With sales down, many companies across the nation have been looking for ways to cut corners and lower their expenses. Unfortunately, one of the first cuts are labor costs. Companies who are not making their numbers often end up laying off employees, cutting back working hours, benefits and compensation. But there are still companies that are thinking of other ways to increase the bottom line without sacrificing their employees.

Campbell Soup Co. has been dealing with a 5% soup sale decline in the past quarter. In spite of that, they are reporting that their adjusted net earnings for the quarter have increased by $113 million. According to a recent report, the way they were able to make up the difference was by changing the way that they made soup. Previously, Campbell Soup was made with 10 different sizes of carrot chunks and 11 different sizes of potato chunks. They have reduced the amount to 3 for the carrots and just 2 different sizes of potato chunks. Even though the amount of vegetable in the soup is the same, they were able to increase productivity and expenses by making this change. I doubt that consumers will really even notice, and it doesn't make a difference in overall soup quality.

The soup company is also planning to start a new $100 million marketing campaign, “It's Amazing What Soup Can Do”. The campaign is scheduled to start this week, and hopefully, for its employees, it will add an increase in sales.

So, while It's Amazing What Soup Can Do, for the employees of the Camden business, it's amazing what thinking outside of the box can do to raise profits in spite of the weak economy. Other companies could learn something from Campbell Soup, and look for ways to improve productivity without letting employees go.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.