Jerry Berg decided that the best way to deal with a layoff was to make a 20 minute video ( http://bit.ly/1oouacX ) lamenting how terrible it is to be laid off after 15 years at Microsoft. I personally feel for him as I’ve been laid off twice since the 2008 financial crisis. While his emotions are understandable, putting them out there in a public video was a bad choice.

This is…

http://ftxtechnologies.com/blog/

LinkedIn "People Also Viewed"

Most of us use LinkedIn to network professionally, but a colleague recently told me people were using it to check women out.  Try looking at my LinkedIn profile, www.linkedin.com/in/bertshima.  Look on the right side under “People Also Viewed” and you’ll see a diverse…

Sometimes it is better to hear employment advice from someone you don't know. Share this link with your unemployed friends and colleagues. 10 Tips on Finding a New Job.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/search.html?content_type=article&q=10+weeks+job&search=Search…

Have you ever seen a resume so bad or a candidate doing something so foolish that you wanted to blurt out something that had more obscene than non-obscene words?  Of course you have, but if you took the time to provide feedback on every bad resume or poor interview, no work would get done.  While most of us don't have the time to do this, I wanted to publicly recognize someone who does.  His name is Foster Williams. Foster actively assists…

Like most sequels, this is not as good as the original, but I hope this is a better sequel than Revenge of the Nerds II.  Please read #4 first if you are pressed for time.

1. Cold Calls on Voicemail. Keep the pitch short. Find out the delete # in my system and say "Don't hit the 9 key! My friend Julie is a top notch SharePoint developer and asked me contact you about yesterday's posting. I'm Julie Carr with Blobert Blaf Blechnology (or any company that just…

1. Ask us how long we have lived in the area. Do not ask us where we are REALLY from. Do not ask us what our nationality is when you mean ethnicity.  Aside from EEO issues in the US, these questions show  that you have already put us in a box as "other" and we are tired of hearing it.  Also, for Asian orphans, this can be a painful question. Some do not know. One woman I met was abandoned in Saigon as a toddler speaking Chinese in 1968. …

In our line of work, underemployed and unemployed friends and relatives seek out our advice.  Usually a resume rewrite, LinkedIn account, and updated resume on a job board will get them further in a hour than 6 months of blindly applying for jobs. For my two nephews, this helped them land in 3 weeks in a down market.  "Uncle Bert, people were calling me the next day." Way to go Patrick and Aaron!

I have a…

1. Cold Calls. If you are cold calling me from any company that rhymes with Blobert Blaf or similar companies, call me from your mobile because I can see your company on my caller ID.  Expect me to still blow you off, but call me in 6 months to show me you made it. We may talk then.…