Thankful for Employment

I look around the area we have moved to and it is really quite sad. Building that are empty and stores closing all around. The unemployment rate in California is the third largest in the nation. It makes me shutter to think we could have been a statistic, but we were very lucky.

My husband has been in his new position for 1 year and 4 months now. We have yet to level out at where we were prior to the layoff, but we are getting back on our feet. Now, if we could only sell our house in Minnesota!

My hope is that you can have hope too in gaining employment. If you are not looking outside the box then you need to break the box open and go explore. There are jobs out there. Home Depot is currently hiring back quite a few people - it may be a step up or a step down from your former employment, but it is a paycheck for now. Moving away from your comfort zone is so difficult - but if the jobs are in another state, then moving is your best option.

Take Care of Yourself and Your Spouse

Lets talk about self care today. If you workout side of the home, good for you. You are making a contribution to the family finances and are able to socialize in your workplace. This alone can save a bit of sanity. For myself, I am a stay at home mom, my husband is the bread winner of the family. Its not to say that I could go out and find a job, I can and I will if time dictates that I need too.

The first things I cut back on after the company layoff were my pampering days. I didn't feel that I could afford the luxury of $150.00 hair cut, hair color and brow wax. I found a great hair stylist at Great Clips. She can cut my hair just as nicely as the more expensive salons. I started coloring my hair at home. I began tweezing my own brows - although painful - I can live with it!

You can also pamper yourself at home. Take the time to give yourself a pedicure and manicure. It does wonders for your self esteem and makes your toes and hands feel soft and wonderful. Pamper yourself with a bath, fill the tub with bubbles and relax the day away.

You can also help your spouse of significant other feel pampered. Giving them a bit of special attention goes a long way. They are feeling the stress of unemployment and may feel a loss because they are no longer the bread winner for the family. Try and help ease their tension with their favorite meal, a shoulder massage after a long day of online job searching.

Taking care of ourselves is important during this stressful period. So go on, go give yourself a bit of home pampering and have a fantastic day.

How to Make Money Online

This is not a blog on getting rich quick, nor will I submit any links that offer you great ideas to make money online by purchasing one of the many spam schemes online. Simply put, if you want to make money online you need to work hard.

I write to make money online. By doing this it helps out the family finances while my husband is unemployed. It takes time, effort, hard work and original good quality content.

The first thing you will need to make money online is a Google AdSense account. In order to be approved for Adsense account, it would be a good idea to already have a blog on Blogger and a gmail email account, this will help the process of being approved for AdSense. BIG HINT - NEVER CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADS, or you will loose your AdSense account. Read this article from one of the great Hubbers on Hubpages.

Writing a blog takes minutes a day. Find your niche, it could be your favorite recipes, a "how to do" blog, etc., think about what you can write. After you have thought of your "niche", go to Google AdWords Keyword Tool, type in your niche and see what type of results you get. You'll be able to see if your keywords are high paying or not, you will also get a large list of keyword ideas.

I currently write for several online publishers. Hubpages is a great site. Hubpages offers a 60/40 Adsense click through payout, the option to use Amazon and Ebay to sell products. You must apply to be an Amazon Associate and an Ebay Associate. There are many "hubs" that are written specifically to teach you about How to Make Money online through writing. Hubpages is my number one source for writing. They also have a forum that is helpful for those who are new to writing online.

InfoBarrel, How To Do Things, Triond and of course my blog. Make sure you read the TOS (Terms of Service) at each site your write for and also read their FAQ.

Take time to learn about SEO, Backlinks and Keywords, the knowledge you gain from these lessons will improve your ability to earn money through writing online. All of these are free to learn about, do not pay anyone online to learn their tricks.

With the Christmas season approaching my aim is to sell products through Amazon. Most of my Hub articles right now are hubs to sell.

I've written several toy articles, Bath and Body articles.

I hope this helps you get started, remember, good content will get you noticed!

Some of my articles:

Segmented Wood Turning

Moving Forward After the Unemployment Fall

Toys for Teens

Buy a Kindle

Pampering Your Man

Finding a Job

Here is a list we've compiled of the top search engines on the internet. A quick note, many of these sites will over lap each other.

If you find a position within one of these sites, go directly into the company that is hiring and find the job posting at the company's website. This will ensure that your resume is going directly to their Human Resources Department.

Many headhunters will have job postings on these sites. Take into careful consideration on whether or not you want to work with a headhunter or search firm. Most headhunters only fill 3 -5% of the job openings. You also don't want to give your resume to a headhunter who is going to blast it out to companies all over the US, why? Because you want to submit your resume to these companies! If a headhunter does contact you, and you decide to allow them to submit your resume to a company, make sure that they understand that they are only allowed to submit it to that ONE company. What you DON'T want to happen is a headhunter submitting your resume to a company that you've already submitted to - yes the resume will be seen twice, but the HR department will not be aware (if they use a key word selection) who sent the resume.

Career Builders.com
Monster.com
Indeed.com
USA.gov
Boston Globe
The Ladders
LinkedIn
Exec. Search
Hound
Dice
Hotjobs
All Job Search
Beyond.com
Craigslist
Simply Hired
Yahoo Hot Jobs
Jobster
Job.com
Linkup

Networking

Networking in today's job market is a must! I can't stress it enough. LinkedIn is a networking site for employees and employers, you can make good contacts through this site and be recommended by former co-workers, bosses, or people who have worked for you.

The first thing you'll need to do is get a LinkedIn Account. After you've set yourself up, write a good business profile, one that makes you shine. Potential employers may find you on LinkedIn and your profile is their first introduction to you.

Now begin building your network. Search for possible contacts to add to your network, past business associates, co-workers, bosses, college classmates, high school classmates, relative and neighbors. All of these people could potentially open up doors for you. After you've built your network, review the people who have joined and carefully consider which of these people you would like to recommend you. Once you've made a list of those people, send them an email through LinkIn and ask for a business recommendation. You want to make sure these people know your work well and have had a good working relationship with them.

Good luck, now go get LinkedIn

Writing the Resume

The absolute first thing you should do after you have become unemployed or knowing you will be laid off is to write your resume. If you haven't undated it in the last six months, it needs to be polished.

If you are unfamiliar with writing a resume, find a family member or friend who is a good writer and possibly works with hiring or in human resources. The key to your resume is that your skills "pop" right off the bat.

Try to limit your resume to two pages. In my husband's case, he has a career that spans over 20 years, his resume is 2.5 pages long. A description of each of the major parts of your job should be written with bullets below it describing the intricacies of the job. For example if one of your main roles is a Manager, you'll want to clearly state what you manage and how you manage, weather you manage money, a contract or people, the information should be there for prospective employers to see. Adding key words to your resume will help the resume surface when the HR department is looking for resumes using key words. The keywords should pertain to every part of the job(s) you've done.

After you've completed your resume, have several people look it over. If there is an Unemployment office near you, they have counselors that will look at it and make suggestions. You want your resume to be up to the latest standards that hiring managers and HR reps are looking for. Whatever you do, do not pay Monster or Career Builders to write your resume, they don't know you and you are unemployed - the math alone here makes sense to do it yourself.

After the resume is complete, you can start your job search!

Supporting our Spouse

Unemployment or displaced workers are words we are hearing every day. We hear it hear from neighbors, relatives, friends and family. Did you ever imagine that you would be saying those words to your family and friends? I did not. I thought my husband’s job was secure. He’d been with his former company for 17 years. None the less, the contract his company was working on was cut short by the Army.

As spouses, what do we do? I am a stay at home mom. Do I go out and find a job to supplement our income or do I continue writing in hopes that somewhere along the line, an income will grow from my work? I’m choosing to continue writing. It brings me both pleasure and a feeling of accomplishment.

What can we do to support our spouses? First, let your spouse know your concerns. Don’t hide them or let them build up; it is unhealthy for both your relationship and yourself.

Encourage your spouse to spend 20 – 22 hours a week looking for jobs. Help your spouse look, look for sources that he/she can submit their resume to. Network with friends, family and neighbors whose companies may be hiring in the field your spouse works in, don’t be afraid to email every single person you know, ask them for the names of hiring managers, human resource recruiters or head hunters. Every little thing you do could potentially help your spouse. It will also help your spouse to know you care enough to help him/her in their job search.

I published my husband’s Unemployment story from my perspective; it helped me to write about what was happening in our life.