Out on the Street: How to Feel Like a Bitch

“Hey—I got to hop, I got some friend of a friend I have to talk to. I’ll lose him in 10 to 15 minutes.”

Ummm, I am waiting right outside your office. I can hear you.

So that’s how I met Kevin, a friend of a family friend who runs a $2.5 billion hedge fund. When I actually met him I was greeted with a terse, “How can I help you?” No pleasantries with Kevin—after all, our informational conversation was going to last 15 minutes tops and he was doing me a favor. But I was determined to stretch it to 20. Ha. That’d show him.

I have been to too many meetings in my professional career to count, and along the way I learned that every single face-to-face is an opportunity to establish your standing in the power structure…

Love in the Time of Layoff: Coming Home Again

On Tuesday, my husband found out that his freelance work with the firm that picked him up three days after the Layoff is now drying up. Yesterday was his first day “back” at home.

“So, does this make you, like, laid off times two?” I asked in a lame appeal to mask my panic with humor.

“Nah, it’s much better,” he said. I asked him to explain.

Turns out, there are Layoffs and there are layoffs. Technically, of course, this latest downsizing of my beloved doesn’t count as a layoff at all, since Marco hadn’t been on staff at that firm. When his supervisor told him there was no more work for him right now, there was no sense of betrayal, no dark questioning (why me? why not him or her?), nothing personal. Other freelancers had been slowly disappearing. He knew things had been winding down.

The Pre-Interview Checklist

Maybe it’s been a while since you were on the receiving end of a job interview. Maybe your current technique isn’t helping you snare a job. Or, are you simply ready to take your interviewing game up a notch? Whichever stage you’re at, these six tips will help you make the most of your next meeting.

• Craft an answer to “Tell me about yourself.” And write it down. And practice it. We suggest the response be three to four minutes long, and highlight your accomplishments and experience with the skills that are critical to the job, as well as explain your progression between positions.

C.E.O.’s—They’re Just Like Us!

You may have a hard time sympathizing with top executives who are now out of work. But getting laid off is tough, no matter how much power and income your old job afforded you. A great little piece in yesterday’s New York Times focused on canned executives who are searching for new positions. Unlike most of us, they have big severance packages and their companies paid for a top-notch outplacement service that gives them free lunches and views of Boston as well as expert advice. But their experience offers a few lessons for everyone…

Best Twitter Feeds for the Recession

Still getting used to the verb “tweet?” It seems like practically everyone is Twittering.

If you haven’t set up a Twitter account yet, here’s a good reason to do so: people are putting great information out there that can help you get through the recession. Everything from finding a job to shopping deals and the latest recession news. We combed the Twittersphere to find useful, unique and consistent feeds…

Tax Tips for the Unemployed

You already know that networking can help you find a new job. But you might not know that the IRS offers an assist, too. You can deduct many of your job-hunting expenses. That’s not that surprising, since it’s in the Internal Revenue Service’s best interest to have you earning taxable income. Uncle Sam’s tax help, however, does have its limits. Here’s what you need to know.

Itemizing required
You must itemize deductions on Schedule A to count your job-hunting expenses. That task is further limited by a threshold amount you must meet. Your job search costs are considered miscellaneous expenses. As such, they are deductible only when they, and all other allowable expenses in this category, are more than 2 percent of your adjusted gross income.

Tips and Tools for the Recently Unemployed

Chances are growing that you or someone you know has been laid off in the last year. The unemployment rate pushed further upward last month with the loss of an additional 663,000 jobs, to 8.5%. It’s beginning to look a lot like 1983, the last time the unemployment rate hit this level.

But is it? In 1983, the national mood was not very hopeful – despite a new president in the office, the Cold War still raged on, crime was holding strong, the inflation rate was 3.22% and unemployment actually hit 9.6%.

Times are hard now, there’s no denying that. Breadlines have appeared in some areas around the country, and Michigan is struggling with a mighty burden of turning around or replacing its major industry and employer to chip away at its 12% unemployment rate…

Graduation to Nowhere

I’ve spent no small amount of time thinking about how my life could have been different if I had graduated in another year.

From the first day of senior year in the fall of 2007, (like all seniors) we avoided mentioning the “G word” and cringed when anyone asked what our plans were for the next year. We were still safely ensconced inside the safe, dependable collegiate bubble. The outside world, where concerns over subprime mortgages were slowly mounting, hardly penetrated. Besides, people we knew had graduated and gone to get jobs. Just as we expected we would.

When I did finally graduate in May 2008, Bear Stearns had already collapsed, but I couldn’t see how my experience could fold in on me: I was a double major, graduated magna cum laude, had put in my time as an unpaid intern, and was an editor of a campus magazine at Syracuse University. I expected success and moved to New York so I would be here to interview at a moment’s notice. I signed a one-year lease on an apartment and waited for the interviews and offers to roll in…

Socialize Your Resume Experience

Looking for a job can be as time-consuming as a full-time job, but luckily, these days you can also be social about it. Mashable featured a great list of “Social Sites for Resume Building” from Me 2.0 author Dan Schawbel.

Some of them are literally for building your resume — Razume.com and ResumeSocial are two that let you create yours online and the community will give you feedback — while others…

Clear Fear from Your Career and More

There’s more fear than usual floating around these days. Fear about savings, spending, housing, but most of all fear about work—and that holds true whether you’re unemployed or looking, employed and scared about losing your job, or just plain stuck.

On March 31, motivational speaker Gabrielle Bernstein will give a lecture for women, Clear Fear from Your Career, with step-by-step advice on how to remove the psychological blocks that hold you back. Full disclosure: She’s a friend. But that also means we’ve experienced her workshops. Aimed mostly at women in their 20s and early 30s, they’re positive, practical, and have a strong spiritual element.

If it sounds too heady for you, you can’t make it, or you’re a man, there are plenty of other career events coming up in New York: