LinkedIn, and In, and In

I've been perusing the Interweb looking for good web sites for us unemployed folk. Boy, have I ever found one. It's called LinkedIn, and it's like Facebook for grownups. By grownups I mean professional types of all stripes, from accountants to plumbers and yes, just incidentally, paralegals. If you haven't checked out this site and you're looking for work, or if you're already a business owner/venturer and you're looking for more work, you could do a lot worse. There's just so much in here I hardly know where to start. Networking, corporate events, workshops, recommendations, shout-outs, and that's just the beginning. I've been wandering around in here for days and I haven't gotten bored yet. Plus, it creates a mini-page for you with your work experience, picture, general credentials and a little statement about who you are. Here's an example. (My accountant, Scott.) Seriously, check it out. You will not be disappointed.

For that whole looking-for-work thing, we have two nifty Web sites that do in a flash what Monster.com can't do in an hour; search virtually the entire Internet for job ads and bring them to you in a neat, tidy prepackaged format. They're called simplyhired.com and indeed.com. I'm not sure how they work but work they do. If it's been advertised somewhere on the Net (including on Monster) it will show up on one of these sites and probably both. It doesn't hurt that Linkedin works with SimplyHired.com and tells you if one of your connections is already connected to the job you're looking at. I should probably also mention jobster.com but I don't use that one as much. All three of these work with Google Reader or whatever RSS feed you care to set up.

As for how not to get depressed while looking for work, I found a whole lot of really good real world advice from ordinary folks right here.

And how is the whole job search thing going, you ask. Well, firstly I have a job starting April 27 with the U.S. Census, so if I can survive until then, and I think I can, I don't have too much to worry about. But the Census gig is not full time, and I will still need the real gig with the bennies and all that stuff, so the search continues. I've had some good interviews and we'll see what happens, folks.