Stories of pain... and success

I receive an eNewsletter each Tuesday from Nick at www.asktheheadhunter.com. I had to share today's topic with my readers. Please, reach out to an unemployed friend in need!

Stories of pain... and success

Over the past few months, I received a string of e-mails from the wife of an Ask The Headhunter reader in Hawaii. Helen started writing to me last August when she found a collection of Ask The Headhunter columns and articles on her husband Greg's desk. She told me how Greg, in utter despair over a career crash and the inability to land a new job after a lengthy job search, just up and disappeared. Walked out the door and never returned.

Two weeks ago, Helen wrote me that Greg's body was found on a mountain hiking trail, an apparent suicide.

I've gotten to know Helen as best one can get to know anyone thousands of miles away via e-mail. Her story is just one of many that play themselves out on the ebbing and flowing tide of our economy. Some fare better than others, and some just can't survive. It's not easy to know what fortune will come to whom—or who can make it through these trials.

Read the rest of Nick's newsletter.

Really? DC?

I found this blog posting and thought it was interesting. I know that many mainframe developers are currently assignment-shopping -- perhaps stimulus projects are the Holy Grail. Full text reprinted below.

Looking for a job? Look for it in D.C.

The increase in government spending and the stimulus package are turning Washington, D.C. into a place to look for a job.

In many big US cities unemployment rate is a two-digit figure reaching as high as 17% in Detroit. However, there is an exception: Washington, D.C. (also including Northern Virginia, and parts of Maryland). Stimulus spending caused a boom in government jobs and has kept the unemployment rate down to approximately 6%, which is among the lowest in the country.

In the beginning of the recession, the D.C. metro area was considered the top place for job seekers to avoid due to manufacturing and construction industries that have been severely affected by the downturn. But Washington’s leading industry is the federal government expansion, which actually has to expand to remedy high unemployment and slow economy.

The expansion includes the fastest-growing homeland security division, which didn’t exist just a few years ago. And the recent stimulus package that Congress passed in February, helps to create a great number of new federal employee positions to oversee infrastructure projects spending, renewable energy grants, and many other things.

The more money is spent by the government, the more federal oversight needed to ensure it gets spent accurately and responsibly. It also means more academics to think it over, more policy-makers to create new policies, more lawyers to resolve conflicts, and more reporters to write articles about it, etc.

Of course, D.C. hasn’t been entirely unaffected by the downturn. The unemployment is slowly growing, but at a fraction of the rate of other metropolitan areas.

Does your email address warn 'Don't Hire Me!'?

You've spent dozens of man-hours researching prevailing resume trends, identifying your most impressive and marketable experiences, and polishing the language in your resume and coverletter until it sings. Maybe you've even dropped a few hard earned rupees on a resume expert and some career counseling.

You're networking, you're LinkingIn, you're working the job boards and the corporate boards until your carpal tunnel feels like a New Year's Day hangover.

So why are you negating all this effort by continuing to use your privatedancer@hothothotmail.com email address on your profiles and resume?

Is your email address sending a red flag, or at least a raised eyebrow, to the recruiter and hiring manager?

It's very easy to get a free email address with some facsimile of your name at gmail or hotmail or yahoo for professional use. Actually for less than $10 per year you can buy your own domain with at least one email box to use in your job search and for other professional needs.

Wouldn't john@johnquincyadams.com at the top of your resume send a much more appealing message to a future employer than ganjagary@yahoo.com?