Advice for the laid off and advice for those in the job

There's a lot of advice these days on careers and how to manage either being laid off, or if you're laid off, how to get a job back.

Here are two very different people with excellent advice on both issues.

Melanie Holmes, VP at Manpower advises the ones with a job to do the following :

• Pitch in wherever you see a need — whether it’s your job or not.  One of my favorite sayings about work is, “If you’re too big for a small job, then you’re too small for a big job.”  Don’t worry about your job description — do what needs to be done.
  
• And don’t be shy about what you’re doing.  Make sure the decision makers are aware of the contribution you’re making.
  

And tech geek uber-blogger Robert Scoble has some advice for the laid off folks, particularly how to manage their online presence to network and job hunt. Here are some of my favorite points from there:

• Your blog is your resume. You need one and it needs to have 100 posts on it about what you want to be known for.
  
• Invite influentials out to lunch. Getting a job is now your profession. If you were a salesperson, how would you get sales? You would take people out to lunch who can either buy what you’re selling, or influence others who can buy. That means take other bloggers (but only if they cover what you want to do) out to lunch. That means taking lots of industry executives out to lunch.
  
• Go to industry events. If you want to be a plumber, go to where contractors go. Etc. Etc. Make sure you have clear business cards. Include your photo. Include your Twitter and LinkedIn addresses. Your cell phone. Your blog address.
  
• Demonstrate you have kids and hobbies, but they should be 1% of your public persona, not 99%.
  
• When you meet someone who can hire and who you want to work for. Follow them on Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. Their blog. Stalk them without being “creepy.” Learn everything you can about them. Build a friendfeed room with all their stuff. That way when they say on Twitter “I have a job opening” you can be the first one to Tweet back.
  
• Do some work on SEO. Make it possible for people to find you. THINK about how people would search for someone with your expertise and skills.
  
• Remove all friends from your facebook and twitter accounts that will embarrass you. We do look. If we see photos of people getting drunk with you that is a bad sign. Get rid of them. They will NOT help you get a job.
  

Related posts:
Guard your job during a downturn
Six tips for networking