Readiness is all in building your network

Half a million people lost their jobs in this country in November. Our President-elect says that the unemployment rate may top out at 10 percent or more. And it seems every day some other company announces cutbacks.

It's a scary time, especially if you've never been laid off before.

It was a Friday when I laid off. May 25, 2001, the day before Memorial Day weekend. I next worked directly for a company nearly two years later. When it happened, I was stunned, but not surprised. The tech bubble had burst and there wasn't a lot around the greater Tampa Bay area.

Getting laid off is difficult. It hurts your pride and confidence. It makes you lay in bed late at night and wonder why, wonder what's next, and wonder if you'll ever get a job again. You can never be fully ready to get laid off. But if it happens again this time, I will have a better base to work from.

In 2001, the Internet had not yet become social. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Squidoo didn't exist. Blogging was in its infancy. Most job searching took place on job boards. Now, nearly eight years later, I feel more prepared, having gotten familiar with these tools.

LinkedIn is a professional networking site, your internet rolodex. Only your rolodex doesn't include job postings, hints at getting jobs, or lists of people who are friends of your friends. If you aren't on LinkedIn, you need to be. Now. If you want help, contact Irene Koehler at Almost Savvy. Her LinkedIn webinars will get you up to speed quickly.

Twitter is a microblogging site in which you get 140 characters to write your message, referred to as a Tweet. It works on a publish-subscribe basis, where you subscribe to, or follow, others who can then choose to follow you. Of the new-generation webtools, it is the most social, and provides the best opportunity to strike up discussions with people. It also takes a while to build a reasonable network, so start early.

You can use Facebook to build a network, but it is more suited to individuals working to build business and other relationships than building a job-assistance network. You would be better suited by starting a blog using one of any number of blogging tools, such as Blogger (home of this blog) or WordPress. Starting a blog is easy. Creating a blog that shows you have thoughts, opinions, and competencies about your work can provide a nice supplement to a resume.

Which brings me to a question you might be asking: if I haven't been laid off yet, then why am I working on all these things now? Isn't that just negative thinking?

Absolutely not.

If you get laid off, you want to have a functioning network and body of work you can leverage to gain employment. You want to know people to whom you can offer help. You want to be able to ask people to keep their eyes out for you, and be a known and trusted commodity.

So unless you're sure you're immortal in your job, start now. Maybe you'll never need it. If so, you can use your network to help others. But if you need it, you'll have a leg up on people who wait until the axe drops to build their network.