Tesar-Reynes

I listen to people all day. Many of them admit to their level of terror: they are out of work and can’t find a job; they have taken a lesser position to tide them over; they are consulting and they have skimped on health insurance; they fear they will be part of the next cutback. On and on.

I have lived through a bunch of recessions since I got out of school, but this is the worst I have seen. Normally they seem to bottom out and start ascending after 12-14 months. This one is longer. It is sucking at me.

When I get up in the morning I have to kick-start by resolve before I go to work. Listening to National Public Radio is getting tougher because I …

With my internship ending in June, the next few weeks will present a unique challenge: a job search in the worst job market since the Great Depression.

My roommate, a film student who also buses at the Cheesecake Factory, remarked yesterday how happy he is just to have a job. “8 percent of this country is unemployed,” he said. “That’s basically 10 percent. That’s a lot of people. I have no room to complain.”

He’s right. For me, this is the first time I’ll face a job search in adulthood, meaning rent and bills loom on the horizon. I consider this a true test of valor. Either I emerge from this hunt triumphant or will have to face the pride-swallowing alternative – a call to mom and dad for some …

People who are late for meetings drive me nuts. On the surface, it shows someone who is not organized or professional. If they arrive late, they are disruptive, and usually cause the meeting to last longer than planned.

The real grind for me is on a more personal level. I revert back to being an eight-year-old who feels that my time is less valuable than theirs. It’s like they’re rubbing my nose in it. I have to be very careful to not become hostile. The moment they speak, I wonder if they even realize that they are generating this sort of vibe to other people in the meeting.

In terms of interviewing, I remember a candidate of mine who arrived late for an appointment with a hiring manager. She had not called ahead of time to notify him. When she showed …

I have seen lots of lists on how to earn extra money while looking for a new job. Here is a list I put together, to add to all the others.

As far as I can tell, marketers who want agency work have two factors going against them.

This is of course the equation simplified, but in the face of these two obvious facts, what choices does that leave for someone conducting a job search?

According to an article in Ad Age this week, it means you’ll have to start relying on every resource available to you. More veteran marketers may have to consider new job-hunting resources. Social networks like LinkedIn and micro-blogging sites like Twitter are an example. …

This list is mainly compiled from my personal experience. Believe it or not, I had three W-2’s in the worst career year of my life. But it was great prep to go into the search business!

In the last three recessions I remember the figure thrown out that somewhere between 35% and 45% of the people in integrated marketing communications got out of the business. I suspect that similar figures will be used for this one.

In the past, when people moved and changed jobs, they were lost from our database and probably lost to the statisticians of the industry. Thus far, in the last three months, I have called or contacted about 200-300 people in the $150,000-250,000 wage bracket. A goodly number are without jobs but a large number of them are consulting and are running their own business. They are having success because they can circumvent corporate head count rules.

The larger question to me is what happens to the people who drop out …

A story in the Journal, “Graduating with a Major in Go-Getting,” was published the other day citing some interesting stats for recent graduates. According to the story, U.S job openings sank below 3 million in January, and employers who recruit on college campuses expect to hire 22% fewer grads than last year. That’s scary.

I get calls funneled to me sometimes from college students who need to do a short informational interview for a marketing or PR class. The naiveté in their voices amazes me. I don’t blame them. When you were 18, did you really worry about the troubles that face you in adulthood, like career, financial independence and stability?

It’s funny to compare those first-year students to the seniors who call anxiously for …