Polymer Studios::Web Consulting

The headlines say it all:

• NYTimes: Jobless rate at 14-year high
• WSJ: Labor data show pain across economy
• AP: Running on fumes; GM could soon run out of cash

By these accounts, we are headed toward a period of significant unemployment or are already there. Either way, if you don’t already, you will soon have a number of colleagues, friends or relatives who are looking for a job. There’s a better chance than ever that you could soon join them.

I don’t take any of this lightheartedly. I have a deep pang of sympathy for people who are out of work because my father was a victim of the 70s malaise and was chronically underemployed for much of my boyhood. I know from first-hand experience that behind all these grave headlines and numbers lie families and parents who are frustrated and stressed about not being able to fulfill the most basic need of providing for their loved ones.

If I can preach for just a moment, I strongly encourage every one of you who are still gainfully employed to reach out to your unemployed friends and at least offer some words of encouragement. Or how about a free latte? It’s good karma

At the same time, don’t forget to consider your own job security. How safe is your job? How safe is your industry? What should you be doing to increase your “employment security?” (To clarify, employment security is about making yourself more employable and different from increasing your security in your current job, which you may not have much control over). How can you manufacture your own luck in a tight job market?

If you haven’t heard this enough over the years, it’s all about who you know. It’s about the quality of your personal network. According to Paul DeBettignies, managing partner at the Minneapolis IT recruitment firm Nerd Search, between 50% to 80% of jobs are filled based on personal connections.

Fortunately, thanks to new social networking tools, such as Linked In, Facebook and Twitter, among others, you can easily build up a network of colleagues, friends and acquaintances that can help increase your luck in the job market. And the good news for those of you who hate schmoozing, you don’t need to make small talk at cocktail parties to take advantage of these tools. (Check out Commoncraft’s “Social Networking in Plain English” for a great intro to social network tools.)

Five steps to greater employment security

1. Get a personal home page. The domain isn’t critical, although having “www.bobjones.com” could be easier for your contacts to remember. The important thing here is that you have a consistent place to send your contacts. On your home page, you can provide links to other places, such as your social network profiles, your resume or curriculum vitae, your blog, articles you’ve been quoted in or samples of your work. Please note that you can use your blog as your home page. Update: I just found a great service called extendr which lets you build a free home page like I described above. Check out my page as an example: http://donball.extendr.com
2. Create an online resume - As this article explains, your resume doesn’t have to be a highly-crafted Word doc that you send out to prospective employers as an attachment. Instead, your resume can exist as a page in your blog, where people (and Google) can find it easily. You can even consider the entirety of your Linked In profile to be your resume. Bottom line: you have no idea who is going to find you and your experience relevant, so get yourself out there where you can be found!
3. Get on Linked In - As a business owner, this site isn’t my cup of tea. But I do keep a profile there and it seems to have quite a bit of currency among Baby-Boomer, white-collar professionals (in other words people who are further along in their careers and in a better position to help you), so you probably need to be there.
4. Get on Facebook - If you’re already on Linked In (or, like me, find it a bit to sterile), then you might want to expand your network by joining Facebook, where you will find not only professional colleagues, but friends and relatives. Facebook lets you show more facets of yourself, including personal tastes, interests, hobbies and (if you dare go there) political and religious affiliations.
5. Create a blog - This may be the biggest step in the list because it takes time to write for a blog (this article is taking me well over an hour). But think of a blog as a way to help people get to know you before they meet you. A blog gives potential employers the opportunity to see your views on your industry and your profession. More importantly, it shows them that the front porch light is on and someone’s home. As an employer, I can tell you that I would much prefer hiring someone who demonstrates that they’re actively engaged in their work. The best part about blogging is that it’s really easy to start. I started my first blog at Blogger.com and it took me all of 15 minutes to set up.
6. Get on Twitter - (Hey, what about 5 steps? Well, when you have your own blog you get to make up your own rules! And one of my rules is to provide my followers with a laginappe, a little something extra.) Twitter is turning out to be an incredible networking tool that lets you potentially interact with thousands of people in yours and related fields — instantly. It’s also a great way to tell your contacts about any changes in your situation, new blog posts or to request information on a prospective employer. But there’s a catch. If you create a Twitter account and do nothing else, you’ll be underwhelmed. You have to take the extra step of searching for and following people you know (and then, perhaps, some of the people they know). Feel free to follow me. I’ll follow you back and even ask my Twitter friends to connect with you. Want to learn more? Again, Commoncraft has a great video intro.

Of course, it’s never to late to start, but these are steps you should try to follow BEFORE you are laid off. If you suddenly become the recipient of a pink slip, you will wish that you already had your network in place. And you could lose precious time trying to get all the pieces in place.

What are you doing to soften the blow of a potential layoff? Or, if you are looking for work, what techniques are you using to make yourself more employable? Please share in the comment section below. Good luck!