by Shy Pahvelani

Given recent unemployment numbers, our economy's rate of decline has increased substantially.  The unemployment rate is almost at 7%. Can you believe that 7% of this country is sitting around at home struggling to find a job?  To make matters worse, most companies have a budget for their payroll only till the end of 2008.  So after the wonderful holiday season and the New Year most companies that have held off thus far on layoffs will most definitely slash jobs and put a good percentage of their work force out into the streets during such a difficult time period.

So what can you do to prepare for the potential lay-offs?  There are 5 survival strategies that any proactive professional MUST keep in mind or can utilize to educate others.  Don't be blind sided when your number comes up.

1.  Constantly maintain and improve your resume.  You should always have your resume handy in order to make updates given your month to month accomplishments.  Adding bullets to your resume as you achieve them is more effective then having to update your resume when you are under the pressure of finding a new career. Maintaining a virtual copy of your resume makes this process a lot easier and more scalable. 

2.  Maintain a professional online image. This has become increasingly more important as more and more employers are doing Google and Facebook searches for your name to see the information that is revealed. Making sure to have a professional online image can be done by creating a virtual resume on sites like www.uBoast.com and Linked.com.  Although, you still must make sure if you have any social presence on sites like Facebook that you set your privacy settings so that you can only be searched by your friends.   And by creating a virtual resume page online it will allow an employer who is googling your name to be able to view the professional assets that you have exposed through your virtual resume page (view mine at : http://www.uboast.com/vesume.php?p=5&a=192028 ).

3.  Do anything and everything to standout to get that job.  As more and more unemployed flood the market, competition for the available positions increases tremendously.  Try doing things that would give you leverage; send a link of your virtual resume page to an employer, try video interviewing with the hiring manager, and even consider shooting a video profile of yourself.  Put your future in your own hands by marketing yourself, as opposed to letting the century old style of an 8 ½ x 11 piece of paper do the work for you.  Rather then sending in a paper resume that gets submitted by the majority of those unemployed, get creative as it will become a survival instinct.

4. Networking is the number one method to finding a job.  Don't forget that your next job will most likely come from a referral or a placement through the people you already know.  Be sure to stay in touch with all professionals in your network. Consider allocating about 30 minutes of your day reaching out to old colleagues/friends that you may have lost contact with.  Then spend an additional 30 minutes dedicated to meeting some new professionals in related industries.

5.  Utilize all FREE tools that leverage your ability to find the career of your dreams.  Sites like www.uBoast.com are a perfect resource to take advantage of to create your FREE virtual resume, engage in online networking with other professionals, allow your resume to be searched by recruiters and hiring managers, and to get tips/coaching on creating a video resume.  A video resume is innovative and allows you to market your energy level, professionalism, and communication skills.  uBoast.com also contains a job board that is derived from job listings aggregated from thousands of career websites that pulls in all the openings onto one job board making it the ONLY place you will ever need to look to apply for that next step in your life.  Our database now has over 5 million job openings

. . . . . . So don't let your resume get washed out of the pile, create a 

virtual resume and stand out from that big crowd.