You're unemployed - Now what!

Life is full of change. One minute we are working for a paycheck, thinking that we are settled in the career we have worked so hard to develop, the next we're looking at a pink slip (which in my case wasn't even pink!). With luck we have a decent severance and some savings that we can rely on until we find our next job. With even more luck we can persuade the powers that be that we deserve to receive unemployment benefits.

In the past we could find another position or a short term contract fairly easily. I remember the days when I could end one contract, take a month or two off and head overseas, then come back and walk into another gig within a few weeks. That time has passed and may never return.

If you are like me your last job was your sole source of income. You relied on it to pay the mortgage, feed and clothe yourself and your family plus provide a little entertainment on occasion. Oh, you had some investments but those probably were not enough to allow you to quit work and maintain the life you were used to when you were working.

So what do we do? When you think about it, being unemployed gives us a certain amount of freedom. We can spend this time we have been given to explore new options, open ourselves up to new ideas, even ask ourselves if we really liked the career path we have taken - gasp!

The thing NOT to do is sit about and wait for opportunities to come to you. I have yet to meet anyone who found a new job or venture sitting at home watching TV or playing video games. When you get out of the house and make the time to meet people you are more likely to expose yourself to new ideas and opportunities.

In this vein I have started another side business. I have become a distributor for the health food drink MonaVie. If any of my readers are interested in this product I would love to talk with them, but if you aren't well, we can talk about something else.

I never again want to have just one stream of income. That position is just too risky. I continue to take on new clients in need of computing or resume development help. I have just finished creating a marketing brochure for another client. I have more skills in my repertoire than are reflected in the positions that I have held in recent years. Having multiple 'jobs' allows me to explore the scope of those skills, enables me to grow personally and ensures that if I am ever laid off again I will be in better shape financially.

Computer Slow to Start Up?

When you turn your computer on does it sit and churn? Do you keep clicking icons without getting a result until finally, after about 5 minutes, your computer pops up multiple copies of the application that you've been trying to start?

There are several reasons that this may be happening but the most common reason lies in your 'Startup' menu. On XP machines, click on Start then All Programs then Startup.

Take a look at the programs in your Startup menu. Do you have quick start applications listed for MS Office, Adobe, iTunes, etc.? These applications are a real pain. What they are doing is preparing your PC to quickly open up that application SHOULD YOU SELECT IT. In most cases you can live with MS Office or Adobe taking a little longer to open in return for your PC starting up faster. Delete these quick start apps and restart your machine.

Your Startup menu should only contain applications that you really need to startup every time you start your computer. If you don't know what the app does, leave it. Do some research to find out what the program is and whether you are using it. If you don't use the application, remove the startup menu entry.

NOTE: to remove a menu entry in XP simply right click it and select delete from the menu that appears.

Forget Quickbooks - learn basic accounting first

I recently wondered why I couldn't get my accounting package to do something as simple as write a receipt for a cash payment. The package had all these nifty bells and whistles but for my tiny, home based business all I really needed was some way to record expenses and income, write receipts and produce a monthly report. In fact I have come to realize that the fancy accounting package was causing me to waste time that could be better used on projects that make me money.

If you don't know at least rudimentary accounting practices diving into QuickBooks or any other accounting package is not going to do you any good. A simple register in a spreadsheet or on paper will take less time and cost you far less in the long run. After all posting journal entries on paper has been practiced successfully since at least the 1300s.

I recently started a series of free Accounting for Small Business classes run by the Small Business Development Center and held at the Pleasant Hill Public Library.

I cannot recommend these classes and the services of the SBDC enough. If you are thinking of starting your own business I recommend learning Basic Accounting so that you are able to create Income and Balance Statements.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth!

I try not to provide free advertising for software companies but in this case I make an exception. Many unemployed people, myself among them, are watching every penny and cutting corners where we can. If we can avoid shelling out hundreds of dollars for software by downloading high quality freeware then I am all for it.

There is a lot of free software available these days but picking the good from the bad can often be a chore. There is the ever present worry of downloading something that contains a virus or is incompatible with our computers. The products that I mention in this blog are some that I have worked with extensively and which should work with most PCs.

1. King Kong - This nifty little tool is small but powerful. King Kong allows you to copy part or all of anything displayed on your screen to the clipboard for pasting into your documents. You can copy a photo from a web page, text from your favorite blog or take a snapshot of every open document displayed on your screen(s). Yes, King Kong copes well with dual monitors. If you have used SnagIt then King Kong will not be new to you. You can find King Kong at www.kingkongcapture.com
2. OpenOffice - This package from Sun Microsystems contains all of the tools of MS Office. There is a wordprocessor, spreadsheet, database, drawing tool, presentation tool and a math tool. These tools are very similar in layout to their MS Office equivalents and best of all they can open and save your files in Microsoft formats (.doc, .xls etc). Also, you can create PDF files at the click of a button. Open Office is not small so be sure to read the computer requirements carefully before downloading the software. You can download Open Office at www.openoffice.org
3. Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009 - For those of you looking for a free alternative to Quickbooks, this is it. The look and feel is very similar. You can download the software from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/accountingexpress/FX101729681033.aspx
4. Free Mind - When you are trying to break a task down into smaller components do you doodle? Do you like to flowchart task components? If so, this might be the tool for you. Free Mind creates Mind Maps which are often used in business to document processes. Free Mind can be downloaded from http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
5. Google SketchUp - This is a 3D modelling program. You can draw just about anything. Users can access the Google 3D Warehouse for many components and models created by other users and upload their own designs. Sketchup can be downloaded from http://sketchup.google.com/
   

Quick Tip # 2 - Organizing your Start Menu in Windows XP

When you display the All Programs menu do you get a hodgepodge of program names rambling over two or more columns? Does it take you more than a couple of seconds to find the program that you are looking for amid a morass of text?

Sound familiar? Well here is a quick and easy way to reduce your menu to one short, easily navigable column.

Take a look at the current menu and quickly jot down a list of categories that your programs fit into, e.g. Games, Financial Tools, Photo Editors, Office Tools, etc. You will add these categories to your menu in the form of folders. Once the folders have been added you can simply drag and drop each program into it's appropriate folder.

Adding new folders cannot be done from the All Programs menu. For this we have to navigate the C drive. The following steps will walk you through the process.

1. Right click on the Start button and then select the Explore option.
2. Navigate to the folder C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs
   
3. Click on the File option on the toolbar at the top of the page to display the file menu.
   
4. Click on the New option then click on the Folder option when the sub-menu displays. The menus will close and a new folder icon named New Folder will appear in the Programs folder.
5. Right click on the New Folder icon and select the Rename option from the folder menu.
   
6. Type over the current folder name and replace it with one of your program categories, e.g. Office Tools.

Now that you have added your folder you can click on the Start button and then All Programs. When your program menu displays you can simply click once on each program name and then move it over the appropriate folder. The program will be added to the new folder and will disappear from the current menu.

A Great Idea from Jason Alba

If you are more than a few months into your job search you have probably grown your network to such an extent that keeping everyone up to date on your progress is daunting and time consuming. This may be especially true if you are working with networking groups such as Experience Unlimited.

It is very easy to lose contact with people. Most of us just don't have the time to write personalized emails and mass emails may not project the image that we desire. When people don't hear from us for a while they may assume we have found a job or just don't need their help. The last thing that we want is to have our network drop us off their radar.

Today Jason Alba, the author of "You're on LinkedIn...Now What!", gave a speech to 200 plus people at Experience Unlimited in Lafayette, Ca. Among the many great ideas that Jason imparted was the concept of creating a newsletter to keep all of your friends, family and former colleagues up to date with the status of your job search.

I eagerly embraced this idea and produced my first newsletter this evening and directed it to many in my network. I was amazed by the immediate response that this newsletter received. Not only were the comments positive but I actually had one reader offer to disseminate it to his class, possibly driving business to my company, Kiwi Computer Coaching.

Jason Alba recommended that the newsletter be kept short and that it include the following material:

• Companies where you have applied/interviewed
• Positions for which you have applied/interviewed
• 3 - 5 target companies
  
• Ask your contacts if they know anyone at these companies

Designing a newsletter allows you to explore your creative side. Using tools such as Microsoft Publisher or the ArcSoft Print Creations makes formatting a breeze. Once you have the newsletter designed you can quickly edit it the next time you want to update your contacts.

Job Search Tip #1 - Resume Preparation

In these uncertain economic times it is wise to prepare for the worst. Perhaps your current employer has already let you go or has indicated that layoffs are imminent. Take the time now to look at your past career and document your accomplishments.

OK, you say, how can I possibly remember everything I've done in my career? I've spent the past 25 years working for one company and I've never written a resume before. Where do I start?

One way to nail down the highlights of your career is to talk about it. Reach out to people that you worked with, colleagues, former managers and former clients. The more people you can talk with the more you are likely to remember. Have these people ask you questions or just reminisce about past projects on which you collaborated. If possible bring someone with you to record all of those memories.

But, you say, I've lost contact with all the people I worked with in the past. If you can't or don't want to find your former colleagues you can also use this process. Work with a friend or family member and have them ask questions about your career. The more probing the better. Ask a third person to record your accomplishments as you remember them.

What kind of questions should your colleagues and friends ask? Try some of these:

• What was the company like when you first joined? How big? How old were you? What was your role?
  
• Who was your best/worst manager? Why? What was your role at the time?
  
• How has your career grown over the years? What positions have you held? Is there a clear progression or have you tried a number of different things?
  
• What events stand out in your memory? What were the issues? What did you do to address the issues? What were the results?
• What role/tasks did you most/least enjoy? Why?
  

Quick Tip #1 - Organizing your desktop

Do you store all of your important documents on your computer desktop? Is your screen cluttered with icons representing these files? Perhaps you find that it takes you ages to find a particular file even though it is right in front of you.

Well you're in luck. There is a really simple way to organize your desktop files that will make them easier to find.

Take a look at the file icons on your desktop and see if they fall into a number of categories; photos, newsletters, school homework, etc. Start with the category that has the most icons (for our example we use the category Photos) and create a folder of that name on your desktop. You can then move all of your photo files into the Photos folder.

1. Close or minimize all of the programs you are running.
   
2. Move your cursor to a blank space on your desktop. Click the right mouse button to access the desktop menu.
   
3. Click on New. A sub-menu will open.
   
4. Click on Folder. The menu will close. You will see a folder icon labeled New Folder on your desktop.
5. Move your cursor over the New Folder icon and click the right button to access the icon menu.
   
6. Click on Rename.
   
7. You can now type over the file name. Change the name of the file folder to Photos.
8. Now we will move all of your photo files into your Photos folder. Move your cursor to a photo file. Click on the right mouse button and hold it down while you drag the cursor onto your Photos folder. Release the mouse button. Your file will disappear from your desktop.
   
9. You can check that your files were correctly moved by placing your cursor on the Photos folder and clicking the right mouse button twice. The folder will open to show it's contents.

Repeat this process for each of your categories and you will be amazed how much room you now have on your desktop.

Moving in a new direction

Being laid off from BGI may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. I had not planned a career change but it seems that one has been forced upon me by the current economic climate.

Today, I finally did it. My success team at the job search networking group, Experience Unlimited in Lafayette, Ca has been prodding me for months to start my own business. Today I ordered my business cards, posted an ad on Craigslist and set up this blog. Small steps, I know, but after a year of fruitless hunting for another software QA Analyst position I have taken this, for me, giant step.

Training has always been part of my life. As a QA I was often asked to create teaching materials and conduct user training for new applications that my team developed. I have been a short track speed-skating coach for over 5 years with students ranging in age from 5 to 70 years.

Lately, I have taken on a number of clients from Experience Unlimited. I have provided support for a variety of PC software programs, assisted clients developing resumes and cover letters and helped clients set up their profile on LinkedIn and FaceBook.

I have given advice and provided physical assistance to client's interested in organizing their home offices; another one of my passions.

Now that I have taken this great leap I suppose that I need to start planning my next steps. Wish me luck!