I am not from here originally, but I admit that I say “U betcha,” which is very Minnesotan, maybe Norwegian.  We are also fond of ending sentences with with.  As in “we are going to the bar to watch the Super Bowl, want to go WITH?”  (u betcha!)

What are the things you say in your state or hometown?

As for Brett Favre, I hope he comes back.  If he does he will become the ONLY PROFESSIONAL PLAYER EVER IN ANY SPORT to have his jersey retired by two teams.  (Packer snd Vikings)

The above billboard was put up in Brett’s hometown in Mississippi, Hattiesburg, and was in today’s Star-Tribune.

Well, we (LINKUP) called it.  Again.  Two days ago, ahead of the ‘official’ Department of Labor report issued at 7:30 am CST this morning, @TobyDayton released the LinkUp numbers showing a dramatic improvement in the jobs report for January.  Most pundits, networks, bloggers and followers were on the other side.  Cretins.  Never go against LINKUP.

January’s jobs report from the Department of Labor is scheduled to be released later this week and based on data released this morning by LinkUp, Friday’s report will show that the job market improved sharply during the month. LinkUp, a job search engine that indexes jobs from over 20,000 company websites throughout the U.S., reported that new job listings on company websites rose by 69,082 (18%) from December. Total job listings on company websites in LinkUp’s search engine increased by 34,525 (4%). This is in sharp contrast to LinkUp’s dismal December report in which new and total job listings plummeted by 24% and 17% respectively.

Our data comes directly from company websites.  Over 20,000 of them.  We aggregate ALL the jobs up on those websites, put them into one simple job search engine so that job seekers can find these often-hidden, seldom advertised to the outside world, real jobs.  Companies are hiring.  We counted them up.

Compare that to the ‘other’ approach.  It is real scientific.  Twelve thousand interns are spread around the country and are paid to drive around and count up HELP WANTED signs in store fronts.  If there are more than in the previous months, employment must be up.  Actually, that is not true.  What they do do, is call us the local daily newspapers and ask “Hey, how big was the job classified section last month?  Oh,  THAT bad?”  Sign of a worsening jobs outlook, help wanted ads in newspapers are Down Down.  No, actually, what they do do is call up Monster, HotJobs (samesame), and CareerBuilder (oh this is owned by newspapers, right?) and ask them “How many companies paid $350 last month to post their help wanted ad?  Oh, THAT bad?”)  Nevermind that companies are NOT posting ads any more because it is a dying business, what with the new-found ability for companies to post jobs on their home website now.  Do do.

What “they” should have done instead is just wait for the LinkUp report to be issued 48 hours ahead of the Guvment’s.

Obviously, I jest a bit.  But really.  One indicator that the government relies on is the Monster Index. Sort of like the Safety Council getting safety reports from Toyota, wouldn’t you say?  Last month, contrary to EVERYONE LinkUp.com and Toby called it again, saying the jobs report would be horseshit terrible.  Here was last month’s ‘call.’  Today, they even corrected those numbers.  Downward.  We were even MORE right.

Today should be busy as we field calls from NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, MSNBC, CNN, MediaDailyNews, Kim Komando, Wall Street Journal, FastCompany, Wired, INC, Newsweek, Time, US NEWS, the New York Times, USATODAY, Bloomberg, BusinessWire, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, Katrina vanden heuvel (I KNOW she reads WWDS), Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and every other economist whose job depends on having the most accurate information ahead of the pack.

Generally speaking it is not a good idea to even mention a competitor.  Even bad PR is still PR.  But it is hard to stand by and watch job seekers get taken to the proverbial cleaners by people in the industry who profess to help them.  A few days ago, JT O’Donnell had @TobyDayton and me on a webinar talking about How To Use a Job Board.  There were lots of questions, mostly about the bad practices of some of the job boards.  It was sad to hear the experiences of these job seekers who are frustrated and angry.

After the session I received a call from a CEO in our industry, who runs a legit operation, thanking me for how we had the nerve to go after the bad apples in our ’space.’  I appreciated the call.

Toby does a much better job of addressing some of these issues than me.  His post yesterday on Diggings explained the Money Mules concept running rampant on typical job boards.  All I can say is:  Pass It On.  Please.  Here is part of his post, but jump over and read the entire article if you have a moment.

Lest anyone accuse us of hyperbole, I thought I’d write a post about ‘Money Mules.’

Money mules are people that unwittingly use their bank accounts to help criminals launder money. Money mules are recruited through work-at home job postings on Monster and Careerbuilder with titles such as ‘Financial Manager’ and a job description that involves ‘moving money for an international company.’ These new recruits then provide their bank account information to their ‘employer’ and are told to withdraw cash that has been deposited into their account at a specific time and wire it abroad via Western Union or Moneygram.

Brian Krebs, a reporter at The Washington Post from 1994 to 2009 has written extensively on this issue and has exposed hundreds of these scams. I would strongly recommend that anyone looking for a job online as well as those offering advice for job seekers take some time to read his outstanding work highlighting this fraudulent activity. A few of his blog posts can be found here and here and here. I’ve also included portions of those posts below that relate to the scam listings on Monster and Careerbuilder:

“…Money mules are recruited through work-at-home job offers that arrive via e-mail, usually claiming that the prospective employer found the recipient’s resume’ on careerbuilder.com, monster.com, or some other job search site. Recruits are told they will be helping to move money for international companies, and are asked to provide their bank account and routing numbers so that they can receive incoming transfers.”

“…The Sanford mule — who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals by the hacked company and perhaps by the hackers themselves — said the Scope Group approached her via e-mail, saying it had found her resume on Careerbuilder.com, and would she be interested in a work-at-home job acting as a “financial manager”? Having worked as a payroll manager in a previous job, the mule said she thought it was a perfect fit. Besides, she said, she’d been out of work since March.”

“…This type of crime is impossible without the cooperation of so-called “money mules,” willing or unwitting individuals typically hired via Internet job search Web sites to act as “local agents” or “financial agents” responsible for moving money on behalf of a generic-sounding international corporation, legal experts say.The mules are then instructed to withdraw the cash and wire it via Western Union or Moneygram to fraud gangs overseas, typically in Eastern Europe. It is not uncommon for a single cyber robbery to depend on the help of dozens of money mules…”

Fraudulent job listings on traditional pay-to-post job sites are a serious risk, and the industry has to be more vocal about educating the public about using sites such as Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed, and Simplyhired.

From today’s Daily Mail, Jan. 27, 2010

My friend Jacob Share just posted 117 job and recruitment ads.  Hilarious.  There are ten or so here, but please, jump over to his site to browse through them all.  It will brighten your day.

No.

There’s nothing worse than people who take advantage of others when times are bad.  Fake insurance agents who follow hurricanes and tornados, ambulance-chasing attorneys, Madoff-wannabe’s and now job boards who charge job seekers to see their “exclusive” job openings should all be exposed.

The chief culprit in the last category is THE LADDERS.  You have seen this company on the TV, dominating some channels with commercials.  You know, the tennis match that is over run by “normal players” who are supposed to be the “idiot” job seekers.  The message and implication is that if you were smart, you would only search THE LADDERS, where there are ONLY $100K JOBS.

I am so mad about this I could just spit.  For sure, I cannot tell you about it better than Nick Corcodilos of Ask The Headhunter did today.  Nick is a worldclass headhunter who is a breath of fresh air in the industry.

So, I would like to give up my space today and ask you to simply go over and read this. http://corcodilos.com/blog/1390/theladders-job-board-salary-fraud

Be careful out there.

Today’s post is part of the Career Collective, where a few of my friends gather to offer up some suggestions for today’s job seeker. The topic of the month is to provide some transition guidance for job seekers who find themselves either without a job or starting a new one. That’s paraphrased but I am sticking to it.

One of the benefits in beginning any new endeavor—school, relationship or job—is that you have a real chance to hit the reset button on those activities or attitudes that did not work for you.

Please jump over and read the following pieces by the other members of the @CareerCollective.

@KCCareerCoach, Career Chaos, “The Art of Being Gracious: Much Needed in Today’s Job Search,”

@MartinBuckland, Elite Resumes, Career Trends and Transition 2010

@heathermundell, life@work, Kaizen and the Art of Your Job Search

@barbarasafani, Career Solvers, Looking Into the 2010 Careers Crystal Ball

@resumeservice, Resume Writing Blog, The Resume and Your Social Media Job Search Campaign

@kat_hansen, Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog, New Year: Time to Assess Yourself and Your Career

@keppie_careers, Keppie Careers, Help for job seekers in a rut

@heatherhuhman, HeatherHuhman.com, Job seekers: 5 tips for making the most of 2010

@DawnBugni, The Write Solution, Ya, but

@ErinKennedyCPRW, Professional Resume Services, Advice to Job Seekers in 2010–learn Yoga?

@Chandlee, The Emerging Professional Blog, Starfish, JobAngels, and Making a Difference

@ValueIntoWords, Career Trend, Is Your Job Search Strategy a Snore?

@debrawheatman, Resumes Done Write, Making the most of a new year

@walterakana, Threshold Consulting, Starting anew – tips for truly managing your career

@careersherpa, Hannah Morgan: Career Sherpa, The Year of the Tiger

@WorkWithIllness, WorkingWithIllness.com, Dogs Can Do It, Can You?

@JobHuntOrg, Job-Hunt.org, Lifelong Learning for Career Security

@AndyInNaples, Career Success, What Are You Getting Better At? Make This the Year You Become the Best You Can Be!

Back to my original post and idea–Let me give you a couple examples.

1. Letting your associations hinder your own advancement. We all have friends or relatives that sometimes embarrass us. That’s well and good. I am not advocating throwing your friends under the bus just yet. I am talking about associating with the ‘bad’ element inside a company. You know what and who I mean. It is the guy who is always complaining about ‘them.’ Let me tell you…this is not the proven way to advance your career. Now is the time to assess why you seem to attract this person or even better, resolve to associate yourselves with winning, rather than, losing elements. It shows up in small things too. I have a friend who thought if he volunteered to take notes at a board meeting, that would be helpful in his career advancement path. When he mentioned to the CEO that he would like that task, in addition to his other workload, the CEO asked him why? The CEO considered this particular role of no real value, more of a note taker, and far below the value he has assumed for my friend. My friend was wise enough to gracefully back away from that postion. You are who you hang with, and even more importantly, how you choose to spend your time.

2. A personality do-over. I am not advocating a personality change, but maybe a makeover is desirable. Has your shyness hindered your development? Have you always tried to join the cool group? Have you always made improper jokes or references? Have you noticed how most people don’t really include you? When you move into a new company, this is a perfect time to try other approaches. I am not saying to be insincere or not genuine, just be more aware of those things that are in your control, and adjust accordingly. When I was in third grade, my older sister had the brilliant idea that I should be known by middle name instead of my initials. She helped me by putting this new name on all my schoolbooks. When I went to school and announced to all my friends what my new name was going to be, well, you know what happened. I was the laughing stock of Third Grade. That experiment lasted only until recess of the first day. The point is, it is difficult to change how people see you while you are there. But if I had moved to a new school, my new “name” might have had a better chance. Same with you and your new job. Change those things that are not working for you. Go read an old post called “Ten Things to do Today to Be More LIkeable.”

PS: Do me a favor, sign up for the RSS feed up in the top right corner. Thanks.  (only if you like what you read.)

PS2:  Toby Dayton, CEO of LinkUp and Diggings fame, and I will be conducting one of JT O’Donnell’s webinars she is hosting called “How To Use a Job Board.  It is free and you can sign up here.

Ed. Note: This is a post that ran on USNEWS yesterday, except my editor changed the title to “How To Love the Job You’re With.” That’s ok,  she does a great job of editing.  But I got absolute no credit for me, a baby boomer, who likes country music, Elvis, the Beatles and even F. Sinatra, with my last paragraph reference to Lady Gaga, the 23-year music sensation.  I have shoes older than her.

Truth:  I am a dad myself, write a blog called “What Would Dad Say,” have gray hair, and am active in an employment media site called LinkUp.  All of which means I get a lot of questions and comments from Generation X-er’s and Y’ers on job related manners.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love Gen X and Y.  I really do.  But I am not in agreement with all the trend-setting books that purport to know how to manage or lead them.  I have a feeling that most of those writers haven’t led anyone anywhere.

I believe that traditional leadership models work no matter what the age group, business model in place, situation or industry niche.  We can debate that at another time.

There is one thing that I do hear more now from the  younger generations.  It is that feeling or wish on their part to have a meaningful career or to have an impact on others or most commonly said in this version:  “I want to find a job that I can be passionate about.”

Don’t we all, don’t we all?  We all wanted this, but we just didn’t verbalize or articulate it as often or forcefully.  So, when you tell this to your parents, trust me, they “get it.”  And they certainly want you to have a great job and to be passionate about it because they know this is a guaranteed pathway to a happy and productive worklife.

I say “go for it, and good luck.”
But, on behalf of baby boomer parents everywhere, let me share something with you that is a harder advice to give…and even to receive.

Never forget that passion can be found in all sorts of jobs that you know nothing about.  Yet.  For every worker at Taco Bell that you think has sold out or hates it, I can find you another who thinks this is the best job ever.  My belief is that most jobs can be bigger than the people holding them—so, by that definition, one can find passion by trying to figure out how to make this crummy-on-the-outside type job a fantastic career choice.

The real problem it seems to me is when the quest for that passion-producing job becomes something that paralyzes you.  You can never find the perfect job.  Something is always wrong.  It is never quite the thing you wanted.

It’s like having your own raincloud over your head, constantly.  You just know the sun is shining over the next horizon, but you can never quite make the journey.

Instead, you fall into the trap of believing that those with passionate jobs were somehow selected, lottery-like.  You begin to muddle through, hoping for that one person—maybe a gray haired, career advisor type person—to select YOU for this one job.

Even Lady Gaga worked at her “job,” no one picked her off the subway platform and said, “Stefani (her real name),  I want to make you a star.”

LETTER FROM A FARM KID,

Now at San Diego MARINE CORPS RECRUIT TRAINING
Dear Ma and Pa,
I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and
Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man
Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of
the places are filled.

I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 AM, but I am getting so I like to sleep
late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing.

Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there’s warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food plus yours holds you till noon when you get fed again.
It’s no wonder these city boys can’t walk much. We go on ‘route marches,’ which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it’s not my place to tell him different. A ‘route march’ is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.
The country is nice but awful flat. The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the
school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don’t bother you none.

This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting . I don’t know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don’t move, and it ain’t shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don’t even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes. Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys.
I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain’t like fighting with that ole bull at home. I’m about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I’m only 5′6′ and 130 pounds and he’s 6′8′ and near 300 pounds dry.
Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join
before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,
Carol

Maybe you call it a “magic bullet” or something else but the thought is the same.

We all hope for the arrival of the magical, mythical figure who comes out of mist, taps us on the shoulder and says in his James Earl Jones voice “Today is YOUR day, son, I am going to make you a star.” Hey, it happens to lottery winners, doesn’t it? Why not me? And my new widget. Or book. Or website. Or company.

I don’t want to go all rain cloud on you, folks, but he ain’t coming. I’m positive on that. So if you are looking for someone to point you in the direction of where you can find that job “where you can be passionate about what you are doing,” better have another plan. If you are a blogger and hope that someone finds your blog and asks “Have you thought about writing a book, you are just so darned insightful,” you better have another plan. Or if you are tweeting like crazy and expect someone to find you and say, “You are just as funny as @shitmydadsays, here is your sitcom contract,” you might have a backup plan, too.

But, like I said, I am not being a raincloud here. I just wanted to remind you that while it is ok to dream fantasize a little bit, and we all need the dream, just keep your head down, work hard, get some advice along the way and remember that rewards more typically flow to the people who actually earn them.