As if looking for employment didn’t pose enough of a challenge, here is an entirely new problem for those seeking employment – the effective use of social media. No, no, no…not how to use it for networking or job search, but how not to use it. It seems many job candidates torpedo their chances with some employers because of the inappropriate things they post on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.

Is that fair to job candidates? Apparently so, according to this article:

Four years ago, Stacy Snyder, then a 25-year-old teacher in training at Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., posted a photo on her MySpace page that showed her at a party wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup, with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” After discovering the page, her supervisor at the high school told her the photo was “unprofessional,” and the dean of Millersville University School of Education, where Snyder was enrolled, said she was promoting drinking in virtual view of her under-age students. As a result, days before Snyder’s scheduled graduation, the university denied her a teaching degree. Snyder sued, arguing that the university had violated her First Amendment rights by penalizing her for her (perfectly legal) after-hours behavior. But in 2008, a federal district judge rejected the claim, saying that because Snyder was a public employee whose photo didn’t relate to matters of public concern, her “Drunken Pirate” post was not protected speech.

Since Facebook and other sites are public domain sites, it looks like they are fair game for assessing your common sense and discretion. So, next time you get in one of those “drunken pirate” moods, you might want to hold off on posting the pics. I’m just sayin’…

This article further points out that 75 percent of recruiters and HR professionals scrutinize online sites for information about job candidates, and 70 percent of those individuals have actually rejected a candidate based on information obtained from these sites. As companies seek to acquire the best talent they can find, they have been given the golden opportunity to not only assess that talent, but to assess the character of that talent as well.

Formerly, employers were limited to a credit check, a background check, and all those stellar references you put on your resume. Now, however, you have willingly opened up your entire world for them to examine – which, by the way, can be a good thing just as much as a potential risk. After all, your Facebook page could just as easily reveal a solid citizen as much as it could reveal a scalawag.

With recruiters and HR professionals on the prowl, consider this “Word to the Wise:” You might want to check out your Facebook page and analyze it from an employer’s point-of-view. Does your online persona reveal someone that might be considered a huge hiring risk?

“Sometimes, life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.”

For job seekers, this is something akin to a Mission Statement, but these words of wisdom were addressed to a Stanford University graduating class by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple (you can see the entirety of his message in the video below).

Losing a job can certainly feel like you’ve been hit in the head with a brick, and the inability to quickly find a replacement job just prolongs the pain. What Jobs suggests in his speech is that the difficulties one faces, in any area of life, will ultimately pay dividends in the future – in terms of lessons learned or wisdom created by those experiences. This small insight can be an encouragement when you’ve just been laid off and your job hunting efforts have gone unrewarded.

Unfortunately, many people tend to look at successful people (like Jobs) and surmise that they have no idea what it means to struggle or find a job or get fired. The truth is usually far different. Jobs, for example, was adopted, never finished college, and struggled early in his career. He talks about his very public dismissal from the very company he founded. Yet he later recognized that getting fired ultimately payed huge dividends in terms of his current success. As we discussed previously, failure can be very instructive – even essential to long-term success.

I have recently watched a family member struggle to find a job. He has met with little success despite a college education, a good resume, and plenty of talent. The toughest part is watching him deal with rejection and self-doubt. I have watched as the luster has faded from his self-confidence. This is really where the rubber meets the road – to paraphrase the late Yogi Berra: 90 percent of job hunting is half mental. You can choose to let the process be corrosive, or, as Job suggests, you can keep the faith.

Your struggles are not a commentary on your value. How you handle those struggles, however, is a commentary on your character.

“You’ve got to find what you love…the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work…love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.”  Steve Jobs

So you were let go from a job you gave years of your life to and more energy than you’d like to admit due to your company cutting corners and needing to let valuable, hardworking employees go. While you’ve been searching high and low for a job to replace your last, no prospects are turning up and as more and more companies politely tell you that they have no available jobs to offer you, your mood continuously plummets.

While it is not only understandable, but expected to lose your drive and take on a defeated attitude when searching for a job that you believe will never come, it is important to recover from your poor spirits quickly. As cliché as it may sound, you never know when the perfect opportunity is going to come your way, but if you’re not there to take it, it’s going to become someone else’s perfect opportunity and with the way the job market is now, there is hardly time to waste before the opportunity slips from your grasp.

When you conduct your life, especially your job hunt, with a defeated attitude, you will unconsciously go about looking for a job without applying the effort needed to sealing the position. When you go in for an interview with a prospected employer, the moment you begin to think that there is no way you will be hired for the position you’re interviewing for, you will immediately stop trying as hard as you would if you thought there was no way that you could be turned down for the position. Attitude is everything and if you walk into an interview confident and sure of yourself and your ability to perform the job you are applying for, chances are that the person interviewing you for the job will pick up on that self-confidence and will at the very least, ask you back for a second interview and at the most, land you a job that you will excel in.

Over 4 million jobs have been lost as a result of our crumbling economy. While many families are trying to be optimistic during this financial crisis, many people speculate that the number of job losses will continue to rise exponentially throughout the coming years. People are undoubtedly fearful for their careers, knowing that companies are constantly being faced with having to make difficult decisions on how they are going to save money in order to keep their businesses afloat; including the possibility of widespread layoffs.

There is no foolproof method to ensure you will keep your job in an unforgiving economy, but it is possible to regain your employment status if you do find yourself cast off by the company you’ve been dedicating yourself to and that is to take it into your career into your own hands.

While it’s definitely a lot easier to work as part of a company, our current financial crisis and massive, widespread job loss has proved that people are resilient and will do all they can in order to provide for themselves and their families. It is a fact that small and independent, home-based businesses thrive in an unpredictable economy and people excel when they are actively building their own businesses and furthering their own careers.

A layoff gives you the ability to dedicate your time to something you truly want to do. If you were stuck at a job that you were not particularly happy with but continued your employment with that company to make ends meet, not having that job commitment to meet every day could turn out to be one of the best occurrences in your life; even if it may not seem like it at the time. Instead of waking up every morning and commuting to your regular nine to five job, you could wake up and immediately begin applying yourself to searching for your next endeavor or building your own business.

Whatever industry you worked in when you were part of a company, it is completely possible to begin actively working in the same field outside of a company. Better yet, the chances for your individual success have risen greatly simply by using the internet as a marketing platform. By creating a website for yourself and business and taking advantage of the social media phenomenons that have already worked for countless other business professionals, you cannot go wrong in effectively branding yourself and marketing to millions of potential clients and customers.

If you believe that your ultimate calling in life is from a different direction and you are ready to leave the career and tasks you are experienced in behind, a layoff could give you the opportunity to seek job training and coaching for a profession you’ve either always wanted to be in or a career that you just recently thought could be right for you.

While many speculate that the number of job losses will continue to rise in the coming years and that we will not see our present state of cutting corners to save money come to an end as soon as we may have hoped, the economy has nothing to do with what you can do when it comes to your career. This could be a time where you feverishly search for a replacement job to go back to simply managing to stay afloat, or you could use this experience as a jumping off point to do what you truly wish to do with your life. The choice is yours.

You got fired, didn’t get along with the boss or had it out at the office with a co-worker. Whatever the case, not a lot of good words are said on your behalf and you are looking for a new job. Officially in a “career timeout” you need to be creative on doing damage control for your naughty work behavior.

Ideas that could help:

• 1. Get your Ducks in a row:

  Gather your accomplishments together nicely and have them ready to share. See if you can find any former co-workers or previous managers that can back up your accomplishments should a perspective employer ask.

• 2. If you have nothing Nice to say, say Nothing at all:

  DO NOT bash your former work place, never ever. It only makes it look worse if you bad talk your former work place, boss or co-workers. Even if it was the worst place on earth to work at, keep it positive. You will lose any and all credibility if you come across as a negative nelly. No one likes a sore loser and this is exactly how you will come across.

• 3. Temp:

  Try temping for an employment agency. They have an abundance of skill testing that they do. Even if you work for them on a few short term assignments utilize this by doing your best, showing up on time and being that team player. It’s a great way to build back career credibility that you might have lost at your last employer. Larger employers sometimes like to hire on workers temp-direct so that they can try someone out before making a hiring commitment. It doesn’t always work out perfect, but it’s one way to get your foot in the door and build good references.

• 4. Have good references ready to Rock and Roll:

  Whether you were fired, quit on your own or still working while looking, have good references ready to go. You might need to be creative on this one if your boss couldn’t or can’t stand you. Maybe you were escorted out by security, but did any of your customers love you? You will need to be extra resourceful on this one. How about other former colleagues that have left the company? Did they work well with you? Whatever the case, find them or go directly to idea #4, #5 and #6 ASAP.

• 5. Give and You Shall Receive:

  If you are unsure how former colleagues felt about your work performance one tactic to test this is by offering a LinkedIn endorsement first. NEVER ask for an endorsement upfront also give one first. It may come across as rude and only fuel the negative professional perception of you if it exists. Often times, receiving a glowing endorsement will prompt the recipient to reciprocate. LinkedIn is another great way to find former co-workers that you might have lost touch with Searching this site will also prompt you to remember a few people worked well with but had forgotten completely about.

• 6. Visual aides to Strut your stuff:

  You are having trouble finding solid professional references to back you up so why not try a good portfolio presentation or visual CV? By illustrating what you have and can do, a hiring manager will get an instant snap shot of your working capabilities. Hopefully this may over shadow your reference dilemma by showing your talents this way.

• 7. Build Good Career Karma:

  When all else fails to yield you good career vibes, try volunteering for a charity organization, city outreach or something within your own religious community. Doing good deeds by putting yourself out there for a good cause is an excellent way to at least provide a perspective hiring manager something positive about you. If you get heavily involved this might even prompt someone to talk “nice” about you and your working efforts to help others and provide a solid reference alternative. I believe in good career karma and helping out in some way is a great way to start.

Let’s face it, we all mess up. It’s not the end of the world, but you might need some serious damage control when competing for an open job slot. Keep in mind you will need to come across better than any of the other perspective hires and having outstanding references can really help set you apart from the competition. Without it, you need to think creative.

What do you have to get off the career naughty chair?