So....Did Anything Happen Around Here for the Last Eleven Months?

Sure, it's been almost eleven months since you've read an update here.  Perhaps since then you've had exciting and challenging opportunities at work, breakthroughs in, or an end to, your job search, achieved personal fitness goals, met the love of your life, or shared new milestones and adventures with your family.  You know that we all want to celebrate your successes - please share them with us, if you like.

It was a year that, in hindsight, I can't really compare to any other in my life. Last year's highs included:
- a wonderful three month contract Brand Manager position with Deltak in Oakbrook
- a blog ghostwriting opportunity for an insurance web site
- the birth of my brother's first grandchild
- a short trip to Israel to meet him, who is also our family's first Sabra, and to attend his brit.

In the fall, my little six year old daughter was blessed with one of the most incredible first grade teachers out there.  Finally, and most incredible - fourteen long, torturous years of misery came to an end for my beloved Baltimore Orioles, a playoff team, no less.

Sounds pretty great?  Well, 2012 also included its share of bad - a case of mild-pneumonia that hung out with me for the last 9 weeks of the year.  But of course that was nothing compared to the worst - after five long and miserable months of battling AML leukemia, the death of my mother, Jackie.

So, what's on  my table? Once again, I've kick started the job search; a smattering of freelance work; catching up with headhunters; networking; and saying Kaddish three times a day for my mom, (to learn more and read a fantastic traveler's blog about our year of saying Kaddish see my brother's blog: TravelingandKaddish).

One of my freelance gigs took me to the "other side of the table".  An excellent outplacement firm hired me for one day to meet with newly downsized employees of a large, local company.  I was tasked with sharing the outplacement information with them, encouraging them to take advantage of this package offered from the downsizing company. Not being a human resources pro, it was brave, but wise, of the company to use me.  Who understands what these folks were going through better than someone like me?  It made for a long, emotional, but fascinating day.

I haven't posted here in way too long, but my information gathering never stopped.  Here are a few nuggets I mined that may help you, please share your thoughts after you read them.  A reminder, I've attached very helpful links to highlighted words in my post, as always.  Please click and take advantage of all this additional knowledge.

On TheLadders.com are many helpful articles, a great resource, including one that discusses changing your perspective while in a job search.  Many excellent jobs can be found on The Ladders as well.

In ChicagoCareerSite.com I found a few helpful ones concerning your resume.  For those that are new to the concept of Keywords, so crucial when your resume is discovered through corporate scanning software, this one helps you avoid Resume Key Word Mistakes.

From the New York Times - an article from January, and I know it's a very scary thought for our tender, younger readers, but it may be very helpful for those of us who are, eh, um, not very young any more: Over 50 and Under no Illusions.

I hope that you take a few minutes to comment, share, criticize, opine about the articles, the post, the young baseball season, last night's NCAA Championship battle....anything.  Thanks for your patience, and thanks for reading.
Larry

New Year's Resolutions? Seriously? Not here!

This blog post has obviously taken a long time to complete. Maybe it's a post that has been organized so meticulously, deeply thought out and planned, well crafted and edited so thoroughly, that the finished product took such a massive effort to....nahhh. I wish.

Well, I guess I need to delete all of the clever tie-ins with the June trip to Israel for my niece's wedding, July 4th, Labor Day, my six week part time job at the PR agency, the Chicago Marathon(people ran it the day after Yom Kippur? wow..), Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. Here we are, the end of 2011 glaring at us! All together now...Thank god!

Moving on...of course there has been so much happening since my last post - tons of articles to share; so many new wonderful people I've met; seminars attended; small successes; frustrating failures; fighting 'funks' generated by the longest job search known to man. What about you? Share with us what's gone on - the great, the horrible, your biggest successes or achievements this year. Or even your unexpected frustrations.

During that obnoxiously early twelve hour El Al Airlines flight to Tel Aviv, while speaking with other passengers, friendly flight attendants, after giving each my shortelevator speech, (which gets longer and longer each week), that dreaded question thrown at me: "Larry, describe your perfect job" One of my least favorite questions, (perhaps second most to "what is your New Year's resolution?") . How do you feel when asked that question? Has your answer changed during many months of the job search? In what way? Please share it with us all here.

Let's get to it: Linked In - everyone is on it, right? And you're using it exhaustively in your job search...right? It's crucial, used more by headhunters than...anything. This article should help you sharpen your Linked In usage. Please share your thoughts, additions, disagreements, etc. And of course, please feel free to connect with me there:http://www.linkedin.com/in/llabow I'm always more than happy to help bring people together there.

Once again, let's discuss the elevator speech. For me, with each job search, it's gotten tougher to keep my elevator speech sharp, interesting, and focused. Have a look at this piece on the informal elevator speech for some new ideas. Did you find it helpful? Let us know. Do you have other ideas? Share them please.

The cover letter. Are they still necessary? Do you write one? Do they read it? How to make a killer cover letter? This article had some good ideas. What do you think?

That brings us to the title of this post. I'm all about having goals, and self-improvement, but not making them on New Year's eve.Read why 88% of all New Year's resolutions fail. Years ago I was quoted about my facetious New Year's eve resolution I often make. It almost appeared in a columnist's piece in the Chicago Tribune, but was cut due to editing. (email me, and I'll share it with you).

I hope you get some use out of some of the articles here, and really hope you engage, agree, disagree, battle, praise, share your thoughts. I look forward to hearing from you, and hope you forward, share, and enjoy the blog.

Oh, and why the black eyed peas photo? Click here, if you don't know (go to the 4th section).

I wish all of you and your families, a happy, healthy, loving, prosperous, and safe 2012!

thanks for reading,

larry