The economy is in the tank. Not breaking news but it seems to have a very shallow light at the end of the tunnel for any time in the near future.

I was working a good job in business development for a channel sales group and little by little the head count was being cut. I should have seen the writing on the wall but I was happy and getting stuff done so I didn’t think I had anything to worry about. Well, I was wrong.

At least I can say that when they let me go, they did it nicely. I had once had a sales job where the manager’s idea of letting someone go was to tell them how much they sucked and were worthless. He didn’t get a chance to say it to me, I left the day I saw him pull that on a coworker. Life is too short for that.

I never thought what I did was specialized but I guess it is. There isn’t much out there and there is even less in channel sales or even business development in a technology field. Looking through Monster.com, HotJobs and even more specialized sites like Dice is really depressing and even a deeper view into the down economy. Companies are laying people off in record numbers and every other company seems to be on a hiring freeze.

So what do you do when you are out of work? Well, the first call you should make is to the EDD or more commonly known as the Unemployment Office. I’ve been out of work a few times in my life and the chance to sign up for some government cheese was always an option but I never took it. I’d much rather have a job than collect a check from the state. I know, I am a minority.

Being out of work in 2009 has many challenges. In my area a search of jobs I could do in a 35 mile radius turns up about 40 listings. Sounds nice but when there are approx 2000 people in my area out of work, the odds are against me.

LinkedIn Jobs

You built your network on LinkedIn for a reason. I’ve always been curious if it made sense to have a thousand people in a LinkedIn network but now it makes all the sense in the world. Sure many of the people you have connected with on LinkedIn may be out of work too, but the idea is to get your name out to the ones that are in a position to help you now.

Many recruiters scrape through LinkedIn looking for new profiles and newly updated profiles. Even if you don’t think your LinkedIn profile needs any work, make some changes. Everyone in your network and people with advanced access will see your profile as updated and this is how I have met many recruiters over the years.

Using Twitter to find a job.

Twitter is really one of the most fascinating communication platforms of my generation. First I used it just to follow friends and some interesting people like Robert Scobble and iJustine but I’ve been opened up to an entire world of Tweeps ranging from hard core gamerz to CEOs and Entrepreneurs. Now I am using Twitter to find recruiters.

Running a search in Twitter to find recruiters is one way. You can also look at Twitter Grader for the top recruiters using Twitter.

Using Facebook to find a job.

Facebook has just been a place for me to keep in contact with family and friends. For the most part, I have not gone crazy adding friends to Facebook. But Facebook has some good applications for people looking for a job.

These are only a few of the things I have come across since Friday when I got the news. I am sure there are more like this article by Talent Buzz. If you are a recruiter, add me to Twitter and let’s talk about anything in my area.

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