Is Job-Hunting on the Job a No-No?

Rumors of staff lay-offs are whispering through the hallways of your office. If you were smart, you know you'd start putting a few feelers out for another job now -- maybe send out your resume, search some online job boards.

Maybe you don't have a computer at home, so using the internet to cruise for possibilities is only possible when you're at work. Maybe you don't want to waste any time.

But is it OK to conduct a job search at your desk, during office hours?

Here are two points of view.

Your Next Employer May Find You Online

According to a 2008 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), nearly 17% of employers surveyed reported plans to use online sources such as social networking sites and blogs as part of their recruiting efforts – up from 11% in fall of 2006.

Online resumes, social networks, and blogs have all become essential tools for employers in scoping out prospective hires, and online visibility is playing an increasingly important role in job search and career networking.

Whether you are happily employed or in the process of seeking employment, the value of your online presence should not be discounted.

Following are four tips from Abhay Parekh, founder and CEO of Flowgram, a new web-based communication tool, on how to use the Internet to build your visibility.

Four Ways to Build Your Online Visibility in 2009:

1. Create Your Online Brand.

The old adage applies here – you never have a second chance to make a good first impression. The information that appears about you online is the first chance you have to present yourself to a prospective employer. The internet is increasingly becoming a primary source for communication and information, especially with recruiters. You can create your own online brand by registering your domain name (firstnamelastname.com) and creating a website that highlights your work experience and your unique attributes. Make sure to include keywords relevant to your career, so that you can improve your ranking in search engine results, and become more visible to potential employers and recruiters within a matter of minutes. Register for a domain at sites such as Register.com.

2. Differentiate Your Work.

Whether you are an established professional or just starting out, effective career development means finding a way to differentiate yourself from the pack. There are a number of great tools available on the Internet that can help you present yourself in a captivating and innovative way. For example, Flowgram is a free web-based communication service that can be used to create an interactive multimedia portfolio of your work that incorporates web pages, slides, video clips, and more. Flowgrams are easy to distribute through e-mail, blog posts, intranets, and popular social media networks like Facebook, or through the Flowgram community online. They can also be viewed offline as downloadable videos. But rather than simply sending a static resume and hoping that someone will read it, Flowgram enables a dynamic experience that’s engaging and informative.

3. Establish yourself as an expert source.

Beyond showcasing your resume and your portfolio, the Internet can be used to create and communicate your own personal brand. A blog is a great vehicle for establishing your voice online, and can also be used to start a dialogue with a larger community of people by sharing opinions, asking for advice, or simply highlighting interesting ideas and information. By starting a blog, you position yourself as an expert source in your field, and also pave the way for making valuable new connections. MyBlogLog provides some tools for starting your own web log.

4. Explore your 6 degrees.

You’ve heard of the six degrees of separation theory -- now, put it to use by harnessing your own chain of connections. Professional networking sites such as LinkedIn provide a perfect platform for job seekers to utilize their professional network of friends and current and former co-workers. LinkedIn offers a fast and effective way to stay in touch with friends, co-workers, and recruiters, in order to keep the pulse of these relationships alive. By using business networking sites such as LinkedIn, you can increase the likelihood that people will see your name and profile first when businesses or professionals are searching for someone to hire or do business with.

When Firms Unravel, Secretaries Get Left Behind

106-year-old Philadelphia law firm Wolf Block is dissolving. Most of its lawyers have found new jobs, but secretaries and others are still looking.

Take a peek into the disappearing firm, but let the lesson be to remain prepared, flexible, and skilled.

Employers Underpaying Secretaries...Because They CAN?

A Just A Sec Exclusive!

By Teresa Illiano

This time last year, Julia was earning $68,000 a year as a legal secretary in midtown Manhattan.

After getting laid off earlier this year, she interviewed for three similar positions requiring the same or even more challenging skill sets. The highest salary offered among those three jobs was $48,000.

"I think employers are definitely taking advantage of the recession and the tough job market," said Julia. "I think they know how many applicants they have to choose from, and they're going to offer as little as possible, regardless of what you happen to be worth."

Julia didn't get the impression that any of the companies she interviewed with were suffering financially. At least not enough to underpay her so dramatically. "If they're doing so badly, maybe they should start by selling the overpriced designer furniture in the waiting area. Or the original Lichtenstein over the receptionist's desk, you know?"

Deanna, another legal secretary in a highly specialized area of law, was laid off before the end of 2008. Her employer cited economic issues when laying off a handful of support personnel. Deanna was earning $65,000 annually.

Now Deanna is learning that her former employer is hiring new secretaries. They haven't asked Deanna or any of her fired co-workers back. Instead, they're filling in the gaps with cheaper labor.

"One of them is supporting my guys, so she's essentially my replacement. I have it on good authority that this new chick is making $52,000," Deanna told us. That's more than $10,000 less than Deanna was earning for supporting the same people and performing the same work.

Are employers using the economy as an excuse to clean house of their higher-paid secretaries? Are employers taking advantage of the skyrocketing number of unemployed workers to underpay skilled secretaries and pocket the difference, simply because they can?

Employers may think they're striking a savvy deal now, but will their decisions come back to haunt them later?

It already happened for "Neil", an attorney in a very small firm in midtown, who agreed to talk to us if we didn't reveal his identity.

Neil had the same secretary for eight years before she resigned to move out of state. "She was terrific," he said. "She really knew her stuff."

When it came time to find his secretary's replacement, Neil saw an opportunity to put some money back in his pocket. "I did hire a gal for about $20,000 less (than what I paid my former secretary). I admit it, I was trying to save a buck. Well, 20,000 bucks, to be specific."

But within weeks, Neil ended up firing the secretary who'd work for $20,000 less, "...because she couldn't hold a candle to my old secretary."

Would Neil have been as quick to fire his new secretary if he didn't think he had a huge pool of unemployed secretaries to choose from?

"No question," Neil confessed. "I felt like I had better options, so I interviewed again, and hired another girl."

Neil hired the new new secretary for, again, $20,000 less than his stellar, eight-year secretary.

"I fired her too," said Neil. "She just didn't have the right instincts, the right sense of responsibility."

Neil now has a secretary he thinks he'll stick with -- as long as she'll have him. She has the experience and qualities to do the job well, and Neil bit the bullet and offered her a salary comparable to that of his original secretary.

Neil says, "I really think when you try to cut corners and take advantage of a situation like this (recession), you come up short in the end. I really do think you get what you pay for."

When a secretary is laid off and then, out of necessity, has to take a job for significantly less pay, will she resent it? Will she perform her job with the same enthusiasm and loyalty knowing that she's worth much more? And if she suspects for even a moment that her employer could have met her most recent salary but simply decided not to, how devoted an employee will she be?

Diane weighs in:

"If I had to take a job for $20,000 less than what I was making just a few months ago, and then the economy got better and I had more options, I would not hesitate to leave. They were looking out for their own asses when they tried to get a super secretary for cheap. Well, I have to look out for my ass, too, and do what's best for me."

Some unemployed secretaries are refusing to work for significantly less than they were making before their lay-off, because they feel it does irreparable damage to the work history they've built.

"It took me twelve years to get to $70,000," Lois told us. "If I take a job for, say, $50,000 now, how can I expect to build on that $70,000 ever again? Any job I get in the future will pay me based on the $50K. It's like all those years of work and loyalty never happened. I got pushed back to a level from when I was still in my twenties. It's smarter for me to stay on unemployment and wait and see."

Some secretaries will hold out for indicators of a stronger economy before seeking a job similar to what they had. Others will have to take what they can get. But when that brighter day comes (and it's bound to, eventually), those compromising secretaries just might leave their cunning employers in the lurch, without a second thought.

Like Neil said: you get what you pay for.

Help for Hard Times from Just A Sec

Don't think we haven't noticed. These are scary times for a lot of people. We personally know some stellar, top-notch secretaries and admins who've been unavoidably laid off around these parts, and the rumors of more firings to come are running rampant.

Just A Sec feels for all of you -- the recently-axed, the workers on pins and needles.

We wish we could eliminate your concerns, give you all jobs or at least total peace of mind.

But the one thing we can do is point you towards some helpful information. So we've compiled a list of links to past posts that may help with some of the challenges you're facing now: recent lay-offs, threats of lay-offs, unexpected job searches, loss of benefits, financial stress. Knowledge is power, so stay informed. Start here:

IF YOU'VE BEEN FIRED

When You Get Fired: Important Advice



IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A JOB

Interviewing for a Job? Think about this.
Is a Cover Letter Necessary with a Resume?
The Post-Job Interview Thank You Note
How to Request a Letter of Recommendation
Resume on Monster, Hot Jobs? Beware!
Even in a Recession, Keep your Job or Find a New One


LOST OR REDUCED BENEFITS?

Health Coverage after a Lay-Off
401K Matching Contribution Eliminated?


IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT YOUR JOB

Make Your Job Recession-Proof
Even in a Recession, Keep your Job or Find a New One
Is Job Hunting on the Job a No-No?
How to Prepare for a Lay-Off
Dealing with Workplace Changes


IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT YOUR SANITY

When You're Trapped in a Job You Hate
Dealing with Workplace Changes
Boost your Morale in Uncertain Times
Reduce Stress During Tough Financial Times


IF YOU NEED TO CUT SPENDING

Cut What You Spend During the Work Week

Resume on Monster, Hot Jobs? Beware!

Have you posted your resume on job boards like Monster, HotJobs, or CareerBuilder?

BEWARE. There are unscrupulous headhunters out there who will pluck your resume right off the web and shop you to potential employers without your consent.

Before you say to youself, "Hey, the more places my resume goes, the better -- I don't care how it gets there," consider this: job recruiters may be crushing your reputation and destroying your hireability, and you might not even know it.

For starters, recruiters could be representing you in ways that would make you cringe.

Some recruiters are downright obnoxious -- loud, brash, overly aggressive. Some have the vocabulary of third graders and the grace of hungry warthogs. And their behavior does reflect upon you. A potential employer doesn't know you didn't personally select this person to represent you. If they suspect you did, what does that say about your judgment?

A recruiter's less-than-professional approach might turn off your potential employer and cause them to toss your resume or move it to the bottom of the pile. With possibly hundreds of resumes to consider, do you really want to give them any excuse to discount yours?

The HR director at your would-be workplace could be so irritated by a recruiter's approach, she might discard your resume just so she won't have to pay a commission to that buffoon headhunter who rubbed her the wrong way.

Unfortunately for the upstanding ones, recruiters are notorious for lying. They have no qualms about lying about your background, and many will shamelessly assign you "stories" to tell in your job interview. Play-by-play. Some of them are really quite creative.

I recently met with a recruiter who felt that some short-term gaps in my employment history were working against me. Even though the real reasons behind those gaps were nothing scandalous, the recruiter insisted on hiding them behind made-from-scratch scenarios. She wove a pair of fairy tales, which I was meant to memorize and repeat to my (maybe) future boss. In one, there was a failed attempt at buying the house of my dreams and a flurry of wedding plans with a non-existent ex. The other was an outrageous fib about a whirlwind trip around the world won in a sweepstakes, which, God forbid anyone should ask me "And how did you like Prague?", I'd never be able to fake my way through convincingly.

Silly me. I thought my boss dying of a brain tumor was a pretty good excuse for being jobless. I nodded, tight-lipped, through my "instructions", and then went into the interview and told the truth. If I was going to work with these people someday, what was I doing to do, spend the years covering up the lies I told in my interview? No thanks.

Recruiters won't think twice about tweaking your resume, either. They'll change job descriptions, dates of employment, etc. Anything to give you a perceived "edge", thereby increasing their chances of getting you hired and getting themselves paid.

And don't trust a recruiter to have good judgment, or to even be reasonably intelligent when making "adjustments" to your resume.

For instance, many headhunters don't understand the nuts and bolts of the jobs they're filling, and they're strangers to the terminology.

I work in an area of law called "patent prosecution", which falls under the heading of "intellectual property". One recruiter from Access Staffing called me and said, "I have the perfect job for you. It's patent and prosecution. And I think it has...wait, let me check...yes! It also includes just a little bit of intellectual property."

I admit it. I laughed right into the phone. Just a little intellectual property? That's like saying, "Doctor, I have an ideal opportunity for you. It's general, and it's medicine. With just a dash of healthcare."

This could mean that your unofficial reps-in-the-field are changing vocabulary on your resume incorrectly, making you look like you don't know your own field.

This happened to me, in front of my eyes, at a headhunter's desk at Gainor Staffing. She started marking up my resume, making inaccurate changes to patent-centric terminology. She even reversed some of my correct punctuation so it was incorrect!

These self-appointed agents could also be doing your reputation a giant injustice by flooding the job market with your resume. I became a victim of this recently. I didn't find out until a forthright recruiter (whom I willingly engaged) started calling his contacts at local law firms and told me, "Your resume is all over town!" He started naming firms I'd never even heard of who'd already received not one, but multiple copies of my resume.

I didn't give anyone permission to approach these firms on my behalf, to speak on my behalf, to pass on my name, address, phone number and employment history to other people. They just did it, casting around for a bite, exploiting my personal information with the hope of some future monetary gain.

I suddenly thought of a woman who called me one day -- an overbearing type, with a voice like an air raid siren. I'd never even heard of her before, but she informed me that Law Firm XY&Z loved my resume and wanted to see me for an interview as soon as possible.

"Who are you?" I asked. I wish I could remember her name so I could share it with you. This woman had actually led a big, respectable firm to believe she had a relationship with me -- familiar enough to coordinate an interview on my behalf.

I was livid and I told her so. She was desperate to make a sale, and was unbearably pushy about getting me to go through with the interview. I refused to make the appointment through her. Later that evening, her "supervisor" had the nerve to call me and, barking at me like a scolding parent, demanded to know why I didn't take the interview. Unbelievable.

I knew these were the kind of people who'd spread my resume indiscriminately "all over town", who were diluting my opportunities for decent employment at the city's more reputable patent firms.

As my favorite recruiter Robert Hadley explained, when a resume is received by an employer from multiple sources, it can, in a sense, curse the applicant. The employer doesn't know you didn't ask every recruiter in town to find you a job, and quick! But that's what it can look like when an employer is bombarded with your resume.

And what if different recruiters are altering your resume? How does it look to the employer to get several different versions of your career path, with suspicious changes in key information?

And what if these recruiters are lying about having met you? It makes it seem like you've made the rounds to every employment agency in town and boy, you must be desperate! Which naturally leads the employer to wonder -- what's wrong with this applicant that no one is hiring her? It's just too easy to drop a resume into the trash can. The smallest inkling of doubt can count you out.

So what can you do to protect yourself?

Web sites like Monster and Hot Jobs are still a great place for employers and recruiters with integrity to find you. Each individual has to weigh the pros and cons of uploading his or her resume on these sites. But here's something I did that I encourage you to try, because it may start a trend that unscrupulous recruiters will have to acknowledge and work around. Who knows, it may even lead to some much-needed legislation. At the top of my online resume, I have a statement which reads:

"NOTICE: Recruiters are welcome to respond to (Your Name), whose name appears at the top of this resume. However, by printing out this resume, downloading or saving this resume, or forwarding this resume via e-mail or other means, you agree that you will not present yourself as a representative of (Your Name) by any means, either verbally or otherwise, express or implied, to any employer or employer's representative, without the express advance written consent of (Your Name). Furthermore, by printing out this resume, downloading or saving this resume, or forwarding this resume via e-mail or other means, you agree that if you present yourself to any employer or employer's representative as a representative of (Your Name) or (Your Name's) resume, bearing or not bearing (Your Name's) name without the express advance written consent of (Your Name), you agree not to accept any monetary compensation for the successful placement of (Your Name) in any position of employment for which you submit the resume of (Your Name)."
OK, so maybe it wouldn't hold up in court, but it could serve as a deterrent.

You can also make it crystal clear to any recruiter who calls or e-mails you that they do not have your permission to represent you or your resume to employers. You can tell them you will consider giving them written permission in an e-mail to represent you for specific positions only. This is important. In this way, you can keep track of who's legitimately sending out your resume and where. Heads-up, though: most recruiters will do anything to avoid giving you the name of the company they want to sell you to. They're afraid if they tell you it's Law Firm ABC, you will apply to the Law Firm ABC directly, cutting them out of the deal. Be insistent. Refuse to give them carte blanche to send your resume anywhere they want. Dole out your permission on a job-by-job basis, and if they refuse to name companies, politely tell them you prefer to work with another recruiter. Headhunting is a highly competitive field. Recruiters know they have plenty of competition. They'll either cooperate with you or they won't – but if they don't, the loss is entirely theirs. Trust me – you will eventually hit on a recruiter who will name names. They're out there, I've worked with them.

When you do find one or two recruiters who name names and give you honest representation, reward their integrity by letting them earn their commission. Don't do what I described earlier: circumventing their efforts by applying to the firm yourself. That's almost as scummy as being a recruiter who steals resumes off the internet.

-- Kim Brittingham

The Post-Job Interview Thank You Note

Writing a thank you note after a job interview is not such a bad idea. It distinguishes you from the applicants who were too lazy to bother. It also serves to give your interviewer a nudge after you've gone that says, "Hey, remember me?" Staying in the forefront of his or her mind is a good thing. Don't let them forget you.

But if you are going to send a Thank You note, there are a few simple guidelines your should follow to get it right. Read about them at U.S. News.

How to Request a Letter of Recommendation

Leaving your job? It's always smart to get a letter of recommendation from your boss before you hit the road. But how do you ask?

If you feel awkward about making the request, read this advice first.

Even in a Recession: Keep Your Job, or Find New One

Even in a recession, it's possible to find a new job. It just might take more effort, or perhaps different efforts, than you'd normally put forth.

And if you're worried about losing your job, don't just sit there like a bump on a log! There are things you can actively do to increase your chances of sticking around.

Read more, all of ya!

When You're Trapped in a Job You Hate

This isn't the best time to be looking for a new job, admittedly, although anything can happen. Still, if you absolutely HATE where you are and are having trouble finding something better, here are some survival tips that may help you sit tight until the job market gets better.

When You Get Fired: Important Advice

It's not the most pleasant reality, but lots of people are losing their jobs right now. If it happens to you (and we sincerely hope it won't), then here's an article you MUST read -- not just read, but print out and heed.

When You Quit, Do You Have to Write a Letter?

When you resign from a job, is it necessary to write an official resignation letter?

Get some advice here.

Is a Cover Letter with a Resume Necessary?

Believe it or not, sometimes a cover letter with your resume isn't necessary. But some of you should most definitely include one.

Do you need that letter? Find out here.

Law Firms Laying Off Legal Secretaries

Buchanan Ingersoll, Duane Morris, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, Reed Smith, Blank Rome, Dechert.

Who's laying off secretaries? And is it because of the economy, or are they reporting other reasons?

Read about these firms now at Law.com.

Interviewing for a Job? Think About This.

Here's an article that provides a helpful list of things to keep in mind while you're interviewing for what could be your next job.

Post Your Resume, Get Spammed

A Just A Sec Exclusive!

When you post your resume on well-know job sites, you may or may not get a job – but you’ll definitely get spammed.

We noticed after we posted our resumes on job sites, we’d get in-boxes full of spam. And some of the dumbest spam we’ve ever seen, too.

Were the job sites really the source of our spam? And if so, which sites? Who was the worst spammer? We decided to get an answer.

We set up a fake resume for a secretary named “Justine” on Monster, Hot Jobs and Career Builder. We made Justine a secretary with very little experience, and we littered her resume with typos. In other words, she wasn’t likely to attract many legitimate job offers. We also set up three separate e-mail accounts corresponding with the three sites, and monitored them for two weeks.

Here’s what we learned.

Career Builder: The MOST Spam.

We received 6 different items of pure spam within two weeks. The first spam e-mail arrived within 24 hours of posting Justine’s resume.

Our favorite:

- From “Roger Smith”: “I am the Chief Executive Officer of National Income Life. I recently found your resume online and wanted to get in touch with you. We are expanding our sales force…we believe you have the potential to be an excellent match.”

Me? Justine?! You wanted to get in touch with lil’ ol’ ME? And…and you believe in my potential? Shucks, I oughta misspell secrtary and unvistity on every resume I post! Who knew I was such a hot property?

Oh, and there was this one:

“GREETINGS, I AM SSG LAPEINE WITH THE US ARMY…We are currently searching for people to fill over 150 different career field IN THE ARMY. You must be willing to join the United States Army to get one of these career field.”

Considering who our president is, we’re not surprised by the atrocious grammar. But wow, you should see the list of exciting careers you can train for in the army! Just one question: does your health insurance kick in before or after you get your head blown off in Baghdad?


Hot Jobs: The FASTEST Spam.

Hot Jobs comes in a close second for the most spam, with 5 items within two weeks. However, they had the fastest delivery. We got our first spam e-mail within just 12 hours of posting Justine’s resume.

Our favorites:

- Subject line “An Electrician Apprentice job is now open.”
- Subject line “Interested in working as an Architect?”

Justine has no job experience or education that would indicate she’d be even remotely interested in these careers. Sure, it’s possible she harbors some secret desire to be an architect with an electrical background, but chances are these e-mails are just going to be annoyances for most people.


Monster: The Least & Slowest Spam.

Monster delivered 2 items of spam within two weeks. And they took four days to send us the first one. But still – they spammed us.

Our favorite:

From “Sabrina Lloyd”: “…I am a State Director for National Income Life. I saw your resume on the internet and felt that I should contact you immediately. Our company currently has openings for several outstanding individuals like you.”

Individuals like me, Justine? The incompetent secretary with next-to-zero experience and the lowest grade point average one can have and still graduate from community college? I am so hot, I’m sizzlin’!


If we monitored the e-mail accounts longer, we’d probably see the amount of spam multiply, as the spammers sold our e-mail addresses to still more spammers.

The lesson here? If you’re going to post your resume on a job site, set up a free e-mail account somewhere and use it only for responses from that site. It’ll still be a pain to browse through all the junk mail for any legitimate inquiries, but at least you’ll keep the spam out of any existing e-mail accounts you care about.

And maybe you can send a complaint letter to Monster, Hot Jobs or Career Builder and tell them what you think about them passing your e-mail address on to skeevy companies who treat you like a moron.

Maybe these will help:

Mr. Richard Castellini
Vice President of Consumer Marketing
CareerBuilder
200 N. LaSalle St
Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60601
Main Number: (773) 527-3600
Toll Free: (800) 638-4212

Jerry Yang, CEO
Hot Jobs -- Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Tel: (408) 349-3300
Fax: (408) 349-3301

Mr. Sal Iannuzzi
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Monster Worldwide, Inc.
622 Third Avenue, 39th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212) 351-7000
Fax: (646) 658-0541

(Note: We did not count e-mails from the job sites themselves as spam.)

A Real Secretary's Story: Balancing Day Job & Dreams

A Just A Sec Exclusive!



I'm 45 years old and at the time of this writing, I have never been on a job interview. I've never had a résumé. Well, there was that acting résumé I inflated with credits back in the 80s, but that was when I had big dreams, big hair (big talent - I think), but too much insecurity to pound the pavement, knock on doors and subject myself to the kind of rejection it would have taken to fulfill my high school acting teacher's prophecy that I was the next Meryl Streep.

So, before the ink was dry on my NYU School of the Arts diploma, I found myself temping as a receptionist in the HR Department of a fortune 500 goliath. My friend, the permanent receptionist, got me the gig while she was on vacation. When she returned, I remained in the temp pool as a clerk typist making $4 an hour.

Most of my fellow graduates from the class of '84 were working less conventional jobs with more flexible hours: waitressing, bartending, and in some cases working for free on low-budget film productions. But I found I liked the dependability of a bi-weekly paycheck, knowing I'd have rent money and enough left over for food, movies and subway tokens (remember those?).

I still managed to take acting classes and even go on auditions in the evening, while during the day I typed, photocopied and filed. When offered a permanent job with benefits and a slightly fatter paycheck, I officially became a foot soldier in the theatre of corporate warfare. Not the type of theater I thought I'd end up in, but it was guaranteed income with minimal effort -- a Faustian bargain that, at the age of 22, was hard to resist.

As the years flew by, thos IBM Selectric III typewriters gave way to ponderous black and white computer screens and something called DOS. Co-workers came and went, updating their résumés as job satisfaction diminished and ventured off to greener pastures and greener bank accounts.

I was always making enough to stay ahead of the bills, even after a kid came along. And I continued with outside pursuits that made me feel my BFA had not been achieved in vain. Those side projects gave me the deep fulfillment that creative endeavors had delivered since early childhood.

In the early 90s -- without effort, ambition, and still without résumé or interview -- I was given an opportunity at a management position at my company, where a few years earlier my duties included keeping the coffee pot filled. I still had the wish, if not the burning desire, for my ultimate path to include a red carpet. But they were handing me a big office, a big cherry desk, and more money than I thought I could make for doing something so easy.

Turns out, it wasn't that much money, and it wasn't so easy. I had a red wool suit, a pair of pumps, and occasionally a string of fake pearls. I also had an employee who hid work in her desk, a secretary who hid a television in hers, and a boss's boss who seemed to revel in intimidation and belittlement.

It wasn't long before I had a nervous break down. Seriously. But that's fodder for another time, another blog.

I found myself at a crossroads. What was I going to do with the rest of my life? Clearly not managing a department at the world's largest insurance company.

I transferred my creative impulses from appearing on stage and screen to writing for stage and screen. There were indicators that if I pursued that avenue hard enough, I could make money at it. I did, in fact, make several thousand dollars optioning a screenplay, but, like my trajectory to upper management, the final sale never came to fruition.

As hard as it was to accept back then, and at times even now, there are just some arduous and perilous journeys I simply don't have the constitution to take.

I went back to the company, not as a manager, and not as a clerk typist, but somewhere in between -- as a secretary to one of the top attorneys in the legal department. It was a decision that kept me solvent, protected with health insurance, and very possibly, alive.

Gone were any notions that I would be a mover and shaker in the corporate world. But I had never really wanted that in the first place. All I really wanted was a job. A job that provided a safe, comfortable environment; friendly, decent co-workers; a nice boss; a pay heck to live on, and those lovely, lovely benefits.

And that's what I had for 22 years. Until this week.

I had always thought of my company as a rock. Plymouth. It was immortal. When Enron collapsed, sending its employees into pensionless unemployed oblivion, I knew with certainty that would never happen to us.

The ,current housing crisis began to rack up casualties and it became apparent that with 3/4 of reported losses my company had not gone unscathed. But my boss assured me that barring an extinction event, we would continue to have jobs. So I was more than thrown off-guard a few nights ago when I read the news that my company was on the verge of suddenly annihilation.

My mind began to scramble. Who can show me how to create the aforementioned never-before-existing résumé? Where do I go to file for unemployment insurance? Where will I get the cash to cover expenses until I can secure a new source of income? How will I get my skills up to a competitive level?

I thought about random bits of career advice I'd heard from time to time, like, it isn't always beneficial to stay at the same job for too long, because it makes you look lazy, adverse to change, insecure. Was I guilty on all three counts? And how long is too long? Five years? Ten years? What does it mean that I've been at the same company for 22 years, 14 in essentially the same position?

Other than my standard flip response, "Well, it beats waitressing", can I answer that question truthfully, without making excuses?

It's always seemed to me that whatever a person does at any given moment is the thing that meets his or her greatest need at that moment. Maybe one answer is that I haven't been too lazy to look for something better -- I just never needed anything better than what I had. Which means my greatest need was consistently being met. Is needing and seeking security a bad thing?

Maybe it is, if you're trying to get it from a company whose imminent demise threatens global-thermo-financial Armageddon. So what will I do now? Does anyone have a sample résumé I can look at?

I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. I read an article today that said my company will have difficulty retaining quality employees while this crisis plays itself out. It may even have to offer incentive bonuses to get people to stay.

I don't know if that applies to peons like me. But I think I'm going to stick it out, because in addition to needing security, I also need to be able to dream, and I still have aspirations that have nothing to do with what goes on between 9 and 5. I have a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts, and whether it's penning a blog entry, or building a sand castle, or taking a writing class and becoming the next Janet Evanovich (who, unlike Meryl Streep, didn't hit her stride until her fifties), being creative makes me happy. And my job gives me the space and time to do the things I love to do. It always has.

So until they come for my keyboard and "While You Were Out" pad, I will be here. Maybe with less security than I had last week, but still without a resume' and no interviews to clutter up my otherwise satisfactory schedule.

-- Judy Burnley

How to Prepare For a Layoff

With what's happening in the economy now, with firms going under and other firms announcing massive layoffs, many of you may be worried about the future of your jobs.

Worrying won't help. Instead, experts say you should be getting your affairs in order, both financially and professionally, so that you will be better positioned for a possible layoff.

This article at CNBC gives specific instructions on the kinds of things you should be doing rather than wringing your hands.

How to Quit a Job

We just had to share: here's a blog with solid advice on the best way to quit a job.

Dealing with Workplace Changes

For better or worse, change is tough, but inevitable.

Here are some tips for handling change in the workplace, from a new job or a new boss, to company reorganization and more.