Links You Will Love

TGIF friends! I hope you have had a productive week and will get to enjoy some well-earned R&R this weekend. While you are lounging around, take a few minutes to read through these links.

I found some great material on job hunting this week, which will hopefully inspire, inform and motivate you in the weeks to come! If you have recently read something great, please leave me a comment with the link.

>> Volunteering Helps Network and Job Search @ Culpwrit
A slightly different take on volunteering to land a job (did you see my post from earlier this week on the same topic?) Here the blogger suggests volunteering at conventions and industry events to meet and network with major players in your field — a great idea, but maybe a little less altruistic than my original approach to volunteering?

>> What’s Your Brand & Why It Matters from About.com’s Guide to Job Searching
Alison has some great advice here on branding yourself for your job search. And by the way, if  you’re not sure what the heck your brand is, Alison defines it as

Your online image that shows prospective employers who you are and what you can do. It’s the information that you want hiring managers, recruiters, and career contacts to find when they look for information about you online. What you include in your networking profiles (on LinkedIn and Facebook, for example) and what you include in your blog and/or web sites, and even what you post on Twitter, are all part of your brand.

>> 5 Things to Do If You’re Unemployed @ The Brazeen Careerist
Once again, Penelope offers spot-on advice for the savvy job seeker, this time on how to find a new job without actually hunting for a job.

>> Career Q&A: Should I change my career plans because of the recession? @ Lindsey Pollak’s blog
Are you a soon-to-be college grad trying to plot your future career course? Definitely read this post! Bottom line: While the recession should cause you to think twice about your plans (especially if they involve taking out gobs of student loans to pursue a graduate degree in an at-best iffy field), it shouldn’t dissuade you from following your dream. Where there is a *real* will, there really will be a way.

>>  Baby Steps to Paid Blogging by Laura Spencer @ Freelance Writing Gigs
Since I touched on the topic of pro-blogging in our reader mailbag yesterday, I wanted to follow up with this post from Laura. She offers suggestions on how to launch your paid blogging career (which, by the way, is a great and reputable field for those of you looking for a part-time, work from home gig).

That’s it from me today. Have a great weekend!