The Seventh Annual Weblog Awards is now open for nominations for it’s 2007 awards.

Feel free to click over there and vote for my blog, www.justindriscoll.net.

Thanks

Justin

Is Volkswagen nuts?

In case you haven’t heard Volkswagen recently raised their work week from 28.8 to 33 hours.  How dare they!!!  Have they gone insane?!?!?!?

For all of you who work way more than 33 hours in a week, I am sure this was a laughable article in the Wall Street Journal today.  Unless you pay for the Journal online you cannot read the article.  However, it is in the print version as well.

A great gift for students!

The 7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Graduated!

The book that will help your find your passion and not your job!

I wrote this book with the intent of helping other people find their career passion in life. The lack of direction amongst people is staggering. The large majority of people do not have a clue about what they want to do with their career. They are simply working in a job to pay the bills. The seven chapters outlined in my book are designed to give the reader industry-guided career advice. Is it the end-all book for career guidance? No, but I encourage you to read it and apply what I suggest to see if there aren’t truths within.

You will learn:

• How important it is to meet the needs of the company in order to get hired and keep your job.

• How important it is to have real life work experiences rather than only academic knowledge.

• How relocating to another area of the country or world can open up doors of opportunity that aren’t available in your backyard

• How innovative people are going to continue to be the leaders in the 21^st century and beyond. The lack of innovation can kill a career.

• How integrity and character still matter in business regardless of the countless examples of unethical behavior that is sweeping the business world.

• How important it is to be willing and flexible enough to be willing to change throughout your career. Change is rapid in these days, so those who fight it will ultimately lose the battle of life.

• How to find your passion in life and not your job! Work does not have to be a four-letter word that you have to do until retirement. It can be fulfilling and rewarding. The question is, are you doing what you love or are you just doing what you have to?

The most successful and happy people at work are those who are living their passion!

Order Justin’s book today to reap the benefits of a successful career!

I recently participated in the ProBlogger.net group writing project. The subject was, Reviews and Predictions. You can read my contribution to this effort by clicking here, Web 2.0 in 2007.

Hundreds of people posted about their perdictions and forecasts for 2007 and beyond. The topics were broad but included, blogging, travel, Christmas, careers, web 2.0, China, politics, and even shoes. I thought it was a great experience to be apart of a worldwide blogging experiment. Below, please find a few of the posts I think are worth reading.

Web 2.0 in 2007.
Blogging Lessons Learning in 2007
Online Travel in 2006
China 2007: Thoughts and Predictions
Top 8 YouTube Videos of 2006
Top 5 Food Business Trends For 2007
28 Things I did to Improve Traffic to My Site in 2006
Looking Ahead: Tech Predictions for 2007

There were hundreds of more posts to go through. I couldn’t go through all of them but I encourage you to read as many as you can at ProBlogger

Merry Christmas!

Since it is almost Christmas I thought I would post the short message I am giving tomorrow night at our church’s Christmas eve service. Enjoy!
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Let us consider tonight one aspect of the birth of Christ that is often overlooked. Luke talks about the shepherds for 12 verses in the infamous second chapter of his Gospel. It can be easy to overlook these fairly mysterious characters because of the obvious emphasis on the birth of the Savior, but let us focus in on their contribution to the marvelous event that took place over 2,000 years ago.

Here are a few fast facts about the shepherds:

They were chosen by God to be the first evangelists about the birth of the Savior. After they saw Jesus they were compelled to go and tell others about Him.

Verse 17 and 18 says, Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the sayings which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

They, like us, were going about their business in the fields they have probably roamed a thousand times before that night. Their animals were probably close by, or at least close enough for them to keep an eye on them. They were no doubt fighting the cold dessert air, and possibly making small talk about the day-to-day events that were consuming their thoughts; their family, their kids, their home, their jobs, their money.
And then, Behold an angel of the lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
This sudden turn of events caused them to be afraid, which would have been the natural reaction I believe for all of us. Think about where they were. They were roaming a field with animals. It is quiet, dark, maybe windy, and even cold. They probably couldn’t see much more than what the moonlight would have provided. Then all of a sudden this angel appears to them with the glory of the Lord showing around them. I would have jumped too! We are lucky these men didn’t have heart attacks right there on the spot. You would have been afraid to.

These men were normal everyday Jewish men who had been hearing all of their life about the coming Messiah. They had heard the priests read from the Law about their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had heard the stories about how God delivered their people from the hand of the Egyptians. They knew about Moses, and Joshua, and David, Solomon, Saul, the prophets, etc… They knew about when Joshua worshipped the Commander of the Lord’s army before they conquered Jericho, and when Moses was communing with Lord on the mountain to receive the Law, and Jacob wrestling with angel all night.

They had heard about the kings who ruled Israel, and how the Savior would be born of the lineage of David. They had heard that he would be born in Bethlehem. They heard him called the BRANCH, the Bright and morning star. They knew he was referred to as the Lilly of the Valley, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah-Rophe, Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah-Shalom, and of course Jehova- Elohim, the Lord our Shepherd. But the fact of the matter was these were normal everyday shepherds tending to their flocks in the cold dessert night near a little town that no one cared about under Roman rule. What could they possibly contribute to the entrance of the Savior of the World?

We know that God’s ways are higher than our ways, and that we don’t fully understand why He does what he does, but it is clear that he is interested in using the simple of this world to accomplish his plans. He is interested in using the lowly in spirit, the humble, and of course the ready and willing.

These shepherds met the criteria. They were the simplest of simple. Most importantly they were ready and willing. They were not only watching their flocks that night but they were watching for those who might do their animals or their fellow shepherds harm. If some problems arose they were willing and ready to do what needed to be done to keep order. This willingness and alertness, you would assume, prepared them to act swiftly when a heavenly visitor forever changed their “normal night,” the angel Gabriel.

I started out by saying; I like the shepherds because they are more like us than any of the other people in the story of Jesus’ birth. They were normal people doing the job God had given them to do. The difference between them and us was how they reacted to the opportunity that was set before them. They were looking that night, not for an angel to appear before them, but they were looking for whatever God was going to set before them. In an instant their night was shaken and they were forced to rise to the occasion to participate as witnesses of the birth of the Messiah. They acted wholly on faith to search out that stable in this simple town of Bethlehem where the angle said the Messiah would be. This Savior was not draped in blue robes, or surrounded by pomp and circumstance. No when they found him he was wrapped in the lowest form of clothing, swaddling cloths, and guarded by the two teenagers God used to bring His son into the world. It must have been quite the site these shepherds saw when they open that stable door. Mary and Joseph holding Jesus in a lowly barn.

On this Christmas Eve it would behoove all of us to be a little bit more like the shepherds. We are already like them in our normalcy, but we all could be little bit more like them in our openness, our willingness, and our ability to react when God puts opportunities in front of us.

Merry Christmas!

2007 is poised to be the year of personal branding for the job-searching world.

This trend was already seen during 2006 but with the continued advancement and acceptance of tools like blogging, podcasting, wiki’s, MySpace, etc… we will continue to see job seekers turn to these tools for help when looking for a job.

How is a jobseeker suppose to set themselves apart from the crowd if they simply use an online resume or even a resume in Microsoft Word format? Everyone looks the same. They can only use text, bold letters, bullet points, and italics. Everyone does this, so how do you stand out? How does a jobseeker prove that recruiters that they are knowledgeable in their field and they have truly accomplished great accolades?

I believe 2007 we will begin to see job seekers turn to tools such as blogs, podcasts, wiki’s, and social networking sites to help themselves stand out from the crowd. For those of us who have been hanging around this web 2.0 world for a couple of years now you may think my prediction is behind the times, but I know for a fact that the large majority of people still do no understand the power of the web 2.0 tools, much less understand how they can improve their job seeking abilities. 2007 will change all of that.

Not only will job seekers begin to use these tools more often but also the recruiters who look for these job seekers will begin to accept these tools as valuable sourcing methods. Are some recruiters already using these tools? Yes, but large majorities are not. 2007 will prove to be a year of continued growth and acceptance in the recruiting world of web 2.0.

I guess the larger question is what tools will 2007 bring that will continue to change the world of web 2.0 that job seekers and recruiters can use to help them reach their goals? I guess we will have to wait until 2008 to answer that question.

I have been meaning to post about a band that a few of my friends are in for a couple of weeks now, but better late than never. The Mike Duncan Project is the name of the band; I posted about them a few months ago but that was before their CD offically launched and before they launched their new web site.

Mike and the band have a great sound that I think everyone will enjoy! They are a band with a message of Hope in a troubled world. Check out their CD cover in this post and then go by their new album.

justin driscoll

I have been very lax in my blogging lately so I apologize. I don’t vary much on this blog from the topics of job searching, career development, workforce development, but I felt compelled to give you some insight into what I have been thinking lately about Christmas! I hope you can relate.

Even though the real meaning of Christmas has nothing to do with shopping and parties it seems like those are those only two things I do this time of year. Don’t get me wrong I love going to go Christmas parties but the shopping is something I would rather avoid. Is it just me, or does it seem like the older I get the less I like “stuff.” Sure, I like my electronics; iPod, MacBook, Treo, and a maybe a few other toys but that is really about it. My mother keeps asking me what I want for Christmas, and I keep saying, I don’t need anything. I really don’t. Do I want a few things? Sure, but I don’t actually need anything.

I am amazed at the stories I hear from other people about how much money they are spending on Christmas, buying this and buying that. For what? The truth of the matter is most of us will look at all of the “stuff” we are given on Christmas morning and think to ourselves, “I like all this stuff, but I would really like X.” You can fill in the blank about whatever X is. That feeling of dissatisfaction on a day where our stuff is supposed to fill us up can be quite confusing.

Here’s the bottom line:

“Stuff” is not what Christmas is about and it will not satisfy any of us. It is temporary and passing away.

The real meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world Jesus Christ. We can all say Happy Holiday’s all we want but we cannot avoid the fact that the real meaning of Christmas is Jesus and not how much stuff we buy for each other.

This Christmas I encourage you to forget about your stuff and concentrate on the One who is bigger than your stuff. Concentrate on the One who is worth more than all of our “stuff” put together. Remember, Jesus was born so that you could have life on this earth and more importantly eternal life!

Merry Christmas; and I say again, Merry CHRISTmas!

justin

This post will be apart of JibberJobber.com’s Career Carnival next week. Enjoy

Yikes! You just lost your job! You’ve been so busy at *work* that you don’t feel your network is as strong as you would like it to be! What are you going to do with (and to) your network in the next 6 weeks as you begin an aggressive job search campaign? And, outside of your network, what job search tactics will you employ? Or your best networking tips related to job searches.

Losing your job is kind of like losing your identity. For years you have been known as “That … Guy / Girl. When people think of X company or X profession they may think of you, but not now. Even though you have lost your job it doesn’t mean you have lost everything. In order to stay in the game and network with some of the leaders in your industry I suggest the following. Start a blog about your industry and use your blog to interview some of the leaders within your industry. Once you have done these interviews, with their permission, post them on your blog.

What can the interviews be about?
1. Industry trends
2. Hiring practices of these companies
3. Professional development topics that is specific for your industry.
4. Or you could even blog about a very popular company in your industry that a lot of people are interested in learning more about.

This unique style of networking does a few things:

1. It gives you an opportunity to learn about different companies in your industry.
2. It also gives you a chance to network with some of the leaders in your industry.
3. A professional blog can make you look like an expert in the industry you blog about.
4. A popular blog can help you gain consulting gigs.
5. A professional blog can take your resume to the next level by gaining national or international attention.

If you have lost your job make sure you don’t give up on the industry you have spent so much time in. There are great free blogging services like Blogger and Wordpress. Pick one and get started. The sooner you do this the sooner you can start networking using your blog.

This post is for my fellow bloggers. Steve Dembo from Teach42.com posted a very thought provoking post on how to determine if you are a successful blogger or not. If you blog at all you must read Steve’s post.