In the age of digital business networking, it’s obvious that no site has done a better job of it than LinkedIn. While it has expanded its features to integrate Twitter, utilize apps and, most recently, the ability to follow companies, the Groups feature has been a long-standing hallmark.

Within LinkedIn Groups, there have also been changes over the years that included member-generated content, including discussions, job postings and news articles. However, one thing that has not changed is how many groups a user can join. At the moment, the limit is 50.

Though 50 groups seems like a big number, long-time users have found no problem reaching that upper limit in a very short period of time. Meanwhile, new LinkedIn groups pop up at a relatively fast pace.

Because of this, the question then lies in which groups are the most useful to you?

To figure out which LinkedIn groups are right for you, consider the following elements:

1. Industry or Field – Search groups based on the industry or field you’re in or about to enter.
2. Location – Professional organizations in your region tend to have groups, along with regional groups created by individuals.
3. Company – There are many groups associated with companies or former company employees.
4. School – LinkedIn groups are constantly launched for schools either by the institutions themselves or by fellow alumni.
5. Hobbies or interests – You never know if a particular hobby or interest could turn into a business opportunity for you.

After joining the groups you want, observe the discussions, job postings and news articles for the next couple of weeks. If you find that these groups have a great deal of useful activity, you will certainly want to remain an active member.

During your trial period, you should also make note of any users who are attempting to use the group as a mailing list for their own purposes rather than the groups. If this is the case, you will probably want to either think about limiting the group e-mails you receive or, in the extreme case, leave the group altogether.

Always remember, of course, the you can get a great deal out of LinkedIn Groups, so long as you are able to utilize this feature properly.

Understandably, the subject of this could cause a bit of confusion. Most of you, at this point, would consider personal role models to be parents and prominent figures. However, when it comes to your own professional development, who can you look up to?

A role model, from a business standpoint, can simply be defined as they person who you can look to for any information. They serve as a mentor and can provide the blueprint for a work ethic you would be proud to follow.

With the volatility of the professional world, however, finding that role model, for some of us, has become increasing difficult. It’s almost impossible if you happen to find yourself in an organizational role that has been newly created and that no other person has any previous knowledge of what is entailed in your position.

Do you have to go it alone? Of course not. It truly is incumbent upon you to seek out knowledge. And realistically, that knowledge shouldn’t be too hard to find.

The first step in finding a professional role model is to seek out professional organizations that cater to your industry. Don’t be afraid that the people you meet work for other companies. There’s a good chance you will come across veterans of the industry who have been in the same position you’re in right now. And most of them are gracious with their time and would be more than happy to be of assistance.

Once you’ve been able to establish contact with a potential professional role model, take it slowly. Nothing turns people off more than inundating them with a thousand questions all at once. There will be plenty of time for that in the future.

Instead, consider scheduling something informal, like a lunch or coffee. Nothing breaks the ice like a sit-down at the local Starbucks.

Once you’ve eased into your professional relationship, you will find that your role model can be your greatest key to success.

No matter the economic or employment climate, the need for professional development is a given. For a professional in any management capacity, part of that development should involve gaining an understanding of the work that your subordinates do on a daily basis.

That idea has already crossed over into popular culture with the airing of the CBS reality series, “Undercover Boss,” in which corporate executives go undercover to one of their local offices and do the work of the people on the ground.

I bring all of this up because of a recent experience I had at a local Wendy’s, in which I was served by not a regular crew member but a member of the management staff. What I found on this visit was astounding. The management member had a difficult time utilizing the touch-screen cash register and had to ask me numerous times to repeat items in my order. Truth be told, I wondered if I was ever going to have my order completed.

What I took away from this experience was this: No matter what your capacity in a particular organization, you must have at least basic knowledge of what your co-workers do, if, for no other reason, you may be called upon to perform that very task.

As a member of management, go beyond reading the written job descriptions. Schedule cross-training opportunities for yourself and your subordinates. The skills you gain by participating in these events can help you both in your current position and potentially down the road.

How you grow professionally has always depended on what you learn. And by learning about the various tasks, you can increase your value within the organization.

As a job seeker, researching prospective employers is part and parcel to the entire process. Not only do you get to find more information about an organization prior to an interview, you can also seek out opinions from clients and former employees in order to determine if this is a right fit for you.

However, as an entrepreneur or freelancer, doing the same thing with prospective clients may seem, at the very least, awkward and at worst intrusive. After all, here is a potential source of income for you, and how is it going to look if you make mention of the fact that you want to research them a little further?

Obviously, there are differing opinions about whether or not conducting background checks on prospective clients is appropriate. But the truth of the matter is that, like when you were a job seeker, you want to make sure that the client is the right fit for you.

This subject hits pretty close to home for us. On at least a couple of occasions, we have agreed to do business with clients who turned out not to be on the up and up. The end results became a massive loss of man-hours and money. Effectively, we wasted our time and efforts and turned down other projects.

As much as we, as entrepreneurs, appreciate the business our clients have to offer, clients, conversely, have to understand that this is no game to us. We didn’t get into business for ourselves to give away our services. And 99 percent of clients do understand this.

So, how can we spot that other one percent? Or, a better question should be: When is it appropriate to do more research on a prospective client?

Normally, this is the part where we lay out advice on what to do. However, we’re interested in hearing what you have to say on the subject. Please feel free to comment on this post or reply to us on Twitter at @togsolutions. We’ll follow up on this subject next week.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Just like clockwork, you see the announcements online and in the media. It’s one of the signs of spring.

And no, it’s not the groundhog.

It’s the start of spring job fair season. And like in the fall, organizations and job seekers alike are gearing up to meet each other.

We have made it a note to discuss job fairs during the spring and the fall as it has consistently been an opportunity to at least speak with organizations to get an idea about the overall job market. Unfortunately, for many job seekers, there been more talk than opportunity, as the touch economic times has increased the number of fair attendees and slashed the number of employers.

Now that the employment outlook is looking better, it’s important for you, the job seeker, to get back to the fair circuit to see what’s out there. Unlike the last couple of seasons, though, you’ll find that the number of employers will likely be going up.

That, of course, leads us to the job fairs themselves and a pertinent question: When times were good, which job fairs were effective and which weren’t?

During 2006 and 2007, when the job market was still good and there were plenty of opportunities to be had, my work afforded me the chance to attend a variety of different fairs. As a result, it allowed me to conclude that not all job fairs are created equal.

At the top of the list are job fairs conducted by colleges and universities. These events are aided by a strong career services staff, alumni employers and venues that can accommodate large numbers of organizations.

Next up are non-profit and public organizations, such a local urban leagues and unemployment offices. Again, their community connections allow for a more diverse group of potential employers, giving you a better chance to connect with places you may want to work for.

Job fairs sponsored by employment periodicals and online job boards are hit and miss. In the past, some have taken the wise step in partnering with a non-profit or institution, in which case they are able to present more prospective employers.

Some, on the other hand, do no such thing and bring around the same employers over and over again. This does not bode well for you as a job seeker, who, even in the best of times, would be staring down the barrel of an hour and a half wait to see the same half-dozen employers you saw the last time they set up shop.

With all job fairs, be mindful of what employers will be at these fairs. If you see a job fair advertised that doesn’t have a list of employers, it’s probably best to skip it.

In deference to the famous line from the movie, “Anchorman,” the truth is that if you have noticed in job ads that more and more employers are seeking candidates with Spanish-speaking abilities.

This recent trend should come as no surprise. Because the Hispanic community is one of the fastest-growing demographics in the United States, along with a sharp increase in companies expanding operations in Latin America, the ability to speak Spanish is an ever-useful skill.

However, foreign language education of any kind tends to stop after high school, as many college students focus more on their specific majors. As a consequence, they will find themselves shut out of any bilingual opportunities.

The trend has gone beyond Spanish. Language ability has also extended to Chinese and Arabic as well, again because of the business growth in those regions.

So, if you are interested in seeking out these multi-lingual opportunities, you will certainly want to find educational opportunities that will allow you to market yourself to these positions.

First, and foremost, it’s never too late to return to school. Many two-year colleges offer foreign language courses at the fraction of the cost of their four-year counterparts. Also, some two-year institutions have taken their courses online, allowing for schedule flexibility for people with busy lives.

If you are looking for a more specialized and concentrated option, there are companies that cater exclusively to foreign language training, the most popular of which is Berlitz.

Software training options are also widely available. Rosetta Stone is the most popular software, plus foreign-language tutorials can be found for free all over the Internet.

When searching for opportunities to learn a foreign language, it’s always important to find a situation that is right for you, especially when it comes to price and schedule. That way, you will get the type or training that can help you to move at your own pace.

Once you have mastered a particular language, be sure to add this skill to your resume. And prepare yourself before the interview, because it’s a good bet you will be asked about it.

If you’ve gotten to this point, you have already assessed how you’ve gotten to the point where Changing Your Game is an option and you are certain that your current situation isn’t just a case of bad times hitting everyone. The tough questions, however, are not finished being asked.

At this stage, you are now ready to figure out if you have the financial capabilities of making such a change. This is broken into two categories: The employed and the unemployed, each with their own set of questions.

Let’s start with the unemployed. The situation, obviously, is a bit more flexible to pursue what you want to do rather than what you have to do. Your financial situation, of course, is also different. For instance, you may be receiving unemployment benefits, or those benefits my be close the running out.

For the employed, on the other hand, it is a far different matter. It then becomes an issue of how long do you need to get your other interests off the ground before you can leave.

In any case, you have to look at your finances, particularly your current expenses. As many financial experts can attest, your ability to save money is helped by cutting out the nickle-and-dime expenses like that Frappucino from Starbucks.

Your transitional time frame is equally important. We will make delve into the subject of training in greater detail at a later time, but it could play a role in how long it will take you to leave your situation.

Also, consider the income level you are at now versus where you want to be. If you have opted to strike out on your own, when did you plan on leaving your current position? Regardless of the answer, you should make sure that your finances are in order and you can sustain yourself in case you income fluxuates.

In the end, it is crucial for your to have a grasp on your finances before making any changes. So, if need be, seek outside financial advice before moving forward.

When it comes to making a change in your life, self-reflection is important. In Changing Your Game, this part of it is crucial to your overall success. But not for the reasons you would think.

From time to time, you read about how you may be your own worst enemy in the workplace, most recently in a Yahoo! Finance article I came across. Understandably, at a time when your self-esteem has been taking a beating, articles like this don’t exactly bring about much of an ego boost.

But with Changing Your Game, denial isn’t an option. When you read something like this, rather than shaking your head and saying, “No, that’s not me,” take a good look at what they’re trying to say to you.

You’re in the process of making a decision to change the direction of your career and your life. This means undertaking difficult tasks like looking at yourself and asking honestly if things are really that bad.

Consider this: When you’re at work, do you find that your co-workers feel the same way as you do? When you talk to them, do they seem as frustrated with their jobs are you are with yours? As they are vocal as you are about your troubles?

By far, this part is the hardest thing that you will do in this process. We all like to have a high opinion of our abilities and the work we do, so, as a consequence, when things aren’t going well, we tend to look outside of ourselves for answers.

This is not one of those times. It’s especially true if this is a field that you chose. If that’s the case, think long and hard before you take the years of training and experience you’ve put into it. Maybe this is just a rough patch you’re going through, as many are these days.

In the end, it’s about making informed decisions, and you should take as much time as possible to make the most-informed decision about yourself. After all, it’s about your career.

The concept of working from home or telecommuting has gained a great deal of traction and popularity in recent years. Companies, staring at the reality of rising overhead costs, found a great deal of value in having some of their employees work from home.

Now, with the introduction of new technology such as cloud computing, virtual private networks (VPNs) and Voice over IP (VOIP), working at home has become easier than ever. However, just like looking for an in-company position, you have to know where to look and watch out for potential pitfalls.

As we have already mentioned in our previous post about freelancing, there’s a number of different resources out there for those looking to work-at-home. In fact, since many freelancing opportunities are also telecommuting, some of the opportunities will overlap.

First, be mindful of where you should look for information. As we are all aware, there are plenty of ads out there that talk a good game about working at home and making a great deal of money. Many of these, unfortunately, are scams, and will, in the long run, cost you more than you will ever make.

For free resources, sites such as Work at Home Mafia, Rat Race Rebellion and WAHM, which was originally set up for work-at-home mothers but has since expanded, are excellent starting points. Virtual Vocations, which contains free listings and a paid-subscription application process, is also very useful.

As for the opportunities available, be sure to do your homework and also, decide on what type of job you’re interested in doing. Be sure that if you plan on applying to a work-at-home customer service job, you understand that you’ll be sitting in front of your computer taking customer calls your entire shift. If it’s not something you want to do, you may want to think about something else.

Finally, check with your current company and see what options are available for working at home. You’d be surprised how many companies have telecommuting positions.

You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
You may find yourself in another part of the world
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself: well… how did I get here?

-Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime”

When I thought of this Changing Your Game post, I remembered this classic song. And the first verse is likely something you’re contemplating at this very moment.

For years, perhaps, you have found yourself in the same place in your career, which may not a good thing. Judging from sites like JobVent, that much is pretty clear.

But in order to move forward and change your game, taking a look at the events leading up the the present is essential. It is said that those who don’t learn history are forced to repeat. And in terms of our career, many of us have done just that.

So, consider your current situation and ask yourself, “How did I get here?”

The answer that question, you will certainly have to ask a series of other questions, including, but not limited to:

• What was your financial or career situation at the time you took this position? Did it play a role in accepting this job?
• Have there been any changes to management or ownership during your tenure? If so, how did that change things?
• During economic downturns, has your job role changed? If so, are you doing more or less than you were in good times?
• Of the people who were there when you started this job, how many of them have left? And how often do you have new people being hired?
• Has your organization experienced any layoffs or reductions in force? If so, have you been told or do you get the impression from management that your position could be next?

It may be helpful to write everything down. Then, you can go down the line and review each question and answer. If you see a pattern, perhaps you should start to seriously think about heading in another direction.

As one of the countless job seekers out there, there may very well be many people who share the same name as you do. As a result, this may lead you into the false notion that somehow, you can do whatever you want online and nobody will notice.

Guess again. There are plenty of ways in which prospective employers can figure out that the person they are thinking about hiring may also be the same person who likes to cause trouble on the Internet.

So, with a common name, you figure that if anyone searches for you on Google, Yahoo, Bing or another of the other search engines, they will run into far more people that you, right?

Wrong. Google has already rolled out a social media search, and Yahoo and Bing are in the process of following suit. That means, of course, that whatever happens to be on your social networking accounts will be more visible than ever in a shorter amount of time. What that means is that for example, say you get into an online flame war. Google’s social media search can make this searchable within a day.

Besides that, employers, who have been using search engines in ever-increasing numbers as their de facto background checks, will already be looking beyond your name. Since they have information such as address, education and previous employment, they can utilize long-tail searches to pinpoint you specifically.

That said, while we have always stressed maintaining your online presence, with the increased competition in the job market, it’s more important than ever. Take a look at your social media profiles. Are there any red flags? And are you set up with accounts on business networking sites such as LinkedIn?

If not, these simple mistakes could mean the difference between you and your next job. So, stay vigilant in keeping your online presence blemish-free.

When thinking about our previous post about seriously reconsidering your career, the New York Times article I referenced pointed out the incomprehensible number of applicants to a singular position (500, according to the article).

Those who are in the job market recognize that when you do apply for a job, you generally won’t be the only one who is looking at the same opportunity. In fact, it’s a safe bet that your resume or application will go against dozens of others, maybe more.

But if you are one of the lucky few who is called in for an interview, what does it truly mean when the employer tells you how many people applied to this position?

I’m not referring to the statement-in-passing, where the employer, typically at the end of the interview, tells you about their process. Usually, that entails them telling you that they did get many responses (no specific number) and that they have narrowed it down to interviewees, one, of which was you. That happens in almost every interview.

This is in reference to the interview starting things out with how many people applied, perhaps with a specific number. I’ve been asked what that means. It could be nothing. It could also be a red flag, stating to you, the interviewee, that you should thank your lucky stars they took the time to bring you in.

For the sake of your sanity should you get this position, you should definitely prepare some contingency questions to ask at the end of the interview. First, always ask why the previous individual left the organization. Most employers are surprisingly open about the reasons. However, some will get defensive and maybe not answer.

Also, if they already haven’t been laid out during the interview, be sure about their expectations of you. And write them down, so, if you are offered the position, you can go back to them and ask the employer about them, so that there are no discrepancies between their answer during the interview and during the offer contact.

If finding a good job is important to you, it is also just as important to ensure that you are in the type of environment that will allow you to succeed. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself stressed out and, before long, back on the job hunt where you started.

For more than a year, ever since the recession started taking its massive toll on the job market, it has become clear that the jobs are much harder to find, and the ones that are available offer far less to employees than they once did. With a recently announced unemployment rate of over 10 percent, the news doesn’t sound like it’s going to get better anytime soon.

And for those in the “be happy you have a job” crowd, is that really the case? Web sites are littered with comments about companies that don’t have employee interests at heart. And once the jobs come back, historically the unemployed will not only have to compete with each other, but also the employed trying hard to get out.

The question then remains, why do you remain in your current state? If you’re unemployed and didn’t exactly like your last job in the first place, why would you want to go back to that?

Understandably, there’s a great deal of fear involved; the fear of not having a job, the fear of being out of the workforce too long.  Most of all, it’s the fear of trying something new and the fear of failure.

It’s this situation that you find yourself in, when you feel you can’t stay and can’t leave, that is part of the same game you’ve probably been playing since you started working.

Now is the time to change your game.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll examine how you can take what you know, figure out what you don’t know, and put a plan together to get you out of your bad situation and on the road to a better life, because, in the end, that’s what we all want. Among the questions we’ll answer:

• Are you better off on your own?
• Is going back to school necessary?
• Should you manage or fly solo?
• Is your current work situation really that bad?

At the very least, you’ll learn a little more about yourself, and know that you are not alone in your struggles. We’ve all been there, and with a little guidance, these tough times, too, shall pass.

In its earlier incarnations, LinkedIn, far and away the leader in business networking sites, took the slow road in developing its internal content. Most user-to-user interaction was relegated to either connection invitations or their Answers section. Job postings were still a work in progress, either as a paid direct posting or through job search engine SimplyHired. At the time, LinkedIn Groups was a non-searchable entity, with very little interaction between group members.

Over the past couple, of years, however, the dynamic of LinkedIn Groups has changed dramatically, to the extent that it, if it hasn’t already, will overtake the traditional job board as a primary source for employment.

In its explosive evolution LinkedIn Groups has expanded to allow its members a great deal of interaction. This has included, among other things, the inclusion of a news section, in which group members may add their own content (A TOG Solutions favorite feature), the ability to e-mail fellow group members, regardless of connection, and subgroups for more specific interaction.

Most of all, LinkedIn has added to Groups a Jobs section, which both gives employers a chance to post their jobs for free, as well as allows job seekers an opportunity to announce their own needs.

For employers, this is an excellent tool for sourcing, as it provides both a free platform to advertise jobs in a relatively spam-free environment, which an open system such as Craigslist may not be able to provide.

Job seekers benefit even more. With LinkedIn Groups, the jobs section is a viable source for legitimate positions, the news section contains information that is relevant to them. Most of all, group members themselves are excellent job seeker resources, with the potential to provide a great deal of knowledge.

While it’s true that in a tough economic environment, there’s no true fail-safe job-search tool. But all things being equal, LinkedIn Groups has emerged as one of the most comprehensible and reliable hubs job seekers can turn to.

One of our core services is to help individuals with their resumes in an effort to give them the advantage in a competitive job market. But, with the economy being the way it is, we have found that even the best-looking resume may not be enough, and that we may need to help job seekers even more than that.

Case in point – The New York Times recently reported about a job opening for an administrative assistant at the Burns Harbor, Indiana branch of trucking company C.R. England. The job posting itself wasn’t what made news.

What are surprising were the number of applicants for this $13 an hour job. According to the report, nearly 500 people had contacted C.R. England to be considered for the position.

The staggering applicant-to-job ratio for this particular post may seem amazing, but it’s clearly not isolated. We’ve heard numerous tales over the past few months of how hundreds of applicants rush to even the lowest-paying jobs.

Surprisingly enough, these numbers include those with years of experience, with skills and education that, at least in the C.R. England case, far overqualified for such a job. The key argument? Once the economy improves, these people will bolt.

But for those who are overqualified, with years of experience and education behind you, what drew you to this lower position in the first place? Was it the fear of not having any job at all? Is it desperation? Or are these applications simply going through the motions?

This doesn’t have to be this way. Perhaps it’s time to take a good, long look at your work history and re-evaluate what direction you are heading.

In truth, you may find that searching for another job isn’t exactly what you should be doing. As I have written previously, freelance opportunities provide the benefits of both extra income and flexibility, far more than, say, a floor gig at Bed, Bath & Beyond (Which you may have to battle hundreds of other applicants to even get!).

Taking it a step further, perhaps it’s time for you to set up shop and start your own consulting firm, as many have already. Some of the things you will need to consider, as part of this, are:

• What types of services do you intend to offer?
• Do you have the skills and experience to succeed?
• Can your professional network help you find, or themselves be, consulting business leads?

There are options beyond the conventional job. What you decide to do is up to you. But if you need some help, we are here to provide it. Feel free to contact us with any questions.

A couple of years ago, I was introduced to Aaron Boyce, a Sacramento-based motivational speaker and career workshop presenter. At the time, he was invited to speak about networking to benefit the job search at the technical school I worked at.

While I have since moved on, and, among other things, added career workshops to our own list of available services, there was one networking tool that Mr. Boyce passed along to attendees that left a lasting impression. And it’s this tool that may, in the face of upcoming job fairs, give you a leg up: Create business cards.

You first thought might be, “I don’t have a job. Why would I need a business card?” or something of that variation, such as the fact you don’t have your own business or that your current employer already has business cards.

Consider this, though. If you have cards from your current company, is any of that information really yours? Say if someone contacts you on the information from that card about a job, wouldn’t that not go over very well with your employer? Also, do you have anything besides your job title and contact information on that card?

And for those who are unemployed, when you go to a networking event, do you carry around copies of your resume? Truth be told, it would seem rather odd if you did.

One of the primary advantages of your personal business card is its portability. While others pass their cards out at events, you can do the same thing. In addition, your direct contact information, not your company’s, will be on them. No need to explain getting calls on your work line from prospective employers.

Finally, you can tailor your cards to briefly detail your areas of expertise. For example, on the bottom of the TOG Solutions cards, we list out each of our primary service areas. You can do the same thing.

How can you get these cards printed? The easiest would be through an online printer such as Vistaprint. However, Avery does sell business cards that you can use in your own printer and customize through your word processor.

No matter how you get them, you’ll find that supplying networking contacts with cards rather than resumes could be the best way to keep in touch.

Around this time last year, I wrote about a Wall Street Journal article regarding the uptick of attendees to job fairs as a result of layoffs caused by the economy. Since that time, job fairs have become even more crowded.

In Cleveland alone, local media have made a note to report about the long lines of job seekers, no matter the weather, looking for that one opportunity that will get them back into the workforce.

But, as many job seekers are finding out, despite the massive increase of job fair attendees, the number of companies hiring have remained the same, or, in many cases have dwindled.

Certainly, the usual suspect will always be there. For those scoring at home, they’re the financial services, the insurance companies and the places that are looking for salespeople, as well as the military. The problem with many of the employers, though, is that their compensation structure is based primarily on commission, a subject we’ve tackled previously as well.

Still the advice we gave last year is as true now as it always has been. If you know who will be at the job fair you’re attending, do you research. Continue to craft and perfect you “30-second commercial,” detailing your career highlights. And keep asking for business cards for follow-up.

But most of all, the first question you should always ask (Right after you introduce yourself, of course) is if that employer is hiring for your particular field. If not, thank them for their time and move on. You’ll usually end up in this situation if you’re in a traffic jam of people, and you unwittingly stop at a booth you didn’t mean to.

If you have any other job fair questions, I will personally be walking around at the Cleveland State University Career Fair on Friday, October 30th. Feel free to contact me directly at 216.288.6467 that day, and I’ll be more than happy to point you in the right direction!

A long time ago, when you thought of the term freelancing, most people generally thought about writing, be it in newspapers or magazines. These days, of course, you can find freelancing to surround all types of jobs in any industry you can think of.

For someone who is between jobs, freelancing can not only provide some extra money that can come in handy if times are tight, but it can also allow to fill the empty space that currently occupies your resume.

The first step, typically, is to figure out what kinds of job duties you have done in the past that can potentially translate into a freelancing opportunity. Again, these can be a wide range of skills from writing to computer programming to even administrative tasks, such as spreadsheets and presentations.

Once you’ve lined up what services you can offer as a freelancer, you’ll need to find out where you can find these opportunities. Here’s a short list of possible work sources.

Your Network: We can never stress enough how important it is to maintain a strong professional network. And if you’re looking for a freelance gig, the people you know can be the best gateway to those opportunities.

Local Businesses: Ideally, you’ll know what organizations can have use of your skills and expertise. If not, do a local business search, either through the local Yellow Pages or a business directory site like Manta. The best source of freelancing opportunities will likely be smaller businesses, so be sure to make note of them.

Search Online: The Internet has numerous resources that can give you plenty of freelancing leads. Posting an ad in the Services section of Craigslist is a good start, though be mindful of spammers. Also, online freelancing hubs such as eLance, Guru and oDesk are excellent clearinghouses for information and freelance gigs.

Once you’ve found the freelance opportunity of your choosing, you will want to create a Freelance section on your resume. There, you will briefly detail notable projects, and be sure to include the date.

If all goes well, a short-term freelancing term could potentially lead you to steady work from the same source, and, perhaps, a long-term source of income that may allow you to fully concentrate on your gigs instead of your job search.

It’s true, the job market is tough. It’s especially bad for those who have just graduated college. And with the older workforce staying at their jobs for longer, it may not look any better for recent grads.

Still, when the job market comes back up, what will happen to grads? As the famous saying goes, in order to get a job, you have to have experience, but you can’t get experience unless you get a job. Right?

Not exactly.

As college students already know, non-paying internships during school have always been a great way to get hands-on experience, plus the extra-added benefit of industry connections that could turn into valuable professional references.

Now that you’re out of college, you certainly can still go the internship route, as many graduates have. But beyond the conventional internship, which are generally geared towards the current learning community, you can still get experience by volunteering.

Times have been just as tough for non-profit organizations, as they see growing numbers of people in need while faced with dwindling financial contributions. No matter the case, many of these organizations are actively seeking volunteers for a number of duties.

How can this benefit for you? At the very least, it’s something to do. And sometimes, a break from the daily job search grind can be refreshing.

Also, fellow volunteers, as well as paid non-profit staffers, can, like internships, serve as both good sources of career advice as potential professional references. It’s always important to remember that in your career, from the beginning to the end, your human interactions will always remain vital.

Finally, even if your volunteer experience has little to nothing to do with what you studied or the type of position you’re seeking, there’s the feeling you get for doing your part to help the community. It may not be much, but someone will appreciate it.

There are a number of different places that can help you find volunteer opportunities, including your college’s career services department or the local United Way. And you never know. By helping out others, you could also help yourself in the process.

For those of you who are looking for work, chances are, at any given point in time, you have been approached by a recruiter from a staffing agency or consulting firm. Many industries, particularly health care and IT, rely on agencies for short-term or long-term needs, and those of you in those fields can certainly find a great deal of work by pursuing that option.

Even if you’re not in health care or IT, a staffing agency could be a good way for you to find temporary employment or even permanent placement. That is, if the conditions are right. But it’s very important to pay attention to the agencies you come in contact with.

Unfortunately, there are a number of firms out there who are chasing jobs with companies that might not exactly want their help. As a consequence, when you’re contacted by them (or vice versa, as the case may be), it may serve as false hope for your. It’s that that point where you might consider imposing a staffing agency moratorium.

What is that, exactly? Simply put, if you see a job advertised by a staffing firm, you don’t apply. Furthermore, if you are contacted by a firm for a position, you politely decline. Again, while there are many good agencies out there, it’s understandable that there are plenty out that that will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.

Here are some red flags that the staffing agency that you’ve come in contact with might not be on the up-and-up.

• They bring you into their office, then ask you for money. Never, under any circumstances, work with a staffing agency that asks for money up from for you.
• You see a job ad or are contacted by a firm about a position you have either applied for directly or seen advertised by the hiring company themselves. While you may have applied for this position before, and if you haven’t been contacted by the company, chances are a middleman isn’t going to help matters, especially considering they will ask for a placement fee.
• The recruiter you come in contact with is not familiar with the jargon associated with the position. I have had people who have been approached for jobs, especially in IT, where the recruiter is not up on technical jargon. If they don’t speak the same language as you, how can you expect them to speak to the company?

It’s always good to be cautious, especially in these tough economic times. However, if you are able to find the right situation with a staffing agency, you will be glad you were.