It started with a lonely Tweet. That’s how Margo Rose describes it.

I saw the message. It went by quickly - I noticed it. It was in my stream because I follow Chris Brogan, and I pay attention to what Chris Brogan is checking out.

It also got my attention because of frickin’ #FollowFriday.

See, on Twitter, #FollowFriday (aka #FF), was, and is, a pain in the butt.  I suppose it has its roots in a well-meaning epiphany-message gone horribly viral, just as I suppose there’s an #Everybodyhugatnoon out there that never caught on. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should people.

One day, Chris Brogan wrote, and I am completely paraphrasing here: “Enough with this FollowFriday crap.” I could probably find the original Tweet, but it's Sunday and I have a deadline. Then, as I recall, he echoed Margo Rose’s suggestion of: “how about a #HireFriday instead?” An exasperated crowd-sigh of agreement rustled the twitter leaves.

So I re-tweeted. So did those other sighing people. So did, and does, Mr. Brogan. Time forward, the thing has legs and they’re pretty sturdy.

About the idea for HireFriday:

From a July 2010 interview by TalentCulture Founder Meghan M. Biro with Margo Rose

Margo Rose: “I started HireFriday in February of this year to extol the virtues, talents, and strengths of job seekers around the world. Within 3 weeks, HireFriday expanded to The United Kingdom, and now it’s thriving in Canada. I created guidelines for  HireFriday to offer suggestions and guidance to recruiters and job seekers alike.

When Chris Brogan was on Compassionate HR, we discussed FollowFriday, and how HireFriday is a much better alternative. Brogan said, ‘There was a time when FollowFriday had some traction, in its early inception, people paid attention to the stream, and followed others based the recommendations of trusted friends.” But, in my eyes, it just looks like clutter’.”
(Full Interview here)

Well Amen to that.

I have respectfully jumped on the #HireFriday TweetTrain as long as it continues to take me where I want to go, continuing to provide real value.  Real value right now, for job seekers, is free.  

I spoke with Margo Rose and I want her to succeed, and I believe she will.   I want her to create jobs and grow a solution, and I believe that’s what she wants.  I also believe her message resonates with a very specific market, one growing larger by seconds and about to boom.  

And not that you asked, but I also believe Margo Rose needs a sponsor. And an agent, and a great publisher and an editor. (her book is in the works.) Dr. Laura’s slot is empty. How about Margo Rose’s Compassionate HR? I’ll fetch coffee.

HireFriday has the potential to be the first, successful web-based, perpetual job-fair, and in that, and in the broad possibilities of HireFriday as a brand, there is a multi-branched revenue model that just may work. It's important for Ms. Rose and Twitter.  Moreover, it's important to the participating job seekers.

To echo Ms. Rose (and I suspect Mr. Brogan), the message has to stay clean for it to work. The #HireFriday brand is evolving in partnership with some bright community voices with a lot to say, but ultimately, it is a brand with a singular message at its root, a message owned by Ms. Rose since 2009.  Smart lady.

It’s a good thing and will continue to be a good thing if it remains about one thing: the talent. It is alive with talent. It is a living, moving, recruiting hiring machine with real people who really want to work.  Read their messages.  #HireFriday.

Karen Masullo for RescueResumes.com
You can find Karen on her personal stream @OPCGal and the RescueResumes team @ResFix

• Margo Rose is the Host of Compassionate HR on BlogTalkRadio, and the leader of the pack for HireFriday. You can find her at HRMargo
• Chris Brogan is a guy with a 2010 Camaro SS that he bought on Motorphilia.com. You may find him at Chris Brogan
• Meghan M. Biro is founder of Talent Culture and may be found Here

Relief for Unemployed Job Seekers: Credit Checks Banned in Illinois – Careers Articles

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed a new law Tuesday — the Employee Credit Privacy Act — that prohibits employers from using a person’s credit history when it comes to getting a job. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2011.... Read Full Article

http://andywergedal.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/relief-for-unemployed-job-seekers-credit-checks-banned-in-illinois-careers-articles/

Jesse Thomas is the CEO and Founder of JESS3. A creative interactive agency specializing in social media data visualization, JESS3 has architected visual masterpieces and interactive solutions for IBM, Intel, Microsoft, MySpace, Pfizer, Time Warner, NASA, Nestle, Pepsi / Tropicana, the Wall Street Journal and many other blue chip companies.

JESS3 is online at JESS3.com

How to Avoid the dreaded typo (whether you are job searching or not):

1. Start your document, blog post, LinkedIn profile, Google profile etc. in Word or a like application. Check your Document Review settings - make sure you do not have options set to ignore words in Caps or other terms. Spell- and Grammar-check.
2. Do not automatically accept word processor suggestions: Somewhere, out there today, is a major proposal that has the word "seamy" where "seamlessly" should have been. Really changed the meaning of the paragraph.
3. Copy your text into Notepad to strip underlying formatting & HTML that may create issues if you are pasting into a CMS.
4. Copy and paste using a Browser that has a spell-check option.
5. Used web-based resources if you are in doubt of spelling or meaning of a word. http://www.wordcentral.com/ from Miriam-Webster is a good, free tool. There are many others.
6. Have an objective party review whenever possible, or set the work aside for at least a couple of hours so you may review it with "fresh" eyes.
7. Hire the great folks at RescueResumes and be done with it!

We've been watching Erik Proulx and the folks from Lemonade the Movie since Winter of last year, and find their vision, project, and achievement extraordinary and inspiring.  Their next project is Lemonade the Book and they may be looking for you!

"Lemonade (The Book) Lemonade, the book will assemble a collection of essays from people telling stories of reinvention in their own words. Only this time, it won't be limited to the advertising industry.

Imagine all the inspirational personal triumphs that arose after the auto industry crash. Think of all the school teachers, engineers, and finance professionals who have found their life’s work thanks to being downsized. Those of us in advertising provide just one, very sheltered viewpoint of what’s possible in unemployment.

If you lost your job but found your calling, they want to hear from you.

Movie Synopsis

What do people who were once paid to be creative for a living do when they’re laid off? They get creative with their own lives. Lemonade is an inspirational film about 16 advertising professionals who lost their jobs and found their calling, encouraging people to listen to that little voice inside their head that asks, “What if?”

All resources for Lemonade were donated. From cameras to lights to flights, this is a project by and for those who have been affected by unemployment.

About The Cast

Michelle Pfennighaus
After being laid off from an ad agency, Michelle became a health counselor and yoga instructor and would not change a thing. 

Kevin Kearns
When freelance work in NYC dried up post 9/11, Kevin decided to pursue his passion for painting. His work is now hanging in the Stricoff Gallery in SoHo and he sells 40-50 paintings a year.

Steve Hall
After Steve lost his job he created one of the most successful ad blogs in the business called Adrants.com.

David Cohen
David Cohen lost his job and made the most profound change a guy can make -- he became a woman. He changed his name to Dana Morrigan, and is now the managing editor of Genderfork.com. 

Kurtis Glade
After losing his job, Kurtis shot a documentary film about surf camps in California that provide free, therapeutic surf lessons to kids with cystic fibrosis. His daughter has CF.

Jeanne Schad
Jeanne was laid off from a large ad agency in Texas. Today she owns a global business consulting firm with over 150 coaches in her network.

Mark Radcliffe
After losing his job, Mark rode the entire Tour de France behind Lance Armstrong and started a site called "Chasing Lance." Mark also just released his second album called "The Sea Before Us."

Erik Proulx
After losing his job as a senior copywriter, Erik started a blog called Please Feed The Animals to help others in transition to navigate unemployment and reinvent themselves.

Jonathan Halitsky
After getting laid off from a media company, Jonathan volunteered to help those even less fortunate and also appeared in a Truth commercial done by a large agency.

Tom Van Daele
When Tom was laid off from his job as a creative director, he started his own agency. His first project was a website called cardsofchange.com, which gives those who have been laid off a place to state one positive change that resulted from losing their jobs.

Lisa Hickey
Lisa lost her job as a principal of a Boston ad agency. She has since become a leader in the world of Social Media and consults clients all over the world.

Hank Leber
Hank couldnʼt find a job in advertising so he started his own agency with a unique concept – do work for a client, and after the project is complete, the client pays what they think the work is worth.

Bob Weeks
After losing his job, Bob became a professional coffee roaster and sells his coffee all over New England and direct to consumer.

Lawson Clarke
After being laid off, Lawson took his clothes off, posed on a bearskin rug and started malecopywriter.com. He hasn't stopped freelancing since.

Ronan Doyle & Todd Gallentine
After getting laid off from different companies at different times, Ronan and Todd met and and started their own advertising agency together.

About the Filmmakers

Erik Proulx - Creator, Executive Producer, Writer
Erik has spent nearly 15 years in advertising agencies across the country, including Madison Avenue conglomerates, Main Street boutiques, and everything in between. Then on October 15, 2008, one week after a having a conversation with his boss about a raise and promotion, Erik lost his job at one of the biggest and most respected advertising agencies in the country. It was then he realized that no matter how good you are or how hard you work, being on another company’s payroll will always carry a risk of being let go -- something Erik experienced three times in his relatively short career.

Erik created Lemonade to help people see that losing their jobs doesn’t have to be the end of the world. As Lisa Hickey said in the film, “Don’t be the person looking for a job. Be the person doing something interesting.” Lemonade is Erik’s something interesting.


Marc Colucci - Director
Marc Colucci is a director at Picture Park, splitting his work between documentary-style and comedic spots for clients such as ESPN, Staples and Dunkin’ Donuts. Enjoying versatile opportunities to work with talent, Marc has also directed several short films including the “October” segment of the feature film Twelve, premiering at Boston’s IFFB before touring the national festival circuit. His music video for the Dropkick Murphys’ “State of Massachusetts” is featured weekly on MTV as part of the show Nitro Circus. Most recently, Marc is finishing his first feature film, Slip & Fall, slated for an early 2010 release.


Peter Nelson - Director of Photography
Peter Nelson has photographed a wide variety of feature films, commercials and documentaries in a multitude of film and video formats. His signature naturalistic style has taken him around the world to capture life as it happens for fiction and non-fiction films. Feature credits include SICKO, A TALE OF TWO PIZZAS, PIPE DREAM, SUITS and the cult New York romance ED'S NEXT MOVE which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He has done domestic and international documentary work for PBS, HBO, BBC (often with their flagship arts program Arena), and Granada Television. Recent commercial work includes campaigns for ESPN, PBS, American Family Insurance, Stop and Shop, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. Other commercial credits include spots for Lifetime, Coca-Cola, Champion, and Calvin Klein. Peter received a BFA in Film and Television from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.


Will Van Hazel - Director of Photography
Will got his start in the film business when he skipped high school to watch the filming of "Deathtrap" in his hometown of East Hampton, NY. By ten o'clock that morning, he was dragging feeder cable threw his neighbors yards in exchange for the promise of a catered lunch. He went home with fifty dollars in his pocket pooled together from the electricians. After the third day when the school principal called his home, he had his first experience with a layoff/retirement.

He went on to attend Emerson College in Boston, MA. where he received his B.F.A. in Film. Will now lives in Los Angeles where he works as a commercial cinematographer and enjoys shooting anything and everything.


Andre Betz - Editor
Andre began editing in 1984 at the age of 19 (you do the math). Then In 1998, Andre started Bug Editorial, Inc. in the Soho area of New York, which also served as the NYC location for filming.

In addition to winning AICP, Cannes Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions, Emmy, and A.C.E awards for his commercial work, Andre's work on "Looking for Richard" by Al Pacino won the A.C.E award for best editing in a feature documentary. Several of Andre's commercials have been made part of the permanent exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in NY. His most notable commercials include Volkswagen's "Synchronicity," "MilkyWay," and "Sunday Afternoon" (a.k.a., "da, da, da"). Other clients include Nike, Monster.com, Microsoft, Volvo, Coca Cola, Reebok, Converse, ESPN, Burger King, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, Revlon, Dunkin Donuts, Vonage, Chase, Citibank, Mastercard, Guinness, Gatorade, Timberland, Anheuser Busch, and many others.

Andre lives in NY with his three daughters and wife. During the summer months, Andre lives and edits in Maine.


Jennifer McKenzie - Producer & Executive Producer
Jennifer McKenzie had early aspirations of becoming a farmer. When the expected green thumb failed to develop, she turned tail and became a Producer instead.

Jennifer cultivated her producer-ly tricks during her nine years at Boston-based ad agency Mullen. She produced numerous television and integrated campaigns, and picked up some helpful firefighting and tap dancing skills along the way.

As of late, she has been freelancing at various agencies and post-production houses, as well as building her voiceover reel. Jennifer was an Executive Producer of the short documentary, “Lemonade.” She has an impressive shoe collection and an excellent vocabulary.


Carrie Jacobson - Producer
Carrie Jacobson started in the middle, faked to the right, then went left, and wound up on the right again. Born and raised in Omaha and educated in Boston, she spent seven years in Los Angeles at TBWA\Chiat\Day where, arguably, she was also reared.

After a stint as a professional hand model, she moved back to Boston where she freelanced for the city's brightest ad agencies before landing at Arnold as a Senior Producer. Then she went over to the post-production side as the Executive Producer of a talented post boutique.

Carrie is available for hand modeling, and as a freelance broadcast producer.

Probably not all at once.

Over the years she’s produced documentaries and mockumentaries, dabbled in her own short film projects, and generally tries to use her powers for good over evil.

She lives with her husband in Boston.


Scott Burtnett - Producer
Scott Burtnett has been working in the Boston film community since 1988. Over the years he has worked in a variety of on-set roles including Location Scout, Assistant Director and Producer. He is currently an Executive Producer with Picture Park. Scott enjoys working with a wide range of clients including TaylorMade, Comcast, Bank of America, and McDonald's. He enjoys photography, sledding and using the Google. Scott lives in Melrose. MA with his wife, three children and a rabbit.