Tips for the Young and Jobless

Tips for the Young and JoblessTips for the Young and JoblessMany victims of layoffs this year were young, entry-levelor near entry-level- employees. And if you were one of those perhaps-now-not-so-newly laid off youngsters, youve probably considering going back to school to make yourself more marketable. But if youre on the fence about spending thousands of dollars on a JD/MBA/MA/MFA/MD/PhD, consider some other things you can do to make your resume fresh and relevant. Volunteering is a big one. Learning a new skilleither by reading up, taking a continuing ed course or earning a certificateis another. On his blog, Seth Godin recommends the followingSpend twenty hours a week running a project for a non-profit. Teach yourself Java, HTML, Flash, PHP and SQL. Not a little, but mastery. Clarification I know you cant become a master programmer of all these in a year. I used the word mastery to distinguish it from familiarity which is what you get from one of those Dummies type books. I would hope you could write code that solves problems, works and is reasonably clear, not that you can program well enough to work for Joel Spolsky. Sorry if I ruffled feathers. Volunteer to coach or assistant coach a kids sports team. Start, run and grow an online community. Give a speech a week to local organizations. Write a regular newsletter or blog about an industry you care about. Learn a foreign language fluently. Write three detailed business plans for projects in the industry you care about. Self-publish a book. andrang a marathon.While successfully completing everything on Godins list may take the same amount of time as an MBA program, youll still come out on the other end with a great resumeand no new student loans. Posted by Carolyn Wise, Vault Senior Education Editor