To find work faster, remember that your goal with any gadgetry or software -- from smart phones and email to Linkedin and Twitter -- is to meet people who can hire you.

With that in mind, here are two ways to find a job -- one high-tech and the other very low -- from Australia. How can you adapt them to your search?

1) Tweet and Meet

Jade Craven (www.jadecraven.com), in Geelong, Australia, found work in August 2009 by doing a few smart things on Twitter.

1. Go to Tweetups

A "Tweetup" is a meeting of people who follow each other's postings (tweets) on Twitter. Craven attended a Tweetup organized by a woman she followed on Twitter -- the same woman who eventually hired her.

You can find Tweetups by monitoring tweets of people in your industry whom you'd like to meet -- that's what Craven did. You can search for Tweetups here - http://www.twtvite.com or here - http://search.twitter.com

For more on how to find Twitter users near you, read this article on Mashable - http://mashable.com/2009/06/08/twitter-local-2/

2. Provide Advice for Free

Craven regularly sent useful ideas to her future employer using the direct message (DM) function on Twitter.

You should do the same and share helpful tips in most of your tweets or DMs -- it's an excellent way to showcase expertise and build a following.

3. Connect With Connectors

Craven followed several people who enjoy helping and introducing other people to each other. The right "connectors" can help you meet employers. But don't expect help from anyone before first providing it yourself (see 2. above).

Not sure who the connectors are in your field? Ask people you know. Or search Twitter (http://search.twitter.com).

4. Make It Known That You Are Looking For Work

Craven says, "I often talked about how I wanted to get a job at the end of the year" in her Twitter postings. This got the attention of the woman who hired her over lunch in August.

5. Offer To Help

Sharing your skills and expertise with others is a low-risk way for potential employers to size you up. "You don't even have to do it for free -- you can do it at a reduced price," says Craven, who found increased exposure for her work by helping others.

While this is a variation on "Provide Advice for Free" above, the repetition is noteworthy. It's by helping others first that you create enough "psychic equity" to earn job leads later.

Bottom line: Craven used Twitter to meet people in the real world, forging a personal connection that led to a job offer.

(A big thanks to the folks at Twitter Tips [www.twitterusermanual.com] for passing this story on to me.)

2) Fax and Meet

Jennifer Lloyd, from Brisbane, Australia, found work using methods that were low-tech (fax) and no-tech (meeting employers in person).

The Brisbane job market is highly competitive, according to Lloyd, who faxed about 50 resumes and delivered another 150 in person to employers over a five-week period, from July to September 2009.

She writes: "I loved faxing instead of emailing. Someone has to see [the resume] and can't delete it without looking!"

Lloyd got the names of hiring managers from online Chamber of Commerce databases, publicly available listings of businesses in a particular area. She also researched corporate web sites for contact information.

If a potential employer was nearby, she hand-delivered her resume. Companies farther from home were faxed, when possible.

In general, managers were pleased to meet someone willing to take the initiative and drop off resumes in person, according to Lloyd, who did encounter one rude receptionist, to whom she handed her resume anyway. If an office building required a security check or authorization to visit, Lloyd avoided entering.

Her results? "I was offered two jobs and am happily working in one now," says Lloyd, who received one offer from faxing and another offer from delivering her resume in person.

Bottom line: Lloyd set a goal to deliver 10 resumes and fax 10 resumes every week day. By working her plan methodically and meeting enough people, she found work.

What do these intrepid Aussies have in common? They didn't hide behind technology. Instead, they used it to set up meetings with hiring managers, or dispensed with it altogether and visited in person.

You can do the same, by using technology with discipline and clear goals ... when you use it at all.

Remember: Nobody has ever been hired by a computer. You have to meet people for that.

Kevin Donlin is co-author of Guerrilla Resumes. Since 1996, he has provided job-search help to more than 20,000 people. Author of 3 books, Kevin has been interviewed by The New York Times, USA Today, Fox News, CBS Radio and others.

Courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates seeking entry-level jobs and other career opportunities, and posted on GadBall Blog.

OfficeTeam provides businesses with the temporary administrative professionals they need to maximize productivity, achieve cost efficiency and support existing staff. The company has more than 325 locations worldwide and offers online job search services at .

• It is purposefully designed; or
• It happens by default - through the absence of planning..
• Either way, culture change happens. And for most organizations the culture has changed quite a bit in the past year or so since our economy tanked.

Most professionals know that changing the culture of an organization is the most difficult task anyone can attempt. However, as economically induced organizational upsets have occurred and been addressed often with organizational realignment or restructuring activities, organizational culture has been collateral damage. Because many changes have been unplanned, they may have been accompanied by some unintended and negative consequences.

In this first of two articles on repairing your organizational culture, we'll address two primary questions:

What is organizational culture?
How do I identify culture in my organization?
What is Organizational Culture?

I'll Know It When I See It!
"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [obscenity]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it...."
Justice Potter Stewart, 1964, Jacobellis v. Ohio

Other than in the case of Justice Stewart above, before we start working to change something, it is usually a good idea to be clear on what it is we are changing and why.

In his book "Organizational Culture and Leadership", Edgar Schein defines organizational culture as:

"A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way you perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems".

We prefer a simpler definition: "Organizational culture is the way things get done around here."

How Do I know What Culture is in My Organization? - See It Live! - Take a Walk!

Signs of organizational culture exist in three areas:

Artifacts and Behaviors. These are the most tangible aspects of culture and can be seen in -

• Actions - How people visibly interact with each other and with organizational outsiders, including customers
• Physical Signs - offices space, furnishings and/or the way people dress
• Written and spoken language - The ways people communicate with each other
• Unwritten or written stories - Stories about events or people that point to heroes or villains.

Values and Principles - What the organization stands for is rooted in "shoulds" and "oughts" including:

• How customer needs must be met
• How people should relate to one another
• The relationship between actions and consequences
• How failure is handled
• How power and control should be exercised
• How business should be conducted.

Fundamental Assumptions and Mental Models - Beliefs, ideologies, ethical and moral codes that are ingrained, unconscious, and often unquestioned, such as:

• The assumed time frames for decisions and actions
• The proper balance between family and work
• The emphasis on personal/professional development
• The understanding of why we are in business.

How do you identify an organization's culture?

This is the easy part. There are 3 main ways to identify an organization's culture:

• Take a Culture Jaunt
• Talk to people
• Conduct a survey

1. Take a Cultural Jaunt

Take a walk around and look at some of the physical signs of culture. (Notice how the following are different in Corporate vs. the Field.)

• How is space allocated? Where are offices located and who gets them?
• How much space is given, and to whom?
• What is posted on bulletin boards or displayed on walls?
• What is displayed on desks or in other areas of the building? In work groups?
• How are common areas utilized?
• What do people write to one another? What is said in memos or email? What is the general tone of communication (formal or informal, pleasant or hostile, etc.)?
• How often do people communicate with one another verbally vs. through text, social media such as Twitter and/or email? (Do people communicate verbally at all anymore?)
• What interaction between people do you see? How much emotion is expressed or tolerated?
• How are difficult customers handled?
• How is internal conflict handled? Is it acknowledged? Rewarded or punished?

When you return to your office, record what you saw and heard. Make sure to include your impressions and your guesses about what it all means.

2. Talk to People:

Casual Conversations

Take advantage of impromptu opportunities to talk with people. Share your assumptions with them. Ask them "How do you think the culture has changed in the past year or so? (Whatever time you think the company has been actively responding to the economic downturn.)

Small Group Interviews: Another way to understand the culture of your organization is to interview people in small groups. With most doing more with less, "brown bag" lunches are a good idea. Since it is usually difficult for most of us to put into words what culture is like, indirect questions may be your best option, such as:

• What would you tell a friend about this organization if she/he were interested in working here?
• What is the one thing you would most like to change about this organization?
• What kind of person is a hero around here? Why?
• What is your favorite characteristic about this organization?
• What kinds of people fail here?
• What is your favorite question to ask a job candidate in your company?

3. Culture Surveys:

Surveys can also provide good, quantifiable information about organizational culture. It is a good idea to create or select a survey using information collected during the culture jaunt and your conversations.

You can either purchase or custom-design a survey. An off-the-shelf survey may have interesting questions and it may also have questions not relevant to your organization. The survey may have been used in a number of other organizations, so the questions may be reliable and validated. InstantSurvey, Zoomerang and SurveyMonkey are good online assessment options.

Next Steps

The results from getting the answers to "What is organizational culture?" and "How do I identify culture in my organization?" may bring you some peace or set off a panic! This process will either confirm the efficacy of your organizational culture, or provide the drivers and motivation you need to get organizational culture back on track.

In article #2 of this series , we will outline our validated four-phase model for changing organizational culture.

Article by, WSA managing partner, Paul Stimson, and courtesy of Work Systems Affiliates

HR Management can help you to understand employee satisfaction, retain key team members and improve productivity. In every organisation, employees will fit into one of the following categories:

1. Employees most satisfied with the organisation
2. Employees satisfied with the organisation
3. Employees content to stay with the organisation
4. Employees dissatisfied with the organisation
5. Employees looking to leave the organisation

For employees that are most satisfied with the organisation you need to continue to identify ways to ensure job satisfaction, are challenged, productive and motivated in their role.

For employees that are content in their role you need to ensure they are continuing to contribute in a productive manner and identify ways to promote higher levels of motivation.

For employees that are dissatisfied with the organisation or are actively looking to leave, you need to assess whether these team members have the competencies that are of value to your business. Generally, dissatisfaction occurs over time, with both the employee and employer becoming increasingly more frustrated with one another.
What to do with employees who are not satisfied?

Firstly you need to endeavour to take the emotion out of the decisions you make so that you make the best decision for the business. Generally the most senior person has the most 'power' and therefore is in a stronger position to initiate methods to improve the relationship. Below are the steps in remedying this situation.

1. Assess if the competencies of the team member are valuable to the business. If they are and the employee is looking to leave, the organisation needs to communicate with the employee in an effective manner. As a reminder it needs to be remembered that this situation has occurred over time and that it will take time to repair. If the team member does not believe the manager is able to work a way around the problem the employee will continue to be dissatisfied and most likely leave.

2. Reflecting as to why this situation has occurred, and invariably there can be a myriad of reasons. This is not a situation of blaming anyone but looking holistically and identifying why. Facilitate a meeting with the employee to determine why they are not satisfied with the organisation.

3. It needs to be determined if the reasons for the level of dissatisfaction are valid, if anything can be done, remembering that if we continue to do what we have done in the past we cannot really expect any different result. Therefore to change behaviour and performance we need to change the way we communicate and or the environment.

4. If it is decided that the situation is not going to be addressed the problems existing between the employee and employer will continue to fester. Eventually the employee will leave the organisation. The consequences of having an unsatisfied employee eventually leaving needs to be assessed. For minimum impact to the business this process needs to be properly managed. This will include succession planning.

5. The major concern for most businesses is that employee's leave at inconvenient times and this is extremely disruptive and costly to the business. Therefore, to have minimal impact this process needs to be planned. Managers can provide improved workforce planning by understanding which employees fit into each of the five categories.

Managers who understand their team member's satisfaction levels have increased capability to improve morale, productivity and business profitability. Managers who chose to ignore employee satisfaction do so at their peril, and can expect reduced employee morale, productivity and profitability. While you may not lose a valuable employee right now, you will at a time when you least expect it, and at a time when it has a substantial impact on your business.

In summary managers have a choice of three strategies. Managers can:

1. Make it happen by improving employee satisfaction.

2. Watch it happen experiencing poor performing team members and positive performers leaving.

3. Say 'What the hell happened?' and experience poor business performance.

Article by David McGillivray

Courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates seeking entry-level jobs and other career opportunities, and posted on MN Headhunter.

Perhaps it's time to move on. But where? And will you be successful in your new job? Or would it be a case of "out of the frying pan into the fire"?

You can minimize that risk. You should find a job that fires you with hwyl--the Celtic concept of passion, fervor, and spirit that can lift you to extremes of success. Then you need to check that market conditions at this job are favorable, and that you will be at least reasonably well placed to succeed in the job. But first things first.

Find a Job with Hwyl (pronounced h-wale)

To find a job you feel passionate about, you need a process. Make three columns on a sheet of paper or on the computer. In column one, write down all the names of people who have jobs that inspire you. In the middle column, write down the type of work they do. In the third column, put 1-5 tick marks according to how passionate you feel about these jobs, where 1 = okay job, and 5 = truly inspired.

Use a Screening Process to Arrive at a Short List

Okay, now you have a long list, and you've given each job a hwyl rating (a ranking between 1 and 5 on your "passion-o-meter"). Now rearrange them in order of hwyl rating. Hopefully you will have a list of at least a dozen or so jobs to which you have given four or five ticks.

But this will be no more than a wish list. It could range from such entries as Barack Obama, president, 5 ticks, to Uncle Joe, plumber, 4 ticks.

The list should be screened against two criteria: job market conditions and your likely competitiveness in the job. Gut feel is all you need at this stage. You won't have detailed information on either criterion at this stage, but you don't need it yet. The aim is to find out whether any of these top dozen jobs is a runner.

Under job market conditions, consider such factors as job market size (just the one in the case of president, thousands more for plumbers), job market growth (zero in the presidency, strong in plumbing), competitive intensity (cut-throat at the top in politics, not too tough in plumbing), and job risk (brutal at the White House, low in plumbing).

For the competitiveness criterion, don't be too harsh on yourself. This is a new job you will be seeking, so it is clear that you can't be a stellar performer straight away compared to current practitioners. Consider factors such as your capabilities, current and potential, pertinent to the job, and your related experience, direct and indirect. For the presidency, how do you rate your capabilities in, for example, law, policy analysis, and public speaking? For plumbing, what experience in, for example, fixing or installation have you had over the years?

Research the Short List

Which of those top dozen jobs with hwyl have managed to pass through the screen? That is, where market conditions and your capabilities are generally favourable. If one or two, that's great. If none, that's too bad, but move down the list and bring up the next dozen or so jobs, perhaps those with at least three hwyl ticks. And so on, until you have a short list of two or three jobs. These are jobs that not only have, hopefully, plenty of hwyl, but where you may also be backable to a potential investor in yourself.

But that investor will want more detail. You must now thoroughly research these short-listed jobs. Talk to practitioners, talk to their customers. Just what are the capabilities required to do the job? How would you fare? What entry strategy should you deploy? What should you be doing now to strengthen your positioning before you take the leap?

The Realtor Turned Plumber

I included the plumber example above for a reason. Randy was a realtor in Atlanta, a very good one. He had the knack of empathizing with both vendor and buyer to close the deal. Yet his heart was not wholly in it. What he really loved doing was fixing things, getting his hands dirty. His Uncle Joe was a plumber and he had helped him out a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed it. But was plumbing a serious potential career switch, or a fancy?

Plumbing sailed through Randy's screening process, beating off fire-fighting and pro basketball. Then he did some serious research. He spoke at length with Uncle Joe, many of his uncle's colleagues, and a few customers. Greatly encouraged, he prepared an entry strategy. He signed up for two evening courses, one on basic plumbing and one on a specialized area. He helped out his uncle on weekends. Well researched, well prepared, he quit his realtor job and launched his own plumbing business. It has flourished. These days he wakes up each morning with a spring in his step. He is living the hwyl.

Randy's story illustrates how you can find unexpected, fulfilling careers by following your passion. Randy's hwyl lay in plumbing. He backed it. So can you.

Vaughan Evans is a renowned economist, business strategist, sought-after speaker, and the author of Backing U! A Business-Oriented Guide to Backing Your Passion and Achieving Career Success (Business and Careers Press, 2009, www.backingu.com).

Courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates seeking entry-level jobs and other career opportunities, and posted on Boston Technical Recruiter.

Wonderful for the reporter's ego. Terrible for journalism.

Of course, favored journalists have always enjoyed special access to US Presidents, but that doesn't mean the problem is any less of a threat to media independence simply because it has always been a fact of political life.

But it's not only political life that is at the heart of this issue. Powerful people, whether they hold forth in the White House or the boardroom, attract worshipers. And that is where the system, any system, breaks down.

An exaggeration? Of course, but:

• Why did GM allow the Japanese to "outcar" them for decades?
• How did Citi's board permit management to wreck the business with thousands of reckless investment decisions?
• For what reason did Nixon's palace guard accede to their boss's call to create an Enemies List in the greatest democracy in the world?
• How come congressional leaders of both parties proclaim bold-faced lies only to have their press secretaries stand in front of the cameras and swear it's the truth?

It's all due to the Cancer Of Power. Take someone, nearly anyone, and put them on a throne, and those who pass by will tell you they are a genius. How many men and women worship every word Prince Charles utters even though this man, this entire family, its centuries of power notwithstanding, has never accomplished a single thing.

Charles is famously mediocre. Or worse. But his entourage will tell you that this is a man of the ages.

Something happens when people rise to fame. An aura surrounds them, one that is so bright, so neon, so celestial, that it blinds otherwise intelligent people to the pablum of who they are and what they have to say.

Which is, not much of anything.

How many people within Jamie Diamond's inner circle actually tell the CEO when he makes a dumb move? How many even believe he can or does EVER make a dumb move? There is no doubt that Diamond is a truly gifted businessman, one I met when my firm worked for Smith Barney.

But gifted people need gifted critics more than anyone else. It keeps them from floating away into a place that is so far removed from the reality that they need to keep them grounded.

The problem is, kings don't want to be grounded. And sycophants are too dazzled to remove them, even for a moment, from the Sudan chair in which they are lifted above the crowds.

And in every single case, this worship is why once great companies fail and once extraordinary nations collapse into Banana Republics.

Article by, Mark Stevens, the bestselling author of "Your Marketing Sucks," "Your Management Sucks" and"God Is A Salesman." Stevens is CEO of MSCO, a global marketing firm, who has advised many clients over the years such as Estee Lauder, Virgin Atlantic, Guardian Insurance, MONY, Giorgio Armani, Starwood, Intrawest, etc. Stevens delivers more than 40 speeches annually and is a regularly featured media commentator, lending his insights and opinions on Fox Business Network, to the Associated Press, on CNN International, BBC Radio and Bloomberg TV.

[Some job search experts advise against using gimmicks, but it seems to depend on the job seeker and on the employer. As my father often says, "Nothing fails like a try."]

Juju.com is a job search engine made easy. It gathers job postings from different employer Web sites and job boards which makes searching for a job convenient and stress-free. Juju was built on the foundations of the first job search engine on the web, www.job-search-engine.com, which launched in 1998. The site was re-launched under the Juju brand in January 2006 with new technology, a new interface, and a new team.

As we observe the tiny creatures racing for a dose of pleasure, we think of ourselves as vastly superior to this lower form of life. To these virtually mindless rodents.

But I wonder: how different are we really? Yes, we create computers, the Internet, vaccines, space probes, behavioral experiments. But are we in a Skinner box of our own?

• We don't know why we live and die.
• We have no idea where we go after we leave the living.
• We don't understand how the universe works, how it got started or if and when it will end.

• Money
• Achievement
• Beauty
• Peace

And darting away from:

• Fear
• Discomfort
• The unknown

Let's put this in the perspective of business. Every day, we seek out:

• New customers and clients
• Closing big sales
• Raises and promotions
• Awards

And we avoid:

• Making painful decisions
• Terminating employees
• Resigning from business relationships that are no longer respectful or fruitful
• Taking substantial personal risk

When the Skinner rats and other creatures in similar experiments understand the system, they avoid the pain and turn over and over again to the pleasure. Precisely what we, the human race, want to do.

But, and yes this is where we distinguish ourselves from these creatures, successful humans in business will move intentionally to the pain- risk, terminations, painful decisions-as a means to an end.

In OUR Skinner box, the winners do not live in a world of black and white, pleasure and pain. They navigate through a gray area en route to something far more important than a food pellet.

We think. Or is there another Skinner toying with us?

Article by, Mark Stevens, the bestselling author of "Your Marketing Sucks," "Your Management Sucks" and"God Is A Salesman." Stevens is CEO of MSCO, a global marketing firm, who has advised many clients over the years such as Estee Lauder, Virgin Atlantic, Guardian Insurance, MONY, Giorgio Armani, Starwood, Intrawest, etc. Stevens delivers more than 40 speeches annually and is a regularly featured media commentator, lending his insights and opinions on Fox Business Network, to the Associated Press, on CNN International, BBC Radio and Bloomberg TV.