Here’s an article David Perry and I just got published in Forbes, expanding on a blog posting I made here a few weeks back.

If you want to create real job security for yourself, in this or any economy, you might want to give it a read.

Had dinner with Jason Alba from JibberJobber.com last night. He’s in town for the Career Management Alliance conference this week. I’ll be there Thur. and Fri. interviewing people for my Star Tribune columns — if you see me, say Hey.

Jason’s a great guy and a veritable fire hose of information relating to all things job search 2.0.

I wanted to learn more about Twitter, the social-networking tool that gives real-time updates on what people are doing. So I asked Jason, point blank: “Can you use this thing to find a job?”

His reply was a qualified Yes. It won’t get most people a job crazy fast, but together with smart, consistent blogging, Twitter is one way to learn about and build relationships with people who matter in your industry.

A quick bit of research turned up one guy who got 4 job offers after a post to his blog and Twitter account.

Looking for a job has certainly changed since the last time I actively searched for a job.

My entire job search consisted of this blog post, and this tweeton Twitter. (Ok, I did send a couple of e-mails, but it sounds better if it’s just the blog and Twitter). Within 2 hours, I had 4 serious inquiries and 11 in total by the end of the first day. That’s pretty good, considering that I live on an island outside of Seattle, and not in the Bay Area. Interestingly enough, only two of those inquiries were from companies with physical offices in the Seattle area.

Warning: Don’t expect results like that overnight. Or even over 100 nights.

But you can create job security if you “dig your well before you’re thirsty,” (to quote Harvey Mackay) and “become a thought leader in your field because you’ve written and blogged over time about a topic you’re an expert in,” (to quote Jason Alba from dinner).

There’s more to write on this. A lot more. If you have a job-search success story about Twitter and/or blogging, or know of one, email to me me — kevin at thesimplejobsearch.com. 

Meanwhile, I’ll be tweeting on Twitter.

Charles Darwin wrote: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

In today’s global economy, when your job can vanish down a fiber-optic cable to India before breakfast tomorrow, it’s not how strong or smart you are that matters. It’s how adaptable you are to change.

That’s bad news for anyone who can’t or won’t change how they work, to make themselves more valuable to employers.

But it’s good news — and can mean real job security — for anyone who does adapt to change and does want to evolve on the job.

So here’s a question to help guide your thinking and keep from getting outsourced any time soon:

“What do you do that can’t be done overseas via the Internet?”
 
Example answers …
 
1) Seek out new tasks.
Is there one project at your company that nobody wants to touch? If you did take it on — or at least chipped away at it — would it make you look like a hero? If so, why not start today?
 
2) Make team members better.
Do you serve as a “connector” among the departments at your company, putting people and resources in touch with each other? If not, why not start now?
 
3) Bring in new business.
Even if you’re in accounting or IT, what one thing could you do today to bring in new customers or revenue? If you’re not sure, ask your company’s #1 sales superstar. Then do something to bring in more sales, and make sure your boss knows. When you do, you have a revenue-producing edge over every other accounting or IT person.

Re-read Darwin’s quote, then ask yourself these final questions:

• How adaptable to change am I on the job?

• If I don’t adapt well, what one thing could I do to start adapting better today?

Then, if you’re ready to take your job search to the next level, take a look at The Simple Job Search System.

Did that headline grab your attention?

Good.

I want the biggest audience possible for this posting, because I think I may have stumbled onto a major breakthrough for you and your job search.

Here’s the deal …

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