Hallmark has a new line of cards for a demographic they haven’t targeted before — people who have recently lost their jobs:

What do you think? Would you like to receive a card after having been laid off?

Now, cards are nice — but because we’re in the business of giving more-concrete assistance to the unemployed, we thought we’d list a few other things that an employed person might do to help an unemployed friend (instead of, or in addition to, a card):

1. Write a letter of recommendation.

2. Ask if there’s anyone in your network (on Monster’s BeKnown professional-networking app, for instance) he’d like to be introduced to — networking is important for job seekers, but many are shy about asking for introductions.

3. Take her to lunch near your office, and let her bounce job-search plans off of you — a friendly ear can be invaluable, as can having a “professional” appointment during the workday. Plus, you’ll be able to better help her if you know what her goals are.

4. Find an appropriate colleague to review his resume — even if it’s just for five minutes, this is as much about networking as it is about resume critique.

5. Invite him to your professional networking events if you can (even if he’s in a different line of work, those network contacts can be invaluable).

6. Just keep her name on a sticky note near your computer, so her job search is on your mind — that way, you’ll be sure to keep an eye out for leads!

7. If he’s tweeting, blogging, or otherwise promoting his career via social media, help him extend his outreach.

8. If you can help her brush up on any skills, offer to do so.

9. Don’t ask him, every time you see him, if he’s found a job yet. But do

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There’s a glum desperation in the air that’s hard to escape: volatility, futility, and a McFuture ghoulishly wagging its skeletal finger at a lost generation.

So on what scale would you say transformation should happen? What’s the breadth of your vision for change?

It’s time to get not just serious, but maybe even a little bit radical. This isn’t a drill, but a nine-alarm fire. But where are the fire engines? Washington’s bogged down in games of brinksmanship instead of practicing the art of leadership. Hell-bent on running each other into the ground — instead of running the nation — America’s so-called leaders are sending us into what wonks are calling a “policy-induced recession.” Listen to what Robert Gates has to say about it:

I do believe that we are now in uncharted waters when it comes to the dysfunction in our political system — and it is no longer a joking matter…we have lost the ability to execute even the basic functions of government, much less solve the most difficult and divisive problems facing the country. Thus, I am more concerned than I have ever been about the state of American governance.

It’s bonkers, right? We’re confronted by the most ferocious, tenacious crisis in decades — and that’s when the Big Kahunas decide to squabble over whose got the biggest biceps? Unfortunately, it’s rationally irrational, tediously predictable — a textbook example of a competence trap. A crisis is exactly when you should expect body-checked jockeying for pole-position to occur, because that’s when political power counts most.

I’d say we’ve got a bad case of Reality Deficit Disorder. Call it America’s imaginariness problem.

Let’s start with the easy one: the financial sector trades imaginary “value,” which, when it gets “erased” by the trillion, sends journalists into paroxysms of fear and gloom. But, as

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By Nancy Mann Jackson for Glassdoor.com
Last month, more than 165,500 people were laid off in the United States, according to a report released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of those job losses were part of mass layoffs; some 391 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector alone. A look at national headlines shows that layoffs continue and aren’t expected to slow down anytime soon.

If you are (or suspect you might become) one of the unlucky laid-off American workers, it might be a good time to consider diversifying your income sources. In her book “One Person/Multiple Careers,” Marci Alboher popularized the term “slasher” for those who can’t answer the question “What do you do?” with a single word or phrase. For the book, she interviewed hundreds of people pursuing multiple careers simultaneously, from lawyer/chefs to surgeon/playwrights and mom/CEOs, and found that many of today’s most fulfilling lives are the ones filled with slashes.

While some people prefer “slashing” to maintain control of their own work lives and keep things interesting, others resort to working in various jobs out of necessity. Even if slashing isn’t your first choice for a career, now might be a good time to open your mind to the possibilities. Here are five ideas to help you start the process of finding your own potential slash career:

1. Write thank you notes. When dealing with a layoff, gratitude may not come naturally. But Alboher says it’s a good time to send handwritten thank you notes to the people who have helped you in your career thus far. You never know; touching base with supportive people from your past may

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Lots of talk this week government jobs — so this week’s “cool jobs” spotlight is on companies hiring people to work for, with, or on issues relating to government agencies.

1. Associate Editor/Writer, Military.com, McLean, VAIf you have in-depth knowledge of military issues, national security, and technology, as well as solid reporting experience, the people at Military.com (a Monster organization) want to hear from you.

2. Intelligence Officer, Defense Intelligence  Agency, Washington, DCFor your eyes only! the DIA is seeking candidates who have “relevant experience and/or a bachelor’s or advanced degree in political science, regional studies, international affairs, geography, economics, engineering, or physical or life sciences from an accredited college or university; or knowledge in another appropriate area.” Foreign language skills are highly desired, so bi- and trilingual folks take note!

3. Government Research Analyst, Gallup, Washington, DCSurvey says: Great opportunity at Gallup! Gallup’s government division “is dedicated to providing research-based consulting and learning and development programs for the United States government.”

4.  Executive Vice President, Association of Food Industries, Neptune, NJ Lobbyist wanted — be the public face of olive oil in America. In this role, you’ll “develop and lead” PR programs, attend trade shows and other industry events, and monitor activities of the International Olive Council.

5. Senior Manager, Government Relations, Orbitz, Washington, DCYou’ll go far in this role at Orbitz: “This key position supports a very active government relations agenda in a high-profile sector that is an intersection of travel and e-commerce.”
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5 Easy tips on buying and reading books so you don’t get overloaded.

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Monster recently asked site visitors, “When you evaluate a job offer, how important is the company’s reputation as a good corporate citizen?” And 50 percent said it was a “primary consideration,” while another 33 percent said it was at least somewhat important. (Of the rest, 9 percent said this was a minor concern, and 8 percent said this was “not something I think about.”)
These results are fairly consistent with a Monster+HotJobs poll of September 2010, at which time 54 percent said an employer’s corporate citizenship was important, 29 percent said it was at least somewhat important, 6 percent said it was a minor concern, and 11 percent said they didn’t consider it at all. Although the numbers are slightly different, in both 2010 and 2011, a total of 83 percent falling in the “important” or “primary consideration” category.
What does being a “good corporate citizen” mean to you? How do you evaluate a company’s citizenship when you’re considering a job offer? Share your thoughts in the Comments section.

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Dear Meg:

Becoming CEO of Hewlett-Packard is almost as big a deal as being Governor of California (your previous aspiration) — and just as political.

As the joke goes, should your friends offer you congratulations or condolences? There’s no time for either. You must get right to work. Here are four things you’re up against, followed by four tips that every newly-anointed leader should heed. First, the issues:

HP’s once-admired culture is gone, gone, gone. HP always had great people and still does. But HP is no longer a values-driven, family-like, innovation-oriented company that inspires commitment. It’s a safe bet that resumes are already in play.

HP Invent is an empty slogan. R&D has been starved at HP for years, and it will be hard to pull enough irons out of the fire to propel organic growth. A technology company without strong internal innovation capabilities is a company on the verge of disappearing.

HP is a decade behind IBM in business model change. Compared to HP’s situation, IBM’s transformation was a walk in the park. IBM’s shift to software and services occurred in the 1990s. The PC division was sold in 2005. IBM traded being the biggest for being consistently high performing. I studied IBM and HP (and your former company, eBay) for my 2001 book, Evolve. By then IBM had successfully completed a major transformation and was headed for Web 2.0 and smooth succession to a new CEO in 2002, while continuing an innovation thrust that included grid technologies, cloud computing, and supercomputing. HP, though strong, was often out-hustled by Sun in getting new solutions to customers — and even Sun couldn’t survive independently in a consolidating industry. Back then, HP was about to swallow Compaq, which still had indigestion over its own acquisition of DEC, and HP would come to

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This cast continues our discussion on whom to coach and develop on your team with your marginal time.

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Delegation is a necessary survival skill for senior executives. But when executives delegate their discovery-related innovation tasks, the odds of them finding the surprising insights that often spur transformative-growth businesses decrease dramatically.

This thought crossed my mind as I participated in a review session for an interesting new growth business that a large company was considering. The session seemed innocent enough. Senior executives actively participated in the discussion. They made thoughtful comments and helped the team clarify how it should take the idea forward. Not surprisingly, the team members had more questions than answers, but they left with a clear plan to go learn more about the things they didn’t know.

After the meeting, it was clear that executives would turn back their attention to “normal” activities, and would expect to hear an update from the team in about 90 days.

Sounds reasonable enough, right? But remember: the most powerful businesses don’t result from careful analysis; they emerge, often unexpectedly, from trial-and-error execution (a point made nicely by Roger Martin in his recent blog post). What happens if (when) after the review meeting the team discovers something unexpected that warrants a significant course correction? Strategy can’t always be scheduled.

Even worse, the dissociation of leadership from learning decreases the odds that the team will pay attention to the unexpected insight. Consider a remarkable stream of research that Peter Sims describes in his must-read book, Little Bets. The research, conducted by Dr. Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire, focused on whether people can in fact “make their own luck.” Wiseman asked volunteers, who identified themselves as either lucky or unlucky, to count the number of photographs in a newspaper. It took the unlucky group two minutes to complete the task. The lucky group completed it in seconds — because the second page

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This cast gives our basic guidance on dealing with Assessment Centers.

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