The Working Geek

How to show open source experience in your job hunt

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:51:02 -0600

You're out looking for a job, and you want an edge over the rest of the candidates out there. Your experience in open source should count for something, right? It just might, but the key is how you sell it to the person who reads your resume, and to the interviewer in an interview.

First, think of each project as a freelance job that you've worked on. Just as different freelance gigs have varying sizes and scope, so too does each project to which you contribute. The key is to not lump all your projects under one "open source work" heading.

Explain in your resume the contributions you've given to each project. Don't assume that someone will understand what your project is, or immediately grasp the importance of what you've done. For example, on my resume I might have:

Perl programming language (www.perl.org)

Created the prove command line testing tool. prove allows the programmer to interactively and selectively run tests in a test suite without a Makefile, making test-first development much easier. I wrote prove in 2005, and it was immediately embraced by the Perl testing community. It has been part of the core Perl distribution since 2006.

As with anything you put on your resume, explain what you did and why it was good that you did it. The only difference between project work and a "real" company is that instead of explaining the value to the company, you're explaining the value to the project or to the users.

Wags familiar with prove may say "But all you did was write a couple hundred lines of code around the standard Test::Harness module." The key to someone looking to hire me isn't what I did, but why I did it, and that I took the initiative to do it at all. I saw a need for a tool, created it, and released it to the world, to much appreciation.

So what have you done to contribute to help open source projects? It doesn't have to be as big as a deal as you might think. Submitted a code patch? Explain the bug, how you fixed it, and what you did to get the patch into the system.

As with any project, make sure you explain what the project if there's any chance someone reading might not be familiar with it.

(Thanks to Esther Schindler for asking for comments in her article "What To Include In Your Open Source Resume", which prompted this posting.)

Life as a woman in telecom

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:45:33 -0600

By Michelle Findlay, a recruiter from the UK.

As I enter the cavernous hall, a familiar smell fills the air. Fear fills my heart as I scan the room. Most of the people here are much taller, physically stronger and more barbaric than me. I am the only one of my species here. I am well and truly on some-one else's turf.

I can even hear them babbling away in another language. Without so much as a flinch, I calmly compose myself and prepare to stand alone and defiantly fight my corner. As I go in deeper the strange creatures surround me and stare, unashamedly. I look around for any vestiges of my own species here. There are some, but quickly I realize that they are prisoners held against their will.

No, I have not landed on an alien planet. I am a female telecoms business owner at a giant telecoms exhibition. The creatures around me are men. Wall to wall. The smell filling the air is testosterone. The only other women here are dolly girls, silent honey pots to draw men to stands by wearing outfits their Dad wouldn't approve of.

As I prepare for battle I know in my heart the cut of my power suit will never hide my curves, my blond hair makes me a walking target, my girly facial features are a burden to carry. For the first time ever, I am a man trapped in a woman's body!

I cringe inside as I observe the male creatures firmly shaking one another's hands. They slap each other's backs, in congratulation. Their deep voices bellow as they celebrate the fact that for two days only, they are actually allowed to be geeky, and be adored by fellow geeks. Strangely, they compete in virtual crazy golf tournaments. Bizarrely, they adopt alpha male poses as they plan the night's drunken exploits.

This is what it feels like to stand alone as a woman in a totally male dominated industry.

So, why is telecoms still mostly men? It seems such a dichotomy, one of the most forward-thinking industries on the planet has such an atypical, antiquated imbalance of the sexes?

Is it the culture, is telecoms backwards, or prejudicial? In my opinion, no. Basically, telecoms is highly technical and engineering and this is generally the realm of men. Programmers, engineers and designers are mostly men. Some bright spark will tell you it‚Äôs because we are wired differently or blabber on about frontal lobes etc. The truth is men seem to love it, while women get so bored we would rather stick needles in our eyes.

And, telecoms men can at times be a bunch of bitchy little girls. I can't tell you the amount of times I have had placements blow out at the golden handshake stage because "I don't like him" or "I couldn't work with him" Unreal!

So am I disadvantaged at a telecoms show by being one of very few women? Not at all. These men are outrageously technical. I nod pleasantly as they bamboozle me with a bewildering array of acronyms. I smile sweetly as they speak to me in ancient Swahili. I echo their visual cues as they evangelise this technical underworld that is to me, duller than the History Channel.

Of course, men will speak to me simply because I am female. I never resort to flaunting my feminine wiles, my eyelids never flutter in duplicity. Inevitable attempts to pick me up are brushed off with a distant, professional stare and polite change of subject. To me it's all about the confidence. If I compete with the assumptive arrogance of a man, I stand a chance. If I charismatically give out the impression that I deserve respect even though I don't have the... ahem... anatomy, I might just succeed in their playground.

I could never say that being female was part of the business plan, or if it works out better or worse for me. All I know is that I always skip out of a telecoms show with a sneaky smile having won double the leads of my male counterparts. In this battleground I always fight fairly, but secretly, winning the battle of the sexes always tastes so sweet. Some call it exploitation, I call it sound business sense.

Michelle is owner of Synergyze Telecoms Group. They offer B2B services to Telecoms startups. She also does web design and is an active member and fan of the Joomla project.

(Editor's note: I'm interested in your comments on Michelle's article. I think it's an interesting restatement of what we've been talking about in the open source communities this summer. There's been much talk about treated equally, but Michelle makes no bones about using the differences to her advantage. Is this good, bad or just part of life?)

The Working Geek news roundup for 2009-09-02

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:26:30 -0600

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

Five ways companies mistreat job seekers (usnews.com)
Video of @seiden on TV this morning talking about job hunting (jasonseiden.com)
I'm a guest expert at JavaRanch this week in their jobs discussion forum! (coderanch.com)
Resume tactics from the grocery checkout lane (theworkinggeek.com)
I Just Want a Job; Words That Will Crush Any Interview (resumewonders.com)
Todd Nilson on email openings and closings (talentline411.com)
"I consider it part of the benefits package for other employees not to have to work with asses." (evilhrlady.blogspot.com)
Four biggest myths about job references (usnews.com)
How to boost your career by contributing to open source projects (theworkinggeek.com)
Today's absurd interview tactic: Intentionally showing up late (askamanager.blogspot.com)
Two projects for civic-minded student programmers (blog.jonudell.net)
Gushing review of "Beautiful Teams" (speedofmeme.blogspot.com)
Max Kanat-Alexander on the Engineer Attitude: "I can solve this problem the right way" (codesimplicity.com)
If I call to set up an interview, don't ask "Why has it taken you so long to call me" (askamanager.blogspot.com)
A software project is code delivered at a specific point in time (theworkinggeek.com)

How to boost your career by contributing to open source projects

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:03:49 -0600

I've been hanging out at JavaRanch.com lately, after I was the guest forum contributor a few weeks ago. The Java market seems to be glutted with programmers from what I read, and there's a lot of interest in using open source to boost one's résumé. One poster asked for specifics of how he could use open source projects to help his career change to one of programmer. Here's what I told him (with some minor edits):

The key to getting into open source isn't to find a project to contribute to. What you want to do is contribute to a project you already use.

What open source projects do you take advantage of every day? I'm no Java expert, but it seems like half of what the Apache Foundation is driving these days is Java-based. Do you use Ant? Struts? Jakarta?

How about non-Java projects that you use? Do you use SpamAssassin? It's in Perl, so would give you a reason to also learn Perl. Any Apache modules you use? You could learn some C.

How can you contribute to those projects? It doesn't have to be just contributing code at first. Hang out on the mailing lists and provide answers. Update support wikis or contribute documentation. I know that on the Parrot project, a large amount of contributor time goes just to maintaining the tickets in the bug system. Anything you can do to pitch in, do it.

Start with joining the appropriate mailing list for the project, or monitoring forums. Hang out in appropriate IRC channels. Listen to what people are saying. Make yourself known as being someone who is willing to pitch in. And then do the work people are saying needs to be done.

Go into it with the goal of contributing to the project, and not of improving your career. When you take care of the first part, the second part will come naturally.

Good luck!

Any other suggestions? I'd like to turn this into a sort of standard page that I can point people to when this question comes up.

Resume tactics from the grocery checkout lane

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:03:53 -0600

Next time you're at the grocery store checkout lane, take a look at the women's magazines and see what they do to get you to read them. There's a valuable lesson there for your resume. No, it doesn't involve including a photo of Jessica Alba's cleavage next to your work history.

There's always a blurb on the front for an article inside that offers a specific number of items inside. They're of a form like:

17 hottest celebrity couples
23 ways to keep your man happy
37 quick and easy meals for summer
684 new looks for under $100

The magazines' editors know that numbers attract attention. If you're like me, those numbers may be the first thing you notice after the cover photo. The numbers also promise a level of service. It's not just "an article about celebrity couples," but a promise of seventeen of them.

You should use this approach on your resume as well.

First, we know that numbers attract attention. When scanning your resume, the reader's eye will be drawn to the numbers naturally.

Moreover, numbers make your story more interesting and give the reader a sense of the size of your accomplishments, or the troubles you've solved in the past.

Consider the difference between these two bullets:

Ran the help desk. Answered trouble tickets, responded to phone calls and tracked spare computer parts.
Ran the help desk for 200-seat office. Staff of 3 answered average of 50 phone calls and 27 trouble tickets per day. Maintained 200-unit inventory of spare computer parts worth $10,000.

These two bullets describe exactly the same responsibilities, but the addition of specific numbers draw the attention of the reader, and add the details that give a much fuller picture of your responsibilities.

Without the numbers, the reader might also logically assume that the reality is more like this:

Ran the "help desk" in a four-person real estate office. Answered questions a few times a week about Excel. Kept a spare PC in a closet in case something tanked.

Remember, your awesomeness is not self-evident, and part of your job in telling the story of your awesomeness is giving the numbers to support it.

For more on the power of numbers, see chapter 3, "Résumé Content: Getting The Words Down" in Land The Tech Job You Love.

The Working Geek news roundup for 2009-08-03

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:45:03 -0600

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

OSCON slides for Effective Job Interviewing up on slideshare (theworkinggeek.com)
RT @lruettimann I've been giving out free career advice at #blogher. Stop bringing all your emotional baggage 2 your career.
"Am I a back-up candidate?" I suggest the answer is irrelevant: (askamanager.blogspot.com)
Job interviewing PDF is now downloadable from OSCON site (en.oreilly.com)
Don't leave Track Changes on when editing your Word resume: (askamanager.blogspot.com)
How to work with headhunters (theworkinggeek.com)
Why do some people get hired and not others? (punkrockhr.com)
If you're not proud of where you work, go work somewhere else. (sethgodin.typepad.com)
RT @angelaharris72: Seeking a web developer to assist with JobCamp Chicago website. This is a high profile volunteer opportunity!
Why don't geeks hunt for their jobs like they hunt for their toys? (theworkinggeek.com)
A dozen sites for helping job hunters, from @punkrockhr (punkrockhr.com)

Hunt for your job like you hunt for your toys

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:43:41 -0600

We geeks love our toys. ThinkGeek has led an industry on new toys, but many of us revel in our old toys as well. The quest to find the last comic in our collection, the last Star Trek model, or an old first edition Heinlein novel can be pretty compelling.

Say you're looking for some crazy collectible. Maybe it's that Darth Vader coin bank that says "Impressive, most impressive" when you give it a nickel. Where are you going to find this most elusive of tchotchkes? (Yes, I know, they're actually easy to find.)

First place you look is on eBay. You go surfing around, and sure, there are some Vader toys that are pretty cool, but not what you want. You could make do with an R2-D2 bank, but again, it's not what you really want. You check Amazon Shops and Craigslist, but come up empty there as well.

Are you going to say "Oh well, my Vader bank must not exist." Of course not!

You're going to keep searching. You'll scour the web, finding other potential sources for your elusive quarry. You hit the streets, visiting collectibles stores, talking to the people who work there, asking if they have suggestions on what to score your treasure. Plenty of stores don't even post their goodies online.

Sometimes you stumble across an excellent score, and it feels like you just lucked into your find. Fact is, if you weren't out looking, that "luck" wouldn't have struck.

So why don't job hunters treat their job hunts the same way?

Many job hunters get up in the morning, check Dice and CareerBuilder and Monster, don't find the job they want, and conclude "Nobody's hiring" or "There are no jobs I want."

Or maybe they figure that they'll go pursue a job that might be interesting, but isn't really what they want, settling for the R2-D2 bank instead of the Vader bank they really one.

You'll call or email companies that you'd like to work for, and if they're not hiring, you'll ask for suggestions on other places to check.

The big job boards are the eBays of job hunting. They're the first place you look, but rarely the last.

Don't stop looking if you come up empty. Certainly you must not conclude that because you haven't found what you wanted in the first, second or third place you've looked, that it must not exist anywhere.

You don't have to be so diligent in your hunt, but you'll lose the job opportunities to those who are.

How to work with headhunters

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:52:11 -0600

I'm a fan of Nick Corcodilos. His book Ask The Headhunter was one of my inspirations to write Land The Tech Job You Love. His thoughts on why you should refuse to reveal your salary history are inspiring, and underscore the importance of keeping the relationship with a potential employer equal to both parties.

When Nick asked if I'd review his draft of his new book How to Work With Headhunters, I jumped. No surprise, it's a great book, and I recommend it. It's a straightforward, no-BS guide to how to get the most out of the relationship with a headhunter, which can be tricky. The job seeker is at a disadvantage because she only seeks a new job every few years, so this relationship can be hard to manage. Most importantly, Nick spells out what headhunters do and don't do, so you understand your role. He also explains how to tell if a headhunter is a pro or a waste of your time.

The ebook is on sale at asktheheadhunter.com, and you can get $10 off with the discount code "tenoffblog". Tell the Headhunter that The Working Geek sent you.

OSCON slides up on Slideshare

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:22:49 -0600

I just posted the slides from my Effective Job Interviewing From Both Sides of the Desk talk at OSCON.

Thanks to all who came, and if you were at the session, please submit your feedback. I'd like to see more soft skills talks at OSCON, and your voice will help that.

The importance of cover letters in the hiring process

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:01:16 -0600

Jeffrey Thalhammer, who last wrote for The Working Geek on "On breadth vs. depth of technical knowledge", has strong opinions about resumes and cover letters:

Last week, my wife attended a "resume bootcamp" seminar. Among other things, I asked her what the seminar recommended for cover letters. According to the speakers at this seminar, the resume is far more important the cover letter, and they de-emphasized letter-writing skills. I was shocked!

In my experience with hiring, I'm far more impressed by a compelling and concise cover letter than a long and esteemed resume. To me, a resume is like a PowerPoint presentation and I don't mean that in a good way. It is usually a dust-dry list of bullets and broken sentences that lack any texture or color. Reading a resume is never fun or even interesting.

On the other hand, the cover letter is an opportunity to tell me a story that holds my attention and helps me understand you. As an expository document, rather than a declarative one, your cover letter can leverage all the literary devices of your language: cadence, phrasing, metaphors, symbolism, vocabulary, etc. These are what make your cover letter interesting, and make me want to talk to you.

A good cover letter indicates your ability to communicate with others, and in the software industry, it also indicates your ability to write code. If you can't express yourself elegantly in your natural language, then you probably can't express yourself elegantly in code either. I realize this judgment is harder to make with those who don't natively speak your language, but fundamentally, I believe it is still true.

This doesn't mean that you should write a five-page cover letter for each job -- economy of words is still important. Consider writing your cover letter as if you wanted to thrill the reader with a summary of the exotic vacation you took last month. Tell them what you did, why you did it, how it affected you, and why the reader should be interested in your story. Make it exciting and fascinating to read. Show me your energy, your style, and your personality. And of course, be professional too.

In their defense, the speakers at the resume bootcamp were all HR recruiters. Often times, recruiters are given only a list of keywords and skills associated with a job, and instructed to harvest as many compatible resumes as possible. From that perspective, I can understand why they would put so much more emphasis on the resume. But once the resume gets to a hiring manager, I think the cover letter becomes a much sharper image of the candidate. So in the end, you really need to have the total package: a great cover letter and resume. But don't neglect one for the other.

A note for hiring managers: If your HR department does not pass along the candidates' cover letters, you're not getting the whole picture on your job candidates. Ask your recruiters to pass along the cover letters and all the correspondence associated with any resume they submit to you. You can learn a lot by looking at how a candidate interacts with recruiters in the early stages of the hiring process.

Jeff Thalhammer has been specializing in Perl software development for over 10 years. He is the senior engineer and chief janitor at Imaginative Software Systems, a small software consultancy based in San Francisco. Jeff is also the creator of Perl-Critic, the leading static analysis tool for Perl.

The Working Geek news roundup for 2009-07-17

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:00:09 -0600

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

First issue of PragPub, the Pragmatic magazine, now out. Includes article from me, "The Layoffs are Coming" (pragprog.com)
I've Got A Job--Why Should I Attend JobCamp? (talentline411.com)
No-nos for new jobs (karenburnsworkinggirl.com)
Here's a concept you should never entertain: "Getting someone fired". Rarely happens, and a childish approach to life.
This Punk Rock HR thread is fantastic: Your best advice for job seekers (punkrockhr.com)
Pat Eyler (@gnupate) interview w/me and Chad Fowler on finding & keeping your tech job (on-ruby.blogspot.com)
Top five non-technical mistakes made by programmers (makinggoodsoftware.com)
Ask The Headhunter on the radio tomorrow (corcodilos.com)
Radical Career Success in a Down Economy webcast now available online (oreillynet.com)
Just got home from Milwaukee Jobcamp and had a great time. Feels like I talked non-stop for all 8 hours. So many resumes reviewed!
Can I be fired for this? (askamanager.blogspot.com)
One of my heroes, Tom Peters, is now on Twitter: @tom_peters
Twenty ways to annoy your job interviewer (usnews.com)
Ten ways to not be hated at your job interview (punkrockhr.com)

Geek conferences for families

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:42:58 -0600

Skud asked me a few weeks ago if I'd mention something here about support for women with children at geek conferences. Specifically, she asks for updates to the Geek Feminism wiki page on childcare and women-friendly events.

What jogged this in my mind was a geek conference of another kind. I went to the American Library Association's annual conference on Saturday, and they were very family friendly. A big sign by registration pointed to the child care area, and there were plenty of amenities to help conference-goers with families:

Child Care and Camp ALA
Make this year’s annual meeting a family affair. Once again, ACCENT on Children’s Arrangements, Inc. has planned a great children’s activity center for ALA convention attendees’ children. ACCENT is a nationally recognized professional childcare company organized to provide quality on-site children’s activities in a nurturing, safe, educational environment. ACCENT’s counselors are fun-loving professionals with plenty of experience with children. With activities such as arts and crafts projects, active games, movies and much more, the children are sure to have a great time. The fun includes optional field trips for children ages 6 and older.

CAMP ALA welcomes children ages 6 months – 17 years, and is available Friday, July 10-Tuesday, July 14. The cost for the camp is $80 per child per day. Parents pay $48 per child per day for the center and ALA funds $32 per child per day. An optional $15 lunch is available, or children can bring their lunch. If you prefer, you can register your child for a field trip day instead (children ages 6 years and older only), which includes lunch. The cost for each child with a field trip is $90 per day. Parents pay $58 per child for the field trip day and ALA funds $32 per child per day. A $10 Non-refundable registration fee per child is also required. Download a Children's Program and Registration Form.

Children's Policy
Strollers are permitted on the exhibit floor but only if there is a child in them at all times. Unescorted children are not permitted on the exhibit floor. Children under the age of five must be restrained at all times (stroller, back pack, etc.). Any child over the age of five must have an exhibits only badge to be admitted to the exhibit floor. These badges are available at onsite registration for $25. An adult must accompany all children under the age of 16.

New Mother's Room
The New Mother's Room is located in the First Aid Room, Level 1, near the Concierges, McCormick Place West.

Can you imagine a computer conference like this? Maybe they're out there and I've just never been to one.

The wags out there will likely point out that librarian conferences skew female far more than techie conferences, and that's true. But is that cause or effect?

Milwaukee Jobcamp slides available online

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:21:55 -0600

The slides from Thursday's Milwaukee Jobcamp, "Effective Job Interviewing From Both Sides of the Desk," are now available at Slideshare.

I'll also be giving this session at OSCON next week out in San Jose.

The Working Geek news roundup for 2009-06-30

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:22:44 -0600

These links are collected from The Working Geek's Twitter feed. If you have suggestions for news bits, please mail me at andy@theworkinggeek.com.

What do I do when there are no jobs to be found?

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:38:19 -0600

I found an article that claimed that US job hunters only spend forty minutes per day looking for a job. Maybe that's forty minutes checking job boards, but that's only 10% of an 8-hour work day on your job.

You may think "I don't have a job!", but you do. When you're out of a job, your full-time job is to find your next job. Treat it like a 9-5 job. No matter what you do, don't sit around and do nothing. Don't allow the gift of time you've been given to find a job be squandered by doing nothing.

There are three big reasons to treat your job hunt like a job:

You'll increase your chance of success
You'll fight off the depression of being jobless
You're going to get asked about it in interviews

Let's look at each in detail.

You will have more chances of success

You may think there are no jobs to be found, but there are. You just haven't found them yet, probably because you're looking in the wrong places. Checking job boards doesn't count as job hunting especially since only 7.5% of jobs are filled through job boards. You have to get out and talk to people.

Talk to everyone you can. Even if you've exhausted every source you can think of, try for just one more. Look back through your hunt logs and find a target you haven't checked in a few months. Wherever you pursue, look for a new option you haven't explored yet. You can't get a job from a contact that you don't make.

One excellent source of information you may not have considered is your local Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce is a group of businesses organized together to help each other. The website will probably have a directory of members and job listings. More important than these sources is the opportunity to talk to the Chamber staff themselves and find out what they may know about the needs of companies in the area.

Don't just call or email the Chamber. Show up at their office, in person, and talk to someone. You're far more likely to be remembered when you meet someone than you are just from email. Be sure to show up with a number of copies of your resume, and some of your personal business cards, so that you can leave some if it's appropriate.

Just keep pushing. Keep making one more step, checking one more idea. I know it can be disheartening, but anything is better than doing nothing. Chance favors the prepared mind, and the more time you spend working, using the Internet, the more likely you are to stumble across the job you need, and maybe even one you will love.

You fight off the depression of not having a job

Sitting around on the couch watching bad TV is a great way to aggravate your worries about not having a job. Playing World of Warcraft or napping all day may feel like a little vacation, but they're not going to get you that next paycheck. Don't give in to the temptation.

Treat your days without a job as if you do have a job, and your job is to find a job, and improve your skills. Get to the office at 9:00, even if your office is just the kitchen table, take lunch like you normally would, and then keep working until 5:00.

What can you do besides look for jobs? Take advantage of the time off to start all those projects you've just never found the time for. You've been given the time, so use it!

Start a blog. Write about what you're learning in your time off. This becomes a record of your progress, to help you remember that your time's not been wasted. It's also a record that a future employer will see when he Googles you after he's seen your resume. Finally, it helps you practice writing, since you're in a field where the written word is crucial to future success.
Teach yourself something new related to your job. Always wanted to learn a new programming language, but you told yourself you never had the time? Now you have the time. Want to learn a new Linux distribution? Clear out a spare partition on your home machine and get to it. Maybe you're a project manager who wants to learn more about programming. Get going, and then blog about it.
Take a business or technical class, maybe at your local community college. Community colleges are a fantastic value for your dollar for introductory classes. My local community college charges only $77 per credit hour. Start with business classes before you worry about the technical. You can always learn technical skills on your own. Business knowledge is important to any employer. Take a class in accounting or marketing, or a good business overview if you've never taken one before.
Take an unrelated class in something fascinating if you haven't found anything appropriate technical or in business. Maybe you'd like an introduction to automotive repair, or to get your feet wet in conversational Japanese. My local community college has programs in criminal justice and fire protection, both of which I'd love to find out more about. Whatever it is, learn something. Then blog about it.
Contribute to an open source project. Somewhere you're likely using some open source software. Learn about it. Learn about the culture surrounding it. Find out what its needs are. Find out what kind of help they need. Then provide that help. You don't have to be a programmer to contribute to open source. You can provide documentation, answer user questions, respond to bugs in the bug tracker, and so on. Blog about it.
Contribute to Wikipedia, or a wiki related to a project of interest. Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia, and can always use improvement. There are tons on Wikia. Find a topic related to your job, not arguing about Jabba the Hutt's family history. Then blog about it.
Frequent mailing lists and bulletin boards related to your area of expertise. See what you can learn, and who you can help. Blog about the most interesting ideas.
Go to your public library. Libraries are amazing storehouses of knowledge. The chances of finding something fascinating and enriching are high!
Read read read! Find something new to inspire you. Blog about it.

You're going to be asked about it at interviews

Chances are that an interviewer who sees that you've been out of work for a while will ask about your job search. She may even specifically ask "What have you been doing in the four months since you got laid off?" How will you answer this question?

You could answer:

Well, I've gone on a few interviews, and reading Monster every day, of course, but, uh, that's about it.

which is hardly inspiring, or you could answer:

I've gone on some interviews, but those weren't very encouraging. I've been investigating companies in manufacturing, because I feel like that's where my heart lies. In the downtime, I taught myself Python and I wrote a tool to analyze the RSS feed coming from Simply Hired using Python. The source code is in my portfolio of sample code that I brought today.

or maybe

In the downtime, I've been monitoring Stack Overflow for SQL Server questions, trying to help with the problems that novices post. It's kind of fun because I know how to handle most of the problems, like optimizing indexes, but some of them are stumpers so I go dig and find the answer. The latest was a problem someone had with...

or how about

... and I've been hitting the topics that I've never had time for. The accounting class I had my eye on was full, so I'm in my fourth week of a class in metallurgy. Plus, I've been checking out cookbooks on German cooking from the library, and I practice a new dish every day for lunch.

Imagine how a hiring manager is going to be impressed with your drive and initiative! In all these examples, you're showing how you're making the most of your down time, improving yourself and maybe even helping others. That's the kind of drive that you can't train into someone.

Keep thinking like you're working

Stick to the notion that you have a job. Keep a regular schedule. Work at your job of finding your next job. It can't help but improve your chances and get you back on someone's payroll.

For those who have been out of work, what do you do during the day to keep yourself active and working on the job of finding a job?