It’s become my first stop for portable gaming.  I have no need to pick up my Nintendo DS, PSP or even my iPhone.  The large screen is ideal for casual games and the iPad follows me around to spots when I want an entertaining distraction; meals, commercial breaks, even the bathroom.  ;)  I can fire up a quick game of golf or play through a few rounds of Tower defense over 10 minute bursts in my day.  The library of games is enormous and frankly makes the handheld platforms from Nintendo and Sony look weak.

The iPad has become the device I use to show people information or video on the web.  I can whip out my iPad, search for the video I want and have it load up for playback faster than it takes to boot up my laptop from a cold start.  It’s also much simpler to transport the iPad around the house than my 15″ laptop.  In fact, when paired with a keyboard, it’s very difficult to see the use in lugging my laptop around if all I need it for is word processing or web surfing.

It’s modified my organizational methods, specifically due to Things.  I’m really not that big on to-do lists, mostly because I can remember the tasks and priority levels I’ve assigned them in my head.  What it’s really assisted me on is keeping track of when something has been completed and branching out a giant project into several different tasks (ideal for work projects).  For something I need to remember for home, I typically use Penultimate, a fantastic writing app that uses your finger for quick notes.

It’s changed when I consume entertainment, such as movies and television shows.  I don’t feel compelled to fire up the DVR to record a TV show when I can watch it the next day through an network app or Netflix.   I can connect to my laptop through VNC to watch Hulu if needed as well.  There’s really no reason for me to be at the television at a certain time to catch a movie or show.

Overall, the iPad has improved how I spend my day, both when directly interacting with the web and increasing my productivity.  I may give it the trade show test at E3 this year (if I attend) and see how well it holds up as a mobile reporting tool.

For instance, how better to end the Aliens versus Predator debate than a giant infographic explaining how each species would fare over a few days of fighting.  The designer is Stephen Taubman, who is a self-declared Aliens fanboy.  Not only is how bloodshed plays out accurately depicted, he even includes handy tips for humans in case you come into contact with an Alien or Predator.  ;)

Painstakingly created for music lovers, this metro map design covers eight different different genres of rock spread over the decades.  Each line is in chronologically order and intersects at points where the genres collide.  The artist, Alberto Antoniazzi, is a graphic artist specializing in logos, t-shirt designs and other illustrations.  Click Below for the Full Resolution:

Check out a little nod to all the Saved by the Bell fans out there.  Do you recall Jessie Spano’s terrifying plummet into the harsh, painful world of caffeine addiction?  ;)  Nathaniel James does.  This hilarious infographic details the caffeine intake of Ms. Spano as the episode progresses.

Last but not least, take a look at this amazing infographic that explains the physics behind an unintentionally hilarious scene in an absolutely horrific movie, Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.  The designer, again Stephen Taubman, detailed exactly how a massive 240 foot shark would be able to get enough speed up to launch itself in the air  and destroy an entire passenger jet.  Wow…

Lately in the office, I hear lots of people talking about FourSquare like it’s going to catch on.  The problem with FourSquare is that it’s not a business; it’s a feature.  While I believe that geo-location will be the next goal for social networks to conquer, building an entire business around that single concept will ultimately fail.  FourSquare doesn’t tap into your existing social networks but rather requires you to create an entirely new social network to invite your friends into.

I spend enough time on Facebook and Twitter.  Convincing me to slice off another piece of my time to dedicate to another social network is unlikely, unless it brings a larger network of my friends to the table.  Add in the fact that Twitter launched it’s geo-location feature this week and it becomes even more pointless.  When Facebook finally gets geo-location, I would imagine that FourSquare’s growth rate will fall rapidly.  Why would I want to connect to a social network of 500,000 people when I can connect to a network of 400 million.

Oh that’s right.  I can earn a pointless badge…

• You Haven’t Registered Your Custom Username Yet. Assigning a username to your Facebook page couldn’t be simpler. You type in www.facebook.com/username and click on “Set a Username” for your pages.  You would be surprised how many pages (small and large) neglect to make their brand page more easily accessible to someone typing in a URL.  And, unsurprisingly, the Google ranking for the page rises.

• You Are Letting New Visitors Land On The Wall. The great thing about creating a brand page is having the ability to direct new  Facebook visitors to another starting point rather than the wall.   By sending them to a simple tab that you design (with a application tool like Static FBML) , you can welcome them with elements of your website / brand rather than a stream of wall posts.  Even smarter, you can lay out a clear path to becoming a fan.  For Example:

• You Haven’t Designed a Custom User Picture. While Facebook is some what limited in design choices, you can work within the constraints of Facebook’s profile picture requirements to blend into the design.  Take a look at  5 Creative Ways to Hack Your Facebook Profile Photo to get started.  I’m a fan of simply placing your logo beneath the blue line and seamlessly blending into the page.

• You Overwhelm Your Wall With a Busy RSS Stream.  This is a terrible way to treat your fans.  Each post that you make shows up in their Facebook stream.  Sending 15 to 20 posts a day into their stream is rude and defeats the purpose of the wall.  Take the courteous route and create a separate tab for your RSS feed.  Send only your best content onto the Wall to spur conversations.

• You Are Missing From The Discussion.  The whole point of having a Facebook page to promote yourself or your company is to create an open dialog about your brand.  This means you need to join the conversation on a meaningful level.  A Facebook Page isn’t designed for a one-way discussion.  It’s not a page to blast out a press release and ignore the responses.  In order to truly build a dedicated, loyal fan base, you need to become active in the discussion.

Tackle these five aspects of your Facebook brand page and you will be well on your way to building a solid readership of Facebook fans.  Check out 8 Essential Apps for Your Brand’s Facebook Page to grab some great tools for building more functionality to your Facebook Brand Page.

The Oatmeal

The Oatmeal is a relatively new member of the web-comic community.  While some of the jokes can be a bit too obvious, the comedic nature of the illustrations are purposely crazy and captures the artist’s silly sense of humor.  (Link)

Amazing Super Powers

Amazing Super Powers (created by Wes & Tony) is a hilarious, twisted web-comic that occasionally borders on the insane.  The comic stays very fresh, but occasionally uses a few recurring characters to reward consistent readers. (Link)

Perry Bible Fellowship

Unfortunately somewhat defunct, the crazed cartoons of Nicholas Gurewitch live on in an archive on his website.  While his starting cartoons are light on the illustration quality, his work increases rapidly in quality and imaginative flair.  Unicorn Power!!!  (Link)

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Finally, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is probably the least attractive of this group of cartoons, but doesn’t disappoint with its own level of twisted humor.   It’s an excellent resource for morbid, geeky and occasionally inappropriate humor.  (Link)

Enjoy!  I know that I do.  :)

Drawing by a Crazy Person ;)

It’s my contention that we are watching different sections of the same exact timeline.  Let me try to hurt your brain:  Everything that’s happened after the original plane crash can’t be changed.  It’s happened.  Done.  What we are watching this season (during the everyone-is-safe 2004 timeline) is the result of what’s going to happen by the end of this season.  I believe that the H-bomb (at the end of season 5) didn’t cause the island to sink to the bottom of the ocean in 1977.  But the island will sink to the bottom of the ocean before the season is over, BECAUSE the 2007 time traveling Losties will do something to destroy the island.  They may have to take down Essu (The Fake Locke) to do it, but it’s going to happen.  It’s their destiny to save the 2004 versions of themselves from the fate of sinking into the ocean.

The show is offering a bit of misdirection right now to accomplish that, but I think that is Jacob’s end goal; to break the cycle.  When Juliet died during the first episode of the season, I believe her consciousness linked up to the 2007 version of herself (similar to what was happening to Desmond in season 4).  If that’s the case, we will see (alternate-2004) Sawyer asking Juliet out for coffee sometime after he steps off flight 815 in Los Angeles.

Fav4 (link)

The concept of this website couldn’t be simpler (and likely borrows a page from the bottom menu on the iPhone).  The site allows you to choose 4 websites and displays them in the form of large icons.  It’s ideal for a starting home page.  My only caveat is that it doesn’t accept custom icons for any other site.  But it has an excellent selection of social sharing sites to choose from.

Popurls (link)

There are plenty of link aggregators on the web, but this is one of my favorites.  It combines all the popular social voting sites on the web and lists the trending news for the day at the top of the page.  It has a variety of customization options and  follows a variety of unique voices on the web.

Lifehacker   (link)

This blog contains a variety of posts to make your life a bit simpler.  Everything from web tools to financial tips to household design ideas are posted on the site.  It’s a wide mix, but ideally posted to spark time saving ideas in your own daily habits.

TeuxDeux   (link)

I have far too much to do; mostly at work, but also at home.   I’ve hated the majority of the to-do lists apps that I’ve seen, but TeuxDeux is fantastic in its minimalism.   The tasks move from day to day, if you forget to complete them.  It’s been very helpful in remembering little jobs over the past couple of weeks.

• A single day of rainfall in Los Angeles is the equivalent to a single day of snow in the South. The city comes to a crushing halt.  The sewers overflow with excess water, traffic lights will go out, freeway on-ramps will close due to “flooding” and a normal 7 minute commute becomes 45 minutes.  The natives understand and accept this, mostly because a day of rain is an extremely rare occurrence, much like a sighting of a Los Angeles based Wal-Mart.

• People debate endlessly about the best hamburgers in Los Angeles. Outsiders might peg Los Angeles as a city for silly health food nuts, but there is a seriously burger cult in this town.  There are cheap burgers (Hamburger Habit, Fatburger), there are custom burgers (The Counter), there are upscale burgers (Father’s Office), there are delivery service burgers (Hawkins House), there are secret ordering techniques for burgers (In-N-Out).  I’ve probably eaten more hamburgers in this town in a year than I have in the 10 years previous.

• Professional sporting teams are King, College sports are a distant second. I hear people buzzing about the Lakers and the Dodgers on a daily basis.  People in Los Angeles take pride in their teams, the professional ones anyway.  Don’t get me wrong, USC is also very popular, but only due to the success of their football program.  I would equate the level of excitement for professional sports to the level of excitement a Southerner has for SEC football.

• For a city that is 500 square miles in size, parking is still a nightmare. Everything you read about parking in Los Angeles is true.  I feel like I’m channeling Robert Langdon when trying to decipher the sign that dictates the rules for parking on any particular street.  If you have discovered a street without any signs dictating parking rules, consider that an oasis in the middle of a desert.  And if you cannot parallel park, don’t bother living in this town.

• Causal dating is easy; serious relationships are dictated by distance. If you want to have hook up night after night, this is the town for it.  There is no shortage of women in Los Angeles.  Serious relationships, while already facing the traditional challenges of any relationship, get the added bonus of distance being a factor.  If you live in Manhattan Beach and the girl of your dreams lives in Pasadena, don’t even bother.  The freeway commute would rip the relationship apart in a matter of weeks.

• The “I’ve come to Los Angeles to be an actor / actress” people exist (and they run L.A.’s food service industry). That stereotype is completely true.  These people are real and there will be a couple of them floating around any party.  I don’t work in the entertainment industry and likely never will, so it’s always comical to hear people talk about it; even though they have been working at Coffee Bean for the past 5 years.

• When you live 8 minutes away from the beach, going isn’t that exciting. I can count on 1 hand the number of times that I have been to the beach since living on the west side of Los Angeles.  I love that it’s there if I want to go, but I never get the itch.  It is nearly always perfect weather for going though.

• If you are coming out to Los Angeles, learn how to cook. Don’t get me wrong, there is no shortage of excellent restaurants to eat at.  It’s the exorbitant cost involved to do it.  Food expenses are easily 30% higher than on the east coast, including the grocery store.  Don’t buy into the natural foods b.s. either.  Just go to Ralphs.  It’s the equivalent of Bi-Lo on the east coast.  Anything else is overkill.

Despite any of my complaints, I do enjoy living here.  Mostly because I have a job that’s 7 minutes away, I have a serious girlfriend that’s 8 minutes away, I know how to cook and I love hamburgers. 

Even though I can’t see her anymore, I’ll always remember the woman that used to chase my kid sister and I around the house in Easley, SC pretending to be a ferocious monster.  My sister and I would hide in closets as my mom would bellow boisterous groans and scare the living daylights out of two children who couldn’t stop laughing hysterically.  I’ll always remember the woman that accidentally got us locked out of the house when we went swimming our new pool and we huddled quietly in the tool shed for an hour while it poured down rain.

I’ll always remember the woman that cooked the best country fried steak that I ever had in my life and cooked that dreaded chicken & apples dish that made me throw up a little in my mouth every time I smelled it. (Or “the fence” as I called it; catching all food before it went down my throat)  I’ll always remember the woman that taught me how to read before entering school and would take us to the library a couple times a week to check out books like C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe or Charles Dahl’s  The Great Glass Elevator.

I’ll always remember the woman that made me finish all my homework before I could watch the Cosby show, despite my annoying screams of protest.  I’ll always remember the woman that would get me a giant cookie, chocolate chip cookie cake for my birthday each year and the woman who used to hide from all forms of cameras during special occasions, but always relented with a kooky pose.

I’ll always remember the woman who would always act shocked and surprised when we gave her our gag gift each Christmas (15 years straight), a sealed VHS copy of Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction?.  (which to this day has remained sealed as she vowed never watch it, a kept promise)  I’ll always remember the woman that forgot to wrap the clock radio under her bed for one of my Christmas gifts and was embarrassed to hand it over after all the gifts were open.  I still have that clock radio.

I’ll always remember the woman that used to attend all of our school functions, elementary through college; school recitals, band concerts, Lindsey’s twirling performances,  our high school & college graduations, etc..  I’ll always remember the woman that loved to play Scatagories, Outburst, Pictionary, Cranium and Scrabble at every single Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I’ll always remember the woman that loved to watch the Amazing Race and always wanted to tryout for the show every time a new season would come on.

I’ll always remember the woman that went back to college while we were young so she could get her teaching degree.  I’ll always remember the woman that would always try to get the attention of every single baby in public places and make their little faces light up with happiness.  I’ll always remember the woman that broke away from her life in Spartanburg to pursue a life of her own in Florida, if only to become truly happy for just a brief moment.

But most of all, I’ll always remember the woman that I spent 4 days with one week before she was admitted to the hospital for the final time.  She couldn’t move very well, but we could talk for hours.  We quietly watched all her favorite game shows and would comment on when we would have taken the money on Deal or No Deal or 1 versus 100.  We would run errands when she was feeling well enough and sit on the couch eating Mint Milanos when she wasn’t.  We would talk about my new life in Los Angeles and about her twirling friends in The Villages.  The last movie that we watched together was The Legend of 1900, laughing when 1900 beats Jelly Roll Morton and crying when 1900 chooses to die by his own decision.

A few hours before I had to leave for the shuttle to return to Los Angeles, we both broke down and cried.  We both knew it was going to be our last rational face-to-face conversation, but tried not to believe it.  She told me how proud she was of me and I told her how lucky I was to have her as a mother.  We pretended that she was going to get better and made tentative plans for her to visit me in L.A.  I held her hand and tried to be strong, but we both knew that the end was near.  I hugged her goodbye for 5 minutes and left slowly.

My Mom took her last breath this morning at approximately 7 a.m.  I slept beside her bed last night, helplessly trying to be there for her.  During the night, I held her hand, told her I loved her and everything that I was going to remember about her.  I told her exactly how the rest of my life was going to turn out, so she wouldn’t have to miss anything.  After I could think of nothing more to say, I gently put one of my headphones on her ear and played this song:  Link

Goodbye Mom. I love you.

I use several different tools to manage multiple Twitter accounts including Digsby and TwitterFox.  I’d love to get my hands on the beta of CoTweet to organize all the companies Twitter accounts, but no response from them yet.

When it comes to a workplace Twitter account,  I’ve tested a few different approaches.  With a couple consumer electronic sites, I use a low-key, targeted follower approach.  I only add people that appear to be interested in what I’m tweeting about.  For instance, I’ll use a program like Tweetdeck to run a search (continually updated during the day) for specific keywords related to the site.  I’ll add those users periodically and unfollow anyone who didn’t return the favor within a week.

This approach definitely doesn’t grow an account quickly, but the quality of the Twitter followers is fantastic.  It’s also easily to keep up with replies and direct messages in regards to followers of the site.  Personally, I have to keep up with a variety of PR people in regards to equipment reviews and this approach is quite superior to other methods in regards to managing communication.

I’ve also tried manufacturing popularity in order to boost the Twitter account.  For instance, by adding users that were guaranteed to follow me back, the account appears to be more popular than it actually is.  This provides two benefits:

1. The Twitter account will be pushed to the top of any directory listing. Nearly all Twitter directories, including the popular WeFollow, use total twitter followers when ranking accounts.  If your site has the most followers, the site ranks at the top within the category.  Over time, the higher ranking increases quality followers.
2. By appearing popular before announcing a Twitter account, I’ve discovered that people are more likely to follow you.  Very often, I’ve found myself balking at following someone with less than 100 followers due to a lack of popularity.

Unfortunately, manufacturing popularity has a couple major drawbacks.  Those early followers won’t give a darn about your tweets and their endless tweets dilutes tweets / replies from your quality followers.  At some point, I’ll probably use a tool like FlashTweet to mass unfollow the early additions.  The risk of being unfollowed is lessened as the majority of these Twitter “Power users” have at least 5,000 followers and it’s difficult for them to manage all their followers.

Finally, I’ve recently opened up a couple accounts as simple RSS dumps.  I use TwitterFeed to kick out updates of bargains and forum posts to the Twitter account.  It’s really nothing more than an attempt to tie into Twitters budding, real-time search function and drive more traffic to the site via Google.

When managing all the accounts while out of the office, Tweetie for the iPhone is an absolutely dream for 3 bucks.  It’s designed for Twitter power users as you can quickly pop in and out of different accounts. Managing followers, replies, messages, etc. is very simple with Tweetie.

As for my personal account, I often fine myself tweeting about updating Twitter accounts. That and all the wonderful mundane details of my life.  

Interesting development at the house.   We have a roommate moving out and are delving into the murky depths of Craigslist to find a replacement.  I’ve met two of the possibilities, one of which looks like will work out.  The other set off so many red flags that I doubt that we will hear from her again.  When you ask us “You won’t be calling my workplace to check my references?”, you are pretty much out of the running.

The responses from the ad have been quite hilarious.  A phone message we listened to last night was from a guy that wanted to change industries after the move.  Yeah, that’s just a genius thing to say to the people renting you a room.  We also got at least one obligatory “I want to move to L.A. to pursue my dream of being an actor and need a place to stay” response.  Those just don’t get old.

For instance, I don’t think my co-workers on LinkedIn need to read about parties I attend and post about on Facebook.  To a similar fashion, my Facebookean friends likely don’t care about what I find intriguing about new trends in the online landscape or what I’m diving into at work.

Throw Twitter into the mix and I’m getting bogged down in massive customization of status updates.  I have one personal twitter account and three business related twitter accounts for the sites I handle.  While Facebook friends probably hear much of what I post to my personal Twitter account, I always phrase things differently.  Not due to the size restriction, but rather catered to the people that follow me.  The exchange of ideas is much more of a rapid-fire experience on Twitter than it is on Facebook.

The only use I can see for Ping.fm is a Facebook / Myspace crossover, but Myspace is nothing more than a glorified landing page for me.  I’m down to communicating with 1 person on Myspace and it’s barely worth checking anymore.

Getting back to customizing my status updates for the sake of certain audiences, it’s even more prevalent when I’m punching keys out to type up a new blog post.  I love having my own web address using my name, but it comes at an expense at the amount of truth that I can share in this space.  It’s the potential audience that I have to be concerned about.  It’s personal branding on the very smallest of scales.  It makes me second guess diving into controversial subjects like politics, religion or anything of the like.

So is that necessarily a bad thing?  I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

(BTW, my new goal for this blog is to post once a week.  Be sure to call me out if I don’t deliver!)

- Working my ass off.  I’m officially a workaholic in training.

-  Threw an insanely large Christmas party with the roommates.  We rented heat lamps, chairs, tables, the works.  Even had a bartender so we wouldn’t have to serve drinks.  Met several new people and basically hung out with some friends.

- Took a trip to Florida to see the family over Christmas.   I got to see my mom, sister and two uncles.  It would have been nicer if I wasn’t suffering from the Black Plague.  Flying across the country with a cold absolutely sucks.  It was still slightly lingering last week and it can’t help that my entire office is sick as well.

-  Attended a pretty chill New Years with some friends.   Nothing crazy and I was able to function very well the next day.

-  I’m going to Vegas this week to attend CES.  I’ve got about 20 appointments lined up and little time to do everything I want.  It’s also going to be my first time in Vegas, yet I’ll need to keep the shenanigans to a minimum…

Other than that, everything is going fairly well.  Los Angeles is treating me just fine.  I can’t wait until it warms up though.

The house I moved into last month is absolutely ridiculous.  I have a room on the first floor with my own private bathroom.  The door from the bathroom leads outside and the in-ground swimming pool is but a single leap from the door.  The bedroom has hardwood floors and was previously painted a beige color.  I’m gave it some color over the Thanksgiving holiday.  It’s now a light sea green.  I also rearranged the furniture to open up the room.  I really want to create a place to chill out rather than a office / bedroom.   I’ve been perusing www.apartmenttherapy.com over the past week for ideas.

More later, bed for now.

• 30 days ago, I was driving from South Carolina to Los Angeles without a full time job.
• 20 days ago, I was on my first interview at a social networking company in Westwood.
• 10 days ago, I was on my third callback interview with a tech company in El Segundo.
• 5 days ago, I had three different job offers in my lap.

Today, I finished my first week at a job I absolutely adore.  My co-workers are fantastic, my boss is extremely savvy, the company culture is awesome and the work is refreshingly challenging.  It’s the type of job that I’ve always wanted, but never been able to find on the East Coast.  So how does one manage to pull this off in an economy supposedly headed for a recession?

There’s one simple rule to always keep in mind before attempting this type of transition.  Stay positive, no matter what happens! Opportunities will always come your way and you will be able to see them with a positive attitude.  Seems like new-age mumbo jumbo, I know.  I never really understood that mantra until recently.

Before moving, research the area you want to live in.  That includes the type of job you are going after, the size of the city you desire, the cost of living, the weather, the nightlife, etc…  Research it for weeks, perhaps months.  Call anyone that you know in the city to get personal opinions about the best areas to live.  Start building a network of friends through Facebook or another social network.  Post questions at the City-Data forums to get ridiculously detailed answers from locals.

Build up a sizable pile of cash before leaving your current part-time or full-time job; 3 to 6 months of living expenses.  If you have a hard time doing that, redefine what it means to sustain yourself.  Can you live on Ramen noodles or Mac & Cheese for a couple months?  Can you live with a couple roommates in a shoddy apartment for a month or two?  Plan out exactly how long your savings can last before you have to take a job that you may dislike.

If you are moving to a city like San Fransisco, Chicago or NYC, ditch the car if you own one.  Public transportation is obviously more efficient.  If you are moving to a city like Los Angeles, Seattle or Miami, you need reliable transportation.  I’m not saying that a bicycle is out of the question, but you really need a car for interviews in large, spread-out cities.  Figure out the logistics of driving the entire way versus flying.  Flying may be faster, but you can take vastly more belongings by driving.  Plus the road trip is a fantastic memory that you will relish forever.

Stock up some technology before you make the trip; a laptop, a smart-phone and a GPS unit specifically.  Turn-by-turn directions from a cheap GPS unit is INVALUABLE in a new city.  A smart-phone, like an iPhone / Blackberry, is going to be very helpful when it comes to keep track of contacts / email.  A laptop is vital for a mobile online job search when you arrive in the city.

If you don’t know anyone personally in the city, hit up Craigslist and start perusing the listings.  Search by the areas of the city that you know to be safer.  Use Walkscore.com to identify the listings with nearby stores.  Look for situations that don’t require a lease signing.  There are plenty of these in the temp housing section of CL.   You could also try marketing yourself as a potential roommate in the Housing Wanted section.  It’s a great way to land leads for roommates that haven’t even listed their place yet.

Be aware that you may have to end up living with a bad roommate for a month or two.  If that person has to find a potential roommate that’s 2,500 miles away, odds are that everyone else has turned them down.  Try to set up multiple appointments to look at places when you arrive.  Target furnished places without a lease.  Odds are that you will want to move after making friends in the city.

Before driving / flying across the country, go dish out the best $20 that you will ever spend and pick up Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters.  You may not use any of the alternative techniques in the book, but it will put you into the mindset of an aggressive job search.  Read it from cover to cover.  Every single iota of advice in that book is utterly brilliant.

So you’ve arrived in the city and need to start looking for a job.  Grab that laptop and hit the streets.  I typically spent a couple hours in the Coffee Bean (local coffee chain) and the rest of the day in a branch of the public library using the free wi-fi.  It’s a perfect place to work diligently in peace and quiet.  Dress for an interview every day of the week.  I was called to a few same-day interviews, some within a couple hours of the call.

As far as my job search went, I only targeted jobs that I knew would interest and challenge me.  I made small alterations in my resume to cater it to the job in question.  I sent detailed cover letters within my email message and included a letter of recommendation with each query.  I probably sent out my resume 30 times over the first two weeks and landed an opening phone interview 15% of the time.  I skipped all the major job sites like Monster and Careerbuilder.  I actually only used Craigslist and local company sites that listed jobs.

Some people hate going on an interview.  I’ve come to relish it.  I’ve been on so many in the past month that I feel like a professional interviewer.  The key to being successful in an interview is asking questions.  That’s it.  That’s the big secret.  Do you still have to be savvy? Yes.  Do you still need to relate your experience to the job in question? Yes.  But asking questions is your chance to shift the balance of power and grill the interviewer.  Don’t wait for them to ask “Well, do you have any questions for me?“.  Just fire away whenever the topic strikes.  Find a question that they can’t answer and they will remember you.  Go to Barnes & Noble and read a book listing interview questions if you can’t come up with anything.

Following up after the interview with a thank you is key.  I’m old school.  I like the hand-written note.  I interviewed with nearly all tech companies.  I’m sure a thank you email through have sufficed, but I’m also of the opinion that my note would stick out over other candidate’s emails.  It’s more personal and certainly more time consuming than tapping a few buttons on the keyboard.  Mail them out within 24 hours of your interview, no exceptions.

Finally, try to stay patient during downtime.  It’s easy to let the mind worry about the future after several interviews.  Offers take time to put together.  Keep plugging away at sending out the resumes and wait for the offers to come in.  If you nailed the interview and followed up with enthusiastic interest, it doesn’t matter if you aren’t the perfect fit based on experience.  When you get an offer from one company, let the other companies considering you know immediately.  It will speed things along in the process.  Be gracious

So that’s pretty much the truncated version of the past 30 days.  Life is good and it’s getting better every day.  Now I just need to take some surfing lessons.