It's official: we're in a recession. Economic carnage surrounds us. Our friends are losing their jobs, you are worried about being laid off or maybe you already have been. Times are tough, but SWOOSH is here to offer some advice. From our perspective as recruiters, here's some insight on some key things you can do to secure your spot in an organization or help you get your foot in the door for a new opportunity.

Resume Magic

Let's start with the resume. After all, in tough times everyone is vulnerable, so be prepared and keep your resume current. As recruiters, we see thousands of resumes and need to be able to look at them quickly and determine whether or not a candidate might be qualified. Your resume is your first chance - and often your only chance - to stand out. We highly recommend two things:

First, make sure that you use a chronological format. This means listing your employment history in reverse chronological order with your most recent position listed first. The most important thing a resume needs to do is to clearly show what you did for whom, when and for how long. "Functional" resumes which are organized by skills rather than experience make that much more difficult to determine.

Second: Below each position, list your responsibilities and accomplishments by bullet point. Bullets make a resume much easier to read and recruiters can easily determine when and where you used each skill. Don't bury your accomplishments in a dense, overly-wordy paragraph format

If you have any uncertainty about your resume, ask for help. You can hire a professional to assist you or ask friends to look it over. Better yet, talk to your friends who've been in a position to hire people and ask their advice. Recruiters and gatekeepers like us may not have a job we can hire you for at any given moment, but we usually have some good perspectives. Soak up all the advice you can and take it to heart. For more on resume tips, check out our previous Swoosh article which touches on the topic.

The Interview

Once your impressive resume lands you an interview, you have another opportunity to set yourself apart. Now that you've cleared the first hurdle, you have to go above and beyond the other candidates. One great way to do this is to impress them with all the research you've done about the company. Find out what's truly unique about that company, and tell them why it impresses you (and if you can't find anything like that, you should probably decline the interview). Ask questions in the interview which are informed by your research. Don't be shy about asking about their business model, their future plans, or about some of the key players who might have bios on the company web site.

Also, remember that it is okay to focus on your strengths. An interview is the one time in life when it is okay to graciously brag about yourself; show them exactly what skills you bring to the table that will directly benefit them. "Heck yea, I met every deadline given to me for the last three years!" We also wrote an article all about interviewing a while back.

Networking

Networking is another key step in a job search. You should always be networking and building contacts - it just becomes even more critical during recessions. Make sure and use all your contacts while you are looking for work. When you have a good connection with someone, ask for referrals to other potential leads. This is the best way to make sure that your resume is at least viewed. I'm sure you've heard the old saying, "Its not what you know, its who you know." In reality, it's both!

In return, you should also recommend others (LinkedIn makes this easy). Be gracious in your referrals and it will come back to you in cosmic employment karma. Good networking is not just about asking your friends and acquaintances if they know about a job for you - It's also about finding out what other people are looking for and feeding them any good leads you come across. If you want to read more about networking, I recommend reading our previous article on the subject.

Make sure your skills are cutting-edge

There will always be some niche segments of the job market where demand is greater than supply. By staying ahead of the curve with your skills, you can make yourself nearly recession-proof. In today's job market for design and web professionals, this can include knowledge of user experience design, rich media, the ability to hand-code at least a little bit in HTML and CSS, maybe some Actionscript, and banner design

For marketing, it means having experience with SEO and SEM, online ad-buying strategy, and social media. If you're between jobs, research the cutting edge technologies at home or take a class. If you're currently employed, try to expand your skills within your existing job by taking on projects that utilize cutting-edge techniques or strategies. That way, even if your employer is forced to let you go (along with your hard-to-replace skills), you'll be in a good position to find the next job.

And, if you still can't get a job... well... maybe try this:

If you've tried these recommendations already and are still having difficulties finding work, then there are a few additional measures you can try in order to help in your search. You can consider reducing your pay requirements. We realize it's not a very appealing option, but this might be a good time to consider pricing yourself aggressively. Just be careful that you don't undervalue yourself since that can be difficult to recover from once this bleak job market passes.

You can also explore similar and less expendable careers or have a trial run as a freelancer. If you have to take a low-level survival job (which may be much better than going deep into debt), make sure you find time to continue to network and stay focused on your long-term career goals. Guess what? We have an article about this too!

But avoid looking desperate

You should know that people (recruiters included) understand it's hard being out there in this economic climate. The majority of recruiters and hiring managers sincerely want to help, so remain positive and keep a good attitude when communicating about an opportunity. However, if you're in dire straits, be very careful not to say too much. Desperation has a scent that most recruiters can smell, and it's not a good one. There's no shame in being desperate for work in an economy like this, but it's really not a good idea to share that desperation with a potential employer. Always be honest, but don't say too much. Don't make your personal woes a central topic of conversation with your potential employer.

Stay positive!

Truthfully, looking for a job during a recession is not much different from looking for a job during other times - it just may take longer to achieve the results you seek. Most of the advice above is good for any economic climate. The key in a downturn is to stay positive - not just in your attitude, but also in your actions - and to amp up each of your efforts. The positive, active, honest candidate will always come out on top. We wish you all the best luck -- but if you follow this advice, you probably won't need it!