The NonBillable Hour

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Taking the "Less" out of Jobless

Looking for a simple way to help the jobless in your community?  A local bar here in St. Louis (where lots of Anheuser-Busch employees are unemployed for the first time) has a great idea: Host a resume-writing clinic.

What else can you do to help the members of your community in their time of need?  Just a few ideas:

  1. Do a seminar on unemployment law, including the rights/responsibilities of employers or employees.
  2. Donate a portion of every payment you receive to a food pantry.
  3. Collect interview-appropriate clothes for job-seekers.
  4. Partner with the local copy shop or printer and offer coupons for free resume printing and mailing.
  5. Enlist local schools and ask them to provide non-peak use of computers (with student mentors) to job hunters.
  6. Donate (and ask clients to as well) used computers, appropriately reformatted, to those who need them.
  7. Teach about LinkedIn, Craigslist, Facebook and other online services that can help job seekers.
  8. Ask your business clients to volunteer to do practice interviews with -- and give feedback to -- the newly unemployed.
  9. Create and sponsor a job fair in your town.

I'm sure they are hundreds more.  The point is, help those in need.  They'll thank you and you'll thank yourself.