Getting started...

So, I am officially unemployed... I decided to track my progress (or expose my failure) for all to see. I am hoping others who have been here and see mistakes will point me in the correct direction, and when I do something right - others in my situation can benefit from it!

Background - I was given my layoff notice in mid-April and my last day was May 15th. I received the standard D&B severance package for team members with 5+ years with the company; this included benefits and a outsourcing firm contract.

I decided that I would basically "take a vacation" for at least a month and really get started on the job search right after my birthday - June 15th. So I did -- went to the coast for a week, took the kids to the lake, started brewing beer, in general just had fun.

I put some things in motion right away (helped with the "guilt" I felt on the golf course Tuesday morning):

• Updated my resume and had a professional writer review and tweak it
• Contacted a recruiter and let them know I would be "getting serious" mid-June
• Posted my resume online
  
• Set up searches and alerts on some job boards (Ladders, Yahoo! Hot Jobs, Monster, Career Builder)
• Updated my LinkedIn profile
• Attended the "getting started" class from my outsourcing firm

I also set a basic daily routine of things. These are things that I do no matter what, these take about an hour to an hour and a half each day.

The routine:

• Check job posting alerts (and apply for any matches)
  
• Check e-mail
• Catch up on tweets, LinkedIn and Facebook

The next posts will be the day-to-day things I do while trying to become gainfully employed - hope you find it helpful.