As a result of the recession, college seniors and grads are not only vying with their classmates for employment, but also with career-changers who possess much more professional experience. The difficulty of today’s job hunt is further compounded by hiring freezes and slashed budgets. Even in light of President-Elect Barack Obama’s proposed stimulus plan, the outplacement consultant firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas forecasts another one million layoffs in 2009, and some economists expect unemployment to soar as high as nine percent before the job market begins to rebound. Now more than ever, it’s essential for job-seekers to distinguish themselves from the crowd.

In light of this, Gradspot.com has launched “30 in 30,” a series that will feature one insider job-hunting tip (developed with the help of career experts and people who have successfully found employment) each day, for the next 30 days. We know that finding a job can be an aggravating process—by providing hunters with these essential tips and tricks over the next 30 days, we plan to get hunters started on the right foot, and to save them from the humiliation of sitting alone in their underwear uploading resumes to Monster.com for six months. Topics include: “Five Recession Proof Industries,” “Online Career Networking,” “Informational Interviews,” “What’s Your Greatest Weakness?”, and more…

In addition to all of this great stuff, once the 30 days are over there will be additional links added to the site from users and previous contributors. I’ve arranged to have a brief entry added to the collection which will focus on the language you want to use in your resume. I’m looking forward to writing it and I think that you’ll enjoy reading it…plus, as a JerseySmarts.com reader you’ll get a first look at my entry as it’ll posted here first!

Enjoy the Insider’s Guide to Job-Hunting in ’09!

Thanks to Chris and his team for sharing the love! And I suggest that my readers take a trip over to GradSpot.com and take a read – there’s some fun stuff over there!