Please do! You can participate in my "Buy the book and save my house" campaign. Only thing about that chapter, it actually cost us a lot or PR. Recruiters speak with unemployed people everyday. A few recruiters could push a lot of books. But in keeping with the philosophy of The Layoff Support Network, we remained uncensored and honest. Even if you are employed, you might find some interesting stuff on the site. It is really becoming more about a discussion of what it is like being "middle-class" then just an employment site. Having people open up to me about their finances (which is against American culture ... unless you are bragging) provided me with so much in site that I might write a book just on that. We (the middle-class) are really the backbone of the U.S. In return, we reap very few of the benefits. And when we fall out of the system (i.e., unemployment) regardless of how much we have contributed, there is very little help.

Yesterday I couldn't spell "engineer" ... now I are one! Thanks for calling me a professional author, though. I think in the very first paragraph of the book I explain how Javed and I are engineers and I wouldn't know a dangling participle if it hit me in the face. Got to give our editor credit. I told him to keep the wording so it still sounds like me ... only not too dumb :-) But hey, I guess we are professional writers. We gave a talk at a job hunting group and people insisted that we sign the book. I had no clue what to write (except WTF do you want MY signature?). It was nice of them ...

I love this response and you are not far off from the truth. I live by two guiding principles (The Prime Directive, for you slashdoters). 1. Don't hurt anybody 2. Don't do anything that would result in me being someone's wife in prison. Hurting someone includes your family as well. Thus, doing something that will land you in prison will hurt your family and be against #1 (and lead to #2) ... and saying "I can't possibly get caught" doesn't cut it. You will get caught no matter how smart you are. Most members of society have their own moral, ethical or religious reasons for "walking the straight and narrow". When those fail, consider the Prime Directive. So, no. I really think crime is a bad idea.

Very true, people that are now finding work are taking salaries lower then the salaries of their previous jobs. It is also less likely that they will jump to a higher paying job in the future (for fear that it will not workout). If you get a chance, read my editorial called "The Hole" on The Layoff Support Network.

Originally the people that became "the Ninja" were peasants. Peasants were not allowed to own swords or other weapons. Their weapons were not developed so that they can be in "plain sight", it was because they had no other choice. For example: The rice harvesting tool became nunchucks. The incentive to develop weapons was pretty high as the Samurai were allowed to practice on the peasants by riding horses and loping off the peasant's heads. Since they were small in number, Ninja got pretty good at being stealthy and taking out Samurai. Warlords figured out that in order to kill a rival warlord, they could send in their Samurais (and wipe out the entire village) or hire the Ninja to do it with the least casualties (which made you much more popular in the village you were taking over). Ninja women were particularly well suited for seducing their way into a camp and killing the desired individual. I did not use the word "Ninja" because it is a "pop culture" word. When I was younger I was into Martial Arts and actually got to study Ninjutsu with a real one (not a guy that thought he would drum up business for his Karate school by sticking "Ninja" on a sign). He was a guy with a lineage back to the remaining Ninja family in Japan. Anyway, that is how I came up with the name (and where else but slashdot would the name be debated :-) In summary, the Ninja were just really good at figuring stuff out.

My name is Craig Brown and I am one of the book's authors. I admit outright that I am biased against recruiters. In my 25+ years of work in high tech, I have never been placed by a recruiter. I have met with hundreds of them and have heard countless stories about questionably ethical behavior by a recruiter. After writing the chapter, I read it over and it was pretty obvious that my experiences had not been positive. So, I turned to Javed (my co-author) to wrote a "counter point" to my "point". He couldn't do it. We have both had similar experiences with recruiters. I attended a job hunting Meetup last week. About half the attendees were recruiters. They all seemed nice and vehemently denied that they would ever do anything like the examples I cite in the book. Recruiters are just like us, they are trying to scratch out a living. The problem I have with recruiters is that we work with them when we are desperate and at our weakest point. We believe the things they say because we WANT to believe them. I don't fault recruiters for aggressively trying to succeed. I fault them for out-right lying. A recruiter told me that he brings people in even if they clearly are not a good match for the position they think they are applying. He said that it works out good for them because if another position comes along, he can suggest them for it. No, Thank You! You are not doing me any favors posing as my salvation and wasting my time.

My name is Craig Brown and I am one of the book's authors. First, thank you all for discussing our book! I'd like to address some of the comments that were left about some of the things I have said (both in the book and on The Layoff Support Network". Crime: First, I clearly say don't do it. But don't think I haven't spoken with at least a dozen guys that had considered it. You can argue "right and wrong" all you want, but I would be willing to bet that the discussion would be completely different if you were truly desperate. Your level of desperation would depend on your situation. If you are a young single guy, your situation may only be effecting your own life. But if you have kids, the prospect of having your kids become homeless (or suffering in any way) is unbearable. Believe me, I know what I am talking about (see what I wrote on the site). What about healthcare? If you miss one Cobra payment, you lose it. For me, it was over $1,000 per month. What if you have a sick kid? My point is that if you are a rational person in a bad situation you may consider doing something that you normally would consider irrational. I know that we have helped people by allowing them to run through a scenario and realize it would not be beneficial to anyone in the long run.