MrAndrewBradley

Photo Credit | Dennis McCoy - Sacramento Business Journal Sometimes you never know what could happen if you are willing to help someone, especially during a job search.  Almost immediately after being laid-off I knew I would not only have to proactively network, but also give back to the community and my industry by helping friends, helping reporters and doing whatever I could to keep my skills sharp while looking for paying work. I have helped Citizen Voice and Safely Out with a variety of projects including the Swim for Life and set up mini-debates for the June 2010 election.  I helped do media outreach for " Jamba Jump Day ." I have helped reporters by volunteering myself as a source .  I have helped friends move and this week I helped two reporters find sources for articles that ran in today's Sacramento Business Journal and Sacramento Bee .  One reporter needed to find people that had been unemployed for more than a year and another that had kept the...

This week was full of good news.  On Monday I had an interview with a public relations company in downtown Sacramento (I do not know if I will make it to round two yet), on Tuesday I had an interview with the public relations/advertising agency that I have been doing freelance work for (see previous posts about Specialized Parts Planet ), later that same day they offered me a part time position working in their office for about 25 hours a week.  Although I am still looking for a full time position, this could lead to that and/or help me continue to build a more robust portfolio of work experience that I can take with me to other opportunities as they present themselves. Most importantly it gives me a huge burst of confidence that all of my hard work, persistence, networking (which will continue), education (through "webinars" and events) is paying off in ways that I may have never imagined. Beyond interviewing, I also went to the Bradley Lodge , where my mom, grandma and...

As many of you saw yesterday, I have accepted a full time position with Augustine & Associates as a Public Relations Specialist.  I have been working with Augustine on a freelance basis for the past two months (you may have seen my posts about Specialized Parts Planet coverage) and based on that work they decided to hire me on full-time.  Although I have been in the office part-time over the last four weeks, today was my first official day (I got to fill out lots of paperwork) and Tuesday will be my first full week of 8 hour days since I was laid off in September . It has been and will continue to be great to be part of a dynamic team of individuals that are truly world-class. My Job Search Statistics: 659 - e-mails labeled "Jobs" in my Gmail Inbox  100s - of contacts (and new friends) made at Tweetups and other networking events 100s - of tweets and Facebook status updates 70 - blog posts 24 -  " job search " blog posts 5 -  major resume rev...

A lot of people have a difficult time defining Twitter , which I think is appropriate since it (and social media in general) is still evolving into what it will become.  It started out as a way to quickly update your friends (followers) on what you were doing (similar to a Facebook status update ), now has moved to include elements of that, but also includes people sharing news, event information, product information, sales information, quotes and other information that their followers might find useful.  For me, Twitter includes elements of all of the above, plus an element of fun.  I have been able to meet tons of great people at " Tweetups " (where people from Twitter get together and meet face to face, basically a networking mixer), learn about sales or discount offers at stores and restaurants, learn about social media, get in contact with media and other people that I would have never otherwise met, develop friendships outside of my "normal" circles, u...