We've noticed recently on Twitter that a lot of people are talking about having been laid off over the past couple of months. TechCrunch reports that there have been almost 80,000 layoffs in the technology sector since August, and entire blogs have been started about web and tech people losing their jobs. But even with all that doom and gloom, many companies are still hiring. If you find yourself looking for work, or trying to find some freelance gigs on the side to supplement your income, here are some tips to help you stand out, stay organized, and ultimately land a job.

    1. Get Your Resumé in Order

    Your resumé is a record of your entire professional life condensed on a single page （or two）. 95% of the time, it will be the second thing a potential employer will see （first is your cover letter, which we'll talk about next）, so that makes it supremely important that everything is in order.

    First and foremost, that means making sure your resumé is up-to-date. Double check that all of your contact information is correct, and that all of your prior work experience, including your most recent position, is accounted for. Try to emphasize the positions that best relate to the jobs you're most interested in finding, and remove the ones that don't relate, especially if your resumé is getting too long （a lot of HR people won't both with resumés over two pages in length）.

    Remember to give a brief synopsis of your responsibilities at each job because job titles don't mean much. A product manager at one company might do less than an assistant at another.

    2. Never Reuse Cover Letters

    The cover letter is the first thing a potential employer will see when you apply for a job. It will often determine if your resumé even gets looked at, so it is vitally important that you put proper time into crafting a good one.

    Your cover letter is your chance to tie in the work experience detailed on your resumé to the actual job you're applying for. Go into detail about why your past experiences will help you excel at the position you're gunning to land.

    You should always tailor your cover letter to the specific job you're applying for. You may not have to do a full rewrite each time, since you're likely to be applying to similar job opportunities, but you should never send out a form cover letter that's the same for every application.

    3. Network （Offline）

    Networking is essential to finding a new job. Neither of my last two jobs were advertised via traditional channels - I happened into them by meeting the right people, letting them know what I was good at, and making a positive impression.

    You should set aside some time to become a regular at the local tech meetups （most cities have a few these days, even the smaller ones）, join the local user groups about the technologies you're interested in - and present at them, and attend nearby conferences. For the unemployed, conferences can be an expense that's hard to justify, but if you can manage to afford the cheapest pass （the one that gets you into just the expo hall usually）, you can meet some great people hanging around in the lobby and hallways.

    4. Network （Online）

    Remember that networking happens both offline and online.

    Online it means developing and maintaining a network of active professional acquaintances on services like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, and making positive contributions to professional discussion communities like Hacker News and SitePoint Forums.

    5. Start Blogging

    Blogging is an excellent way to raise your visibility. Blog about the things you hope to be doing at your next job and start to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Along with all that networking you're doing, blogging will help raise your profile and could attract recruiters. It's never a bad thing when you apply for a job and the person on the other end reading your cover letter thinks, "Where have I heard this name before? … Oh right, he wrote that great article about unit testing!"

    And who knows, blogging might even land you a job interview at Google.

    6. Check Job Boards Often （Like, Right Now）

    You'll never find a job if you don't actively look for them. Very rarely do jobs come to you - yeah, it happens sometimes, but it's the exception, not the rule. In October, we published a list of 20 job boards that can help you find a job in web development or a freelance gig. These are a great starting point, and while you're conducting your job search you should live on these sites.

    Many of them offer RSS feeds of new jobs. Those RSS feeds are your new best friend. Subscribe to them all, set your RSS reader to check for updates as often as possible, and be the first to apply for new jobs and gigs as they go up. For sites that don't have any RSS feeds, don't be shy about using a service like Dapper to create your own. Staying on top of as many job opportunities as possible is essential to finding a new job - this is a marathon, not a sprint.

    7. Know Your Price

    Especially for freelancers, knowing your price is very important. It's not enough that you can beat the other guy to the pitch, you have to be able to quote fast as well. As more and more people are pushed out of work and into the job market, and less and less jobs are available to go around, competition is getting really stiff for each new open position. Being able to quote quickly and accurately will raise your chances of landing that consulting gig.

    8. Don't Stop Learning

    How many programming languages do you know? How good are you with CSS? Photoshop? Dreamweaver? Can you set up Apache in your sleep? That's not good enough. Someone else out ther knows more, and knows it all better. The job market is competitive and you shouldn't rest on your laurels and assume that what you know is enough to get by. Staying on the bleeding edge of web technology is a great way to set yourself apart from other job applicants, and honing your knowledge of your current skills is important to standing out in the crowd （also, why not blog about all the new things you're learning, so recruiters can bone up on what you're boning up on?）.

    You want to be the guy telling your potential next boss about new technologies even he hasn't heard of and why he should be using them. That's the sort of passion that will make an impression on employers.

    9. Follow Up with Past Clients

    A perhaps overlooked source of potential new jobs is past clients. Just because they haven't contacted you recently, doesn't necessarily mean there isn't work to be done. Be proactive and ping past clients about what you can do for them. If nothing else, it's a great way to reconnect with people that can act as potential references or talk you up to others in their industry that might be looking for help. Keep yourself on the radar screens of those who do the hiring and you'll be rewarded for the effort eventually.

    Similarly, if you haven't heard back from them, it's a good idea to follow up on jobs you've applied for a week or two after emailing your application. Ask if they're starting interviews soon and reaffirm your interest in the open position. A well-timed follow up and move your resume to the top of the pile just as the employer is sorting through, and often times that sort of ambition will be looked upon favorably and rewarded. More than once in my past that type of follow up has led to an interview.

    10. Keep it all Organized

    Finding a new job rarely means just applying for a couple. I've read more stories than I care to count about people who had to apply for 15, 20, 40, or even more jobs before they landed just one interview. That shouldn't be discouraging - finding a new job is hard work and could take months - but it does illustrate why you need to be organized about your job hunt.

    Applying for the same job twice, or accidentally addressing a cover letter to the wrong employer would be major faux pas that you definitely want to avoid. We recommend Happy Job Search, a application written by web developer Daniel Higginbotham after he found himself laid off from work twice in the span of three months.

    Happy Job Search is a very simple application, but it's an exceptionally useful one. It lets you quickly log information about jobs that you come across in your search, and then keep track of the stage of your application - whether you've applied, heard back, have an interview scheduled, etc. When you're applying to tens of jobs each week and scanning hundreds of job ads, an organizational application like Happy Job Search could quickly become your new favorite piece of software.

    As always, if you have any other advice for job seekers, please share in the comments!

    過去幾個月來，我們注意到在twitter上很多人都在談論被解雇的事情。TechCrunch（注：一家評價新生公司，產品及網址的博客公司--英文維基http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TechCrunch）報導說自從8月起在技術部門有將近80000人被解雇，而整個博客里都開始充盈著網頁和技術人員失去工作的事。但即使有這樣的不幸與黑暗，許多公司仍然在招聘。如果你發現自己在找工作，或者試著找一些自由職業來補充你的收入以使一切運轉，以下是些幫你脫穎而出的技巧，保持組織性，然后最終搞掂一個工作。

    1.把你的簡歷準備得井然有序

    你的簡歷是一個把你的整個職業生涯都濃縮到一張（或兩張）紙上的記錄。95%的機會，它會是一個潛在老板第二個會看的東西（第一個是你的求職信，我們會在下一步討論到）, 所以讓它上面的一切（內容）井然有序是至關重要的一點。

    首先，最重要的是，那意味著確保你的簡歷是及時更新的。重復檢查你所有聯系信息是否正確，還有你之前所有的工作經歷，包括解釋清楚你最近的職位。試著強調那些你最感興趣最想找的工作與這些職位的緊密關聯，然后去掉那些不關聯的，特別是如果你的簡歷太長的話（許多人力資源部門人員HR都不會理會長度超過兩頁的簡歷。）

    記住寫出每個工作中關于你的職責的簡單摘要，因為職位頭銜常常不代表什么。一個公司的產品經理可能做的活還沒有另一個公司的助理做得多。

    2.絕不重復使用求職信

    求職信是當你申請一份工作時，一個潛在雇傭者最先看到的東西。它常常會讓人決定你的簡歷是否值得看，所以花費適量時間炮制一份好的求職信是極其重要的。

    你的求職信是你將詳細列數在簡歷上的工作經歷關聯到你正申請的真實工作的機會。去詳細說明為什么你過去的經驗會幫助你勝任這個你準備搞掂的職位。

    你得總是為你申請的工作而度身打造（量體裁衣）你的求職信。你可能不必每次都全部重寫一遍，因為你很可能總是申請類似的工作機會，但你絕不能每個申請都寄出一個相同的求職信模板。

    3.（線下）交流

    交流是找到一份新工作所必須的。我上兩份工作都不是通過傳統途徑打廣告出來的---我碰巧得到他們是因為遇到了正確的人，讓他們知道我所擅長的，并給出一個積極形象。

    你應該留點時間去成為當地技術會議的一個常客（這些日子里許多城市都有些，甚至更小點的城市里）,參加當地關于你感興趣的技術的用戶小組---給他們做演示，然后參加附近的會議。對沒有工作的人來說，會議是很難調整的一個費用，但如果你能盡力負擔些最便宜的通行證（那些常常只能讓你進展會大廳的那種）,你可以遇見一些在大廳和走廊晃蕩的了不起人物。

    4.（線上）交流

    記住交流同時發生在網上和線下。

    在線意味著與在諸如LinkedIn, Twitter, 和Facebook等服務器上活躍的職場熟人 發展并保持交流，在諸如 Hacker News 和 SitePoint Forums這樣的職業討論社區做出積極的貢獻。

    5.開始寫博客

    寫博是提高你曝光率的妙招。寫關于那些你下份工作希望做的事情，開始將你自己打造成你行業的專家。同你正在做的所有交流工作一起，寫博客會幫助提升你的形象，可能會吸引招聘者們。這將不會是個壞事---- 當你申請一份工作時，另一邊閱讀你求職信的那個人想著，"哎，我在那兒聽過這個名字來著？…哦，對了，他寫過那篇關于聯合測試？的好文章！"

    而且，誰知道呢，寫博可能會讓你在google得到一個面試機會呢。

    6.經常上工作版塊（比如，現在！）

    如果你不努力尋找工作，你將永遠不會找到。極罕見的是工作自動找上門---是的，有時也可能，但那是例外，而不是規律。在10月份時，我們公布了一個有20個工作公告版塊的名單，可以幫助你們找到網頁制作或一份自由（打理？）撰稿的工作。這些都是一個很好的出發點，而且當你在找工作時你可以以這些網站為生。

    許多這些網站都提供新工作的RSS 提要。這些RSS提要是你新的好朋友。把它們全部訂閱，盡可能多的設置你的RSS閱讀器來多檢查這些更新，一旦它們出現，作第一個申請這些新工作或新兼職的人。對于沒有任何RSS提要的網站，別不好意思，去用個象Dapper的服務器來創建你自己的（RSS提要）.保持多多申請工作機會對找份新工作是很重要的---這是場馬拉松，可不是次短跑。

    7.清楚自己的身價

    特別是對于自由撰稿人來說，知道自己的報價是很重要的。你能把別人擊敗還不夠，你還必須能夠快速地給出報價。當越來越多的人被炒魷魚然后涌進工作市場后，越來越少的工作變得可得，每個新的公開職位的競爭正越演越烈。能夠準確而快速地給出報價會提高你搞定那個咨詢兼職的概率。

    8.學無止境

    你知道多少種編程語言？你的CSS有多拿手？PS呢？還有Dreamweaver呢？你能閉著眼睛設立一個阿帕奇 Apache 嗎？都還不夠好。其他某些人知道得更多更好。找工作的市場競爭激烈，你不能坐吃山空（仰仗你的老本，榮譽）,一廂情愿地認為你知道的就足以讓你過關。掌握些網頁技術的風險性新功能會讓你從其他求職者中脫穎而出，而磨練你現在技巧的知識也是鶴立雞群的重要手段（而且，為何不把你所學的所有新東西都寫進博客呢，那樣招聘者們就會去鉆研你正鉆研的東西？）

    你想要成為那個告訴你潛在的下任老板他都還沒聽過的新技術的那個人嗎？并告訴他為什么他得用它們。這就是會讓雇主們印象深刻的熱情類型。

    9.追蹤過去的客戶

    潛在新工作的一個可能被忽視的資源是過去的客戶。僅僅因為他們最近沒聯絡你，并不一定表示（他們）沒有需要做的工作。積極主動地與老客戶聯系，了解你能為他們做些什么。如果什么也沒有，與那些在潛在會議中舉足輕重或者可以將你介紹給他們行業里可能會尋求幫助的別人的人重新取得聯系也是個好方法。將你自己放在那些雇人人員的雷達顯示屏中，你會最終因這努力而獲得好處的。

    同樣的，如果你還沒從他們那兒得到反饋，那么接著寫電郵給你近一兩個星期申請的工作（招聘人員）,也不失為一個好主意。詢問他們近期是否會開始面試，然后重申你對這個公開職位的興趣。正合時宜的追蹤和行動會讓你的簡歷在雇主整理文件時被放在最上面（優先考慮）,而且，這種雄心常常被看好并被獎賞。我過去不止一次地用這種追蹤得到面試機會。

    10.讓一切井井有條

    找份新工作很少意味著申請些工作就了事了。我都不想數我讀到過多少人申請15,20,40甚至更多工作都沒搞定一個面試機會的故事了。那不該是讓人灰心的---找份新工作的確很難，而且曠日持久，常常可能會長達數月---但它也確實說明了為什么你需要讓你的求職變得又組織（井井有條）.

    兩次申請一份相同工作，或者不小心將一份求職信發給錯誤的雇主是你絕對需要避免的重大失禮的地方。我們建議使用 Happy Job Search,一種由網頁開發人員丹尼爾。希金伯特姆Daniel Higginbotham在發現他三個月來被炒了兩次后寫出的應用程序。

    Happy Job Search是個非常簡單的程序，但卻是個格外有用的。它使你快速錄入你搜索中找到的工作信息，然后記錄你的申請階段---是否已申請，得到反饋，約好了面試時間等等。當你每周申請數十個工作，瀏覽數百個工作廣告時，一個像Happy Job Search這樣的組織管理程序就可以很快地成為你新的最喜歡的一塊軟件。

    同往常一樣，如果你對求職者有其他的建議，請在評論里（寫出）共分享。