Google Alerts is a fantastic little tool that I don't hear people talk about enough. Google Alerts lets you enter a Google search once, and Google will update you whenever the Googlebot finds new matches for your search, often within only an hour or two of the page's publication.

The most obvious Alert search is your name, as a phrase in double quotes, but that's just the start. Here are some more ideas:

• Your name ("Andy Lester")
• Your nick ("petdance")
• Your email address ("andy@theworkinggeek.com")
• Your company's name
• Resumes related to your job market in your area of expertise (I have an alert for "resume Perl Chicago" (but without the quotes)
• Titles from blog postings you've made
• Links to specific blog postings you've made using the link: syntax

Keep an eye on the results. It's not vanity, it's understanding your personal brand.

For more of my suggestions of how to improve your working life in 2010, see the January 2010 issue of PragPub magazine. It's a free download in three different electronic formats: PDF, ePub and mobi.

• A great question to ask in your job interview (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• Webcast of @berkun's talk Confessions of a Public Speaker available (oreillynet.com)
• Yet another tale of how being a jerk works against you in the working world (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• Laurie Ruettimann digs up the issue of the privacy of your salary history. Again. Read and decide yourself. (punkrockhr.com)
• What everyone with a job can learn from Groucho Marx (sethgodin.typepad.com)

The meeting is at OfficePort Chicago, 9 W. Washington, Chicago, IL. Doors open at 5:30pm, and I'll be presenting at 6pm. Afterwards they are hosting a Tech Thursday meetup for socializing and drinks.

One lucky attendee will win a free copy, either electronic or paper, of my book Land The Tech Job You Love.

I hope to see you there!

About my presentation

Interviews have too long been treated like interrogations, probing and testing candidates like they were fruit at a grocer. Effective interviewing reframes the interview as what it really is: the candidate’s first day on the job.

For job-seekers, topics include:

• How to prepare an effective portfolio that says more than words about your skills.
• Your primary goal at the interview.
• Using the power of stories to tell what self-description cannot.
• Understanding the process through the interviewer’s eyes.
• How to turn the interview into a working meeting.
• Five dreaded questions you must be able to answer, and how to answer them without fear.

For managers, you’ll learn:

• Effective pre-interview research
• How to increase your chances of choosing the best candidate.
• Increase your odds in judging cultural fit.
• Why you must ask the dreaded questions like “Where do you want to be in five years,” and how to ask them without asking them.

• The BBC shows why you want to bypass HR when going after a job: (publius-ovidius.livejournal.com)
• Great review of "Land The Tech Job You Love" from @mstine (java.dzone.com)
• Fans of "Land The Tech Job You Love" can upvote the DZone review here: (dzone.com)
• New issue of PragPub is out, with article from me on keeping your crappy job (pragprog.com)
• A prime example of why objectives are worthless: (hiringhorror.com)

PragPub is published every month in three different formats, so you can read in the format that works best for you. I admit, I print mine out. Sorry, trees!

Finally, from last month, there's an article with me in the blog Interview Mantra.

• The four-day workweek is winning fans (time.com)
• Look for the job no one else wants (usnews.com)
• Keeping a job you hate (karenburnsworkinggirl.com)
• Don't optimize for yourself in communities (perlbuzz.com)
• Dismal failure at furthering one's love life via LinkedIn (jasonseiden.com)
• How Employers Choose From Among Many Great Candidates (usnews.com)
• Building your career in open source (itworld.com)
• My interview with Sridhar Jammalamadaka of Interview Mantra (interviewmantra.net)
• Five reasons to turn down a job offer (#1 is "your gut") (usnews.com)
• Six things you can learn about a company at the job interview (usnews.com)

First, think of each project as a freelance job that you've worked on. Just as different freelance gigs have varying sizes and scope, so too does each project to which you contribute. The key is to not lump all your projects under one "open source work" heading.

Explain in your resume the contributions you've given to each project. Don't assume that someone will understand what your project is, or immediately grasp the importance of what you've done. For example, on my resume I might have:

Perl programming language (www.perl.org)

Created the prove command line testing tool. prove allows the programmer to interactively and selectively run tests in a test suite without a Makefile, making test-first development much easier. I wrote prove in 2005, and it was immediately embraced by the Perl testing community. It has been part of the core Perl distribution since 2006.

As with anything you put on your resume, explain what you did and why it was good that you did it. The only difference between project work and a "real" company is that instead of explaining the value to the company, you're explaining the value to the project or to the users.

Wags familiar with prove may say "But all you did was write a couple hundred lines of code around the standard Test::Harness module." The key to someone looking to hire me isn't what I did, but why I did it, and that I took the initiative to do it at all. I saw a need for a tool, created it, and released it to the world, to much appreciation.

So what have you done to contribute to help open source projects? It doesn't have to be as big as a deal as you might think. Submitted a code patch? Explain the bug, how you fixed it, and what you did to get the patch into the system.

As with any project, make sure you explain what the project if there's any chance someone reading might not be familiar with it.

(Thanks to Esther Schindler for asking for comments in her article "What To Include In Your Open Source Resume", which prompted this posting.)

As I enter the cavernous hall, a familiar smell fills the air. Fear fills my heart as I scan the room. Most of the people here are much taller, physically stronger and more barbaric than me. I am the only one of my species here. I am well and truly on some-one else's turf.

I can even hear them babbling away in another language. Without so much as a flinch, I calmly compose myself and prepare to stand alone and defiantly fight my corner. As I go in deeper the strange creatures surround me and stare, unashamedly. I look around for any vestiges of my own species here. There are some, but quickly I realize that they are prisoners held against their will.

No, I have not landed on an alien planet. I am a female telecoms business owner at a giant telecoms exhibition. The creatures around me are men. Wall to wall. The smell filling the air is testosterone. The only other women here are dolly girls, silent honey pots to draw men to stands by wearing outfits their Dad wouldn't approve of.

As I prepare for battle I know in my heart the cut of my power suit will never hide my curves, my blond hair makes me a walking target, my girly facial features are a burden to carry. For the first time ever, I am a man trapped in a woman's body!

I cringe inside as I observe the male creatures firmly shaking one another's hands. They slap each other's backs, in congratulation. Their deep voices bellow as they celebrate the fact that for two days only, they are actually allowed to be geeky, and be adored by fellow geeks. Strangely, they compete in virtual crazy golf tournaments. Bizarrely, they adopt alpha male poses as they plan the night's drunken exploits.

This is what it feels like to stand alone as a woman in a totally male dominated industry.

So, why is telecoms still mostly men? It seems such a dichotomy, one of the most forward-thinking industries on the planet has such an atypical, antiquated imbalance of the sexes?

Is it the culture, is telecoms backwards, or prejudicial? In my opinion, no. Basically, telecoms is highly technical and engineering and this is generally the realm of men. Programmers, engineers and designers are mostly men. Some bright spark will tell you it’s because we are wired differently or blabber on about frontal lobes etc. The truth is men seem to love it, while women get so bored we would rather stick needles in our eyes.

And, telecoms men can at times be a bunch of bitchy little girls. I can't tell you the amount of times I have had placements blow out at the golden handshake stage because "I don't like him" or "I couldn't work with him" Unreal!

So am I disadvantaged at a telecoms show by being one of very few women? Not at all. These men are outrageously technical. I nod pleasantly as they bamboozle me with a bewildering array of acronyms. I smile sweetly as they speak to me in ancient Swahili. I echo their visual cues as they evangelise this technical underworld that is to me, duller than the History Channel.

Of course, men will speak to me simply because I am female. I never resort to flaunting my feminine wiles, my eyelids never flutter in duplicity. Inevitable attempts to pick me up are brushed off with a distant, professional stare and polite change of subject. To me it's all about the confidence. If I compete with the assumptive arrogance of a man, I stand a chance. If I charismatically give out the impression that I deserve respect even though I don't have the... ahem... anatomy, I might just succeed in their playground.

I could never say that being female was part of the business plan, or if it works out better or worse for me. All I know is that I always skip out of a telecoms show with a sneaky smile having won double the leads of my male counterparts. In this battleground I always fight fairly, but secretly, winning the battle of the sexes always tastes so sweet. Some call it exploitation, I call it sound business sense.

Michelle is owner of Synergyze Telecoms Group. They offer B2B services to Telecoms startups. She also does web design and is an active member and fan of the Joomla project.

(Editor's note: I'm interested in your comments on Michelle's article. I think it's an interesting restatement of what we've been talking about in the open source communities this summer. There's been much talk about treated equally, but Michelle makes no bones about using the differences to her advantage. Is this good, bad or just part of life?)

• Five ways companies mistreat job seekers (usnews.com)
• Video of @seiden on TV this morning talking about job hunting (jasonseiden.com)
• I'm a guest expert at JavaRanch this week in their jobs discussion forum! (coderanch.com)
• Resume tactics from the grocery checkout lane (theworkinggeek.com)
• I Just Want a Job; Words That Will Crush Any Interview (resumewonders.com)
• Todd Nilson on email openings and closings (talentline411.com)
• "I consider it part of the benefits package for other employees not to have to work with asses." (evilhrlady.blogspot.com)
• Four biggest myths about job references (usnews.com)
• How to boost your career by contributing to open source projects (theworkinggeek.com)
• Today's absurd interview tactic: Intentionally showing up late (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• Two projects for civic-minded student programmers (blog.jonudell.net)
• Gushing review of "Beautiful Teams" (speedofmeme.blogspot.com)
• Max Kanat-Alexander on the Engineer Attitude: "I can solve this problem the right way" (codesimplicity.com)
• If I call to set up an interview, don't ask "Why has it taken you so long to call me" (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• A software project is code delivered at a specific point in time (theworkinggeek.com)

The key to getting into open source isn't to find a project to contribute to. What you want to do is contribute to a project you already use.

What open source projects do you take advantage of every day? I'm no Java expert, but it seems like half of what the Apache Foundation is driving these days is Java-based. Do you use Ant? Struts? Jakarta?

How about non-Java projects that you use? Do you use SpamAssassin? It's in Perl, so would give you a reason to also learn Perl. Any Apache modules you use? You could learn some C.

How can you contribute to those projects? It doesn't have to be just contributing code at first. Hang out on the mailing lists and provide answers. Update support wikis or contribute documentation. I know that on the Parrot project, a large amount of contributor time goes just to maintaining the tickets in the bug system. Anything you can do to pitch in, do it.

Start with joining the appropriate mailing list for the project, or monitoring forums. Hang out in appropriate IRC channels. Listen to what people are saying. Make yourself known as being someone who is willing to pitch in. And then do the work people are saying needs to be done.

Go into it with the goal of contributing to the project, and not of improving your career. When you take care of the first part, the second part will come naturally.

Good luck!

Any other suggestions? I'd like to turn this into a sort of standard page that I can point people to when this question comes up.

There's always a blurb on the front for an article inside that offers a specific number of items inside. They're of a form like:

• 17 hottest celebrity couples
• 23 ways to keep your man happy
• 37 quick and easy meals for summer
• 684 new looks for under $100

The magazines' editors know that numbers attract attention. If you're like me, those numbers may be the first thing you notice after the cover photo. The numbers also promise a level of service. It's not just "an article about celebrity couples," but a promise of seventeen of them.

You should use this approach on your resume as well.

First, we know that numbers attract attention. When scanning your resume, the reader's eye will be drawn to the numbers naturally.

Moreover, numbers make your story more interesting and give the reader a sense of the size of your accomplishments, or the troubles you've solved in the past.

Consider the difference between these two bullets:

• Ran the help desk. Answered trouble tickets, responded to phone calls and tracked spare computer parts.
• Ran the help desk for 200-seat office. Staff of 3 answered average of 50 phone calls and 27 trouble tickets per day. Maintained 200-unit inventory of spare computer parts worth $10,000.

These two bullets describe exactly the same responsibilities, but the addition of specific numbers draw the attention of the reader, and add the details that give a much fuller picture of your responsibilities.

Without the numbers, the reader might also logically assume that the reality is more like this:

• Ran the "help desk" in a four-person real estate office. Answered questions a few times a week about Excel. Kept a spare PC in a closet in case something tanked.

Remember, your awesomeness is not self-evident, and part of your job in telling the story of your awesomeness is giving the numbers to support it.

For more on the power of numbers, see chapter 3, "Résumé Content: Getting The Words Down" in Land The Tech Job You Love.

• OSCON slides for Effective Job Interviewing up on slideshare (theworkinggeek.com)
• RT @lruettimann I've been giving out free career advice at #blogher. Stop bringing all your emotional baggage 2 your career.
• "Am I a back-up candidate?" I suggest the answer is irrelevant: (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• Job interviewing PDF is now downloadable from OSCON site (en.oreilly.com)
• Don't leave Track Changes on when editing your Word resume: (askamanager.blogspot.com)
• How to work with headhunters (theworkinggeek.com)
• Why do some people get hired and not others? (punkrockhr.com)
• If you're not proud of where you work, go work somewhere else. (sethgodin.typepad.com)
• RT @angelaharris72: Seeking a web developer to assist with JobCamp Chicago website. This is a high profile volunteer opportunity!
• Why don't geeks hunt for their jobs like they hunt for their toys? (theworkinggeek.com)
• A dozen sites for helping job hunters, from @punkrockhr (punkrockhr.com)

Say you're looking for some crazy collectible. Maybe it's that Darth Vader coin bank that says "Impressive, most impressive" when you give it a nickel. Where are you going to find this most elusive of tchotchkes? (Yes, I know, they're actually easy to find.)

First place you look is on eBay. You go surfing around, and sure, there are some Vader toys that are pretty cool, but not what you want. You could make do with an R2-D2 bank, but again, it's not what you really want. You check Amazon Shops and Craigslist, but come up empty there as well.

Are you going to say "Oh well, my Vader bank must not exist." Of course not!

You're going to keep searching. You'll scour the web, finding other potential sources for your elusive quarry. You hit the streets, visiting collectibles stores, talking to the people who work there, asking if they have suggestions on what to score your treasure. Plenty of stores don't even post their goodies online.

Sometimes you stumble across an excellent score, and it feels like you just lucked into your find. Fact is, if you weren't out looking, that "luck" wouldn't have struck.

So why don't job hunters treat their job hunts the same way?

Many job hunters get up in the morning, check Dice and CareerBuilder and Monster, don't find the job they want, and conclude "Nobody's hiring" or "There are no jobs I want."

Or maybe they figure that they'll go pursue a job that might be interesting, but isn't really what they want, settling for the R2-D2 bank instead of the Vader bank they really one.

You'll call or email companies that you'd like to work for, and if they're not hiring, you'll ask for suggestions on other places to check.

The big job boards are the eBays of job hunting. They're the first place you look, but rarely the last.

Don't stop looking if you come up empty. Certainly you must not conclude that because you haven't found what you wanted in the first, second or third place you've looked, that it must not exist anywhere.

You don't have to be so diligent in your hunt, but you'll lose the job opportunities to those who are.

When Nick asked if I'd review his draft of his new book How to Work With Headhunters, I jumped. No surprise, it's a great book, and I recommend it. It's a straightforward, no-BS guide to how to get the most out of the relationship with a headhunter, which can be tricky. The job seeker is at a disadvantage because she only seeks a new job every few years, so this relationship can be hard to manage. Most importantly, Nick spells out what headhunters do and don't do, so you understand your role. He also explains how to tell if a headhunter is a pro or a waste of your time.

The ebook is on sale at asktheheadhunter.com, and you can get $10 off with the discount code "tenoffblog". Tell the Headhunter that The Working Geek sent you.

Thanks to all who came, and if you were at the session, please submit your feedback. I'd like to see more soft skills talks at OSCON, and your voice will help that.