The Official Website of Zach Ferres

The economy sucks, the national unemployment rate is at 9.7% and in Ohio the numbers are even worse with about one in eight unemployed. Many of my friends have graduated college with a Bachelor's degree from a great university and are having troubles finding jobs. Friends and family are getting laid off and factories in my hometown are closing left and right. However, this is not going to be a blog that complains and cries about the situation. I'm an optimist, and this blog post is going to give you some tips to land a job in tough economic times.

1. Stay at home!

Today Matt Nye, our lead programmer at Bouncehost suggested that I may be a masochist. I have heard the term before but never actually took the time to realize how much this term actually fits me.

mas·och·ism n.

1. The deriving of sexual gratification, or the tendency to derive sexual gratification, from being physically or emotionally abused.

2. The deriving of pleasure, or the tendency to derive pleasure, from being humiliated or mistreated, either by another or by oneself.

Reason 1 - You have nothing to lose

Upon entering the college life I had just finished a summer of working as a part-time pizza connoisseur. I was dropped off at college with my belongings and a wallet with my $250 limit credit card and $50 cash. After staying sober for four years in high school I was ready to begin my college life (just like in the movies).

Just as a precursor, this is something that has been on my mind for quite some time. At almost every networking event I visit and every presentation I do, this topic is mentioned. Everyone understands the position the economy is in right now and things just aren't looking real good, right? Right. But does that mean we should be worried, blame it on the government, and/or continue to bitch? Nope.

This afternoon I happened to take a glance at my dual-monitor display and noticed something rather interesting. Covering up the two half-naked Maxim supermodels that stretch across my screens lies a plethora of communication tools. I am sure that I'm not the first to write a blog post about this, but I figured this would be a great first post on my personal blogging site.

So, what do I have open?