I have been working as a remote knowledge (Web) worker for the last 9 years in two different countries and four different business units in one single organisation and I guess that, at this point in time, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Specially, thanks, amongst several other reasons, to the flexibility and freedom of being in control of your own workflow.

I can imagine though there may well be people out there who question the validity of remote workers, mainly now that the trend seems to be leaning more towards that distributed, virtual global workforce I have been blogging about over here a couple of times already who are making heavy use of social software tools to keep in touch, collaborate and share their knowledge. Indeed, for most people working remotely, i.e. from home, while at a customer site, while on the road, etc. etc. it can be quite a challenge, even more if you have to justify it to your co-workers located at the traditional office. However, it *does* work! Mashable’s Nellie Akalp‘s piece on “9 Ways To Increase Your Productivity While Working From Home” is just another proof of how it can work out in setting up the right expectations for both remote knowledge workers and those co-located in the same traditional office to inspire that collaborative environment where everyone can benefit from it.

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Search Google for “social media consultant” or “social media expert” and you’ll find millions of search results. I’ve been in the online marketing game since 1997 and I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an emergence of expertise out of the blue. Web design in the late nineties and SEO in early 2000′s was close, but social media as a career choice is as pervasive as anything.

While it does appear that there may be more social media consultants than there are companies to hire them, the truth is the opposite. The ease of publishing online with blogs and social networking makes it seem like there are more qualified consultants than there really are.

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I love how things happen. First, I ask for feedback on the blog Facebook page about what types of posts people would like to see. Someone asks for more career advice for senior level people, and then two other blog posts appear that make my job a lot easier. There are a lot of topics to talk about when you look at career advice for seasoned veterans of industry. Today, I wanted to focus on making sure you, as a software engineer, were doing the right thing for you. Basically, software engineering is difficult work and typically high stress. So, if you don’t really like your job, you need to do the right thing and find one that you can like or even love. The real question is how do you know it is time for a change?

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It seems lately we’ve had some awesome activity in our GISuser career center, with many interesting job postings coming through. Something I have noticed though is resumes being mis-directed. What I mean here is people sending their resume to the wrong email address (ie. they send to our info @ email address) the result of not following instructions provided in the job posting! Having looked at some of the resumes, it also becomes clear to me that many people are in need of help in creating an effective resume and cover letter to make their pitch. Common things I observe are emailed resumes that have little or no effort, appearing as if they are being mass distributed. These are emails that are being sent often with no clear, descriptive subject, no salutation, and a hodge podge of information dressed up as a resume – I can only imagine what HR people must go through on a daily basis!

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This week I was asked to guest lecture to a group of senior marketing students at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business on the importance of marketing in an organization.

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We’re living in a new age. It can be intimidating, especially if you’re used to doing things a certain way. If you find yourself in the hunt for a job and haven’t written a resume in over a decade, then keep reading. There are a few new key rules to writing an effective resume in the current job market.
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