Passive marketing (like passive income) is great because once you have it set up, it does its job without needing constant time and effort to keep it ticking over - so, it's a nice time saver.
The Freelance Switch blog has some tips for how freelancers can use passive marketing to promote themselves - and most of the tips are equally applicable to job seekers as well.
These include:
*having an awesome portfolio of your work
*maintaining good customer relationships to get the benefit of word of mouth referrals and repeat business (for a jobseeker, focus on good professional relationships within your industry)
*maintaining an online professional portfolio at sites like LinkedIn and Facebook.

Do you have any preferred methods for maintaining your professional profile? Share in comments please.

Passive Marketing for Freelancers [Freelance Switch]

Lifehacker Australia is on the lookout for a new Editor!

Who are you?
You might be a software hacker with a yen to spend some time writing helpful how-tos and connecting with a community of lifehacking power users. You might be a technology writer or blogger. You might consider yourself a power user of Windows PCs, Macs or your favourite flavour of Linux. But overall we hope you will be someone who wants to help Lifehacker Australia become a truly great hub for people to get and share computing, productivity and life hacks.

Who are we?
Allure Media is a young and growing blogging empire which publishes Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku and Defamer in Australia. We have an office in Sydney and our Editors work from Sydney and Melbourne.

How do I apply?
Easy! Send an email to: jobs AT alluremedia.com.au. I'd strongly suggest you send in an example or two of stories you've written which you think are Lifehacker-worthy.

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Career advisor Penelope Trunk offers a five-question quiz that calculates whether you're likely to get that job promotion. Like most of Trunk's delightfully unconventional tips, this promotion-o-meter's based not on whether or not you're the best candidate, but on the realities of office politics. Questions range from whether the boss likes you, if you're working on a high profile project, if you work a lot of hours (or at least create the impression that you do), and if you're at the top of the pay scale and experience for your current position. What's your score on the test? Let us know in the comments.

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Previously mentioned job search engine Indeed adds new search criteria for all listings: salary. Enter the position you're interested in with a yearly salary requirement—like web developer $70,000—and Indeed returns listings that match. Most job listings don't mention salary, so Indeed estimates the pay for each by using similar postings that do. Not a perfect system, but still a nice way to avoid wasting time on jobs that are completely out of your payscale. See also how you can compare salaries for a position in a given zip code with Indeed.

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Marketing expert Seth Godin says job hunters who are "remarkable, amazing, and spectacular" probably shouldn't have a resume. Bold statement! Godin writes:

Having a resume begs for you to go into that big machine that looks for relevant keywords, and begs for you to get a job as a cog in a giant machine. Just more fodder for the corporate behemoth. That might be fine for average folks looking for an average job, but is that what you deserve?

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The Productivity Portfolio blog has a great walk-through on how to create a collection of personalised RSS feeds to show any new jobs that pop up on eight popular or specialised job search sites, including Craigslist, CareerBuilder.com, and previously mentioned site Indeed. Even if RSS feeds are old hat for you, you might not know just what each of the major job-finding sites offers in localised, career-specific searches. Have you ever found a job through an RSS ping or email alert? Have a better way of not missing that potential next career? Share your story in the comments.

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If you're facing career indecision, one way to help clear things up is to focus on yourself, rather than the job market, Penelope Trunk blogged today. She says she learned this after she finished college and went for a job which was a total mismatch for her:

"I realized that the ways I choose to make money reflect who I am and how I see myself, and I needed to start seeing myself as smart and clever."

In other words, the way you chose to spend your workdays reflects who you are and how you see yourself.

The goal? To work towards a career that honours your identity - bearing in mind that as you change, your career goals may well change as well.

I had a similar "mismatch" moment early in my career too - so Penelope's post really rang true for me. Early on, I missed out on a journalism job that I wanted (curse you, Vive magazine!) and was so disheartened I turned my back on journalism for several years. But the bug was still there, so finally I enrolled in a postgrad journalism course to improve my skills and qualifications, and I've been working as a journo ever since.

If you need a kick up the bum motivation wise, I suggest you read Penelope's post. :)

In other news, it's probably a good time to remind everyone that our career tips competition is still open - so head on over to the competition post and submit your best resume or job hunting tip to win a Google notebook.

The best career tool is self-knowledge [Penelope Trunk]

Some of us work extremely hard and never have time for our personal lives, and particularly, our own families. Perhaps, however, it's time to change that. Consider this: it's pretty difficult to be productive for over 80 hours a week. Instead, take a break during the evening and focus on family time (especially during dinner). At the end of the day, you're making that money so that you can attend to your family—but your family should not be put on hold while you're hard at work. What changes have you made to emphasise family over your career? Let's hear your best moves in the comments.

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With all this recent hype about the stock market and rising unemployment rates, the best way to protect yourself from being laid off is to consistently look out for other opportunities. Always stay in the game. Even if you're feeling smug at work, look around for the perfect dream job and keep your resume up-to-date. This will give you a head start if your company is negatively impacted by the economy. If you're feeling worried, build upon your emergency fund and limit leisure spending. Ideally, you should have three to six months of expenses in your bank account. See these other ways to recession-proof your career.

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