A new twitter movement started two days ago to help people find jobs. @You2Gov suggested creating a new hashtag (hashtags are like categories/subjects for twitter), #rtjobs, which stands for ReTweet Jobs. The central idea being that if you hear of a job you should tweet it with the hashtag #rtjobs. And if you’re looking for a job you should search twitter for #rtjobs and see what’s out there. It seems like it could be a great way to use social media to help in the job search (hey, it certainly couldn’t hurt).

If you’re completely unfamiliar with Twitter, there’s no time like the present to start. It’s getting extra buzz lately because it was the place to break the news about the Hudson plane crash. Go to twitter.com. Investigate, tweet (tweets are brief messages or status updates that have to be 140 characters or less). Follow people you think are interesting (this means you get updated on their tweets). Perhaps even follow me. For a more in-depth guide check out Cnet’s Newbies guide to Twitter.

Yesterday I overheard a conversation between two of my hallmates (also seniors) and an applicant…

Applicant: “So it’s really hard to get a job right now, right? What are you guys going to do?”

Senior 1: “God yes. Basically, we’re trying to avoid the job market for as long as possible”

Senior 2: “We’re just going to stay in school for as long as they’ll let us.”

As I was listening to this, I was revising yet another cover letter for a job application. I have to admit their plan started to sound pretty good. Every time I look at the news, I read about yet another company laying people off. 8,000 jobs cuts have been announced as of 12PM today (reported by CNN Money). The Associated Press reports doubts on whether Obama’s stimulus package will in fact create jobs.It is certainly a terrible time to be looking for a job.

But is graduate school the answer? Not according to Penelope Trunk. Her post today advises “Don’t try to dodge the recession with grad school.” She points out that on the job learning may be just as valuable or more so than a graduate degree. Plus you’re getting paid for it. According to her, graduate school “pointlessly delays adulthood.” This seems a little harsh. Certainly graduate school is a requirement for some career choices. In any case, for those of us who were on the fence about graduate school or starting to wish we had applied, Penelope gives plenty of reasons to think twice. The only problem remaining, of course, is actually finding that job…

Sounds too good to be true? Just give me a second to explain. This quarter, at Stanford, I’m taking a class called The Pursuit of Happiness. As you can imagine, it’s been a pretty interesting class. We’re looking at psychological studies of happiness to try and figure out how people can become happier. Good stuff.

I want to share a definition of stress that I learned the other day…

Stress is our appraisal of whether or not we can handle what we think we have to with what we have available to us.

Okay so you’re stressed, right? Stop for a second, think about why you’re stressed. It’s probably because you think you have too much to do and not enough time, right? Just the thought of it is raising your blood pressure (note: this is very bad for you, stress also lowers your immune system, makes you fat, and does lots other fun stuff. Expect me to post more on this at a later date). Take a deep breath, and realize, that, you actually can handle it. Come on, you’ve made it this far, and not for nothing I’m sure. So relax, there’s nothing in your day that you can’t handle. I’m pretty sure of this because you have to handle it every day and have survived as of yet. So stop stressing and get working!

I found this definition helped me mentally talk myself down from stress really easily. I’d love to hear your opinon though. What do you do to combat stress? Does this help you?