Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

AP CEO Tom Curley to Staff: No, Layoffs Not Over [embedded message]

The emerging employment game is just-in-time, even if you have a traditional full-time position with benefits. 

If you read between the lines, that's essentially what AP Chief Executive Officer Tom Curley told staff.  Specifically he noted that, no, the layoffs are not over.  But the message embedded in that seems to be no job is a given.  It can be taken away at any time.

What are the implications for all of us in the communications field?  Plenty.  We have to continue to acquire new skills and contacts, both within and outside the organization.  We can't get into debt since we have no employment security, that goes for both those who consider themselves "employees" and for those of us who making a living through self-employment.  Regarding the latter, the client could get fired, retire, go bankrupt or find a vendor better and cheaper.  If we are in debt, we should make it a priority to exit for that. 

Here's a little more.  Renting trumps buying, at least right now.  Upscale branded clothing, including in size 12, can be purchased in the exploding number of consignment shops.  GoodWill, in fact, has become bigbiz.  Public transportation gives writers time to daydream and eliminates the fixed cost of maintaining a car [been carless since June 25, 2009 when my trusty Ford Escort '03 was stolen].  Bring beverages from home vs. buying them.  And best-selling books are on the shelves of the public library, usually in multiple copies.   Soon enough the public library stocks the DVDs of current films.

How did I get the hang of this new no-income-security way so quickly?  That's how I grew up in an immigrant household in downtown Jersey City, New Jersey.  There was little money but lots of cunning about how to survive.  In 2003, I again embraced that mindset Download Geezerguts  Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg.

Not exactly Liar's Poker

Some contend that it was Michael Lewis's book "Liar's Poker" which helped bring down Solomon's Brothers.  Well, nothing exactly like that can happen to bring down Bear Stears since it's already gone.  But tidbits about the old place still make for juicy gossip, especially since two of its former leaders Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tanin are being tried in court.

NEW YORK Magazine reports that the financial firm's former head of corporate strategy Steven Begleither lost $22 million in one hand of poker.  But he did come in sixth overall, out of more than 6000 players, in the World Series of Poker and walked away with $1.59 million in prize money.

Post-Crash: Disney is even getting Mickey Mouse to wise up

It's a different game.  All that homespun wisdom about being a boy scout, always doing the right thing [if there is such a universal as "the right thing"], loyalty, patience doesn't earn us a living.  Not any more. 

So, the folks of Disney are overhauling Mickey Mouse, reports Brooks Barnes in THE NEW YORK TIMES.  Once squeaky clean, this dude will debut in video game Epic Mickey as cunning, that is, a man who approaches the world with an agenda and does what it takes to make it happen for him.

Tip to parents: Run out and purchase that video game for your children.  They gotta understand how the world operates, at least as it does now.

Boom Niche Business in ghostwriting academic material

Even if higher education migrates totally online, as it's predicted to do by 2020, students will still need to produce the case analysis, term paper, thesis, book report, reflective essay, and dissertation.  That's already become a boom niche business for ghostwriters.  You decide the ethical piece.

Those who operate those ghostwriting factories for academic material recruit the help on Craigslist.  That's where you can start: Working for someone to learn the ropes.  Do that for a month or so.  Observe their errors in handling the business part.  Then launch your own enterprise.  Think the high end.  Doing the routine six-page term paper produces plenty of logical agita and not a lot of profit. 

There's more.  There is also growing demand for ghostwriters of those essays for professional and graduate school and even plain-vanilla college.  Once you understand that world and if you like it then you can prepare to expand into coaching.  Another surging market is for coaching for standardized tests, ranging from SAT to LSAT.  If you excelled there way back when you can analyze what the more recent tests require.

Yet another market is ghostwriting at the high end: For professors, administrators, and adjunct help who consult on the side.  They are just getting the hang of the web.  They can use you for simplifying content, presenting just enough but not too much documentation, and getting the SEO right.

All this might not be as much an opportunity for making a difference as working in the newsroom of THE NEW YORK TIMES or reporting on recipes for Conde Nast's GOURMET.  But it uses one's intelligence and expensive education.  It also represents steady income.

Again, the ethics piece is your take.

To Live Outside The Establishment, You Must Be Honest

There is a game, sometimes a lucrative one, outside working for The Establishment.  To play it you must be honest.  None of the bait-and-shifts of The Establishment, as in: Give us a Wow and we will give you a whole lot more work.  None of the late payments: All my new [often hypomanic] clients, mostly startups, medium-size enterprises dominant in their niche, and thought leaders pay on time.  None of the bullying, as in a ghostwriter in Ohio wants to do this book for $5000 and I flew out to see her [My typical reply is, good, you got a bargain, go for it].

In 2004, it dawned on me that I couldn't and wouldn't deal with The Establishment any more.  Two decades of that almost killed me [Download Geezerguts.]  My working-class background, heavy Jersey City, New Jersey dialect that didn't lend itself easily to accent reduction, no spouse with a prestigious job, and insecurity [that's been taken care of] made me a victim for their torment.  Sure I could improve my game.  But, never enough.  The Coach attache case and Manhattan styling and highlights didn't do it.

It took a while to learn to market to non-Establishment types.  Meanwhile I downsized my fixed costs so that I can live through this transition w/o filing Chapter 11.  So far, so good.  In addition to making a decent living, I will be publishing my first novel this fall.  Here is the first chapter Download FatGuyFromGreenwich.  The main character in "The Fat Guy From Greenwich" is a composite of my many former clients.  In addition, I love living an alternate reality, light years away from upper-middle-class conformity.   No one has to die for work.

OTR Global - Why did it allegedly toss my application within several hours?

In this brutal marketplace, sometimes we just gotta ask why.  That question, posed in a public forum, might help organizations recruit differently.  The feedback, invited to be public, might help us improve our game.

Late last night I took about 35 mintues answering an ad for a telecommuting opportunity posted by OTR Global on JournalismJobs.com.  The contact person was Joann Steck-Bayat.  The specs required an investigative journalist with a background in that whole continuum we call BigPharma whose perspective was briefing the investment community.  I seemed to be a perfect fit.  Here is my carefully done response to that ad Download Reply to Job Ad. 

Stunned, early today I opened my email.  There was a curt note from Ms. Steck-Bayat informing me that I didn't meet the requirements.  Here it is Download Replyfromotrglobal.  The investigative journalist in me smelled something:  Maybe a story, maybe needless pain for those looking for work, maybe a poorly worded help wanted.   I called Ms. Steck-Bayat at 510-524-9464.   She was not at her phone.  I left a message on her voice mail to inform me what were the requirements that I hadn't met.  It would help me in future applications to know that.  It would help other searchers for job to better align their cover letters and resumes with the requirements.

This is a public service to all those who have invested time - and hope - in applying for freelance and full-time jobs and didn't perceive those applications as processed with due care.

Modest Proposal: An Help-Wanted Hall of Shame.

Need to Behave Blue-Collar to Get a Job, the Babes? I will coach you

The new game of success is working-class directness, joking-around, pleasure-loving, eager to help out in a pinch, and, well, trust-worthy as it can be [Lenny Bruce opined we are are all as honest as we can be at the time.]  Think Michael Moore and Dave Letterman. 

We have had it with the smoothies like Madoff and Obama who do it the old-line upper-class way.  We don't trust those guys, not their airs, not their supposed big plans for us.

If you are considering ditching that stiff, buttoned-down, obviously over-educated, and underemployed or underemployed persona, help is here.  I coach people just like you to present yourself in professional situations and life so that they let you in.  There are jobs.  There are customers.  There are clients.  And there are friends and lovers.  You just have to change your own personal brand to connect with all that.

Contact Jane Genova aka The Jersey City Kid at mgenova981@aol.com.  Billing through Ether or Paypal.  Meanwhile here are some free reads Download SavingSoulsJaneGenova  Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg  Download Geezerguts.

Michael Moore as Hottie

Henry Kissinger was on the money: Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.  And Michael Moore oozes that.  Inside the beltway politicians are making it known that they are attending his new film "Capitalism: A Love Story."  His agent, who is brother to the President's chief of staff, might get the movie a White House screening.  Plus, the guy has the power of wealth also.

So, we have to conclude that he is attracting the babes.  That raises all sorts of questions about how his odd appearance might be resetting standards for sexual attractiveness.  Will women now cotton to chubby or downright obese men?  Will a baseball cap become some kind of sex magnet? And will working-class chic replace that controlled decorum of the upper class?

Perhaps Moore will share his observations on this weighty matter with us.

Ratio of 6-to-1: Job-seekers to jobs

The game has changed from it's so tough to get a job to don't even bother looking.  The ratio of job-hunters to jobs available is 6-to-1 [Source: Labor Department].  The reason the number of jobs hasn't increased with signs of economic recovery, reports Peter Goodman of THE NEW YORK TIMES, is the continued uncertainty.  Employers simply don't feel secure enough about anything to create new jobs and hire on employees.

The solution?  Glue together several part-time jobs, temporary assignments, and your own stabs at running your own businesses.  The term for that is: Multiple streams of income.  Every since America began, that's the way the working classes have been making a living.

Comebacks: Is Bonnie Fuller on the List?

The comeback game is smokin' as the economic volatility and shifts in industries take us down.  The STAR that Bonnie Fuller was heading at the end of her time there was at a bad price point and couldn't stand toe to toe with the new competition in the gossip category.  Has she learned what the game is now?  Looks like others think so.

For example, Corynne Steindler left "Page Six" to join Fuller's web startup HollywoodLife.com.  It's targeted at the 18-35 female demographic.  The focus is celebrity and entertainment gossip.  It will be up-and-going at the end of October.

A lot of us are watching this one.