Dear Group: Moderator Jason was kind enough to take my question regarding the focus of this group seriously, so, so encouraged, I am going to pose another question: what would you say is your purpose as a human being? I know this may be a stretch, but I honestly think that this question does impact our careers and job searches, etc. I sometimes wonder whether I would have achieved more financial success if making a lot of money had been my first priority in the first place. But, at the risk of humble bragging, it hasn't been. Please do not get me wrong; I do not dislike money. I depend on it. I feel that I depend on money the way a diabetic depends on the injection needle. But, I do not feel that my passion has been for making a lot of money. My passion has been for helping people. And, I think that that passion has influenced my career moves. I want to be the first to say that that is probably an irrational way to feel. I suspect that the rational approach is that, in this world, if you want to help people - you can do a lot more to help them if you have money. But I am not sure whether my heart, my emotional center, has ever really processed that rationale. But, what do you think? What do you say that your purpose is - and how does that influence what you want out of a career? Thank you very much for your time and attention. Respectfully, John

Dear Group: Please excuse my ignorance, but I have a question/suggestion for anyone who does freelance work. As a lead up, I think we can safely say that the online job market is broken. So, as we were talking about in Coffee Hour a couple of weeks ago, it can really help sometimes to be able to reach a warm body: an live human being who actually knows you. So, my question for freelancers is: why not reach out to clients with whom you have already worked successfully and let them know that you would be interested in a more permanent arrangement, even if is only on a part-time schedule? I cannot help but wonder whether it might sometimes be easier to get a position through a warm connection than simply applying to places cold, by which I mean applying with no 'warmth' to the connection, no personal relationship. Thank you in advance. Respectfully, John

I’ve been noticing when I apply for jobs on LinkedIn that often times the match widget isn’t seeing some of the education or skills that I have. I think because of this group today I may have had a realization. I am using two columns for all of my skills and I wonder if that’s tripping up AI. If anyone knows the answer to that that would be great!

Dear Group: I said I would try to submit a follow-up to my post about online job boards. Honestly, I speculate that job seekers these days may need to branch away from relying on online job boards alone. Such reliance may be time wasting. So, what to do instead? I think I remember, back when I was a teenager, reading a book called 'What Color Is Your Parachute?' that asserted that most jobs are not advertised. The book called this the 'hidden job market'. Maybe one needs to go back to the old-fashioned way of trying to work through people they know to tap into this hidden job market rather than relying on what is publicly posted on the internet. I keep going back to the example of someone I know getting a job as a sailing instructor at the same school where they used to take sailing lessons. I posted a blurb about deliberately taking classes or activities as a way to get a job, but maybe that was the wrong lesson to take away from this example. Maybe the lesson is that, to get a job, maybe it is helpful to apply to places that one already knows and that already know one. So, maybe if one takes classes at a school, apply to teach at the school; if one has some other form of connection, leverage that connection. But, as always, I am no expert; I am just trying to come up with ideas. Thank you.

Dear Group: Someone had what I think is a really good point below that I did not think get enough attention. What if part of the problem is not the 'job market' generally? What if part of the problem is that online job boards have turned into traps - traps that Hoover up our time and effort? As I understand it, there may be 2-3 big problems with online job boards: #1. Some of these postings are for positions where the employer does not really want to hire, if not outright scams. #2. The remaining announcements get flooded with responses, often with unqualified people, within hours of posting. #3. There may be bots these days that automatically further flood such postings with responses. Actually, I am not sure whether this problem number #3 is more of a problem than #2. Put all these factors together, and hunting for a job on online job boards may become something more akin to playing the lottery. Are we de facto gambling for jobs instead of looking for them? But what to do about this situation? I hope to attempt some suggestions in my next post.