“There is no shortage of work; never has been, never will be.”

I was told this on the morning of May 6, 1982 in a hotel in Washington D.C.

Those words changed my life.

At first I did not understand; I was out of a job, and the economy was in the toilet. The speaker made the point that when there isn’t enough money in an economy to pay for work to be done, work tends to pile up. It is better to go to work, without pay, than to refuse to work unless someone bribes you with money. There will be periods when there aren’t enough jobs to go around, and you should spend at least some of your time volunteering, collaborating, or mentoring. This will keep your spirits up, and your skills current. After the conference, I got to work. Within weeks, I had a job, a job I probably wouldn’t have gotten if I had not spent some of my downtime writing programs, and learning things I didn’t have time to learn on my last job.

No Shortage of Work is born.

“There is no shortage of work.” I repeated these words on April 28, 2009, when it was my turn to make a presentation. Forty of my audience members were skeptical, they were unemployed, some for more than a year.

We got together later to find ways of helping each other while looking for a job. No Shortage of Work (NSoW) was born.

Our mission is for people to teach each other, and put each other to work, even when there is not enough money to pay educators or workers.

Now we publish a newsletter, and we maintain a social network.

There is no cost, and never will be.

We don’t sell anything, and we will not give your information away

You may unsubscribe at any time.

Our newsletter contains:

- Pointers on finding work, and finding a job.

- Notices from people who want to:

• Be a mentor
• Find a mentor
• Assist on a project
• Find assistants on a project
• Offer an internship
• Find an internship
• Find local meetings of members

(All subscribers may also submit their entries to the newsletter.)

Sign up today; you have nothing to lose.

Regards,

Brooke Allen, (along with Darla, and everyone else at No Shortage of Work.)

P.S.: It occurs to me that you might want to know who I am.

First of all, I am a guy… back in 1952, when I was born, Brooke was a guy’s name. Second of all, I have only been unemployed twice (once for a few days, and once for a few weeks). I wrote about the 18-year-old who taught me how to do this in: Learning How to Land a Job. If you like that story, I’ve got a million of them, some of which are in my monthly column. And if you want more job hunting tips, read my somewhat stuffier article.You can read about my professional life on LinkedIn and Xing.

copyright 2007-2009 Brooke T. Allen

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