As I made my way toward the back of the room, a young man stopped me to talk about his situation. He had spent over $3,000 (that he didn’t really have) going to a seminar in Dallas that was supposed to help him find a job. What I asked how it went, he said, “the guy was a complete fraud and basically robbed us blind.” He had searched the web and this random guy popped up and seemed to be credible, positioning himself as a so-called Career Expert online, complete with testimonials, a few videos and some other content. Forty five people prepaid to attend, flew from all over the country, showed up on time and left empty handed. The ‘expert’ was nowhere to be found.

A woman overheard our conversation and told me that she spent $500 getting someone to revise her resume – she still doesn’t have a draft. The man behind her said, “that’s nothing, I dropped a grand on a career coach and she basically read me advice from other people’s websites.” I’m not kidding when I tell you that within two minutes I had a crowd of over 20 people sharing horror stories about the precious dollars they pissed away on bad advice.

The cynic in you might be saying, “What a bunch of morons. Who doesn’t check the background on someone before they invest?” But here’s the rub – it’s easier than ever to pitch yourself as a career expert and harder than ever to sort through the noise.

Something had to change.

This is why Laurie Ruettimann, Yasha Stelzner and I decided to do something unprecedented. We went to the market, found twenty highly-credible career experts, created a virtual environment (to keep costs down and allow people to attend on their schedule) and launched the world’s first online career summit. We wanted to give people access to thought-leaders dedicated to helping people find a job, keep their job and thrive in their careers.

Welcome to the 2010 Career Summit.

I’ll be honest with you – I wish we had room for 100 speakers and could do all of this for free. And who knows, maybe next time this can be even bigger. Our simple intent is to set in motion a mechanism to build trust and credibility in an environment unfortunately teeming with fraud, waste, abuse and confusion. But remember this – there are absolutely wonderful individuals offering quality products and services to those in need. Our presenters represent only a small fraction of well intentioned, highly educated and incredibly helpful professionals.

I don’t want to hear another story about how someone was taken advantage of. I want to hear stories of how people found their destination and received some amazing help along the way. So join the 2010 Career Summit. Or, if you want to help spread the word, please email me and I’ll get you all the details. This is only the beginning, so thank you.

This is the longest time between posts in the history of our little blog. If you’re thinking, “This is an outrage!”, I agree completely. So who is to blame for this travesty, this lapse in judgment, this abandonment of an HR community whose path is asunder without the wisdom and guidance of our Zen-like posts? I want names!!

Victims of the empty RSS feed, I present you with the cause of our radio silence – JobAngels.

What is this JobAngels thing and how did it begin?

Rumor has it that my crackling cornflakes whispered an idea to me on the morning of January 29th. It was apparently hard to decipher over their milk-drowned voices, but eventually I could make out their message – “help people find jobs”. Their whole-grained wisdom spread to the world and all were saved. (End scene) Wow. So inspirational!

The real story is this. I was eating breakfast and thinking about the economy. We were in the throws of a debilitating week of job loss announcements and things looked to be worsening in all sectors. I had been spending a bit of time on Twitter and had accumulated about 700 followers, a large percentage of whom are experts and professionals in the HR sector. So I wondered, what if each of those followers helped just one person find a job? Could we actually make a difference? Here’s the original Tweet:

“Was thinking that if each of us helped just 1 person find a job, we could start making a dent in unemployment. You game?”

Where did the name come from?

The response was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. Within several minutes, the discussion evolved to the use of a hashtag to help those in need locate those willing to help on Twitter. But what to call it? A few ideas floated around and then I sent this message on a whim:

“Wish we could come up with a site/plan to link all this positive energy to. How’s #jobangels sound? ”

And thus JobAngels was born. It was literally that simple. This was not rocket science and there was no divine intervention. It was one simple idea that somehow tapped into people’s desire to stop being victims to a seemingly endless stream of angst, depression and relentless negativity. When faced with hundreds of thousands of job losses, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless. But if the idea is for you to simply aid one person – a friend, a family member, a colleague or a complete stranger – that somehow not only seems possible, it seems probable.

How have people responded?

It has been four months since that original message, and in that time, a movement has begun. In this short period, over 18,000 JobAngels have already assembled across Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Over 500,000 JobAngel messages have been sent across a myriad of online platforms. Angels have donated their time, their networks, their expertise and their hearts to this grassroots initiative (and we are just getting started).

Let me be clear about one thing. JobAngels is not my movement, but it has changed my life. I am blown away by everyday people deciding to step up and aid those in need of employment. This is a chance to truly impact someone’s life and it is amazing to watch the goodwill grow at a time when it’s tempting to thrust your head in the sand.

Please join us if you haven’t already. I’m humbled to be part of this initiative and look forward to hearing your stories of success in the weeks and months to come. Thanks to those of you who have joined thus far and remember, just one Angel can make a world of difference.

NOTE: Five “Guardian Angels” have gone well beyond the call of duty in helping JobAngels become a reality. A warm and heartfelt thanks to Mark Cummuta, Chris Connolly, Deirdre Honner, Charee Klimek and Chris Bailey. Our current and future success would not be possible without their generosity and commitment to this cause. I’d also like to thank Greg Grigoriou of VanPaul Design for creating the JobAngels logo on such short notice.  Coming soon - JobAngels.org.