Getting a pink slip usually is not a reason to party, but next week, several hundred jobless folks in South Florida will do just that as they mingle at bars with recruiters.
The Pink Slip Party networking event is among several career-related grass-root events and Web sites generating buzz in the social media scene.
It's no surprise that it's a hot topic in Florida, considering the state is second to California in terms of job loss — down 380,000 jobs the past year as of April, the U.S. labor department announced last week.
If you can't make the South Florida Pink Slip Parties, which are organized by Plantation native Carlos Gil and his site JobsDirectUSA.com , then you might want to attend the LaidOffCamp at the Miami Beach Convention Center, put together by Miami Beach resident Rick Tuttle.
Or, perhaps, you could just use some tips on finding a job from CareerJockey.org or LemonadeIt.com — each started this year by South Floridians who have dealt with layoffs.
These folks are among dozens of people across the country investing their time and money to help others find jobs.
The creators say putting up these sites isn't a quick way to make a buck: The jobless have no money to spend, and advertisers don't pay much for sites that have low traffic.
But career and money-related domain names are a hot purchase for investors. Sedo.com , which sells domain names, is holding auctions in June for names like Wealth.com, Resumes.com — and the top names are expected to reach sales of six-figures. Generic domain names always have been popular, but it's the hot topic of the economy that's making investors more interested. Job-related searches have become the most popular search category for Google Adwords.
"More or less, (Pink Slip Parties are) speed-dating for job seekers and recruiters," Gil said.
The 25-year-old was fired from AIG in November. His wife was 8 months pregnant, and he channeled his frustrations toward launching JobsDirectUSA.com. He sold some stocks, dug into his savings accounts and made his new job to help find jobs for other people.
But he doesn't see Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com as his competition.
"JobsDirectUSA is putting a face and personality behind the job board," he says. "I'm a real person. I'm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn — you can reach out and touch me, see me, call me. These other guys they can't do that. They've become too big."
Rick Tuttle, a freelance Web designer in Miami Beach, has been setting up a LaidOffCampMiami.com on his own since March. It's based off a similar event in San Francisco, and he built the Web site after he noticed his freelancing gigs were drying up.
Miami resident Juan Lopez-Davies, 36, lost his job in January and started LemonadeIt.com in May with his wife, Melissa Anido-Lopez, 32. They both have full-time jobs, but after investing $4,000, they continue to work on the site on their time. They just partnered with the University of Miami Toppel Career Center.
"We're hoping that everyone in this unfortunate circumstance will post in our community section," Anido-Lopez says. "When life hands you lemons, LemonadeIt."
They say are motivated to do this to help people and don't see themselves making a big profit off of the site anytime soon.
