I’m sure you’ve seen enough predictions for the New Year, but I am going to sneak this in before the year truly gets underway with the first day of work. Here are 7 trends in recruitment & social media I think we are going to see in 2010.

1. Return of Recruitment, as the numbers of unemployed continue to rise
We are going to see more vacancies released and jobs advertised as managers look to restore equilibrium to their organisations damaged through the job cuts and recruitment freezes of the past 18 months. Recruitment agencies – newly streamlined in 2010 – will stage a mini recovery in Q1 and Q2. This will be in spite of rising unemployment, which according to the widely cited CIPD report of December 21 will peak at 2.8 million later in the year. What does this mean? Simply, that the jobs being created are going to be different from the ones being lost. Industries on the growth track include green tech, IT, social media & HR. Those continuing on the downturn include middle office, administration, old media, & soon, public sector.

2. The Rise & Rise of Flexible Working
Organisations will become increasingly innovative in the use of different types of employment contracts they offer as they aim to source labour on an ‘on demand’ basis. Expect to see this reflected in increasing numbers of interim, contract, fixed term, part time and flexi working vacancies – at the expense of the traditional permanent job market. This will have implications on job search strategy – more people are going to be working for shorter periods of time with more employers, possibly holding down multiple assignments with different employers simultaneously. Job applicants will learn the skills more typical of freelancers to compete in a complicated job market.

3. The Year of the Home Based Entrepreneur
Changing working patterns will present an unprecedented opportunity for a segment of the labour market long neglected – the stay-at-home. Social media becomes a true enabler of homebased working, initially as employees and increasingly, as entrepreneurs. Expect to see an explosion of entrepreneurial start ups spearheaded by individuals who no longer need to choose directly between work and home. The ‘mommy blogger’ phenomenon will hit the UK, as the nature of flexible work gives home based workers a competitive advantage against those still locked in the 9-5 regimen.

4. LinkedIn continues its dominance
LinkedIn will go from strength to strength. Breaking the 50 million user barrier in late 2009 has created an unstoppable momemtum for the professional networking platform and it is now entrenched in the mainstream as an online resource, networking & career management tool. Those with dormant accounts will reactivate them; those who have not signed up already will do so. Everyone who is serious about the jobsearch will be on board by the end of year.

5. Twitter will plateau
What you say? Yes, indeed. The story of 2009 will NOT be the story of 2010. There are tose who do not ‘get’ Twitter; now they may not need to do so, particularly as Facebook continues its real time challenge through implementation of FriendFeeder and Twitter-like services. Social media overload will prevent the platform from extending its reach to new users and the initiated will end up preaching to themselves. Twitter will continue to thrive, but its increasingly expert user community will further distance themselves from the rest through further innovation of platform, clients and 3rd party integration further raising the barrier for new user entry.

6. Personal Branding will become cliche
Already prevalent in US career management circles, ‘personal branding’ will become the job search cliche in 2010; the use of marketing concepts and terminology to the job search will become common place – reiterated ad nauseam by recruiters, career coaches and employment consultants. There’s merit to it too, as traditional job search techniques (reliance on job boards, agencies & adverts) increasingly give ground to new/old job search techniques (networking, social media promotion, direct application). Establishing and managing your personal brand will rank alongside writing your CV and polishing your interviewing skills in terms of importance to the job search

7. Social Media & Business
Businesses will bite the bullet and embrace social media, with widely variable degrees of success. Expect an explosion of company Twitter profiles, LinkedIn Groups & Facebook Fan Pages. However dormant most of these will end up being they will nevertheless be in place as companies make the effort not to be seen as behind the times. Some organisations will learn to use these platforms to communicate vacancies; individuals in turn will learn to use company profiles as places to go to find employment opportunities. Companies who have denial of service policies on social media platforms will relent as mobile devices render such policies redundant. Social media governance guidelines will follow by default & every company will have a policy in place by the end of the year.

Thats my 7, lets see how it turns out in 12 months time. Great to be back – best wishes for 2010.

Being made redundant sucks. Just ask 1700 or so British Airways staff who are about to be canned from their jobs as the flagship airline ’shrinks’ its Heathrow operations. That’ll be 1700 or so pretty pissed off people about to go through a range of emotions we can safely guess to include anger, betrayal and panic. And yet as legitimate as those feelings of injustice may be, they’re unlikely to change the outcome. And if ran unchecked may prove as great a problem to the jobseeker as the redundancy itself. The solution to the threat of redundancy is practical measures. Here are 5 things to do if you find your name on the ‘to go’ list.

1) You’re entitled to be aggrieved. Vent. Get angry. And get over it. Its important to get things off your chest so that you can move forward with only positive emotions in your next step. As you will see in the points below, those next steps include dealing with those very people with whom you may have reason to feel emotional about – soon to be ex colleagues and, yes, those very bosses who made the decision to get rid of your job. It is essential that you are not carrying around emotional baggage before you talk to them. So shout, let it out and then get on with it.

2) Make full use of whats on offer. Businesses who make mass redundancies know that bad press is coming their way and they will bend over backwards for affected staff to minimise the PR fallout. You need to make full use of the services HR provide – it hasn’t come for free and might actually be quite useful. Outplacement companies make a living out of helping the soon-to-unemployed get ship shape for the jobsearch ahead. Get CV writing tips and interview practice, engage with the recruitment agencies they promote and learn as much as you can about the jobsearch process and best practice as you can. Then cross reference with the material you find on this site, and others I recommend . Between all that, there’s a good chance you’ll pick up some tips on how to maximise your chances of finding the next gig.

3) Network. And I mean like on a speed date. Have a game-plan, be disciplined, keep it time bound and get the numbers. Strange as it may sound, but being part of the mass redundancy is actually a great time to expand your network and make some very useful connections, often with people you otherwise would not have had ready access to. Surviving employees are likely to be sympathetic to your position and you will find senior managers (you know, the guys that made the decision to can you in the first place) surprisingly available for contact, advice and promises for future favours. Make sure that you secure contact details (personal numbers, personal email addresses), connect on LinkedIn and commit them to an action point in the near to middle future.

4) Secure references and recommendations – before you leave. This is a great time to ask for references – not only to get commitment from referees to act on future requests, but actually to secure written recommendations about your work before you go. Somehow, its much easier to come away with the written reference when you are asking for it face to face. This will put you in a much stronger position with a future employer if you can already provide written endorsements of work from relevant managers and colleagues at your last place of work. Don’t stop at the standard two either – keep going until you comfortably close the reference issue down once on for all.

5) Join the support group, or build one yourself if you don’t see it happening. A mass redundancy should create a culture of easy camaraderie between soon-to-be-ex-employees and this can be an outstanding resource for you in your job search. Encourage group activities, share tips and techniques, pass on relevant market information, business intelligence and leads. The jobsearch project can bewildering experience but each member of this support group could an additional set of eyes and ears on the job market looking for potential opportunities. As ever, the rule of thumb is to give without expectation of reciprocation. Contribute freely – you will feel better for it, you’re helping a fellow colleague along the way and you will get it back 10 times over.

Being made redundant can seem like one of the hardest challenges work can give you; however feeling bad about it will only get you so far. Its OK to vent. In fact, it’s down as the first thing you are going to do when you hear the news. Just do it soon, get it out of the way and get on with making the most of the new situation you have – it’ll be the best way of making sure your stay in employment limbo is a short one.