Executives and Intellectuals Looking for Work - Creatively Creating Job Security

Each week the news is filled with new names of executives and intellectuals -- people with Masters degrees, Ph.D.s, engineers, analysts, scientists -- people once highly sought after and highly compensated, now seeking entry-level jobs or doing crazy stunts like wearing a sandwich-board in NYC to get noticed.

There has to be a better way to let like-minded thought-leaders know you are available for employment.

While perusing Harvard Business School’s Web site, I discovered a site that seems to be well known by the world’s elite, but not really by many others. I felt like a fly on the wall at the G8. [For reference: WIKI “G8.”]

These intellectuals -- including Warren Buffett, Actor Ted Danson, Mike Elliott (the editor-at-large of Time) and other CEOs and senior decision-makers -- impress each other and help charities by conceiving of “predictions” of societal or scientific importance and then placing (in some cases) high stakes bets ($1,000,000) on “who’s right.” There are much smaller bets too! The money goes to charity.

Registration is free. Registered users may publish a prediction, and all predictions may be challenged with a bet. The fee to publish a prediction is $50. A published prediction means your name (and your bio -- think very brief resume) will be posted beside your prediction or any prediction you challenge with a bet. I won’t go into all the parameters of the site, but I will say it is a fascinating place to read arguments from extremely brilliant minds. The bets are about everything from science, to politics, to finance to sports.

It occurred to me that if I wanted to be noticed by Warren Buffett or Dave Winer (CEO of Userland.com) -- I’d probably pony up my $50 and come up with a really great prediction.

I wonder how many executives and intellectuals will get noticed and find well-paid positions as a result of the contacts they make and the people who notice them at www.longbets.org. It sure would beat wearing a sandwich-board in Manhattan.

Great news! the Creating Job Security Resource Guide includes Web portals dedicated to listing job openings exclusively for executives; www.flexibleexecutives.com and www.6figurejobs.com will get your started, but for $8.95 at www.Amazon.com this book is worth a lot more than one lunch out.