Longtime outplacement career coach Ford Meyers, who grew up in Overbrook, wrote a book on how to find a job. Here's your chance to ask him career questions.

Yesterday, I dropped my second son, and my youngest, off to Penn State to begin his education in engineering. He's a sweet young man and he said thank you to us before he turned and walked, without looking back, toward his dorm. Of course, his mother cried. I'm proud of him and of us as parents.

But, now, in a way, I'm unemployed. Many of you, like me, have or have had jobs that keep you busy more than eight hours a day. Many of you, like me, have gradually trimmed your lives to keeping a job and raising a family. Well, that family part has gone from full time to part time. That's why, in an odd way, I'm finding Ford R. Myers book, "Get the Job You Want Even When No One's Hiring" very compelling. You can read my Q&A with him in today's Inquirer by linking here. And at noon, I'll be chatting online with him.

I say oddly because the majority of these books are repackaged common sense, usually with one little wrinkle that is perhaps worth the cost. Generally though, I wonder why anyone would pay money for the common sense ideas in these books. This one isn't much different. But, the lesson that I'm learning from this is that as ridiculous as I find these books, when they hit you at the right time, they resonate. 

Here is what is resonating with me: I'm thinking about his idea of imagining the perfect day at work. Myers, a local career counselor, suggests that you write it out, starting from the a.m. Don't be specific about the name of the job but try to focus on what the day is like. I'm doing that now with my "new life." This morning I was thinking about what mornings will be like, now that, for the first time in 15 years, we don't need to drive someone to school. That leaves me more time. Time for what? How can I enhance my life and my job with this extra time?  I want to envision each aspect, because I don't want to drift.

As I write this, I must apologize to people who have really lost their jobs. My rambling is complete idiocy because at least I have a job and this exercise can be delightfully self-indulgent. To those of you who are unemployed, I still think this book is worth reading. You need to find some structure and this book has a reasonable plan, plus online components.

I'll be blogging off and on about this book all week.

In Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, I'll be writing about a new study that talks about the literacy of Philadelphia's workforce compared to the literacy needed for the majority of jobs in the city. Unfortunately, there's a big gap, although that's hardly a surprise in a city where about 50 percent of students drop out of high school. Of course, this is a huge problem for the workforce and for people looking for employment.

The study looks at three types of literacy -- prose, document and quantitative. Prose means the ability to read texts, including instructional manuals and yes, newspapers. Document literacy involves the ability to understand a bus schedule, a map or a job application. Quantitative means mathematical skills involved in balancing a checkbook, calculating a tip or performing simple computations. 

You can click here to read the initial reports on the 2003 national survey that formed the bedrock for the Philadelphia study. You can click here for a page with all sorts of interesting links, including a link to sample questions. Let's see how smart YOU are! This final link provides an overview which also explains the various proficiency levels. That survey is the biggest and most recent national survey done of adult literacy. 

The Philadelphia study takes literacy results from the 2003 survey which were bumped up against demographic info and does a what-if. What if, Philadelphia, with its demographic characteristics, had participated in the national survey? What would the results be? Pick up the paper on Sunday and get some details.

Listen, I know it is ridiculous for someone who has a job, and in fact, a decent job like mine, to ever be depressed, but I feel so sad for the people out of work and so incapable of helping them. They are losing their homes, their health insurance and their hope. However, I did read one really interesting idea in the July/August issue of the Atlantic Monthly, which offers a bunch of ideas about how help fix things, including our broken economy.

One idea, from Felix Salmon, a finance blogger for Reuters, seems very appealing.

Whenever a bank forecloses on a home, the current occupants can remain in the property indefinitely as long as they pay fair market rent -- which might be do-able.

You might say, how are they going to pay the rent if they can't pay the mortgage? Good point and it's not going to work in every case. I know from covering this stuff in the past that sometimes people manage to make regular payments, but they still owe for past months. Or they catch themselves up, but still can't get out of foreclosure because of fees and penalties. Whether that's fair is a different issue. Certainly lenders deserve to receive mortgage payments. But in the meantime, Salmon's idea makes sense. An occupied house is less likely to be trashed, a benefit for the house and the neighborhood, which of course impacts housing values. Housing prices can stay stable, because there isn't a rush to sell at a low price just to rescue the asset. 

These are all the economic benefits -- the ones that don't take into consideration how such a policy would stabilize families and help avoid homelessness. In an ideal world, a family could, as their situation improves, enter into a program to regain ownership of their home.

Maybe there's a downside to this that I'm not seeing, because, obviously, I'm a reporter and not a banker. Salmon says this could be done with a simple government policy change. I think it's a good idea.  

Get ready for a game of musical chairs as soon as the recession lifts. According to a recent survey by the staffing company, Adecco Group, 54 percent of current employees will be looking for a new job as soon as they can. Employers who have used the recession as a cudgel to mistreat employees will pay the price when the job market rebounds, the survey showed.

The group most likely to leave? Seven out of 10 of the youngest workers, aged 19 to 29, are ready to start spreading their resumes. Many older workers have been willing to take a pay cut to keep the Good Ship Enterprise afloat. But fewer than than one in 10 of the younger workers will agree to a cut. Watch for them to be leading the regatta out of the harbor, in a speed boat!

There is still time, though, for companies to show their workers some love in hopes of keeping them. Most workers believe the recession will persist well into 2011. 

In looking for a job, it helps to have someone who can serve as a guide. That's why job seekers should also seek a mentor, says Beth N. Carvin, chief executive of the Nobscot Corp., an organization that helps with recruitment and retention. The Hawaii-based company started by developing software for exit interviews, theorizing that outgoing employees might have some particularly compelling insight into corporate culture. 

So where do you find a mentor? Carvin suggests consulting with your college or university for mentoring groups. Or ask a former boss or co-worker that you admire. Don't be afraid to contact a speaker you admired at a conference or someone in your profession that seems intelligent.

The key is to not scare them off by letting them think that you expect them to hire you or spend lots of time. In your letter or email presentation, explain your goal and why you have chosen them. Explain how you think the person can be useful, but always stress the limited amount of time you'll take, Carvin suggests. Offer some times to meet and find out how they would be interested in communicating.

Why a mentor? The mentor may have insights into your field and may be able to introduce you to people. The mentor may have enough perspective to suggest different uses for talents -- uses you may have never considered. The mentor can help review resumes and cover letters to help you avoid any gaffes. The mentor may be willing, Carvin said, to rehearse likely interview questions. 

Even if it is only psychological, psychology is everything and it helps to have someone on your side.   

This should be obvious to anyone with half a brain, but just in case you need a reminder, don't forget to be polite and friendly to receptionists, secretaries and interns when you are looking for a job. For one thing, they may be the keepers of crucial information about openings and contacts. They could also be in the position to "lose" the resume of an obnoxious person. But there is another reason. According to Joe Kran, president of OI Partners-Gateway International Philadelphia, companies want to make sure that their new hire fits into the corporate culture. Often hiring mangers will check with receptionists and admins for their reactions before making a hiring decision.

OI Partners is a network of career consulting, executive training and outplacement professionals located in 200 locally owned offices in 27 countries.      

Of course it's a gimmick, but we'll bite. Office Depot says it will provide free copies of resumes, up to 25 single-sided pages, plus free faxing to five different domestic numbers, up to 25 pages in total, for the balance of the year. That's an extension of their earlier offer, which ended in May. Yes, it's a relatively cheap way to buy good will and bring customers into the store, but, still it's a help.    

I've been watching with interest the battle heating up between Acme and the United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 1776. On June 9, Acme presented its "last, best offer" to the union's 4,500 supermarket workers in southeastern Pennsylvania. This "last, best" is a legal term. It essentially means take it or leave it. There's no more opportunity for bargaining and Acme has said so in a letter to the union. Both sides accuse the other of unresponsive bargaining and delays, which gives me comfort because it probably means that no one is more at fault in that regard than the other.

Acme's supermarket clerks have been working on a contract extension since Feb. 2008. They have until July 10 to vote on the offer.

So how does the recession play into this? Perhaps the company thinks that this is the best time to play hard ball because everyone knows times are tough and jobs are scarce, so it'll be a good time to extract changes in benefits or impose working conditions that would eliminate union jobs. Perhaps the union thinks this is the best time to play hard ball because with times being tough, no company can afford any kind of stoppage and even the possibility of one isn't pretty.

Acme has kicked the public relations battle into high gear. It is sending all sorts of mailings to employees. Instead of standard supermarket advertising that talks about low prices for boneless breasts of chicken, there are advertisements touting Acme as a great place to work. Acme's chief executive made a visit to the newspaper and the company has just now joined the Inquirer's food drive as a partner. Why? Acme could have its own food drive. Heck, all the food is right there in its stores. But it is nice to get someone with access to ink to be co-sponsor. Maybe Local 1776 could also partner with the Inquirer in its food drive. With all these partners,we'd get to feed more poor people, and that's a good thing.  

There's all sorts of talk about wages and benefits. That's a lot of rhetoric, but eventually that gets split somewhere in the middle. It's like watching a ballet, although nowhere near as pretty.

I'm betting both sides are dueling the hardest over the leased-space issue. Acme wants to be able to lease up to 8,000 square feet of space to outside vendors to run, for example, the meat department, where union butchers, who are well-trained in a trade, probably earn more than union stock clerks. With leased departments, especially high-end departments, vendors could bring in non-union workers and the union would, overall, have less clout in the store, diminishing its power to negotiate decent wages and benefits in future negotiations.

Acme,  of course, has access to dollars to buy public relations. The clerks and cashiers in the supermarket don't have the cash personally, but they have something management doesn't have. That's daily contact with an important influencer in this deal -- the customer who is actually spending money at the store, sometimes shopping on a daily basis. One of my biggest beefs in any store is a cashier or clerk who can't say "hello" or "thank you." In this public relations war, those little niceties, which cost nothing, will be priceless.