Hired!. Getting a job in the auto industry.

The automobile industry has been rocked by layoffs, but Margaret McManus still managed to snag a job.

For the average American auto worker, these are desperate times. During the first four months of the year there were over 101,000 job cuts announced in the auto industry, according to the latest data available from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
The sector took another major blow when General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) announced plans to cut 23,000 jobs by 2011 and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy last week.

But McManus, 52, is just one of the people being put to work in West Point, Ga., home to Daehan Solutions Georgia, a new parts supplier for Kia Motor's first North American automobile assembly plant. Like McManus, most of the people hired by Kia and its suppliers do not have automotive experience, but were unemployed workers in the textile industry, which has been particularly hard hit in Georgia.

McManus was laid off in February of last year when the textile manufacturer she was working for closed down. With so many residents out of work and the local industry declining, new jobs were hard to come by. While collecting unemployment benefits, McManus decided to go back to school at Southern Union State Community College in Valley, Ala., to study information technology in hopes of finding administrative work.

Then, in April, she attended a job fair and interviewed with Daehan Solutions. The company sent her to a training session at Georgia Tech and she was offered a position as a trainer for the other workers making the noise, vibration and harshness (or NVH) system for Kia. She started the next day. Although working at in the automotive industry is unlike anything McManus has done before, "I think I'm going to like it," she said. Ultimately, she is happy to be employed again.
"Until you go through something like that you don't realize what kind of struggle it's going to be," McManus said of her year and a half out of work.

Her husband of 33 years was laid off from the same textile manufacturer and is currently working full time at Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500). "Things are looking up now."
Beating the odds John Weiss, owner of Atlanta Resume Service in Atlanta, Ga., believes other job seekers can also find opportunities around West Point. "That's going to be a very good area to be looking for a job," he said. And, like McManus, they don't have to have previous experience in the automotive industry to find success. "They have to train people for the right jobs as well as find people with experience."

"Job fairs are a great place to start," he said. But it is extremely important to make the appropriate impression, he cautioned, and that means wearing professional attire and having a polished resume. "If there is a job fair, then people are hiring," he said. West Point's Mayor, Drew Ferguson, estimates that the opportunities at the assembly plant, auto suppliers and in the surrounding city can bring about 20,000 jobs to the area.

Between retail positions, restaurant workers and other opportunities, Ferguson believes that the impact could be great. "We do have this opportunity which is right in front of us, people are becoming employed," he said

I Found My Job On Twitter

Forget the classifieds, these days unemployed workers are finding more job opportunities through social networking sites.

Not even. In the worst job market in 25 years, building an online presence is crucial to getting a job. Who you connect to, "follow" and "friend" can be just as important as conventional tools like résumés.
"Not only are employers looking for better candidates, but ones that are well versed in social media and seeking out opportunities," said social media expert and president of Affect Strategies Sandra Fathi. "These mediums are here to stay and also a great way to differentiate yourself."
Not only are valuable connections forged with potential employers and colleagues on sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn, but openings are also posted there, sometimes in lieu of job boards.

Making the right connections
LinkedIn, which has over 40 million users, is geared specifically toward professional networking. Expansive networks are built by posting a profile which acts as an online résumé, making connections and getting references from your connections that potential employers can view.
For Barbara Maldonado, LinkedIn was the gateway to a great opportunity. Maldonado, 32, participated in a professional group on the site for "Innovative Marketing, PR, Sales, Word-of-Mouth & Buzz Innovators." Another member of the group posted a question and liked Maldonado's response. From then on they kept in contact.

"When I updated my status that I had been laid off, he referred me for a position that was open at his company, which is where I work now," she said of her current marketing position at the firm in a suburb of Chicago. "Without actively participating in that discussion, I would not have made the contact for the job."

Other sites like Twitter and Facebook, while popular among teens and young adults, have also been embraced by professional communities. Friends on Facebook typically share status updates, pictures and video. Twitter limits exchanges between people, also known as followers, to messages of only 140 characters.

If it weren't for Jen Harris' followers on Twitter, she would not have been notified of another job opportunity, only moments after getting laid off from Idaho-based MPC computers in October.
As Harris packed up her desk she sent out a tweet that read: "just been laid off from MPC."
"By the time I left the parking lot, I had a job offer from a friend that had a Web development company in town," she said.

First dibs on job openings
But job seekers don't have to rely solely on others for information about possible job openings. There are a variety of services associated with social networking sites to help too, like TweetMyJobs, which sends out automatic updates of new openings in a specific field and region sent to your cell phone or by Twitter. If you fan a company on Facebook or follow internal hiring managers on Twitter, you might be the first to find out about job openings at the employer of your choice.

When the Minneapolis office of Weber Shandwick was looking to hire a junior Web developer, the digital strategy manager, Greg Swan, sent a 136-character tweet to over 2,000 followers which read: "Weber Shandwick Minneapolis looking for mid-level html developer and PSD slicer. Plus you get to work with me. DM or @ me for more info.

" Doug Hamlin, 23, landed the job after responding with his résumé and information. Job seekers can also seek out and follow professional recruiters, like Shane Bernstein, to get first dibs on job opportunities.

GM notifies 1,100 of its dealers that they are out

General Motors notified 1,100 of its 6,000 dealerships today that the automaker is terminating their contracts, the first step in an even deeper 40 percent cut in its retail network. A GM spokeswoman said the dealers are being told their contracts will not be renewed in October 2010, CNNMoney reports.

Read More: http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/15/news/companies/gm_dealers/index.htm?postversion=2009051509

See which dealerships got the pink slip

It is official, Chysler closing 789 dealerships

Troubled automaker tells court it wants to shutter about a quarter of its dealers.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Chrysler LLC will close down 789 dealerships, or roughly 25% of the current number, according to a plan filed in bankruptcy court Thursday.
Chrysler had a total of 3,181 authorized dealers in operation at the time of its April 30 bankruptcy court filing, according to court filings. Just over half of that number accounted for more than 90% of Chrysler sales, according to the filing.
Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler does not believe closing these dealerships will adversely affect sales.
"After a period of time, and substantially improved marketing and investments, overall sales in the reduced network are anticipated to grow beyond current sales levels within the existing network," the carmaker said in its filing.
Chrysler's plans to close the dealerships must still be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur Gonzalez, who is overseeing the government-led restructuring of the company.
The Obama administration, which has pumped more than $7.2 billion into the tottering automaker, has said it hopes the move Chrysler through bankruptcy quickly by creating a shell company that will be owned by a combination of the government, the United Auto Workers union and Italian carmaker Fiat.
In assessing Chrysler's viability, the Treasury Department found the automaker could not survive as a stand-alone company. Chrysler had already been in discussions with Fiat about a partnership. The current plan calls for Fiat to assist Chrysler by providing engineering for small and midsized cars.
General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) has said it wants to cut 42% of its dealership base to 3,600 by next year. Fritz Henderson, the GM chief executive, said on Monday that it would soon start notifying dealers as soon as this week.
For the automakers, closing dealerships is a tricky business. For one, Chrysler and GM won't save substantial amounts of money by closing dealerships, which are independently owned businesses.
At the same time, both GM and Chrysler have no choice but to greatly reduce their dealerships ranks, which have grown far larger than sales demand requires. The goal is a leaner, more profitable, network of sellers.
In ordinary circumstances, automakers' efforts to close dealerships have been stymied by state laws that protect franchisees. Bankruptcy court judges, however, can override such laws.