Our nation's desk-bound civil servants have too much time on their hands.

While casually checking the Jobacle traffic logs from the past few months I noticed an alarming trend:

Government workers love to play Office Bingo.  Hundreds of them!

For some reason, the little game we devised last year, has clearly resonated with folks logging on from a .gov computer.

If you're bored at work, we kindly ask you to play along too!

DOWNLOAD BINGO CARD

An Apology

With the warmer weather cloaking NY, I'm having a little trouble keeping my blog/podcast focus.  It could be my anti-climactic promotion at my "real" job, or my never-ending house hunt.  Or, perhaps, just the distraction of girls in their summer clothes. Who knows.  

We are however working on some great future content.  From the secret of the perfect shoe shine to a look at the "coolest" jobs on the planet, please subscribe now so you don't miss a beat.

Here's a look at some of the big career news from the past week.

JOBACLE:  For the blog, March came in like a lion...and is leaving like a lion! Over 15,000 unique visitors, new partnerships and lots of freelance work: I can't thank you all enough! Your continued support is appreciated.

ENTRY LEVEL EMPLOYEES:  CollegeGrad.com, an entry level job Website, has released the results of a survey examining what employers want most from recent college grads.  The results...

Click to read more ...

Every few weeks I deliver a post that reveals The State of Jobacle. I believe this transparency helps forge a tighter relationship with our readers.

- The Jobacle blog continues to grow, drawing in over 10k unique visitors a month.

- The Working Podcast is experiencing a tremendous resurgence, totaling over 60k downloads in February alone. Wow!

- Please, please, please take four seconds (literally!) to give us high marks.

- I've been toying with the idea of revamping Jobacle to a more magazine-type Web style. Preview the testing site and let me know what you think.  I'm undecided. Your feedback will determine what happens.

- One of our regular bloggers, Sally Lawton, is moving on to greener pastures. If you are interested in filling her post, check out some of her work here and drop me an e-mail at jobacle (at) gmail (dot) com.

- So far in 2008, the top five posts are:

How to (Not) Write a Goodbye Letter to Your Co-Workers

8 Types of Office Crushes

2008 Sick Day Calendar

Office Animals: Which Do You Work With?

Get Your Employer to Pay for an Online Degree

- The number of freelance blogging projects coming my way has recently increased.  That's a beautiful thing. If you're looking for a freelancer for your written and audio needs, let me know.

Thank you to everyone.  Your feedback, e-mails and regular visits keep me more motivated than you'll ever know.

Let's continue to Make Work Better!

As another month of Jobacle-mania wraps up, here's what's on my mind:

1) Thanks to the ladies at Clearchannel's NewsRadio 740 KTRH in Houston, TX for giving us some love.

2) The time waster of the month has definitely been the Cubicle Freakout Game. How much destruction can you unleash on your cube in the allotted time period?

3) The Working Podcast continues to grow rapidly, especially in Asia!?  For some reason we've been getting a nice clip of traffic from qq.com and music.soso.  I have no idea what they're saying about us...but thank you...I think!  Can anyone translate?

4) An open message to career blogger posers.  You know who you are. Download the 90-second rant.

5) According to a recent Vault survey, 89% of employers are interested in viewing video resumes. If that's the case, we think about 88% of them will be disappointed.

While video has swept the Web, we here at Jobacle still feel the video resume has nowhere to go but up. Vault recently wrapped up their Video Resume Makeover Challenge.  Entrants had to send in a short essay detailing why they were in need of a video resume. Four winners were treated to  a professionally produced video resume, a salon makeover and an expert paper resume review.

Check out the winners.

While the winners look great from an appearance standpoint, they sure do come across as one-dimensional characters.  Which proves our point. If these are "professionally" produced video resumes that are considered cream of the crop - the video resume craze will never catch on.  Oh, and one of the winning videos is from a guy named Ron Studley.  Now that's a name! We'd hire him for that alone.

We don't want to be overly harsh with Vault, since we do think some of the services they provide are better than the competition.  But these "winning" resumes still blow.

6) We're announcing a new contest on Monday with a great prize that's gonna be easy to win.  Please subscribe now so you don't miss out.

Due to some serious growth, Jobacle.com seeks two new bloggers.

1) Career Web 2.0.  You will bring the latest and greatest career tools to our readers' attention.  Quickie reviews should be objective - pointing out the pros and cons of new employment-related Web sites and/or tools.

2) Career Advice.  You need to be able to put a unique twist and/or spin on the standard career advice.  Our goal is to deliver realistic advice in a voice that our readers trust.  We're true believers that there's enough carbon-copy  stuff on those HotMonsterBuilder sites.  You must be original!

Send me whatever you think is necessary to get the gig and an approximate figure of what you would like to earn per post (you won't get rich - but we can help with the groceries). You might be asked to write a paid sample blog entry.  Payment will be made via Paypal.

We'll plan to start at two posts a week per position (approximately 250 words each) and see how it goes from there.

We're got big plans here at Jobacle. Get onboard now!

Contact me using this form or at jobacle at gmail dot com.

Happy Friday cubemates!  Here are some random tidbits before we roll into the weekend in style. 

Explosive Jobacle Growth. November is upon us and we're getting ready for a fall - literally.  October was such a huge month for us that it's absolutely impossible to maintain this level of growth.  We'd love to - but we don't expect it.  Thanks to some major buzz (and our ever-growing number of loyal readers) here's how October broke down:

60,000 hits
15,729 unique visitors
181,000 Alexa rank

We more than doubled last month's number of unique visitors and shattered my goal of 10,000.  We're on the other side of the spike, but we love the ride!

Online Resumes Continue to Fail.  Regibe Baisomo is 32 years old, single, and seeking a full-time, live-in domestic helper job in Hong Kong. She's good in Chinese & Western cooking, baby sitting, washing, car washing and ironing.

I certainly can't justify hiring Regibe (sorry!) for my one-bedroom apartment.  And even if I could, the way she looks on camera should be completely irrelevant.  Now video of her ironing technique - that would get my interest!

1MaidHK.com is posting these videos all over YouTube.  With the production quality of a third-world hostage video, I don't see how these vids can be effective.  Watch one here.

New Pre-Interview Trend?  If physical appearance is important to you, dear employer, you're on the wrong side of the law. However, let's not play games, we know that's how life operates.  New Web site WooMe, takes "Hot or Not" game play to the next level.  Introducing you to five new people in five minutes via Web cam allows you to make a snap-shot judgement.  Is one of the five someone you'd like to get to know better?  Whether you're looking for a new employee or just to fill your Saturday nights, the site, currently in private beta, might be worth your time.  It'll also cost you $1 to contact that person.

Wanna Be a Guest Blogger?  We get quite a few e-mails each week from readers who are looking to get involved with Jobacle.  Well, if you'd like to be a guest blogger - and promote your blog in the process - just let me know.  Wordsworth need not apply!  We just need someone who can bring value/lessons/unique perspective to the show!  Help your fellow co-workers - it's good karma!

It's Friday,  and you have our permission to punch any of your co-workers that  go around announcing, 'TGIF.'  Here's your weekly Jobacle Mishmash.

1) Most of you make an annual salary and have moved beyond hourly wages, but we know you're still curious to see how you earn money in real time.  Thanks to this nifty clock you can calculate how much you're making per month, week and hour.  It's fun and depressing - all at the same time!

2) Hey boss, F**K YOU!  Dropping an F-bomb or two around the office could land you that long-deserved promotion. Okay, maybe not. But a new study says that occasional cursing among colleagues can foster solidarity and help express feelings of stress and frustration.

3) Halloween at work can be scarier than any Michael Myers movie! Subscribe to the Jobacle blog now and stop by to trick o' treat next week when we talk about some ghoulish office events.  Also, be sure to place your order now for this year's most popular costume: The always sexy, Anna Rexia.

4) You might already be aware of Guru.com, but honestly, the site just came on to my radar this week.  The site boasts the world's largest online marketplace for freelance talent in the creative, IT, business consulting and office admin fields.  Further proof that the Web is a monster and we need your help to keep our finger on the career pulse!

5) Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a huge baseball fan and bleed pinstripe blood.  I have the utmost respect for Joe Torre: a true motivator, leader and gentleman.  However, I am not going to cry that the Yankees "disrespected" him by ONLY offering him $5 million next year (still millions more than the next highest paid manager).  Plus, the contract had the potential for a $3 million bonus and automatic one-year renewal for a second year (if the team won the World Series).  The reality is he was a winner and a champ who couldn't catch lightning in a bottle over the past seven years.  You gotta know when to fold 'em - and Joe let this drag on longer than he should have.  The Yanks have a lot more free career advice to offer.

In a week where Britney Spears lost her kids and some washed up reality dude Johnny Fairplay lost his teeth - Jobacle gained a bunch of new fans!  Thanks to some amazing love from Gawker, Google and Thoof, Jobacle has just experienced it's biggest week ever! It's only October 5 and we've already hit our monthly target for unique visitors.  Simply amazing.  That being said, I am hard at work on some compelling content that will continue to set us apart from all of those other HotMonsterBuilder sites and generic career blogs.

Here are Friday's musings.

1) Check back at 3pm ET today for your chance to get a private invite to a hot new Web 2.0 site.  Our first 100 readers at that time will gain access to a very valuable business resource.  Subscribe now!

2) I do not consider myself a techno geek but there's a new item out there that I've already placed my order for: The 8-bit tie.  For $19.99 you get a slice of 1988!  It looks straight outta Super Mario Brothers.  It's 20" long, clips on and is made out of silky polyester.  Victor Kipling's latest column challenged corporate dress code - and I'm about to gray the lines.

3) Work stress and anxiety are a very common theme in this modern day of employer's demands.  I can't reiterate enough how essential proper breathing is to keeping yourself "even."  Here's a great article that will teach you how to reboot your lungs when your breath goes shallow.

4) Our comments contest is hitting the homestretch.  If you're interested in winning some gift certificates and/or some advertising space on the Jobacle Web site (which grows more valuable each day) then leave a comment before 11:59pm ET on October 15!

5) Office BINGO continues to be one of our most clicked on items.  I gave our traffic log a quick scan last night and came to am amazing conclusion: government workers love Office BINGO! The Pentagon, the House and agencies nationwide keep coming back for more.  As a guy that grew up around folks who worked in these environments, I shouldn't be surprised.  The game is fun for everyone so print out your card now.

Every Friday I will bring you up to speed on the latest Joabcle happenings.  Fear not, we're not ditching The Forward of the Week.  It will be posted later today.

1) We would like to congratulate Graham Langdon, founder of the MillionDollarWiki, for hitting the 1,000 page mark.  In a few short months that's a very impressive feat.  To learn more about his project, download episode #69 of the Working Podcast.

I purchased the page MillionDollarWiki.com/Podcast which has already received hundreds of unique visitors.  If you are a podcaster who is interested in having your show displayed on the page, please contact me, as I will be subleasing space on the page for $5 per show per month.  You'll get to experience the benefits of the Million Dollar Wiki for a few bucks before you decide to shell out $100. As the MDW grows, this is a great way to get some extra, targeted exposure for your show.

2) This is a great time to subscribe to the Jobacle blog. We've got some great things planned for next week: I'm going to share something about my time working at the FOX News Channel that you have NEVER heard before - and it will shock you!  Also, for those of you who work in a public area or cubicle, we'll pick apart a product that promises to eliminate all that background noise.

3) Our comments contest continues until October 15.  We've definitely seen an increase in the number of comments, however, you still have a VERY GOOD shot at winning.  Walk away with an Old Navy gift card, Virgin Mega Store gift card or a month-long, site-wide banner on Jobacle.com.  This should appeal to our fellow career bloggers because the ad is in a great spot and our traffic continues to rise.   

4) One of our most commonly clicked pages is the "About Us" page. Currently, I have a simple sentence or two about myself.  My question for you is what do you want to know?  Info about me?  My motivation?  I plan on making this page more complete over the next week or two and want your input to help make it happen.  Use our form or e-mail me at jobacle at gmail dot com to let me know what you want to read about.

5) The Resume Hunter continues to be a popular new feature.  While I originally planned to keep this as a random feature - meaning that we would only dissect unsuspecting victims - I've decided to open up the floor for everyone.  So, if you are interested in having your resume or cover letter publicly evaluated - send it on over.  The goal is not to be mean.  The plan is for all of us to learn from your mistakes - and help you correct them!

6) I realize we've been stuck on episode #70 of the Working Podcast for several weeks.  Rest assured, a new show will be released over the next 10 days - so please subscribe now.  My excuse for not producing weekly shows is that I am working on a brand new podcast - this time - as a contractor for another company.  Stay tuned for details.

That's it for now, friends.  I can't thank you enough for reading, listening and helping spread the word about Jobacle.  We are committed to keeping you in the loop on everything career related - without any bullsh**.  Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend!