I've been reading some interesting articles lately about the effects of the recession on jobs. Here are some tips for making yourself indispensable at your job so you'll improve your chances of keeping it through a recession. Here's another one about the best economic sectors to be in or thinking about moving towards with a coming recession. I guess it's only later in life that one starts to understand the wisdom of one's mother; my mom is a nurse at Caterpillar and I just can't imagine a much safer place to be. Cheers to Mom!

In terms of jobs my mom and I are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. She with her stable job and steady paycheck, me with my unpredictable job working from gig to gig. A friend of mine was contending recently that what I have isn't a real job, since the paycheck isn't steady and predictable. So I started wondering what it is that constitutes a real job. How is that defined these days, is there such a thing, or is it going the way of the dodo considering, among other things, the many ways that the world is getting flatter? I personally think we're moving more and more towards people having to reinvent themselves and find their own niche. The majority of people are going to need to learn to constantly educate themselves, keep up with economic and technological trends, and take risks to get their name out there in order to survive.