Herding Cats: Our Favorite Savings Stories for the Week of September 20th

If you're reading this, there's roughly a 9.7% chance you don't have a job (that's the current national unemployment rate). It's as depressing as it is inevitable here in the bottoming-out phase of the recession, so to help you folks out, we've geared this week's links toward ways to escape the dark clutches of unemployment.

I give you our favorite savings stories of the week, the employment edition!

• WalletPop: Hire Me Twibbon - I can't believe any employer in his/her right mind would actually pluck a new worker from Twitter based on the presence of an eye-catching "HIRE ME!" avatar banner and a "professional-looking background." It pretty much screams, "Hey! I'm too lazy to submit cover letters and resumes the traditional way, so I'm going to channel my laziness in a mildly creative manner and hope someone notices me!" If you want to stand out, ditch Twitter and take my advice: put together an elaborate Barney Stinson-esque video resume, and sit back and relax as the job offers roll in.

• Mainstreet: Job Tips from the Recently Employed - Saying the job market is terrible has become as cliché as complaining about gas prices was a year and a half ago. Yes, it's terrible. Almost no one is hiring. But there are glimmers of hope. When the economy crashed, a small sector of what I call "recession jobs" started to grow. My friend got hired at a law firm in January to process eviction notices, and after nine months of fruitless job-hunting, the good people here at Savings.com had the means to bring me on-board thanks to the booming popularity of coupons. I happened to randomly apply and got very lucky, but your chances will be a lot better if you heed another unemployment cliché: NETWORK!

• Get Rich Slowly: 5 Ways to Rescue a Rotten Resume - "Detail-oriented" is by far my favorite resume descriptor. It's an absolutely meaningless buzzword that its genius of an inventor must have milked for some pretty sweet gigs back in the day. If you haven't clicked the YouTube link in the WalletPop paragraph, do it now! It would be quite applicable to this article as well.

• Mint: Changing Careers - Nothing much to say about this one; being 22 years old, I don't yet possess a wealth of personal wisdom on career change. Judging from the article though, it sounds like you pretty much have to start from scratch like you do after college graduation. What fun!

• The Simple Dollar: What is a Good Job? - Almost everyone comes to a point in their life where they have to choose between the job that pays more and the job that they'll enjoy more. I've been debating whether or not to go to law school for over a year, and I think I've finally decided against it because I know the procedural drudgery of legal work would consume my soul. Trent's three criteria for a "good" job actually match three of the main reasons why I like my job here at Savings.com so much.

• 24/7 Wall Street: Extended Unemployment Benefits in 27 States - Congress has decided to spend $1.7 billion on unemployment payment extensions in only 27 states instead of all 50. The 23 excluded states must feel pretty indignant--and rightfully so--but apparently there was only enough money for the 27 with the worst jobless rates. I've read coverage of this from several news outlets, but haven't been able to find an explanation of why Californians get the extension and Minnesotans (for example ) don't.

If you want to add your own tips for impressing prospective employers, be sure to share them in the comments. And if anyone understands the logic behind the 27-state extension law, enlightenment would be much appreciated.