Over the past month, many people have read my blog with an interest in understanding “Brian’s Project” and the Four Life-Changing Minutes campaign.

These days, a job search takes a long time. By the time Brian’s Project began, my friend Brian Oughton had been out of work for more than a year. The goal of the Four Life Changing Minutes campaign was to help him freshen up his connections and help him move forward with his job search.

Brian has received support from some great people who follow my blog. Many of these people I never would’ve thought would be in a position to help. This is why social media is so incredible. Some of the best resources for Brian have been:

**a connection of mine from when I worked in Cedar Rapids; who had a lead to a great job in Texas. This connection came from a post I made in a LinkedIn update.
**a classmate of Brian and I (we both had lost touch with her) who helped him connect to a possible job lead in the Midwest. This connection was made possible through Facebook.
**some international recruiters in my network here in Toronto who talked through the possibility of contract work with Brian.
**a former co-worker of my husband who sent a credible lead to him. (And I never cease to be amazed by who reads my blog!)
**countless other members of The EO List who took the time to complete the assignment and send leads to Brian.
**there have even been volunteers to peer review his resume and help him prepare for interviews.

Ultimately, one of the most important aspects of finding a job is remaining confident and positive during the search. While deep down Brian is a naturally positive person, one of the greatest gifts I’ve received is getting e-mails from him talking about the levels of activity that have occurred. He’s delightfully exhuberant. It has also been neat for me has been the ability for me to link someone from my past with those I know today. Its not that when I moved to Canada I shed my identity and took on a new persona, however, I did lose touch with a lot of good people, and they haven’t seen me evolve as anyone normally does when they focus on their career. I’ve had two great lives so far, and now people from one life know people from the other.

More specifically, Brian has indicated that this project has really forced him to learn the process of social networking and the features of LinkedIn and Facebook.

Eventually, I will get him on Twitter. . .

This project is not yet complete, as Brian is still unemployed. I will keep going with this story until it has that happy ending.