From Pink Slipped to No. 39 Most Influential Online

Two years ago, November 6^th 2008 to be exact, I lost my job.

Prior to my layoff I thought that I was on top of the world and primed to be America’s next top CEO all before the age of 30.

In my mind there was Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban and someday Carlos Gil

I didn’t go to college – actually I enrolled for a semester at a local community college but rarely attended and ultimately dropped out. My first adult job was as a shoe salesman, then a part-time job at Citigroup led to multiple promotions within a four year span, I went on to become an AVP for Regions Bank which brought me to Jacksonville, FL where I opened up a new banking center, after a year and a half at Regions I left to go to American General Financial Services – a subsidiary of AIG – where I increased my salary by 50%.

Life was good – too good. I thought that I had made it and nobody or nothing would get in my way. I was even working on a book project based on my own strategy for career success, a foreshadowing of how Gen-Y professionals can climb the corporate ladder with ease and how to overcome corporate politics along the way. Then, the economy went into a downward spiral and “poof” the dream was over. I was laid off and found myself jobless during one of the worst economic periods of our nation’s history.

It’s hard to describe the feelings and emotions of joblessness. I was upset, scared, worried yet determined to not let this obstacle derail me from the path that I had created.

One of the first orders of business was to address “what now?” – I knew that companies were deep in cost cutting mode and not hiring, much less right before the holiday season.

Fortunately, my Mother told me about this new website called “LinkedIn” which she was using to help generate leads for her Real Estate business. I turned to LinkedIn only to discover a MySpace for people like me, out of work. I was in shock and awe to see how many unemployed professionals were out there screaming for help – and work.

Needless to say, I lost my job on a Thursday and by the following Monday my mind was set – help other’s in America find jobs first and then help myself last, maybe in between someone would help me.

Rather than join the chatter as just another unemployed person I did exactly what I coach Job Seekers to do daily; I joined 50 LinkedIn groups in a variety of industry categories. (See: Top LinkedIn Groups for Job Seekers and Why You Should Join Them) I posted a discussion thread in each group stating “I just lost my job, how can I help you?” and then proceeded to create my first-ever LinkedIn group exclusively for Job Seekers to gather and discuss strategies to help them get hired quickly.

Every day thousands of people were being laid off in America yet you would never hear their story. America needed a voice of reason and a face to represent them – the unemployed.

I created JobsDirectUSA, only 72 hours after I had lost my job, to connect America’s workforce with jobs.

No business plan, no deep pockets, no ulterior motive, no competition – just an effort to help get America back to work one JOB at a time.

Fast forward to today – two years later.

In May, I entered a contest created by Fast Company Magazine called “The Influence Project”. The project was designed to discover the most influential person online.

The contest itself was received to much criticism within the digital marketing and online community. Some labeled it as a publicity stunt by Fast Company and opted not to participate, while other’s like me viewed it as an opportunity to test how effective their brand really is. In my opinion the contest served its purpose well, which from my perspective was to discover a new breed of America’s heroes – those who have created a measurable niche following by doing something of value.

Out of my thousands of entries, including Shaquille O’Neal, I placed at an astounding 39 overall – two spots over from Guy Kawasaki, a social media icon. Right next to me were direct connections of mine – and also highly regarded gurus in the career/employment space – Diane Skullr (Infoployment.com) and Steven Rothberg (CollegeRecruiter.com)

I don’t have 100,000 Twitter followers but that’s fine by me, influence is not measured on how many Twitter followers or Facebook “Likes” you have – that’s called popularity. Influence is genuinely based on the impact you make on someone’s life, how you treat them and how you make those in your audience feel.

I thank everyone that supported me through The Influence Project – and those that have stood by me throughout the last couple of years.

On Saturday night while my family and I were waiting to grab dinner we walked over to Barnes & Noble to pick up the latest edition of Fast Company which includes the published results.

I was ecstatic to be able to show my family the product of my hard work, determination and passion. Considering that I lost my job when my Son was only 2 and my daughter not yet born my kids don’t remember ever seeing me work a normal job. My little boy has asked me many times where do I work? Why am I not a firefighter or a police officer like his friends Dads, why do I work from our house? Why am I on TV sometimes?

It was Saturday night when he saw my picture in the magazine, and after I explained to him the reason why, that Little Carlos realized what I do to help others in this world. In pure awe he didn’t want to let go of the magazine, when we went to pay he told the guy at the counter “Hey, my Daddy is in that magazine!”

While I humbled and honored to have finished within the Top 50 of the Influence Project — I am more proud to say that I’m the most influential person in my child’s life.

Sincerely,

Carlos Gil

Based in Jacksonville FL, Carlos Gil is a Social Entrepreneur and Career Guru whose philanthropic work and commitment to helping American workers find jobs have been featured by CNNMoney.com amongst numerous news media outlets in the United States.

Prior to founding JobsDirectUSA in 2008, Gil represented Fortune 500 corporations such as American International Group (AIG), Citigroup and Regions Financial Corporation in multiple Management roles overseeing multi-million dollar consumer loan portfolio’s while responsible for managing sales teams.

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