The world is slipping into recession. Companies are announcing layoffs. Job vacancies are rare to be found these days. How can I land any job this time around?

Here are 5 tips to finding a job in recession:

1. Leverage your network

You’ve probably heard this too much that you feel like vomiting now. But again, if you fail to capitalize on this network department, no one would know your capability and even your existence.

Without good network, everything else in your professional life is waiting to be torn to pieces. Forget the conventional way of finding job through advertisement, because if you do what others are doing, every one will have their head squeezed into a small hole. The result? Disappointing. So, network, network and network.

2. Don’t be ashamed of temp jobs

If it is too difficult to get a permanent, full time job, go for part time. If it is difficult to land a part time job, then opt for temp jobs. A temporary job can come in the form of typing, administering files, manning the cashier’s desk, moving books and documents in the library, and many more. Register with the local recruitment agencies to increase the likelihood of finding a temp job. If you feel that this is still difficult to find any, most likely you’re either being too choosy, or you’ve not worked hard enough to find one.

3. When possible, work for free

In the Friends sitcom series, one of the characters, Chandler hated his job at a large data processing center. He resigned a high paying job and worked as an apprentice earning nothing with an advertising company. His good performance eventually landed him a full time job. What looked like a silly idea in the end created a stepping stone for a fulfilling advertising career. While the example is taken from a fictional character, this happens to a lot of real people in the real life.

Chris Gardner, whose life was made into the movie The Pursuit of Happiness, started his job as an unpaid internship in a brokerage firm, and survived as a homeless, part time salesman. His patience, perseverance and hard work made him a multi millionaire. How he started? Working for free.

4. If you can’t find a job, create one

Exactly. If you can’t find a job, create one! Fulfill your vast potential in the entrepreneurship world by offering your products and services to the market. Bad economy does not mean opportunity is lost, but instead creation of new ones. In economic downturn, wealth does not disappear; it is being transferred. There is a real story happening during the current recession about a guy named Nick who decided to venture into lawn business. He figured, with the recession, foreclosures will be on the rise and dead lawns will be waiting to be managed. He charged $200 per lawn, and for the whole year, he got 3,000 jobs. Well, what better result you can have when looking for jobs?

5. Be a Paul Nawrocki

Paul Nawrocki is a desperate job seeker who lost his job as the Americans are bracing for the recession. After many months of searching, he decided to take things to the next level by donning a suit, hanging a sandwich board that says “almost homeless” around his neck and start wondering around the New York streets. As he started gaining popularity, the media approached him and he became a prominent figure that represents the sentiment of the job seekers in the job market. Opportunities coming to knock in, and he is probably on his way to change his fortune.

Foreign doctors and specialists are not interested to work in Malaysia, with many of them putting the country as the last country of choice to work in.

Developed countries such as United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and the Middle East come on top of their listing, driven mainly by attracting salary and remuneration package.

The bad news came as the country is struggling with shortage of doctors. In April, the Ministry of Health revealed that Malaysia is short of 9,000 doctors and specialists, especially in 3 fields, namely pharmacy, dentistry and surgery. The figure represents about 40% vacancies in the government hospitals, clinics and private health centers.

And what is more appalling is that, it is even difficult to attract doctors from the neighbouring country Indonesia. The Indonesia government pays high salary for the medical profession. A government doctor working in Indonesia can earn between 40 to 50 million rupiah (RM15,000) monthly and the same position in Malaysia pays only about RM6,000, which is less than half he or she is getting in Indonesia.

Apart from failing to attract foreign doctors to work here, another prevalent problem faced by the country is the reluctance of the Malaysia students who graduated as doctors from overseas to come back serving the country and instead choosing to work in the country they graduated or other overseas nations. High salary and work comfort become the two major causes for Malaysian doctors deciding not to come back.

The new salary scheme offered to fresh medical graduates has apparently not been successful to lure many of them to work in Malaysia.

Multiple award winning employer, Google shows the world that it is after all not recession proof after deciding to layoff some 10,000 people currently employed by the company.

However, permanent staff with the company will count themselves lucky as the 10,000 figure only involves contract and temporary workers.

The workers affected are those employed on contractual terms (and full time basis), and their employment does not come with all the generous benefits other personnel are enjoying.

The layoff was reported to have begun back in August 2008 but it is being done in a ‘silent mode’, as not many people are aware of the development. Under the US law, a company must make its layoff plan public but Google has found a way around it by classifying the contract workers under the ‘operational expenses’. With the classification, the company can hire employees with minimum wage, and provides no medical benefits, no insurance, and no stock options.

The move to layoff the contract workers also means that Google will not have to spend much money regulated on retrenchment compensation plan.

Altogether, more than 30,000 employees are currently working with the internet giant, with two-third of them employed on permanent basis.

Fortune named Google as the Best Company to Work for 2008. It was also ranked as the Number 1 Employer for MBA Graduates, as well as the Most Innovative Company, both for 2008.

The Bank of America, BoA intends to make itself as the new world’s largest bank, but it will come not without collateral damages. And the damage will not look pretty.

The bank, which acquired Merrill Lynch on the day Lehman Brothers went bust in September, announced that up to 35,000 jobs will be cut in the next 3 years. All divisions and business units will be affected with the job cut.

Merrill Lynch acquisition involves a $50 billion rescue deal, with the result of the merger seeing a new, combined workforce total of more than 300,000 employees worldwide. Prior to the merger, Bank of America had close to 250,000 employees while Merrill Lynch had 60,000. The 35,000 figure represents about 11% of the new total employee size.

The acquisition will also turn BoA as America’s largest bank by asset. It will double its investment banking business, as well as own the largest retail brokerage business. Bank of America’s rival, Citibank recently announced a layoff of 75,000 people.

While the final details of the layoff will only be released next year, any impending news shall be deemed as bad.