. >> my name is bruce bixler. i'm a district product services associate lead for lowes. what that entails is management of seven employees for different projects that the stores have. i was out of work for two years, almost to the day. never been out of work before. this was the first time in my life that i'd been out of work. the first thing you do is go out and run around looking for jobs right away at places that you are familiar with, companies that you are familiar with and people that you've worked with before that you know that went to other companies. next thing i did was to start networking with different groups in the chicago area. i went to the harper career stimulus program. that helped a lot because they it's not just networking but they would have speakers that tell you how to write your resume. how to interview; how to use social media; how to use linkedin. i learned as much as i can, or literally everything i can about it to the point where i was asked be a presenter at one of the networking groups and that's what led me to-- i actually do that part-time