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&lt;p&gt;Many victims of layoffs this year were young, entry-level--or near entry-level—employees.  And if you were one of those perhaps-now-not-so-newly laid off youngsters, you&#39;ve probably considering going back to school to make yourself more marketable.  But if you&#39;re on the fence about spending thousands of dollars on a JD/MBA/MA/MFA/MD/PhD, consider some other things you can do to make your resume fresh and relevant.  Volunteering is a big one.  Learning a new skill--either by reading up, taking a continuing ed course or earning a certificate--is another.  On his blog, Seth Godin recommends the following:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Spend twenty hours a week running a project for a non-profit. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Teach yourself Java, HTML, Flash, PHP &lt;i&gt;and&lt;/i&gt; SQL. Not a little, but mastery. [Clarification: I know you can&#39;t become a master programmer of all these in a year. I used the word &lt;i&gt;mastery&lt;/i&gt; to distinguish it from &#39;familiarity&#39; which is what you get from one of those Dummies type books. I would hope you could write code that solves problems, works and is reasonably clear, not that you can program well enough to work for Joel Spolsky.  Sorry if I ruffled feathers.] &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Volunteer to coach or assistant coach a kids sports team. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Start, run and grow an online community. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Give a speech a week to local organizations. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Write a regular newsletter or blog about an industry you care about. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Learn a foreign language fluently. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Write three detailed business plans for projects in the industry you care about. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Self-publish a book.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Run a marathon.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While successfully completing everything on Godin&#39;s list may take the same amount of time as an MBA program, you&#39;ll still come out on the other end with a great resume--and no new student loans.  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;em&gt;--Posted by Carolyn Wise, Vault Senior Education Editor&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/b&gt;

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