What part of over 11% unemployment do you not understand?

OK, that is what you are up against right now. If you think you can do this alone, or that the tricks you used ten years ago when you were out of work the last time are going to work now, you are spending too much time at Disneyland. Chances are you outgrew Fantasyland a couple years ago. There are a couple brutal realities that we need to get out on the table right now:

However you wound up looking for work right now it probably was not fair and it probably has left you bitter. It also probably was not your fault. You need to put it behind you and move on. NOBODY wants to hire somebody who is negative or bitter. Especially right now. This is a workforce that needs “glass half full” people in a “glass half empty” environment.

The sad odds are that the same job you just lost may not be around anymore.  Anywhere. Most people spend their initial time trying to find the same job they just had with a different company. Probably not going to happen right now. Ask the Mortgage people or anyone connected to Homebuilding, Commercial Construction, Car sales, or Retail. You are going to have to adapt and accept. That hurts emotionally and very possibly financially. It is a tough thing to hear, but you are probably going to have to learn how to get over it. The sooner you do the sooner you will start to move ahead again.

The most important surprise here is the most obvious. Nobody is going to do this for you. You will get as far as you take it. The responsibility and the workload is yours. Nobody to delegate to, nobody else to blame when it goes wrong, and nobody who will cut you any slack when “they” write your review on this. Kevin Tougas from Compass Search Group, pointed out that if you are not putting as much time and effort and creativity and inspiration into your jobsearch as you did your last job, you probably will not succeed.  Think about it, why would you think anything less would work?? If you do not push your campaign, nobody else is going to do it. And yes there are alot of people out there just like you trying to do the same thing as you are , and no it isn’t fair and …………………….ok, we get it. Take a deep breath and move on. This is going to be hard, but most of us will put all of this behind us and move on and find jobs. A few never will and that is a shame. By the way, there is no magic wisdom here. We learned all of this the hardway in our group. Since then we have seen it over and over in other people looking for work. This entire Blog is just an attempt to pass along what we have learned.

The good news is you do not have to do this alone. An Accountability workgroup of 10 or 12 people that meets once per week and has weekly self assigned goals is going to have alot more, and better ideas than any one of us alone. Read on McDuff and we will tell you a few of the things that we found will work. Just remember though, until you get past the “BIG THREE” stumbling blocks in your head, nothing  else really matters.