Helpful Hints

I have one friend, who will remain unnamed, who, whenever we speak since my lay-off asks me about the resumes I've sent out and how the job hunt is going. I've weaned him off it a bit, as there was a while that he was basically saying I should apply for any possible job, whether I was over-qualified or it would pay way less than what I was making before.

Here's the thing. I can't do that. I can't, at this juncture, take just any job that comes my way. I can't apply for a job that pays $11/hour. I can't remember the time that I made that little money but I'm reasonably sure that it was before the millennium. So, every morning, I sit down with the job websites. And I look. And I look. And I look. And every now and then there is somewhere to send my resume. So I work up and appropriate cover letter. I attach my resume (unless it says to past it in the body and then I do that). And I wait.

I've also been reading some blogs/websites/etc ... with helpful hints for the unemployed. Some of them are about how to stay frugal. Some of them are about networking. Some of them are about making use of the free time that you have on your hands. Today I stumbled upon The Brazen Careerist, which seems to be a pretty cool site with some useful hints and advice.

Some of these things are, of course, pretty practical and you probably should have thought of them yourself. But, sometimes in those dark days on unemployment and rejection, it's hard to bring your mind back to reality/practicality and what should be common knowledge. So, a little advice, from someone who's been there before, is never a bad thing.