Job Hunting in a Recession

If you’ve been recently laid-off, fired, or forced to leave your job -- welcome to the world of unemployment! Unemployment has been steadily on the rise since early 2008, ending at 7.2%, and predicted to increase another 2 or 3% at the start of 2009. With millions of job losses the applicant pool is at an all-time high! It is an employer’s market right now, where demand is high and supply is low. Companies are receiving hundreds of cover letters and resumes for a single job post.
I am one out of the hundreds of applicants applying for that single job. Unemployed for three months and counting, I’ve had only one interview with a temporary staffing agency and still no job; I am becoming increasingly frustrated. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Business, a long steady work history, excellent references, professional appearance, and now willing to work for minimum wage!?! It’s sickening, but even more sickening is that there are so many others, like myself, in the same predicament. In the corporate business world where we are taught to conform, how does one stand out from a hundred others applying for that same corporate job? Or, more to the point, how do you land a job during one of the worst recessions of our time?
In writing this blog, it is my hope to create a forum in which inspiring stories, advice, and news about what’s really going on out there in the world of unemployment, are shared. Who’s hiring and who’s getting hired; what works on a resume or cover letter and what doesn’t; how do you survive months of unemployment; and how a friend of a friend got you the job! To those who are still frantically searching, stay strong and steadfast in your search and you will prevail. To those who have succeeded, congratulations! Tell us how you did it!