Does it seem like you have been in the job market for some time now?  Are you finding that you’re getting burned out by all of the networking, job searching, and prospecting you’re doing in order to find your next job?

Looking for a job can be unduly frustrating for those individuals who have held responsible jobs for the past 20, 30, or 40 years but don’t seem to be getting much of a response from all of the resumes they’ve sent out or online job listings they’ve most recently applied to.  Of course we all know that the competition for many jobs is fierce right now; but the fact is that the current job market is causing a great deal of frustration and stress among many of the more mature job seekers who may be feeling that they may never get another job. 

Fellow About.com Guide on career planning, Dawn Rosenberg McKay, offers some excellent tips on how to stay positive in your job search. Dawn’s tips are relevant for anyone who has devoted many hours to the job search possibly to the exclusion of doing those things that provide for a healthy and balanced lifestyle.  I also recently wrote a similar article for college students on stress, that you can find on my About.com site.

Focusing all your energy on finding your next job, can end up zapping the  energy required in maintaining an effective job search.  By taking time to engage in some relaxing activities (reading, hiking, meditating, meeting up with friends, watching a funny TV show or movie, or taking up a new hobby), you will be re-energizing your batteries and creating a more positive approach to helping you be successful in current job search.

Although initiating company lay-offs are one of the first things a company does during a recession, alternatives to company lay-offs are usually a much better course of action and ultimately the best thing for both the company and its employees. For example, restructuring within a company is more beneficial to the overall long-term health of an organization rather than immediately focusing on making decreases in employee retention and compensation that is usually used as a quick cost saving measure.

Job-hunt.org offers a number of tips to prepare employees for a company lay-off. They also offer some important do’s and don’ts to be accomplished immediately when you are actually being laid off. One of the key things to do is to remain active and not let yourself slump into inaction due to depression, fear, and a growing sense of hopelessness.

Being laid off from a job can often be seen as a blessing in disguise. It can be an opportunity to check out career options, especially if you look back and realize that you were not happy in your previous job.  Discovering your personal interests, values, and personality traits can lead you to finding a more satisfying and rewarding career.

Doing a thorough self-assessment, reviewing career options, researching available careers, and deciding on a course of action can be very positive steps to take for those who have found themselves recently laid off or those who anticipate that a job loss may be imminent.

This week we are talking about the strategies for finding a  new career.  On Monday we discussed self-assessment and yesterday career exploration.  Today is about Strategy # 3 – decision making.

#3 Strategy – Decision Making

Decision-making can be one of the most difficult steps in the career planning process.  Finding out more about yourself by doing a thorough self-assessment and then engaging in some career exploration is definitely different than taking this information and coming up with a career decision. Since there are often some conflicts in this part of the process, it’s important to have an objective party to bounce your ideas off of.

Many people freeze at this stage of the process since there are often still many unknowns and very often there’s a fear of making the wrong decision.  The key to making a career decision is to take the first two steps into consideration and make a decision based on these results. Also, it’s important to realize that decisions can be changed so making a bad decision is better than making no decision at all.