Finding a Job
If someone started looking for a job today, there is no way of knowing how long it will take. You have to make looking for a job a job itself. It needs to be a 24-hours-a-day, seven-day-a-week, 365-days-a-year job. I've known people who have taken one year and nine months to find temporary work.
There are still jobs in healthcare, education and some in IT, but finding a job in this economy and in these fields may take some reeducation. You can't just get a teaching job if you don't have a degree. It takes a while to reinvent yourself.
There's always the opportunity of working in the temporary arena. People should be calling temporary employment firms to find light industrial jobs, or jobs that will make a minimum wage or maybe a little more. For example, if you've been an accountant your whole life, there are opportunities out there, and you might be able to find some temporary jobs.
Develop a system of looking for a job. This way, you focus on the process without having to worry about the results. Keep track of the calls you make and the interviews you get. That way you can follow up on the interviews.
Sell yourself very well in an interview. What is it that you can offer that others can't? You have to be able to sell yourself. Keep selling until you get a job offer.
You'd better have good features, advantages and benefits in your presentation on yourself. You need stories that show you're successful. It's a numbers game if you're in sales: What are you numbers? What are your results?
Most people get in cycles with going on a couple of interviews and then they stop. You can't stop. Until you have an offer, you have absolutely nothing.
People don't realize that there's no such thing as a hidden job market. You may not know about it, but it's not hidden. Finding a job is all about catching a potential employer at the right time when they need to hire someone with your skill set.
My experience in 35 years of doing this: It's not an issue of people not wanting to go to work; it's about people not knowing how to talk to people.