For the tens of thousands who lost their jobs this year, and the millions of others fearing for the jobs they still have, YSN.com’s Jennifer Kushell shares these tips to survive the initial shock — and bounce back like a star.

1. Breathe. Stay calm.
The worst decisions are made under pressure, stress, or in a state of fear. Don’t allow yourself to be rash or irrational; keep your wits about you and commit to making it through this in one piece. Get a sense for what this layoff really means to you and what the real repercussions will be. Assess your safety nets: What are your back up plans? (All the way down to spending time with the folks in your worst case financial scenario.) Hopefully you’ve done enough to guard against that, and if so, take some solace in the fact that you’re prepared to weather a little uncertainty.

Links:
6 Steps to Survive Being Laid Off
Remember to Breathe
26 Steps to Stay Calm when the Situation Goes Bad
7 Powerful Relaxation Techniques

2. Look at this as an opportunity.
You know what they always say, “It’s not what happens to you, but what you do about it.” That might not be what you want to hear right now, but think about it: This sudden change could have a silver lining — so commit yourself to finding it. Take some time for yourself, even just a few quiet hours alone and reflect on all the things you truly liked and disliked about your job. What would you have done differently? Were you there because you had to be, or because you wanted to be? Ask yourself how you can now take the next step learning from your past experience. Is there a chance to take a step up? Or to change industries or careers entirely if you weren’t as happy as you wanted to be? So many times, abrupt changes like this are exactly what people need to get out of a rut and move on to something they’d really love to be doing.

Links:
Find that Silver Lining
Attitude is as Important as Skills

3. Audit your online identity.
Start paying close attention to your reputation management, to the platform that you’ve built for yourself online (if any) and to what new people will perceive about you when they google you. If you don’t like what you see online, or want to take control of that first impression you’re giving off, build a professional identity you can be proud of with a PROJO – your professional mojo. It’s a next generation resume/portfolio that you can share with contacts, add to/promote in your signature line, build out and keep up to date with your latest accomplishments to ensure that when someone searches for you, they find the “goods” on you, but the good!

Links:
Build your PROJO
Clean Up Your Online Act!
Manage Your Online Reputation

4. Stay connected to your network.
You probably have a lot more friends, colleagues and supporters than you realize. Survey your address books, PDA, business card files and social networks to see who’s really in your inner circle and wider network and who might be able to help lead you to some new prospective opportunities. Talk to friends and family and see who they know.

Then start reaching out to catch up with everyone you can. Befriend old friends online, shoot out a bunch of emails, even invite a few for coffee or drinks. Start talking to everyone you can! Ask your contacts who else you should be talking to, then reach out to them. Update your online profiles with the latest news and let people know that you’re actively exploring your options. This is not the time to hide out and wallow. Just make sure you force yourself to smile and at least appear to have a positive outlook for the future! Repeat the mantra to yourself: “onward and upward!”…until you believe it.

Links:
Keep Those Contacts!
Networking Your Way to a New Job

5. Assess your financial situation.
The first serious thing you need to do once you have the ability to think calmly and rationally (see #1) is to figure out the true state of your financial affairs. If you can, sit down with a financial consultant who will know how to ask you the right questions to get a proper assessment. Take a very careful look at any severance (if you’re lucky), benefits packages (like insurance policies, 401ks, etc.) that you may be able to “roll over” from your old company’s plan. (Take care of this right away too!)

Links:
Create a Budget — and Stick to It!
YSN Secrets #20: CAAAAASH

6. Ride the coat tails of senior execs.
If you’ve done a good job of befriending and staying tight with your bosses and other senior management, it might just pay off in real dividends now. Keep in close contact with them!!! The more connected they are, the faster they will probably find their next great opportunities and look to set themselves up for success in their new spot. When that happens, seasoned execs take quick steps to surround themselves with people they know and trust. They build teams from people they know — and that could include you! Make it known that you’re up for the new adventure if you are.

7. Use your leverage.
What can you do to leverage the experience you’ve had so far and the skills you’ve been building? What do you know that others want to? (Besides proprietary trade secrets!) How can you use what you’ve learned to your benefit and to others? You don’t have to play hardball or let your ego run wild to put your experience and expertise to work for you in a positive and proactive way. A great way to do this, and make some quick money, is to do some consulting work. Taking a few projects on will keep you in the game and buy you time to figure out your next move. Who knows, you might actually like it so much you decide to make it your new business!

Links:
Tips to Help You Stand Out in Your Profession
Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence

8. Open yourself up to new opportunities.
Employment prospects or ideas you hear about from friends and relatives might not sound quite right at first, but give them a chance to explain — and yourself a chance to explore a bit. Don’t limit your attention to a very narrow set of options right after a layoff. Try to imagine yourself working in a whole new scenario and consider whether you might find happiness in some other industry or way than you’d previously envisioned. Ask a bunch of questions…even just to humor yourself. You might actually learn something you never expected or discover a connection to something that does actually fit you.

9. Stay healthy…or make this your big chance to GET healthy.
Whether you’ve been really diligent about taking care of yourself while employed or have totally forgotten what an athletic shoe feels like on your foot, make your health a major priority now. Take the time to sleep, get some fresh air, walk, run, do some yoga — whatever makes you feel your best. The endorphins will help a lot in bringing a smile and positive outlook to your face. You’ll also project more confidence as you go out to pursue other opportunities. You never know who you’ll meet along that run either!

10. Use this as preparation for the next big shake-up in your life.
Right now this might seem like the end of the world, but the good news is that if you can weather this storm, you’ll only be better prepared for the next one. Though we’d like to say this will never happen again, the truth is that life is a cycle of ups and downs, and preparation is the key to surviving it all.

If you are ready to look at the big picture, listen to our Secrets of the Young & Successful podcast series and create the life you’ve always dreamed about — no better time than the present! You can also come and talk to others about what’s happening to you in our discussion forum. You never know where the next great idea or opportunity is waiting…

Good luck!

I remember some time ago when dinosaurs were still roaming the plains people used to stay on their jobs for 30 or 40 years and then retire.  Well you won’t see that in this life time again.  So much has changed as these are certainly different times.

According to the USA today employers slashed their payrolls by 159,000 workers in September and this is due to the credit freeze.  Employers are just not able to get funding to even meet payroll and other business expenses.   These job cuts represent the most we have seen in 5 years and this is the ninth straight month we have lost jobs.  By the way (job stands for Just Over Broke). Now without a job I guess it’s JUB, (Just Under Broke).

This is the classical example of, Too Much Month At the End Of The Money.  Here is the break down for jobs:

Manufacturers cut _____________51,000 jobs
Construction cut _______________35,000 jobs
Retailers cut __________________40,000 jobs
Business services cut___________27,000 jobs
Financial services cut___________17,000 jobs
Security & Investments cut ______8,000 jobs
Leisure & Hospitality cut ________17,000 jobs

The economy is taking it’s toll.  There has been an increase in business for temporary agencies. A lot of organizations are looking at bringing on temporary agencies to fulfill job obligations because they don’t want to commit to full time employees right now.

The nation’s unemployment rate is at 6.1%.   If you are looking to retire from your job then you had better think again and start looking at other alternatives for making a livelihood.   Click here for better opportunities.

To Your Great Success,

Mel Richardson
VisionStar Enterprises
Check out Mel’s new Moneycash Blog

As the job market tightens, it’s more important than ever to put your best foot forward. Job seekers are always looking for new ways to standout from the competition, whether it’s printing your resume on colored paper or singing your responses to the interview questions. Debra Feldman, a.k.a. the JobWhiz, has found a more effective method (albeit less creative) for receiving a job offer by applying simple marketing techniques. You can apply the Six Newer P’s whether you’re selling yourself to a prospective employer or selling your product to a potential client. Debra Feldman explains it all in an article titled “Six Newer P’s that Maximize Job Search Success.”

Here’s a preview of the six P’s:

1. Positioning: The first step to launching a successful campaign and propelling it forward is to identify what makes you a unique candidate.

2. Process: The swiftest route to a new opportunity is to identify your target employers and then address their needs in terms of how you can meet them better than anyone else. Don’t wait around for a company to advertise for a job that is perfect for you.

3. Persistence and perseverance: The early bird, the first candidate to impress the decision maker, has a competitive advantage. So be the one to create a new job just for you by introducing yourself to employers you want to work for.

4. Performance and Presentation: Make sure your resume speaks to your strengths, talents and skills, but nothing beats actual performance to prove to an employer that you can deliver for them.

5. Personality: The greatest credentials in the world are not enough. Interpersonal chemistry, that essential feeling of trust, plays a critical role in hiring decisions.

6. Pricing: Compensation provides a guideline to where you fit into an organization’s hierarchy, how much responsibility/authority you merit and is an indicator of the additional value you represent to the employer.

(Excerpts from Chapter 8 of Secrets of the Young & Successful by Jennifer Kushell and Scott Kaufman)

Listen to the audio excerpt of this chapter on the YSN Secrets Podcast.

Need a little help working through some of the possibilities of what may come? Dealing with a current crisis of your own — beyond the economic crisis? Try this out. It’s something we call TAPPS, and it’s guaranteed to help you see any difficult situation a little more clearly and find ways to cope with it more sanely. TAPPS is a strategic planning process that takes us through five simple steps to uncover what we would do if a major life challenge or decision were to hit by identifying the best possible approach. It also happens to be useful when trying to prevent a particular situation from happening or just lessening the impact from something we’ve already been confronted with. This is what it stands for: Truth, Awareness, Preparation, Prevention, Survival.

Truth: We begin by being truthful with ourselves about what’s going on. What is the issue at hand? Be candid. Be clear.

Awareness: Second, we have to gain a strong awareness of the options we have and what the realistic ramifications of our choices could mean. This is where our Real World training comes in. To ensure we’re as up to speed as we can be on the latest research, data, trends, and information, we have to do some serious research and investigation. Relying solely on the information and opinions of others is not always the best decision either. Armed with some in-depth and intensive research skills, we can find the top experts and latest information on just about anything.

Preparation & Prevention: Often even after a crisis has hit, there is still more that we can do to prevent further damage… and we must be strong enough both to recognize that and to do what we can. In this day and age, we have access to so much information and such incredible technology that it is possible to arm ourselves against a wide variety of potential problems.

Have you ever heard this saying, “If we fail to plan, we plan to fail.” It’s true. We can’t prevent everything out there but we can deal with what’s likely and what afflicts us by confronting the situations proactively. Carefully planning our course of action, at any stage really, can virtually immunize us to many surprises and situations.

Survival: It’s natural to want to give up or hide in bed for days when something goes very wrong but ignoring problems never makes them go away. And all too often we underestimate the power of the spirit. We can play the victim and wallow in our suffering, or we can switch into survivor mode and tackle our challenges head on. That’s the true spirit of the Young & Successful.

YSN’s Jennifer Kushell was on ABC News Now on Wednesday to talk about how the global financial shakeup will affect young job seekers. See the full video.