Correcting the misperception of a normal job market

It would be reassuring to believe that today's job market is just like the ones of the past, only tougher. If that were true, we would at least know the rules of the game. Unfortunately, however, it's not. The rules have changed, and we must adapt if we want to succeed. Historically, the skill set you had in your last job was sufficient to find a new job. All you had to do was update your resume, send it out to a bunch of employers, do a little networking and bitta-bang, bitta-boom, you would land a job!

Today, the opposite is true. If you are in transition, the skills you had to be effective in your last job are not sufficient to find a new one. These days you have to reinvent yourself. Update your skill set and add it to your resume. Such a notation demonstrates that (a) you understand the importance of always getting better in today's workplace and (b) you take personal responsibility for doing so.

Those two attributes will help to set you apart in the job market and restart your career. Looking for a job in the current environment is definitely frustrating. What's happening today is simply proof positive that the rules of the game have changed. If you change with them, you'll have what it takes to turn what used to be called failure into the modern definition of success.