If you read my earlier post about things not to do while layed off, this one applies to the same audience. Watching TV doesn’t help either: you get hooked, you get fat, you stop trying. They real key here is to stay busy while searchign for a job and honing in on what your most valuable skills are. While you may have had a particular duty at your former job, you also may have excelled in a specific niche that is more marketable. Take for example an auto worker that was originally hired to build suspension components, but has since learned all about CAD design and metallurgy. Why try to find a job in the former, when you now have more marketable skills? Get my drift? At every job you should be acquiring new skills and in every job search you should be promoting those new skills.
The next big thing: don’t be angry. Being angry with your former employer, the president, hedge fund managers: anyone; doesn’t get you any further in your job hunt. Prospective employers would rather talk to someone who understands the reason they are now unemployed and is ready to move on. They don’t want to hear you bashing your former employer/boss/company any more than your wife/kids/dog/fish. Plain and simple: it is what it is and you need to make the most of the opportunity.
With the tough competition for jobs right now, employers can be more picky about who they hire. You most likely won’t be the only one qualified, so you may as well make them like you.