1.  Get a weekend job.  It can be any job that pays the minimum wage or more!  Work as a temp two or three days a week.  Any job that doesn’t interfere with your job hunt and generates cash flow works.  Even if you didn’t need the money I’d suggest this.  Few people have the ego strength to spend 60 hours a week on a job hunt.  Most need some positive affirmation, as well as money, which a weekend job can provide.

2.  Expand the hours you work at job hunting.  Nine to five is so last century.  You can find people in their offices at early as 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m. as well.  One client reported more calls taken early and late and none during the middle of the day.  Try it.  What can you lose?

3.  Re-contact everyone you haven’t talked to in three months.  In this market, a week can be situation-changing.  The new hire who was on the job three months and walked, the unexpected retire whose job no one has yet attempted to fill, the unexpected medical leave for a key employee are all opportunities for diligent job hunters.

4.  Consider a short-term job and keep looking.  Serious professionals dis this strategy because what if your dream job appeared during the short-term job?  You’d quit and take the dream job, of course!  However, if you’re in a smaller community that may not happen as quickly as you’d expect.  The number of openings may be geographically limited.

5.  Cut expenses further.  Don’t even pretend to yourself that you’ve done all you can.  When the pantry is bare and the car on empty you’ve done it all.  Sell things you don’t need.  What do you need that you wouldn’t enjoy as much six months from now?

6.  Barter for things you need.  I have clients who’ve gotten help they couldn’t afford by bartering services.  If you are a computer whiz there are a ton of small businesses who need your help.  Stop into one down the street and see what the owner wants and will trade services to get.

Finally, keep moving.  The people whose job hunts take the longest are those who don’t plod at full speed.  One tiny diversion can extend your job hunt a week.  Building momentum is not only critical but it’s important to your mental health.  Only you can motivate you and make you feel less desperate.

1.  A star can read the boss’s mind.  Call it simpatico or unusual intuition.  Some bosses and workers are such a good fit that they work together seamlessly.  It means both can focus on getting the result instead of trying to understand what the other is thinking.  It’s almost impossible to be a star without a boss you understand.  Remember how you were supposed to get references on a prospective boss?  This is one of the reasons.

2.  A star thinks he/she is part owner of the business.  In other words he/she doesn’t think like an employee who’s just passing through.  If you want to identify the person most likely to move up in an organization it’s the only whose every decision reflects his/her complete identification with what’s important to the business.

3.  A star is emotionally invested in besting the competition.  I talk with many people each year who don’t know who the company’s most important competitor is!   It has never occurred to them to ask because they are solely invested in doing the job and getting the paycheck.  That’s not a felony unless you want a bigger paycheck and can’t understand why you always get single-digit raises.

4.  A star identifies opportunities before they exist.  It’s part of the payoff of being emotionally involved.  For example, a star researches who else might busy the product or service, how better to market to a particular group, and treats his/her job as gathering useful intelligence at all times.  Then he/she persuades the boss that it was the boss’s idea.

What we know is that emotionally detached employees are dangerous to themselves and the organization, not to mention they are never stars.  If this seems like too much work you now know something you didn’t:  the job you have is not the job you should have.  Ask any star:  Being a star is as natural as breathing if you’re engaged.

1.  You sound canned in the interview.  This happens to people who have been through so many interviews they come across as perfunctory.  Each interview has to be treated as show time!  Did you stand during the telephone interview so you’d project energy?  Did you learn forward slightly when you answered questions in person?  Did you come across as vitally interested in the interviewer, company, and job?  Time for a reality check.  Look at yourself on video and you be the judge.

2.  This was a practice interview for you.  There are at least two schools of thought on interviewing for jobs you’re not remotely interested in.  One says that any interview is a learning experience and worth the effort.  Another says don’t interview for a job you wouldn’t take.  For job hunters out of work more than six months, go with the former.  For job hunters just starting the hunt adhere to the latter.  Why? If you’re a long-term job hunter you won’t stay sharp unless you interview several times a month.  However, if rejection has become your middle name, save yourself for serious interviews only.  If you’re just starting out and unfocused interview with anyone who’ll talk to you.  You can only become focused by eliminating all job categories you explore enough to realize there is no fit.

3.  You are more discouraged than you thought and it shows.  Get some professional help!  Without it you can’t sell yourself.  There are multiple options from very expensive to reasonable.  You’ll end up getting advice later so why not do it sooner.  Get references.  Degrees, certificates, and self-proclaimed experts who don’t know squat about discouraged job hunters abound.  Only someone who’s been in your situation can make a useful recommendation.

4.  You’ve changed your job objective.  Revise your resume — again.  The job hunter is not looking for the same job he/she was at the beginning of the hunt but hasn’t given a name to what he/she now wants.  This is far more common than you’d think.  Because interviews are a learning event on both sides the job hunter has begun to realize he wants to do something else, even with the same title or same job category.  Until he/she revises the resume to reflect the new objective he/she faces certain rejection.  How is that done?  By picking different accomplishments necessary to a different job objective.  Remember, it’s called a resume, not my complete autobiography.

What;s important:  Don’t decide it’s bad luck that you didn’t get the job.  Ask yourself how much you wanted it.  Was it really a great fit or are you evolving and need to rethink your job objective and strategy?  If you’ve been job hunting nine months, even in this economy, and you’re not getting offers, your strategy isn’t working.

1.  What’s your agenda?  On a 3 x 5 card please write the three ideas you want them to remember about you.  This can be your excellent problem-solving skills, your ability to work seamlessly with a smorgasbord of people, and/or your negotiation skills.  You get to pick.  What you choose to leave with them should reflect what you learned from a careful reading of the job description and from contacts.

2.  Interviewing most resembles a rally at tennis.  Your job is to return the serve every time.  It is not to make dunk shots or aggressively drive points home. That may mean answering a question and then asking one.  It should feel like a conversation, not as if you’ve been called on to defend your choices.  NOTHING is as dreadful as interviewing someone who’s every answer leaves the impression he/she is defending past choices.  You left your job for two years during the Great Recession to care for an ailing parent.  Own it.  You changed jobs five times in ten years.  Tell us what you learned from that experience. Anything sounds reasonable if you explain why you made that choice.   One woman said she quit her job to stay home with her children because she couldn’t earn enough to pay for child care.  “Last year I returned to school for my MBA.  Now I can.”  I would have hired her on the spot but then I’m a sucker for a full-bodied work ethic.  If you don’t have an answer for a question say so.  “I haven’t done that,”  is so much more salable than trying to make up an answer on the spot.

3.  Please, please be current on your resume.  If you haven’t reread it in a few weeks do so.  I don’t expect anyone to remember all the details of his/her past but know what’s on your resume, especially if it’s several pages long.  I am amazed at the people who can’t remember what happened two jobs ago.  Someone may ask!

4.  Let the interviewer have a peek at the real you.  Don’t come across as homogenized.  Smile when you answer a question.  Don’t give too much detail.  Let them ask if they want more.  (A rally at tennis.)  Always wear a jacket as you won’t present yourself appropriately if you’re blue from cold.

Finally, no caffeine on the day of the interview. Even the most experiences interviewee gets nervous.  You can drink decaf coffee or soda for one day.  If you think you’ll go into shock without an espresso try tea.

Let me suggest three scenarios which I can’t prove but nobody can disprove either.

1.  Boomers who’ve retired from companies with pensions may take a sabbatical.  People who didn’t love what they did but the money was excellent (think lawyers, doctors, and accountants) are most likely to take a year or two to rethink what else he/she might want to do.  The earlier a Boomer retires the more likely he/she is to pursue a different career. It may take a Boomer 25 trips to exotic places to recognize that he/she can’t travel for the next 30 years without being bored.

2.  Boomers who declare themselves retired may put together two or three part-time jobs with the hope of not using retirement funds until age 70.  This is especially true of those who were leaders in family businesses.  They’ve let the kids take over but they are still “consulting.”  (Not every family business is a dysfunctional nightmare, only the ones that get publicity.)

3.  Boomers are becoming interim or pro tempore managers as lucrative second careers.  Some business needs an accountant for six months.  A Boomer fills that role easily.   Boomers love these opportunities because they have the kind of flexibility Boomers crave.  You don’t have to bother with the office politics or being nice because gone is your middle name.  You can fire all the expendable folk without guilt.

What I see are companies in need of talent bowing to the demands of Boomers for fun, flexibility, and (a certain amount but not unlimited) control.  The media isn’t likely to spend space or time on this because the media have always used freelancers.  What’s new there?  However, for corporations it is new.  Expect that job sharing won’t be limited to mothers but to all kinds of Boomers who will only work a job share.

Ultimately, the biggest problem Boomers face in retirement is the insatiable need to be entertained and to feel young.  Nothing we’ve seen so far meets the need like paid employment.

Boomers hate to call a spade a spade.  They care more that a message be softened rather than that it be understood.  When a Boomer says to a subordinate or colleague, “I think I need some help,”  neither reacted.  What the Boomer was trying to say was, “Drop what you’re doing and help me.  I going down.”  “We need to get the job done,” means, “I will punish anyone who doesn’t appear to double effort in the next day.”

Boomers love to make the hearer work.  In addition to communication riddled with euphemisms Boomers love to test whether the hear remembers any/all previous conversations on the topic.  “I think the job should finish on Thursday.”  The true message is, “The job we’ve been working on in a desultory fashion for months must be finished by Thursday at 5 p.m.”  If you are wondering what job, for whom, and what role you are to play you don’t remember all the hints over the last month.

Twenty-  and Thirtysomethings resist too much information or any they don’t think they need.  When a direct order is swathed in tons of verbage younger workers close their ears.  They make no effort to sort through the words for what matters.  They demand direct subject-verb-object speech.  If they were in control they’d get it but the Boomers are still running the show.  Most cross-generational misunderstanding is caused by each side refusing to accept the style of the other.  When a twentysomething says, “This job is not challenging,” he/ she means it.  What isn’t stated is, “I am actively job hunting and will be out of here as quickly as possible.”

None of this matters unless each side needs to work with the other.  In single-age offices (a few do exist) communication problems are few and deliberate, i.e., the speaker doesn’t want you to understand.  Most cross-gen misunderstandings are caused by carelessness.  So, the next time you say that your co-worker doesn’t understand you, don’t stop there.  Make him/her explain exactly what he/she wants you to understand.  It’s going to take courage and boldness to bridge the communication divide.  It’s worth it if you then need less time to explain what you want.

They refuse to play politics.  They don’t really care who thinks what unless it has an impact on the outcome they’re working for.  Is there a soul out there who’d say office politics is a good thing rather than an obstacle to getting the job done?  Yes.  The Boomers do now, and always have, loved the push and shove of politics.  They love the back stabbing and back biting as long as knife and tongue are sharp.    With the Millennials determined to duck, it’s made office politics less important and much less fun.

Boomers who don’t give clear directions and feedback lose.  It has also vanquished the hint.  Remember when people knew they were doomed when a boss said, “I’m afraid things might not work out?”  Say that to a Millennial and you’ll get no reaction at all.  Who cares and what does it have to do with me?

It’s unfashionable to be emotionally involved with your job unless you own the business.  Were the Boomers really as gung-ho to make the organization great or did they just pretend?  Is it as much fun to be CEO of anything when you know your twentysomethings don’t admire, much less want to emulate, your success?  This extends to middle management as well.  When the boss got promoted his subordinates said, “Poor you.  You’re gonna be overworked even more!”

When the job is finished you leave.  Boomers owe any extra unworked hours to their younger colleagues who resolutely refuse to “understand” the importance of face time.  Leaving before the boss does is the boss’s problem with poor time management, not political suicide.  Having worked endless unpaid, or poorly paid, internships it’s time to enjoy the money you make now.

The organization is pancake flat.  Maybe the incompetent in the next cube isn’t a shrewd political operative, just an outgoing incompetent.  What’s to admire because he’s two levels above you?  He should have been fired years ago.  Many organizations that did employee satisfaction surveys have given them up because they can’t present the truly terrible results to top management.  A friend in HR described the savagery exhibited by Millennials toward a particular boss — well liked by the CEO.  Whatever the Millennials thought HR was way to smart to pass their evaluation on to the CEO.  However, the manager was demoted because his “turnover was too high.”  A Boomer would have feared exposure if she criticized a well-liked, if ineffective, manager.

Look for more changes in SOP as Millennials arrive in greater numbers and Boomers fade or change careers.  However, as long as one Boomer remains office politics will not disappear.

This is not my over-active imagination.  Do you remember key punch operators?  Do you remember typesetters?   Do you remember snail mail?  What future do you see for the USPS?  We are not going to argue good or bad.  If you are working and under the age of 75 you need to do some serious research.  Your job, not to mention your industry, may be in danger.  Start your research today.

Are you working for the industry leader  or are you in a company that likely will be acquired or die?  Do you believe that ostriches are wise not foolish?

Are you ranked in the top ten percent in performance?  Would your boss spend an hour writing a glowing letter of recommendation?

Could you move to a more profitable company if you did a proper job hunt?  Could you move to a much larger company where a lateral move might get you into a more competitive situation?

Do you have a spouse or partner on the fast track to anywhere or in a much more secure job than yours?  Could this person support you if you needed to retrain?

You see where this is going.  I want you to think about what not getting a raise really means.  It’s not about you or even your performance.  You could pound sand in a rat hole better than anyone else in the world but if no one has rat holes what difference does it make?

I’ve talked with five people recently who have been told, flat-out, that it’s only a matter of months before their jobs are eliminated.  Could any message be plainer?  Did these people wake from their lethargy and start moving?  They talked to me but they appeared not to grasp the finality of the situation.  Will they be surprised when they’ve given a severance package?  I think they will.

But I have hopes for you.  You will actively search for bad news.  You will not wait for the inevitable conversation  on your diminishing value.  Right now, without a hint of trouble from anyone, you will do an independent assessment of your prospects and plan accordingly.

I think he’s luckier than most Boomers because he does what he loves for a living.  How about the Boomer, in a similar financial situation, who hates what he does?  He’s facing all eternity doing what he doesn’t like — and may not excel at — with no hope of escape.  If that’s not Hell, what is?  Here’s my plan for people who know they can’t do what they do forever but they will be  forced to work for money for the next 30+ years.

1.  Get the best financial advice you can afford from someone who sells advice only — no products.  The key question:  In order to live reasonably how much money do you have to save before you can retire?  Post retirement how much money do you have to earn?  You’ll make different career decisions if you know you need $30,000 in lifestyle money after retirement versus needing $80,000 for basic living costs.

2.  Think about choosing a career as if you were just leaving school.  What have you always wanted to do but didn’t?  In the next 35 years you’re going to be clinically depressed if you  work at something you can barely tolerate.  I promise every minute spent researching a new career will be well compensated.  You might find something you can make a lateral move to now knowing you can do it indefinitely.

3.  What kind of business, part-time for now, could you start that would generate the money you need?  You don’t have to do this today if you’re 55 but you will need to road test your ideas before you’re 70.

4.  Could you partner with someone in a service business?  No one needs to go it alone.  Look around your workplace.  Who else is beginning to see the future starkly?

5.  If you tell yourself that you’ll save more, you don’t get the career choice issue.  There’s a whole diet industry built on helping people who believe they can lose weight on their own, until they can’t.  Don’t be a serial self deluder.  Once you accept the need for a next career you will move forward.

If you have children or younger friends ask them what businesses they’d like to start.  Thirty percent of all new millionnaires each year are under 35.   It may be time to listen to the wisdom of the young as you consider new ways.  If you are 55 you have time.  If you’re 60 it’s time to pick up the pace.

Givers:  These people help out, give accurate information, give advice and do pretty much whatever is needed.  They play on the company team.

Takers:  These folks always have a hand out, an angle working, a scheme to do less, dodge tough problems, but insist on sharing credit with the team when things go well.  They get away with such behavior for long periods because they have personality characteristics top management likes.

Sharers:  These workers want everything, good or bad, to be equal.  If you’re happy and a sharer is not, the sharer will give you news/opinions to reduce you to his mental state.  Nothing is ever good enough, much less perfect.

Servers:  These people believe that if they do exactly what they are told, in the way they are instructed, and keep very quiet, all will go well.  They take no risks.  An ideal could not be surgically removed.

How did this motley crew come together to make life negatively political and more complicated than it would otherwise be?  They didn’t self select.  They were hired by one or more managers with a theory that diversity of personality brings something special to the table.  I’m going to argue that it doesn’t.

In fact, an interesting interview question would be to ask each candidate for examples of how he or she exhibits these qualities.  Servers who also take mandate reciprocity.  Sharers shape office opinion of they truly present a different view against the common wisdom.  Opposition energizes and clarifies, it doesn’t mean sure defeat.  Servers can keep people from going to extremes as they continue to be the office cellulose.

When I visit offices with too many clones, the potential for disaster is huge.  If everyone shares the same information and believes the same outcome is reasonable one twist in the market sends them scrambling for solutions to problems they didn’t know they had.  It’s the biggest argument for diversity in the office I can think of.  Yes, sales people are necessary but so are product developers, logistics specialists, and cussed people who don’t agree that what’s being done is perfect.  How many companies can you name whose fate was decided by people who thought exactly alike?  How many saw obedience as job one?

What difference does this make for job hunters?  Look for personality diversity in any organization you would work for.  Chaos generates energy.  Peace and acceptance do not.