{ Dear Cookbook, I wish I was still at my old job because I hate being unemployed! I’m also so depressed I could cry! Please help, Marvin }

We all know the economy sucks, so I won’t take anytime to sugarcoat what we have already agreed upon. What I will take a moment to touch on, is that letting your depression over the situation own you is not the answer. You can’t focus on the not working part, mostly because if you focus on it, it won’t go away. You know that cliché people say when they want you to leave them the hell alone? “If I ignore you, will you go away?” Well Marvin, this is the attitude you need to take with your unemployment. Continue reading →

Are you unemployed? Well have I got the thing for you! How about we make tomorrow national “Follow Your Friends to Work Day?” And when I say tomorrow, I don’t mean the actual tomorrow-tomorrow, I mean your tomorrow. So don’t panic about missing the next great national day and think you have to wait for it to come around again. Just follow your friends to work tomorrow. Any tomorrow will do! All you’ve got to do is shower, get dressed and show up. It also wouldn’t hurt to make a button to wear or better yet, a pretty sash. You know the type, like the one “Miss America” wears. Those things are cool and instantly command attention! Plus, wearing a sash will show people you’re special.

And for those of you that have been unemployed for a long time this is a great exercise. On top of reminding yourself what working for a living was like, this is also your chance to network and potentially get a job! Here are three surefire tips to help you land a job on your very own Follow Your Friends to Work Day: Continue reading →

{ Dear Cookbook, It looks like I’m going to have to go back to working a retail job. I really don’t want to, but I don’t have anymore contacts in my old field and I need to keep the roof over my family’s head. Do you have any tips that will help me transition into such a volatile environment? Thanks in advance, James }

James, have you really tried everything you can think of to get another job?  Because frankly, jumping into the retail environment is not something I’d take lightly. In fact, I’d rather muck out horse stalls in my underwear while singing showtunes before I took another retail job. . .but that’s just me. You might think I’m being a little dramatic here, but considering the inconsistent hours, store meetings, power-hungry managers, grumpy customers and angry coworkers, it seems fairly obvious that retail work is best avoided. Reading this, is it any wonder I refer to retail as the ‘tenth circle of hell?’ A place so horrific the rest of hell seems like a walk in the park.  Continue reading →