“They” say (I don’t know who they are) that searching for a job is filled with highs and lows.

It doesn’t matter who you may have heard it from or how often you heard these words of consolation, if you have been through a long job search, you know the feelings. I suppose we can find ways to live with the highs. But the lows, that’s another story.

I believe you feel helpless when you are job searching because the whole process seems to be out of your control. In some sense we flatter ourselves that before we were looking for a job, we somehow had total control over our lives. As “they” say, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. While we may have known where we were going to be going to work the next day, our lives were no more in our hands than they are when we are active in a search.

Without a source of income, it can feel like the world is coming to an end. As financial folks, we are perhaps more focused than most on our “burn rate” and what that means.

The truth is that searching for a job is just one of those little bumps in the road that you have to plan for and deal with when it happens. And, as a member of The FENG, you are fortunate to have some rather credible power tools at your disposal.

Let me start with the “human factors,” The FENG membership directory and our Member Directory Search feature. If you are feeling lonely, you have a potential 32,000+ people you could call. (Hopefully, not all on the same day.) As you put your feeble mind in gear and try to recall the names of ALL of the people you have worked with over the years, I hope you will check this valuable resource and see if you can track them down. If they are financial folks, with any luck they will be listed. If they aren’t, call a few members who have worked at the companies where they worked and see if they know where they are. Trust me, this approach is more than a shot in the dark.

You also have The FENG newsletter coming at you every workday. I would hope there is a jewel in there every day that addresses in some fashion any feeling of helplessness you may have as an unfounded fear related to your search. The wealth of advice comes not only from my evening editorial and/or our Op-Ed section, but also from the Good News Announcements and the Notes from Members columns. One new idea every day is sometimes all you need to get you energized.

Did I mention our Zoom and in person Chapter and Special Interest Group meetings? If you are feeling that the world is closing in on you, have you checked our website for meetings you might attend? Sure, you will have to find a clean shirt (by the way, stripes are terrible on Zoom), but what the heck. Getting out to an in person event or on Zoom just might be good for you.

Just as you have to fight every day to make a living if you are working, you have to fight the good fight to ensure that you don’t slip down that slippery slope of hopelessness.

Positive actions are the only cure. There is always much to do and as a member of The FENG there are lots of ways to make it happen.

If you have your own tools you would like to share for beating this enemy of success, I hope you will share them with your fellow members. Your contributions should be sent to [email protected] and PLEASE be clear if you do or DON’T want your name used. The best approach is to set off what you want published in EXACTLY the way you want it to look. Leslie is very smart, but she isn’t a mind reader.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Regards, Matt