You may have lost your job recently. When you woke up the next morning, you realized that for the first time perhaps in years you have a completely open schedule. You had been working under a lot of pressure, but now you have received this setback to your career and to your ego. Isn't this time for a vacation?

No. Take a week to relax and get organized, but don't postpone the job search. You've got a major task ahead of you, and the sooner you get on with it, the sharper you'll be. If you fall off a horse, you're told to get back on the horse right away, to put the fall behind you. Follow that advice. You can take a vacation before you start your next job, but your top priority right now is to find that next one. Furthermore, being busy at your job search will get you over the shock of being laid off and help get you back on a payroll sooner.

Bill was just about to leave his company forever when he got a call from Sam, a good friend who had an excellent reputation for helping executives get new jobs. Sam had lined up an interview for him for a very good position for two days from then. Sam signed off by saying that Bill had to bring an up-to-date resume to the interview. The interview didn't go well. Several months later, Bill was still using the same resume, which, he finally realized, wasn't working. Bill then revised his resume with the help of a successful job hunter. Within a month he had appointments for nine interviews, resulting in five offers. In retrospect, Bill realized he'd had lost a lot of time and probably the best help from his most influential contacts by not being well prepared at the beginning of his campaign. Bill would have been better off if he had used his first resume as a temporary one until he had done the careful preparation work, including getting his resume properly critiqued.

Whether you have been fired or laid off or you left by your own choice, you're now in an uncertain position. At this stage, some people need to justify themselves, and they do so by bad-mouthing their former employer. This is a great mistake. People don't want to hear such complaints. They may think less of you for it, wondering whether you will also criticize your next employer (or even themselves). This advice applies to conversations you have with family and friends as well, because they may have good job leads for you but even they might hesitate to give them to you if they think you will be critical of your next employer too. A key to a successful job search is having a positive attitude. Put all your negative thoughts behind you; if you can't manage that, at least don't give voice to them publicly.