If you’ve been out of work for awhile, you’ve probably already found that the longer you are out of work the harder it can be to get back into the workforce.

First off, the longer you’re out of work the easier it can be to get out of the routine of getting up and the same time each morning and going through your normal routine of getting ready for work and then actually going to work.

Secondly, the longer you’re out of work the more than hiring managers and recruiters wonder why you haven’t been working.

In this economy it’s easy for people to simply think that when they’re out of work for a long period of time, employers will understand and simply put it down to the economy. In some cases this might be true but in other cases, you might not get a sympathetic ear.

I recall back in 2000 when I started working as an IT recruiter that I used to meet with many job searchers who were out of work. Some had finished contracts after the Y2K frenzy ended, some had been laid off during the dot com implosion and even into 2001 particularly from September 11 onwards, many other people had been let go as the economy started tanking and many industries suffered as a result.

We got used to meeting good people who were out of work for a few months but when we met people who had been out of work for 1 year or longer – and didn’t seem to have done much during this time – a warning light went off in our heads. For employers that we were dealing with, it often seemed that they were willing to give some unemployed people the benefit of the doubt but the thing we always needed to remember was that not everyone was unemployed!

There were people interviewing for the same jobs who were currently employed so the unemployed people were competing with people who were actively working and so they immediately had one strike against them as a result.

That’s a simple fact.

The unemployed person was probably going to get asked at least one question that the employed person wouldn’t get asked: why have you been out of work so long? Depending on their answer, the fact that they were out of work was just another thing that could get held against them.

Just because all you read about in the papers is how “no one is hiring” and “everyone is laying people off” doesn’t mean this is actually true because it isn’t. Not all industries are suffering, not all companies are laying people off.

Not all hiring managers are used to interviewing people who have been unemployed for a long period of time so if you’re thinking that you’ll get a get out jail free card, that might not be the case.

In fact I can recall occasions when companies specifically asked our recruitment company to only send them resumes of candidates who were working at the time and hadn’t been out of work for a period of time. I recall these cases quite clearly.

Bottom line: While being out of work is a reality for many people, it can sometimes be used against you. If you’re out of work, use your time off work wisely whether it’s searching for jobs, working part time, taking courses or doing anything that you can point to and let potential hiring managers know you were keeping active and busy while out of work.

This past weekend, my laptop – the one I use for work and the one we have all our personal photos, videos, etc on – started having trouble. Specifically, the pin where the plug fits into stopped working so my laptop was effectively useless as I couldn’t recharge it to use. The laptop is over 3 years old and has been getting progressively slower but I figured it was all the files, pictures, videos, etc that are now on the machine plus all the junk that has probably accumulated during this time.

I’ve been thinking about taking it into a computer store for a look but hadn’t gotten around to it. The power pin problem was the last straw so I took it to the local computer repair shop and was given good news and bad news.

The good news was that the pin problem was a minor one and since they had a spare pin in stock, they would replace it for free.

The bad news was that the hard drive was failing. This is my second laptop and the same thing happened with my first one around the same time. 3 years seems to be the shelf life of my laptops so I bit the bullet and got the new hard drive rather than simply buying a new laptop.

Fortunately, the tech at the computer repair store was able to get all my files, photos and pictures off the old drive onto the the new one and since I use an external hard drive to save all my files to, I had that as a back up, too. When the work was being done, I suddenly had this vision of the current hard drive failing and losing all my files and then finding out that my external hard drive didn’t work for some reason too, meaning I’d lose everything.

I’m not a pessimistic person by nature but I admit I was thinking worst case scenario. Fortunately, I’m now typing away on my laptop with the new, bigger hard drive so I’m good to go with all my files intact.

This situation did get me to thinking about how I could draw a parallel between a laptop breaking and someone’s career. It doesn’t have to be a laptop really. It could be anything that is important to you that has a significant impact in your life but one whose fate is in the hands of someone else.

In my case, I put my laptop and all my files and information in the hands of a computer tech who I’d just met for the first time when I dropped the computer off, because their location was near where I live and was convenient.

I realized that I essentially had to rely on this guy to fix my computer, save my files and get me up and running again, and preferably quickly too.

In your career, you’re probably going to have to put your fate in the hands of other people on many occasions. In job interviews and on Internet job boards for example.

References, recruiters, HR staff, colleagues, managers. They will all be people who can help to determine your fate at one point or another.

Certainly the best thing you can do is take control of your own career and destiny and try whenever possible to ensure that you’re the one in control and are in charge of your own fate.

It could be the difference between firing your resume off to a bunch of advertised jobs versus picking up the phone and contacting people who can positively influence your job search directly. In the first instance, you’re leaving your fate in someone else’s hands while in the latter instance, you’re taking control and putting your fate in your own hands.

When I got the news that my hard drive was failing, it was a surprise because I actually thought it was just a matter of limited RAM on my laptop and probably junk files that had accumulated that was slowing it down. I figured I’d get some more RAM, get the computer guys to clean up the computer and I’d be good to go.

Obviously, that’s not what happened but fortunately I had an option to fix it. In this economy, “fixing” things might not be so easy. Certainly, getting laid off or finding out that your company is going out of business probably offers no quick fix.

I know what that feels like, too. I’ve been laid off twice. The first time, I was walking into the office one morning and ran into my boss posting a note on the front door saying that all classes had been canceled that day (we were a computer training center). The reason the classes were canceled was that the company had gone out of business. The receiver let us know this about 30 minutes later which was about 5 minutes before we had to collect our belongings and leave for the last time.

With all this being said, what exactly am I saying?

Well, hopefully this entry wasn’t too rambling but the bottom line is that in your career, there will be cases where you are in control and some cases where you have little to no control.

The key is to try your best to take control of your destiny where possible and avoid the surprises, whether a dying laptop or your employer suddenly going out of business with no advanced warning, In cases like this, the net result to you is the uncertainty as to what you should do next.

The higher profile and higher paying the job, the less it hurts to get fired.

Think of the best coaches and managers of professional sports teams and chances are they have been fired several times in their careers. Some have even been rehired by the same team that fired them previously.

Some professional athletes get even better treatment. They get released by the team they are under contact to but the team is still required to pay them, albeit to not play for them.

Senior executives in corporations are afforded the same treatment too. They often get recycled by one company even when they failed miserably – and very publicly – at another. Their incompetence is on full display and yet they will probably be in hot demand by other companies who have recently fired this person’s counterpart, also for incompetence.

Think of it as a Circle of Incompetence (COI). The same names keep getting hired despite apparently poor performance elsewhere. You wonder what it takes to become part of this club. It’s sort of like being outside a gated community and no one is answering the doorbell. Or like when you want to join a club but no one will teach you the secret handshake required for entry.

In some cases, getting fired is actually good news because these people tend to have guaranteed contracts which means that they continue to get paid by their employer after they’ve been fired. They’re probably leaving a lousy situation too which is most likely the primary reason they were fired to begin with. So they get to leave a bad situation – that they were at least partially responsible for – and they continue to get paid. Where can I sign up for that gig?

The organization firing them also gives them a golden parachute that would set most of us up for life. If you don’t know what a golden parachute is, it means you aren’t going to get one so I wouldn’t bother looking it up. Finding out what incompetence pays will only make you angry you aren’t getting the same treatment for being competent.

The best part about the Circle of Incompetence is that participants don’t even have to let anyone know that they are now looking for a new job because everyone knows about it. Plus the media will probably do them a favor if they’re famous enough and will discuss their entire career in chronological order for future employers to see.

Unfortunately, if you are not part of the Circle of Incompetence – and you know if you aren’t – these rules do not apply to you. When you get fired – with or without cause – you need to worry about what your previous employer will say about you during a reference check. Clearly, your screwups weren’t big enough to warrant someone else hiring you without worrying about the screwup in question. Nor were you important enough to receive the Golden Parachute that really incompetent people get when they screw up.

When I was in university, I worked for a company that was rumored to be close to having a fairly sizeable downsizing in their office area. I worked part time in an area that was not going to be affected but the rumors were floating around as to who was getting chopped and how big the cut was going to be.

Finally, the day came and we started seeing people leaving the building during the day with their belongings boxed up so we knew that the layoffs had begun. I was sitting in the lunch room at the time and a few tables away was one of the loudmouths who worked in the office that was experiencing the layoffs. Someone made a comment about how the layoffs were unfortunate and the loudmouth commented that it wasn’t so bad because the company was getting rid of the “dead wood” in his words.

Shortly after lunch, the loudmouth found out that he was amongst the dead wood, as he was let go. The rumor was that he responded by barricading himself in his office and shredding as much paper as possible before he was escorted from the building for the last time.

In this instance, the moral of the story is to understand your value in the company.

While we can’t predict this 100% and in this economy, even productive people can be laid off, your best bet is to show value to the company and where possible make it obvious to others how you either add revenue to the company, help the company decrease costs or ideally, how you do both.

The funny part is that the loudmouth didn’t have a particularly good reputation certainly amongst the people I worked with, so he clearly had an overinflated opinion of himself.

Have you been laid off recently?

With companies increasingly laying people off, you might already have found yourself among those who have been negatively affected by the downturn in the economy. I’ve been laid off twice in my career – one company went bankrupt and the other downsized and moved most jobs overseas – so I know the feeling.

As the number of displaced people increases, the harder it gets to earn the attention of hiring managers who are actually hiring as you’re probably going to find yourself competing with more people for fewer jobs.

I recently read an article that profiled a professional who went from earning $100,000 per year to being out of work for 7 months and having to rely on government assistance. He has managed to get back into the workforce part time to start with and mentioned three things that he suggests people who are out of work need to do:

Stay positive: This is a very important point for sure. Although it’s difficult and it probably seems obvious, remaining positive and motivated is key to getting back into the workforce in a timely fashion.

Try to stick to your normal schedule when you were working. Get up at the same time, shower and dress and pretend you’re still working. If you get out of schedule at start getting up at 11am and bumming around the house, it won’t be hard to get demotivated and depressed.

Don’t sit in front of your computer all day firing off resumes to nameless, faceless email addresses either. Get out and meet people.

Think about what you like to do and figure out what you’re best at: Use this time to figure out what you’d like to do next in your career and if you’re in the right industry.

Consider taking training classes or attending self-help classes if your budget allows for it. Keep busy and meet new people.

Network as much as possible: As mentioned in the previous point, meeting new people is important not only to expand your network but you keep you motivated and active. Attend local networking events – check out your local chamber of commerce, board of trade and job centers to start with – and you might find yourself meeting up with people who are not only in the same boat as you are, but who might be able to point you in the right direction of people who can help you find a new job.