Fighting the Unemployment Stigma

Here is a post over at CareeRealism that offers some interesting advice for fighting the unemployment stigma. Now as I have mentioned before I was recently unemployed for very close to two years. There were many things about my situation that are likely unusual for the typical worker who is in this situation. The three tips from this piece are as follows (read their full post to get a better sense of the reasoning...):

• Stop looking for a job
• Press 'Play' on life
• Get a 360 degree evaluation

I agree with all of these, the second two are very good, and read well as stand alone tips. The first makes total sense if you read their entire description. There is always a reason you have been unemployed that long. Sometimes it is something you can control (being selective in you applications looking/waiting for a perfect fit, etc.) and sometimes they are things you can't control (living in an area with a high concentration of people in your industry, making the candidate pools very competitive, etc.)

By stopping and re-examining your situation and what you have been looking for can help put things back into perspective. As a personal example I live in between two highly ranked programs that produce librarians. Add to that many people in this area tend to stay close to where they have grown up, so there are many qualified librarians in the area. I have been typically told that I am one of one hundred or more candidates for most jobs I was applying for (I don't think any employer has ever given the exact number, not sure why?)

By slowing my search and spending some time to re-evaluate I was able to finally come to the conclusion that I need expand beyond traditional libraries. I found employers in my area that needed research/instructional skills and was making headway. Now if you have read this blog long term you will know I have settled into a part time librarian position. But if this opportunity had not come about, I was seeing positive signs that the re-evaluation was producing benefits (i.e. getting invited for the next round of interviews at one of the employers outside of my industry.)

What do others think?