Sometimes life hits you in the face with a reality check. It may be something as simple and annoying as a rainstorm knocking out your internet for a week, or a little more significant like your son trying to see if your cell phone has the same effect on Diet Coke as Mentos. In my case, it was both... at the same time.

Let's face the truth.  If you are out of work, you are one out of every ten people around you. That means when you apply for a job, you are one in several hundred who want that job just as badly as you do. Actually, for the average job seeker, the odds are there are people who actually want the job more than you do and are in this race to win it. The people I find getting the jobs have disciplined themselves to focus like a laser on their goal.

 There is a very common phenomena that is quickly approaching which nobody writes about and even fewer will admit it exists. Much like a Facebook request from that really scary and often un-bathed kid we remember from the 10th grade who reminds us of the Bride Of Chucky on caffeine, we try to ignore it but you know it's there.

A decade ago, during the First Great Talent War (1994 - 2000), it used to be said that the resume was soon to be dead. It was said the great people of industry, tech, and science would no longer need a resume simply because their reputation would be enough to get them a job.