The Tsunami of 2009

The Tsunami of 2009 I teach/facilitate weekly workshops to job seekers on topics ranging from improving resumes to networking. I love what I do and I am incredibly grateful to have job that allows me to help other people. Something really scary happened this week in my workshops. I had 32 people inthe resume workshop and 31 people in the interviewing workshop, compared to 8 people last year at this time in the same workshops.The numbers grew overnight.There they were, packed into a room on a Monday morning, 32 bodies looking for work. I knew there had been lay offs over the past few months, but hadnt seen people coming to workshops. I suppose I was hoping that most of those laid off had secured jobs quickly. Sadly, what I think happened was that they took the holiday season off.They probably said to themselves, after the New Year, I will really kick my job search into high gear. They didnt ask for help sooner because they probably didnt think they needed it. I cant be sure about this hypothesis, and it may not be applicable to all 32 people in that room. What I do know is that the job market is incredibly flooded with people looking for work. There is a severe competition. With extreme conditions, we need to take extreme measuresI wish I knew what that looked like The realist has spoken.