Sometimes it really isn't your fault. My friend Jim was an absolutely competent local reporter who covered city council sessions and school board meetings for a regional newspaper in New Jersey. His newspaper hit a rough patch and he lost his job. (In retrospect, this was an early warning sign for the transformation of the newspaper industry, but no one could have known this at the time.) Problem was that at the same time, one of the biggest newspapers in the region went under. (Another early warning sign, this one a little bit louder.) So Jim was competing for newspaper jobs-- which have always been tough to get-- with people who had won Pulitzer Prizes. It took him a very long time to find another job. He was just as competent as he always had been. The competitive environment had changed around him.

I've talked to a lot of people who are looking for work in the last couple of months. Some just finished graduate school. Some were downsized. Most of them are struggling to stay positive-- trying not to internalize the situation. A situation which really is not their fault.