Yesterday, 85 more ad folks were laid off in L.A. Some are friends of mine. I feel for them. Many of them have been through this before. Or as one friend put it "This ain't my first rodeo." Experience should give them a leg up. Or will it? It's a different world out there. How will they approach their job search? Will some of them be in denial and refuse to invest in an online portfolio, expand their LinkedIn contacts, Facebook like crazy or learn to exploit Twitter? Calling a headhunter and putting together a few pdfs is no longer enough. It's rare that a job comes looking for you in this market.
Which reminds me of a story. I have two girlfriends, let's call them Marlene and Andrea. Marlene had terrible luck with men. So after 2 failed marriages, she stopped dating. She stopped looking. But, she owned her own home, had a successful business and a son. Who needed a man? After a few years, Marlene got lucky. Her prince knocked on her door. He was the contractor who'd been referred by a friend. He remodeled her house and her heart. Ten years later they're still married.
Andrea, on the other hand, went to every party, mixer, opening and charity event in town. And tried every online dating service there is. She met many interesting people. And had a rich social life. Everything she attended or participated in she enjoyed because she had a genuine interest in. Eventually, she met her prince, too, through an affinity-based online dating service.
Moral of the story: if you can afford not to work, you can do what Marlene did and hope for the best. Otherwise, you might want to follow Andrea's approach and hop to it. After all, you may have to kiss a lot of frogs to meet that prince.