I went to a meeting for job seekers where the speaker talked about regaining your identity.  It was a cool topic as this is something that has really bothered be about being unemployed.  The basic idea is that I went from “Hi, I’m Jason, I’m the VP and General Manager” to “Hi, I’m Jason, and I’m unemployed.”  What a downer.

The speaker talked about the fact that we can’t categorize ourselves as “unemployed”… we have to have a different identity.  This will have a huge impact on how we conduct ourselves, how we interview, how we prospect, etc.  This is a reverse-paradigm shift – you went from a [put job title or proficiency here] to “unemployed” – and now you must go back to the proficiency.  You didn’t get dumber when you became unemployed, did you??

Great topic.  Too many job seekers that I’ve met do not have the right identity.  How to regain it?  I don’t have all the answers, but you really have to make an effort to figure out what your identity should be, and how to convey it.  Are you a business person?  A problem solver?  A facilitator?  A rainmaker?  Whatever it is, make sure that that identity is what comes out when you meet people.

One suggestion was to get business cards for yourself – you can get free ones from various places on the web… since it is Friday, and by posts are too long anyway, I’ll stop with one thougth.  I wanted business cards for JibberJobber but I wanted them to stand out from the crowd.  Here is the back of my cards: