I have been recommending Richard  M. Bolles book  "What Color is Your Parachute?" for many years.  It's really a life reevaluation book and helps someone in job transition with 100's of practical tools for job hunting.  Don't be too discouraged,  I just got off the phone with someone released from a Michigan Prison today, (in my work in Detroit and Pontiac I deal with some homeless folks).  He was sent to a halfway house in Detroit and although he had $7.00 in his account at the prison they sent him out with just $1.00 in his pocket.    He will be looking for work with no car.  I will get him a monthly bus pass for August, which should help.  

Much of our "personal identity" in America is wrapped around our work life.  The loss of a job for some, is the loss of the only "real" community or belonging that they feel they had.  Anyway, the level of discouragement when a job is lost is something very hard to deal with alone.  I'm big on this book resource, because it's stood the test of time.  Richard Bolles updates it every year, and there are well over eight million copies in print.  Bolles also has a helpful website at  www.JobHuntersBible.com which would be worth a visit.   Of course I recommend the real Bible also and to have some friends praying for you and standing with you. 

A young person exploring a career direction or someone in their later years who just lost a job would do well looking into this great resource

   - Father Richard Dalton   -  in a economically struggling Metro Detroit