Networking contacts are helpful only if you can quickly and succinctly explain your predicament, what kind of work you are seeking, and ask directly for help whether for possible positions, information, advice, or merely additional names to contact.

The need for clarity continues in interview. Answer questions clearly and directly. Express your hopes and positive outlook without bashfulness or mumbling. Before you leave, get a clear agreement on what next step will be and if you can call employer at end of week to see if there are any lingering questions. After interview, send a short, personal thank you note for interviewer's time and attention.

5. H represents Humility.

This is a two-edged sword. Many of us are so humble that we find saying anything positive about ourselves almost excruciating. We start to mumble when expressing our qualities and achievements. Employers and interviewers are well aware of this. They know that an interview is an uncomfortable and unnatural interaction that makes both sides of desk anxious and overly formal. Unless position is in sales, which often demands a somewhat pushy self-presentation, you may make a more favorable impression if you are somewhat hesitant in rolling out your skills and abilities. The applicant who reports strength in all areas, knows everything, and answers every question with "I've done that before," may be looked upon with some suspicion. The job seeker who keeps asking office manager how much longer he will have to wait or taps his fingers impatiently on desk, is not making points with support staff who may have a significant effect on eventual hiring decision. An employer may seek an applicant with initiative but he also fears a loose cannon who ignores direction and caution. While we admire "take chances" attitude that propels a Donald Trump or Richard Branson to self-made billionaire's club, we don't necessarily want that arrogant risk-taking at our company, especially when it is our company taking risk!

6. E equates to Enthusiasm.

This is what will wear you out more than anything else. It is one thing to be enthusiastic about our passions, our interests, even our jobs. It is something else to show enthusiasm over and over, rejection after rejection, and not crash and burn at some point. The sanest approach seems to be balance. While your search for work is top priority, make sure that you make time for rest and rejuvenation. Since enthusiasm is an absolute requirement in most job interviews, you would be better served to limit your actual job hunting personal and telephone contacts to 20 or 25 hours per week. Take time to relax: quiet time, exercise, watch a movie, and replenish your energy levels. You will be healthier, less stressed, and more effective, when you do make contacts than trying to spend 40 hours a week "pounding pavement" and ending up presenting as tired, flat, and desperate when you reach interview that could have been "the one."

7. S reflects Self-Belief.

Call it faith, call it self-confidence, call it a sense of trust, call it cock-eyed optimism, it is really, in psychological terms, self-efficacy. It does not directly concern what you think about yourself, positive or negative. It involves your belief in whether you are able to affect what happens to you. Do you believe that your actions and words can bring about outcomes you seek? If I don't believe that my efforts will have any effect on results, then world is based on illogic, luck-of-the-draw, random chance.

If you look back over your own life, you will be able to identify actions or decisions you took that had certain consequences, good or bad. Analyze and study your own history and you will start to clearly see that consequences follow every action. Move that into present and future, and it will revitalize your belief in eventual consequences of your actions now. If you follow myriad job seeking strategies and techniques identified by experts, and repetitively supported by successful outcomes, you will reach your goal.

It is that strong belief that you are "on way" to success that will carry you through long nights of worry, wasted time of disappointing leads, and pain of recurrent rejection. It will bring you back to other six areas mentioned by allowing you to focus, reach out for support, communicate with humility and clarity, and maintain your job search campaign with unflaggingly enthusiastic persistence.

3. Consulting.

If you possess particular skills, expertise, and experience, you may be able to return to your prior employer as an independent contractor. Frequently companies undergo sudden spurts of productivity: a new sales campaign, implementation of a large new account, reorganization, a merger or acquisition. In such cases, your insider company knowledge, and your understanding of processes and procedures, is invaluable and a few months of such work may be exactly what you need financially while still promising periods of free time between assignments. While you typically receive no benefits, your income carries significant tax advantages as you qualify as self-employed.

4. Achieving a sense of wholeness.

For most of your work life, perhaps 40 or 50 years, you may have been primarily interested in maximizing your income to take care of your family, send your kids to college, and build at least a small nest egg for retirement. Now that you have some guaranteed income on a regular basis, you may choose to move into work which is not so financially rewarding but which fulfills an inner need and has some moral, ethical, or purely entertaining payoff. You may feel a need to give back to your community by working in social or non-profit agencies, in library, in schools. Perhaps you have always secretly yearned to teach, or coach, or counsel. Perhaps you just want to have fun and sign up as a movie extra or apply to be in television commercials. Your interests and preferences determine your direction. Concentrate on what is personally meaningful for you: art, music, education, reading and literacy, athletics, food, crafts, building, gardening. Whatever your interest, there are probably entry-level positions locally available, although probably at a salary that is a fraction of that you have earned in past. Despite income, spark it gives to your mood, your self-esteem, and your zest for life make it all worthwhile.

Unless you are in a desperate financial plight that requires you to devote yourself to unpleasant work that offers you highest possible income, post-retirement work can be fun, fulfilling, and a productive addition to your mental outlook, health, and longevity.