Although this is, quite obviously, a book, you should think of it as a compass. It is written for managers and professionals who, in mid-career, are separated from their jobs. Adrift, sidelined, streeted, beached, on the bricks--whatever the image you use to describe your situation--you are out of work. You are "looking." This is a book for you and those who most want to help you look for and find a job--your spouse, closest friends, counselor, pastor, neighbor. You will come to see most of those who want to help as points on your compass. But the needle on that compass also points to you, to the new corporate culture, and, if you are a believer, to your God.
With this compass in hand, you will be invited first to take a reading of yourself. That's the business of Chapter One. But before you do, read the Foreword. It is not intended to cheer you up, just to fix your attention on someone else's experience of the problem as you take your bearings for a job campaign.
You have a self to serve; that's the message of Chapter One. You have to let yourself get comfortable with that idea. You also have to resist the impulse to omit thinking deeply about yourself so that you can be off prematurely on an uncharted course in hot pursuit of some undefined "next job."
Chances are, you are married. Your spouse is in this job search with you. Chapter Two is reading for two; don't move on without talking about the contents of this chapter with your partner.
You will come out of Chapter Two much better prepared to deal with discouragement, the theme of Chapter Three. You will also have learned that men and women respond to job loss differently; the difference should be respected as you face up to the management of your personal discouragement.
When you see "The Literary Mirror" at the top of Chapter Four, be prepared to pause to see yourself in snippets of literature quoted there. Be prepared as well to return to the reading habit (or cultivate it for the first time), not for diversion during the job search, but for discovery of some of that hidden substance in the soul of the searcher--you.
Networking has probably already begun for you. If not, Chapter Five will convince you of its importance. In either case, you should read this chapter for both motivation and method in weaving a network of contacts that will lead to your next job.
"The Relevance of Religion" may not have occurred to you in connection with the business immediately at hand. But there it is--one full chapter--to open up an important question to be dealt with entirely on your own terms. Skip Chapter Six if religious faith is irrelevant to you. The chapter is there simply because religion is part of the reality of most job searches; it provides an important point on the compass for many job-seekers.
Chapter Seven should be read with an eye to what you will find yourself talking about in interviews directed toward your reinsertion into the new corporate culture, and your reconnection with a new corporate contract. If you expect upon your return to the world of work to find nothing but the furniture rearranged, allow time to read this chapter twice.
The self-assessment prompted by your reading of Chapter One can trickle down now to your personal notebook of maxims and "Guiding Principles." You will read in Chapter Eight an array of principles--answers from within--that worked for others in guiding, even propelling them back to meaningful employment. Without clearly articulated principles of your own, you will not be ready to begin the final chapter, "Your Job-Search Strategy," which requires that you have at hand a blank sheet of paper so that you can begin to write your personal strategic plan.
Drills and diagrams are not "required elements" (to lift an expression from judges of figure skating competition) as you go through these chapters. Just read the book--one page after another--with time out, when you are ready to take it, for conversations with yourself, your spouse and/or closest friends, and with your Creator, if faith draws you in that direction. You will want to converse and consult with others along the way, the needle on your compass will point them out for you. And you should mark these pages up with underlining and marginal comments to provide yourself with a "set of notes" for ready review at any time. You will surely want to order your thoughts and refresh your memory, from time to time, in order to produce your own best answers to the question of your own employment future.