Just ending 11 months of un(der)-employment here in London myself after being laid off from the consulting firm I was with and I empathise with this feeling of shock and emotional flailing – it will pass and leave a curious mix of determination, optimism, excitement and yes, worry too.

My advise (take with a shaker of salt, of course):

- Start building a list of the job-pages from web-sites of organisations where you could imagine working for a spell (both your dream/ideal jobs and those where you'd learn something new and enjoy trying something different for a short time); check those every Monday and Thursday or so.

- Figger out how *you* network and make a plan for it. To be honest, I'm lousy at it, much to my dismay; it's just not something I do naturally and frustrates me with its (apparent) inefficiency! But it's important, and will help. One smart person told me that your 'A-list' are the people who return your call immediately and with whom you have political capital to spend for favours. Your 'B-list' are people who like you, know you on sight and would be happy to meet you for a coffee sometime. Your 'C-list' are people who you've met once, got their business card, (mostly) remember their name, and are likely connected to someone else on your A or B lists. Networking is moving the 'C-listers' to the B or A list.

- Depending upon your industry (I'm a crazy international politics/photographer/stage-manager/chef so this didn't work quite so well for me, but YMMV), get your CV updated, reviewed with a red pen by people who will give you tough love on it, and register with every temp agency and head-hunter you can find, including the on-line behemoths (Monster, Careerbuilder, etc.) Shots in the dark, but cost little more than time.

- Do a new 'bare-bones' monthly budget *now* and figure out what you really need to pay the bills and feed the pets per month, then assess where that's going to come from in one, three, six, nine and (Gods-forbid) twelve months. Trust me, it's better to *know*, and to have a plan. Build in $100-200 (or something) for 'Networking/Vocational' each month somehow.

- Finally, now's the time to fill the time building out your other vocations, whatever they may be. Not talking about going back to school, but those other 'callings' you have that may or may not make you money. They're important because pursuing them will shore up your sense of identity, value and contribution, keep your mental muscles agile, and (perhaps most practically) keep you in contract with a mix of new people who may contribute to connecting you to a new job.

The one thing you shouldn't do it hunker down, curl up, hide out and freeze-in-place. It's scary, painful, and shocking, but you've got to keep moving. Good for you for writing about it, do share what's going on (even when you're certain that your friends must be tired of hearing about it – we're not), and get out of the house at least once a day for an hour.

S'gonna be OK, beautiful, and even money, s'gonna be even better than before. Hang in there.