By J. Thompson
Online Career Tips Staff

Being on the receiving end of a layoff can feel like your career is derailed. Combine that with financial strains and norms associated with unemployment, and you could be feeling added stress. There’s hope on the horizon. The forecast calls for a decline in unemployment rates, but the amount of new jobs may seem to be only a trickle. One way to cope is to take charge by planning your next iteration. Call it, Career 2.0. Here are three simple steps to get going.

1. Don’t just dust off your resume—make it shine.

 Print your resume. Now, tear it up. It’s not only liberating, it’s a sign you’re ready to reinvent yourself. Luckily, you have an electronic version saved. Now, give it the overhaul it needs. A simple trick is to remove any passive voice by using only active verbs. Hiring managers and recruiters will thank you for it. They’re buried under resumes stuck in the past (tense). Make sure you also link your previous job duties to the bottom line. In short, use metrics if you can. Lots of candidates promise results—only quantified examples prove it.