It’s been several weeks since my last post, so I want to bring you up to speed on the progress of my job search.

To start, the economy has continued to make finding my next great permanent position difficult. Finding opportunities and getting interviews does not seem to be an issue (it's quite possible to find a job in a recession); it’s finding employers that are ready, willing and able to move to actual start dates that seems to be my problem in this recession.

Is there a time when a job seeker should stop trying to find a new job?  If your job search has been going on for months, maybe over a year, is there an appropriate length of time or some other condition when a job seeker should "put a fork in it" and quit?

It’s been just over a year since I officially started my job search.  Since then, I've been offered six jobs — three of which were cancelled due to the economy, just as the employer and I were in final negotiations.  I've also come in 2nd for nearly a dozen other positions.  Darn frustrating, let me tell you!  So in one sense, I’ve been successful in my job search: I have received several job offers, landed several contracts, and directly assisted a number of my peers in finding employment. But I have not yet achieved my own final goal.  I've analyzed why this is, and I’ve come up with four major issues that I need to address.

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Like you, I look at all the articles about layoffs, the financial crisis, the bailout, and I wonder, “How will I get through this?” If you are still working, there are numerous articles that explain how not to get laid off (here are 9 tips for taking control of your career in the face of layoffs, here are 5 more ways to protect yourself from a layoff, and this article explains what tech workers need to know about the financial crisis and their jobs). These stories are everywhere, but I have not yet seen what I feel is the most obvious way to prevent being laid off.

In an increasingly globalized world, how can you put yourself in the front running for the top positions? In this follow-up to "The Impact of Globalization On Executive Job Searches and Economic Prosperity”, I provide some tips and hints from readers and recruiters on how to succeed in your job search in today’s difficult economic environment and harsh employment market.

Several readers have emailed asking about Informational Interviews. Today we're going to discuss how to use this method to perform in-depth research and analysis on your target companies.

I'm beginning to understand why it's been so hard and taking such a long time for me to find a new CIO job. It's not just the economy (i.e., “Bad News Comes In Waves For Economy”), the wildly fluctuating stock markets, a Presidential election year in the US, and overly cautious business and IT leaders that are complicating my job search. Major shifts in global corporate ownership are rippling downstream, affecting enterprises' hierarchical structures, executive roles, and hiring criteria, as I've learned from my recent discussions with David Gray, an international executive consultant and researcher based in Australia.