Tea: Teppy, also try to remember you're awesome.

You're in a upsetting and tenuous situation, Teppy. It would be highly disconcerting to just about anybody.

Your first step: stop beating yourself up for being upset by this

Seriously, stop picking on my friend Steph. She's got enough goin' on without you gettin' all up in her grill.

The bad news is, job hunting kind of sucks. The good news is, it sucks for everyone. You will do fine.

I am an editor at a business-casual company. I don't have any business suits or other interview-appropriate clothing. I don't even know if people in my field WEAR business suits when they interview.

Even if the company environment is business casual (or even more casual), I think you'll want a good suit for interviewing purposes.

There are plenty of people here who can help you with your resume.

I agree with LeN: before you stress about where to look for a job, take some time to think about if you want to keep doing what you're doing or try to move to something else. I work in communications too, and trust me, our skills are transferrable.

Teppy, having one job for along time actually looks GOOD to HR, because it means you're a stable employee. So that's one thing to strike off your worry list. Once you start looking for work, you can find out what kind of clothes you need and buy one interview outfit if needed. I just did that a couple of months ago and it was relatively painless and now I own a black suit. SO that's two things to strike off.

Job-hunting is not fun, but you have marketable skills and you WILL get a good job.

Also, this might sound kind of stupid, but as I've gotten older, my attitude toward job-hunting has more and more become "You people would be lucky to have me" and less "Oh, god, please hire me please please please."

I truly believe that the more confident you are (or the more you can fake it), the better. Not arrogant asshat, but confident in your skills. You're awesome! You've edited god knows how many articles about a huge variety of things! You're our walking pharmacy!

Tep, I understand, and I totally have your back. You have MAD skillz and 18 years at a company is NOT a liability; in these days, it is a boon for companies who train people and see them flit on to the Next Big Thing on an average of 3 years.

You are eminently employable, and yes, it is MAD scary. But you have this crazy advantage of a community of people which connections and skills who have your back -- you are ahead of the game without lifting a finger.

Strix, I was going to e-mail you later when I have something resembling a game plan, and hire your inimitable skills to update my resume. I'd rather hire a friend, you know?

When I get my head on straight, I'll shoot you an e-mail. Probably not this week, but maybe next.

No big, hon; you do what you need to do, and I will watch for your e-mail. I will get you through this -- no, WE ALL will get you through this.

Much love.

Steph, I have no good advice at the moment (have to run out the door soon), but I totally understand and sympathize with your pants-shitting fear. It's become a somewhat familiar companion working freelance for ten years.