Picture this: You’ve just lost your job and you’re scouring the job boards, looking for something - anything - that matches your professional qualifications and experience. Suddenly, you spot a position that looks too good to be true. The job title is perfect, the responsibilities are right up your alley, and the firm is… Oh, wait a minute. It's your former employer; the one that just handed you a pink slip.

Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.

"I was shocked and confused," says a former mutual fund marketing manager who was one of 50 people laid off by his firm in late April. About a month later, his former employer posted an ad seeking a "marketing channel manager." He notes, "I was also a little embarrassed. I mean, I could have easily transitioned into that spot." Why would a company go through the pain and expense of staff reductions just to post a job description that looks almost exactly like your skill set and your core competencies? Here are some possibilities:

'Almost' doesn’t cut it any more: Employers are looking for the perfect match: experience and qualifications that match the job description to a tee. With so many financial services professionals unemployed these days, it's a buyer's market. Does the ad mention an MBA, a skill or professional designation you don't have? Employers can afford to be picky, picky, picky.

A new broom sweeps clean: The new boss is using layoffs as an opportunity to surround himself with allies. The job posting could be a formality, all for the sake of appearances. "The old adage 'Keep the Best and Fire the Rest' seems to prevail in times like this," says a veteran financial industry recruiter. "Of course, the definition of 'the best' is debatable.... It could be people who are personal friends with the manager, or people brought over from an old company, or it could be the cheapest people in the department." A high-level marketing director who was laid off last December says she was surprised when one of her direct reports was promoted into her former role just six weeks later. "I was told my position was eliminated," she says.

You're a pawn in the blame game: Even if you've been told your position was eliminated, the truth is you may have become a scapegoat, especially if you're in the investment business. "It's easy to blame marketing and sales folks when performance is down," says a mutual fund headhunter. "The attitude seems to be that the investment managers attract the money and the marcom folks should be able to come up with some sort of spin that will keep those assets in house, no matter how bad performance is."

Your alma mater is bargain hunting: Your old employer is adding intellectual capital at deep discounts. "Workers who have been laid off are getting desperate, so they'll take your old job for a lot less than you were earning," says marketing and PR recruiter Sandy Charet. It's also possible the firm cut too deep and is starting to backpedal. "It's possible that when the drastic repercussions of their decisions became real, they decided to try and piece things back together again," says Charet. So, should you bother to apply for a similar position at your old firm? Generally, no. A less direct approach might be more effective.

"I'd ask an old colleague who is still there to see what the hiring manager thinks of the idea of bringing you back in," says Charet. Another headhunter agrees: "Applying to your old firm usually doesn’t work, especially if you go through HR. Just send a simple e-mail or call your old boss directly, and ask if he or she thinks you would fit in the new position. You'll get an idea of what your chances are pretty quickly."