Were you laid-off or fired? At some point, you'll probably be told to "get past your anger" before interviewing for a new position. Otherwise, the argument goes, interviewers will be deterred by your barely concealed hostility.

Despite this well-meaning advice, you don't have to "get over it to get on with it." Anger, whatever its cause or form, isn't an enemy you need to vanquish or imprison to move on with your career. True, anger can alarm you and others, including potential employers, networking contacts, friends and family members. However, if you properly understand and channel angry feelings, they can enlighten and energize you.

Deep down, you may reject the concept that anger can be beneficial. Our souls and bodies seek peace and surely anger isn't peaceful. Therefore, when anger struts upon your emotional stage, you may react with a tamer's chair and cage, employing every method possible to control it. After all, anger is a problem that must be fixed or neutralized--why else would sales of self-help books about overcoming anger be so robust?

Making anger our servant, not our master, requires:

• distinguishing between the causes, nature and effects of anger,
• understanding anger and knowing how to integrate it constructively into our emotional repertoire and
• accepting the consequences of displaying anger to others.

Here Comes the JudgeMany people view anger as a hot, wild, raw emotion that erupts spontaneously and resists control. Hence the phrases, "explosive anger," "venting our anger," "unleashing our emotion" or "fit of anger" are often used to describe it.

Not so, say psychologists. Rather than being a primal emotion like fear, anger actually operates as an executive or judicial emotion. It's shaped intellectually and can be channeled rationally. In effect, anger serves as an intellectual wake-up call. It arouses us to exercise rational, appropriate responses to specific situations.

Anger isn't something that's outside or apart from us. It's an internal vehicle that helps us communicate with ourselves - a set of psychological eyes. Psychologist Hendrie Weisinger says that anger "gives us information about people and situations. It serves as a clue to tell us that there's something unjust or frustrating going on. It can be a signal to tell us it's time to cope with distress."

Philadelphia psychologist David Sachs has compared anger to "the red warning light on your car dashboard that lights up to signal that something's wrong. The point isn't to turn the light off; it's to find out what we're worried about."

Anger also "can be helpful in expressing tension and communicating negative feelings to others," Dr. Weisinger says. "The productive expression of anger is an important way to resolve conflict."

Rather than triggering an uncontrolled emotional explosion, anger fosters feelings of control. If a situation threatens to get out of hand, anger triggers energy that helps assert our will and protect our interests.

If anger has such positive functions, why does it make us so uncomfortable? Why are we advised not to feel it ("Stop being so angry") or express it ("A soft answer turneth away wrath")? The answer lies in understanding anger and distinguishing it from rage.Anger's Faces

Although anger and rage may sound some of the same notes, in fact they're playing a very different song. Anger focuses attention and fosters control, while rage represents a loss of control. In fact, much of the negative publicity anger receives would be better aimed at the more volatile and indiscriminate - an unfocused outburst of unfettered emotion that overpowers rational decision-making and frightens others. It often scares us as well, unleashing a need to reassert control. As you become rational again, you think, "My God, what's wrong with me? I've got to get a grip."

Similarly, the feeling and expression of anger is often mistaken with the profoundly unsettling effects of anxiety. If anger is a judicial emotion that responds to injustice, anxiety is a primary emotion that responds to fear - whether of powerlessness, failing or any other psychic demons that lurk in our private emotional attics.

Some of us internalize our anxiety, becoming depressed, pessimistic or physically ill. Others externalize anxiety, displaying obvious discomfort in various ways. When this happens, our behavior may resemble anger or barely suppressed rage. Fundamentally, however, anxiety and anger are different.

When anger is present for no discernible reason and at no particular time - when someone seems angry at everything all of the time - what may be at play is a pervasive anxiety, an internal agitation or sense of not being comfortable in one's own skin. To complicate matters, anger and anxiety can occupy space in your head and express themselves simultaneously (shrinks then say that the resulting emotional stew is "multi-determined").

On the other hand, as a response to a particular cause or event, anger has a direct object: "I'm angry at _____ (fill in the blank)." This doesn't mean that the causes and reactions to anger can't persist over time. Greg (not his real name) suffers from cerebral palsy resulting from a virus contracted at birth. His vision, speech and gait will be impaired his entire life. Greg decided to become a psychotherapist and through intelligence and perseverance, excelled in his studies. In an advanced group therapy course, his peers suggested it was time he got over his anger at his handicap and got on with his life. Greg became incensed. "Don't tell me to leave my anger behind! My anger is part of my story, part of me. I already have lost too much of me. Don't ask me to give up something more." Part of Greg is angry - a part that reacts to the unfairness of his affliction - and yet this part integrates constructively with the happy, loving and tender aspects of his nature. In that sense, Greg is a whole person. His anger helps define and energize but doesn't incapacitate him in his daily life.Energized Job Searches

The distinctions between anger, rage and anxiety are relevant to job seekers and career planning. If you have been unfairly treated by an employer, terminated from a job or frustrated in your career transition efforts, anger is an appropriate and constructive response. The energizing effect of anger actually helps you "get on with it," so don't try to deny or suppress it.

But you must get your anger into perspective and be conscious of its causes and manifestations. "Working through" angry emotions doesn't mean getting over your anger. It means learning to look for the causes behind the warning light on your emotional dashboard and to manage how you experience and display your anger.

Such analyses aren't easy. Your emotional defenses may hide or distort the cause of your anger and cause you to misdirect its expression. These defenses may include projection (projecting onto others feelings that we resist acknowledging in ourselves) or displacement (directing our anger away from the situation that caused it). For instance, if scolded by a boss, you might lash out by kicking the dog when you arrive home.

You can learn to understand your anger by reviewing your childhood. Most people developed patterns and repertoires for experiencing and expressing anger when they were young. By reviewing your behavior, you can recognize the perspectives, sensitivities and responses that you mobilize during anger-arousal situations. That is, we tend to "get mad" the same way over and over again. Understanding these patterns can help you to anticipate the kinds of situations that will trigger your anger and to develop the most effective modes for expressing it. Dark Side of the Moon

Admittedly, anger has a potentially negative side. It can disrupt thoughts, actually making it harder to think clearly and evaluate options. If left unregulated, anger can lead to impulsive actions that have negative consequences.

Similarly, anger can be a catalyst for rage and aggression, the spark that ignites an explosion rather than lighting a candle of self-understanding. It can remind you of previous instances where your boundaries were violated and you felt misunderstood or misjudged. This may cause you to put excessive and unnecessary energy into defending yourself. For example, you may feel disproportionate anger at a relatively minor affront because it irritates old wounds which left you hurt or embarrassed.Show and Tell

Often, though, the causes and content of anger aren't the problem--it's how your anger is displayed. Anger can instigate aggression: When we become emotionally upset, we may try to release our feelings through our behavior. This is known as "taking it out" on something or someone. Not surprisingly, aggressive or inappropriate expressions of anger often elicit a defensive response, interfering with any chance of a collaborative dialogue. If the other person reacts with hostility, a cycle of escalating emotion ensues, eliminating rational causes, controls and expressions. Little sparks can lead to big booms.

Psychologist Robert M. Bramson warns that chronic angry complainers risk succumbing to the accusation-defense-reaccusation (ADR) pattern, "an insidious communications sequence" in which both parties abandon the goal of communicating and go to war, alternatively defending and attacking in an attempt to win. Obviously, this escalation of emotion is catastrophic in a job interview or networking meeting and leads to the stronger party - the interviewer - terminating the discussion.

In other situations, inappropriate displays of anger, rather than winning sympathy or understanding, can trigger contempt, repudiation or avoidance from others. These displays will isolate you, impair constructive criticism and diminish trust and shared comfort. The interviewer will question whether you have the poise, self-control or social sensitivity to work with others. Just a brief flash of anger will make employers wonder whether your outburst is momentary or a fundamental personality trait: "What got into her?" "He's way too sensitive." No one wants to hire a chronic malcontent.

You can't hide your anger by asking others to share it with you - particularly if their role is judging your suitability for employment. Even if you've been cruelly wronged by a prior employer or tragic twist of fate, don't try to recruit accomplices. Refrain from acting like a plaintiff in a lawsuit and asking uninvolved third parties (such as interviewers or networking contacts) for testimony.

Don't try to hide your anger in another guise. You'll dim your employment prospects just as quickly with sarcasm, irony, bitterness or comments about others' intelligence, motives or personal habits. Self-righteousness is a particularly unpleasant type of anger. In the eyes of the beholder, a martyr's whine or victim's sigh has the same effect as cleaving the interviewer's desk with a karate chop. As one insightful spouse said as she kissed her husband on the cheek, "Have a nice interview, dear. And Max...try not to seethe."