Tips for Surviving Unemployment?

Are you looking for financial advice (such as how to make UI $$$ go farther) or are you looking for tips on how to get re-employed and make the most of your time off?

I’m in month 6 and have became somewhat of an expert on both!

I hope you handle it better than I did. I’ve been at this job for over a year now, and being unemployed before it is still screwing me up. That link that Amy just posted about the psychological effects of unemployment really could’ve come in handy to me a while ago. :\ Good luck.

1. Do things that make you feel good about yourself and keep your spirits up. Unemployment and looking for work tend to grind one down.

Some of the things that have worked for me are:

a.) Reminding myself of all that I have to give thanks for in life (even while unemployed).
b.) Volunteering or working on a community project (or at your child’s school).
c,) Exercising (just a long walk with my dog in the woods cheers me up).

2. Let everyone you know professionally even peripherally that you are looking and what you are looking for. Do not think of it as shameful. Everyone is unemployed at one time or another. Now is the time to network. If you are hesitant, think about you would feel if you were working and an acquaintance or friend let you know they were job hunting. You don’t mind, and they won’t either.

3. Maybe take your laptop or a notebook and job listings and go to the coffee shop to work on your hunt. It will feel good to get out of the house.

4. Approach job hunting like a work project. make a strategic plan and then the tactical steps you are going to follow to achieve it,

5. Treat unemployment like a pause offered you by the universe to reevaluate. Do you want to hunt for the same kind of job or career? Should you take the time to do some retraining? Should you look at the transitional skills you could bring to a new career? What do you want to do with your life in the next few years?

First of all, I wish you the best luck in finding a job.
In second place, I would like to share with you some of what I will think about If I were in your current unfortunate situation:

1. I am currently unemployed. That means I need a job. And I need to find it quickly. You have to be really convinced about that. (and even though you may find it obvious, it will be extremely helpful in your research).

2. I will send my resume to every company I come across. At this stage I am not looking at the quality of the job offers. I am hunting quantity. If I apply for 10 jobs, maybe i two of them will get in contact with me. If I apply for 100 jobs, twenty of them will probably reply (statistically the percentage of reply may even rise a bit): twenty is much better then two.

3. I will apply for a job even when my skills would lead me to think I won’t fit the profile they are looking for. You simply never know. They might not look for you, yet. But when they receive your application they still may consider it for another position, even though that position is not officially open yet.

4. I will use this time as an opportunity. There is plenty of wishes I simply don’t have the time to make them come true. In the mean time I will also study something related to my major, and (as Marina wisely suggested) prepare a fight plan for the next interview I will take part in, considering that the most difficult question to be answered will be:
How long and why are you unemployed? Why should I hire you if your last employer..? Having a fresh and smart answer about that will be extremely handy, and it may require you some days of brainstorming.

5. I won’t make any debt, nor I will swipe my credit card for anything except food/house needs. Another obvious point. But still very significant. I will reduce my personal expenses to my vital needs, waiting for better periods to come.

6. Once offer start to come, even though I will select them carefully, I will go to any interview that is offered to me. I will eventually use the interviews for jobs I am not really interested in as training.

CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective

Just say NO to Wage Slavery.

Buy a backpack and eat at the university cafeteria.

Bummer! Sorry. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I have always been a nurse and have never been without a job for more than a few days. Which is one of the many reasons I became a nurse to begin with. Good luck and I guess, count what blessings you do have.