There are special considerations when you are unemployed for more than six months. Your skills and expertise are getting stale. Motivation is waning. Unemployment benefits are running out. Here are some survival tips.
There are special considerations when you are unemployed for more than six months. Your skills and expertise are getting stale. Motivation is waning. Unemployment benefits are running out. Here are some survival tips:
If you feel you’ve been out too long, remember that, in this difficult market, many qualified candidates share your predicament. Employers will not hold this against you, if you come to interviews with fresh ideas. To keep your knowledge fresh, read trade journals, attend conferences, and keep in touch with your employed peers.
If you think you’re no longer competitive, improve your skills – whether specific to your job or in general (e.g., computers, marketing, communication skills). Look at libraries, community centers or colleges for free or subsidized classes. Teach yourself through books or online resources.
If you’re tired of looking, find different ways to keep motivated. Network with jobseekers to share support and ideas. Keep a journal of your progress. Treat yourself after meeting certain targets (e.g., after making five new contacts).
If you’re low on cash, keep your financial goals separate from your career goals. While it would be ideal to make money by finding your next full-time job, you don’t want to take whatever comes along just because you need the money. In the immediate term, your financial and career needs are separate. Some ways to make cash: freelancing, temping, selling, babysitting, housecleaning….No job is insignificant if it keeps you in the search long enough to land that next job.
Is Your Job Search Flexible or Just Unfocused?
As a recruiter, I’ve seen lack of flexibility on the recruiting side with employers clinging to every last detail in their ideal spec while perfectly good candidates get overlooked. As a career coach, I see jobseekers prematurely dismissing possible targets waiting for that perfect job. It’s true that you want to be focused in your job search (otherwise you dilute your efforts and come across as scattered and possibly desperate).
5 Questions to Test If Your Resume Is Recruiter-Proof
After recruiting in search and in-house for over ten years, I have read thousands of resumes. Due to sheer volume of resumes received and all the other things that vie for the recruiter’s attention in the hiring process – scheduling, interviewing, networking, reference checks, client debriefs, and more – the resume review process is ruthlessly quick.
Why Conventional Wisdom On Work Flexibility Is Always Wrong
In a previous post, I wrote about why employment statistics are always wrong. In a similar way, conventional wisdom on work flexibility is always wrong. It is impossible to generalize something that is inherently case-by-individual case. Therefore, any boilerplate advice or conventional wisdom is bound to omit a key consideration, underweight or overemphasize other considerations, or take too long-term or short-term of a view.
