Today I finally got a job, after hunting and searching for the past four months. It's a huge weight off my shoulders, and there's one particular individual I have to thank because he worked to get me an interview at his company. You know who you are, man. Thanks.
But thinking about it through the day and knowing that a lot of people out there are either losing or have lost their job, there's a few things I wanted to share about my experience that I hope others will be able to use to their advantage.
First off, remember to think about yourself. You're the one going through this. You're the one who has to tell their family and friends you no longer have a job. You're the one who has to deal with the thoughts of wondering why you were let go and others weren't. You need to make sure to care for yourself and do things to keep your spirits up and help yourself heal.
In my mind, losing my job was like having an injury. It took some time to heal from it, and I spent a lot of time wondering what I did wrong or distancing myself from people because it hurt to have to talk about how the search was going. But I had to remember to do just that. I met friends to see a movie. I went to shops I like and just browsed around. I did a few things I had always been meaning to do and wrapped up a few old projects.
Second, touching on that wondering and pondering, don't let yourself think there's anything wrong with you. There isn't. It's still a tough job market out there, and getting an interview can be extremely hard, much less getting the job. I did multiple interviews that I thought went well and would often either not hear back or would just get a quick email saying they went in a different direction. Multiple resumes I sent to businesses were never responded to.
I became obsessed with reviewing my resume, looking at how I was doing cover letters, going over interviews in my head wondering what I did wrong and why they didn't want me. Why wasn't I good enough? But you can't let yourself get stuck in that pattern, because it just brings you down and makes the next interview harder. You could easily have been just as qualified as the person they chose, maybe they just wanted to balance out the type of staff they had. Maybe they just really liked that person's shirt. Maybe they just worded something in a better way that stuck with them.
However, that brings us to my third point, ask for help. If you have a job interview and don't get the job, get in touch with who you interviewed with and ask if they could tell you what made them pick someone else. Was it training you didn't have? Was it just how they presented themselves? Any advice you can get will make the next interview better. Also, make use of your local services. Career centers have people that will help you review your resume, give you tips on how to handle tough questions in interviews, and even set up speakers from big companies to come talk about what they want and see who shows up with an interest.
I went to my local career center a few times, got some great tips on questions I should be asking on an interview, was shown a few ways to highlight achievements on my resume, and even did a mock resume where the other person commented on what I needed help with.
Fourth, decide if this is a break between what you're doing or if this is a chance to start fresh. If the idea of getting a job doing what you were doing every day during your last job makes you miserable...why do it? Look at going back to school or moving somewhere else. I was looking at everything from teaching internationally to testing petri dishes in a lab as I decided what I wanted to do now that I had this kind of freedom.
If you need a fun (well, I think it's fun) resource, try O*Net. There's a survey you can take there that will help you figure out what kind of jobs you might want to consider doing based on your personality, what you enjoy doing, and the kind of education you have.
Fifth, don't let yourself fall out of routine. I suffered through this a lot, where I started sleeping in later and just found myself less and less motivated as time went on. I had to force myself to look at waking up at a regular time and treat looking for a job as if it was a job. Sure, I could take breaks, but I had to devote X hours to it per day. It's so easy to get into a rut, but if you don't keep yourself engaged, you're just going to get stuck and later wonder why it's so hard to find a job when you haven't done anything to prove you should have one.
Sixth, and this might be repeating myself, try something new. It may not be a new job, but pick up a new hobby. A friend of mine got me involved in a fantasy baseball league, and learning the rules and picking up the tricks has helped keep my mind engaged. I've done extensive spring cleaning and sold off a lot of junk I didn't want or need any more (seriously, who needs a copy of Blade: The TV Series?).
Seventh, and this is my final one, don't be too proud. I skipped the first several weeks of filing for unemployment because I had myself convinced this was a short term deal. After all, why wouldn't anybody want to hire me? I'm smart, I'm quick to learn new things, I'm great with people....and then time kept passing. I had to admit to myself that I needed unemployment to keep me going and pay my essentials because there were no guarantees and I was going to have to work hard to get back to where I was.
Oh, and when you do file for unemployment, keep good records. Just in case.
To any of my friends who are job hunting, I wish you the best of luck, and if you ever just need someone to be a morale booster or a cheerleader (you know, the male kind, who picks up people so they stand over the rest of the cheerleaders), get in touch with me. I'm at your disposal.
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