Why You Should Stay Busy During Your Unemployment, Part 3

In our last post, we discussed the greatest benefit to staying active in the field – the ability to explain what you have been doing during your absence from work. The interview question “Why have you been out of work for so long” is a job interview killer, because companies do not like to hire people that they believe may have some downside that other companies discovered, leading to their long term unemployment.

Additional benefits of staying active in your field include:

• Chance of finding employment with a company you volunteer for or consult with.
• Chance of earning extra experience in the field you can place on a resume.
• Chance of starting a business or freelancing successfully.

In addition, the more time you spend working for various companies, whether as a volunteer, freelancer, or consultant, the more you network, and the more you network, the better chances you have of getting hired. More than 50% of all employment comes through networking. It is an avenue that is too beneficial to ignore.

It is for that reason that it is not only important to stay active in your field. It is also important to stay active in general. The more time you spend out and meeting new people, the more you network, even if that means spending time doing activities that are completely unrelated to work.

Unrelated to Work Networking

It does not matter how you network. What matters is that you take the time to meet new people. Meeting new people IS networking. When you accidentally drop your wallet, and someone picks it up, and you have an interesting conversation and decide that perhaps the two of you will go on a hike together – you have just networked. When you go up to someone drunk in a bar, vomit on their shirt, and that person sits with you while you sober up, helps you get home, and you have plans to buy them dinner next week to thank them for their time  – you have just networked. Although the person whose shirt you vomited on is unlikely to support hiring you, you still have increased your network, and increasing your network has some benefits.

That is why when you find yourself unemployed, spend some time going out and meeting new people. Sign up for meet-up events, attend group art galleries – whatever you can do to meet new people. The more people you meet, the greater your network, and the better opportunity you have to find employment.

Staying Active While Unemployed

These are the reasons that you should never spend your unemployment alone on the couch in your underwear, watching cartoons and job searching on craigslist. Staying active in the world by working in your field or meeting new people has a lot of benefits, and you are far more likely to find employment if you continue to be active in the community, both professionally and personally.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Never spend your unemployment alone.

Why You Should Stay Busy During Your Unemployment, Part 2

In our last post, we discussed how important it is to continue to stay active even while you are unemployed. Active means just that – active. It is not a matter of what you are doing (which we will explain momentarily), so much as it is important that you are doing something – anything – instead of staying home and simply searching for jobs online.

Staying Active In Your Field

In general, the best way to stay active is to do so within your field. There are ample opportunities for you to continue to make an impact in your field of work, even if you are not being paid.

For example, several businesses, especially non-profit organizations, can probably use your skills to help their business run. Volunteers are how these businesses succeed. Call up some local non-profit organizations and see if you can volunteer your services for one or two days a week. Tell them they do not even need to pay you, and simply supply them with the help that they need.

You can also look for some low paying work, either as a freelancer or as a consultant. Perhaps you have some expertise in marketing. Comb craigslist and see if there are any businesses that could use your marketing expertise. You can make a little bit of money, and while it may not be enough to survive, it’s still extra money that you earn while improving your experience in your line of work. You can even try starting your own service business and see if anything comes from it.

The Benefits of Staying Active in Your Field

Staying active is not just about possibly finding employment, even though that is always a possibility. For example, you may volunteer for the non-profit and they realize they can use your services full time and offer you a job. That would be nice, but that is not the reason that staying active is so useful.

No, the greatest benefit to staying active in your field is that you can say that you have been active in your field. If you have been out of work for an extended period of time, your interviewer at your job interview is going to ask you why you have been out of work and what you have been doing during that time.

“Uh… I have been looking for work and no one wanted to hire me” is not an acceptable answer. By staying active, you can say something along the lines of:

“I have continued to work in the field as I looked for a job that suited my skills. I volunteered for a local non-profit organization , developing their website and integrating their marketing strategies. I also dabbled in my own side business while I continued my education, by I decided that my time would be better spent working for a company whose goals align well with my own.”

This is a strong answer. This answer can actually increase your chances of getting a job. That is a considerable benefit, and one that is far greater than the weaknesses of trying to explain your time away from work if you have not been engaging in any activities.

In our next post, we will look at some additional benefits of staying active in your field, followed by additional thoughts on staying active in general.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Staying active helps you during a job interview.

How to Make Your Time Unemployed Work For You

As soon as you lose your job, you’re on the clock. The job market is a cruel mistress. The more time you spend unemployed, the harder it is to get a job, as companies look at that lost time as a reason not to hire a new staff member.

Clearly that’s not really fair. Sometimes it’s simply hard to find employment. A few bad job interviews, a tough employment rate for people in your field, and a long and deserved vacation can all affect how quickly you find a job. Yet that time, according to most employers, is a mark against your abilities.

So what can you do? You need to give the employers a reason for your absence from work. Make it look as though you could easily have been employed at any time, but chose not to be. In essence, you basically need to prove that even though you were not working, you were still improving your professional career.

I Know What You Did Last Unemployment

All of the ideas listed below are designed to give you a plausible and real “excuse” for what you did while you were unemployed. The excuse is not designed to be a lie. Meaning, if you volunteered only one day total during the 3 years you were unemployed, you cannot say you volunteered. There is evidence that you did not. However, if you work on these over the course of your unemployment and take them seriously as a way to occupy your time, employers will generally be satisfied with the time you spent away from the corporate life.

• Volunteer – Number one, of course, is volunteering. It’s not hard to find a place to volunteer, and volunteering can be a good networking opportunity. This is absolutely something you should consider. Volunteering is also a fulfilling way to spend time as you wait for the job market to improve.
• Internships or Temp Work – It’s easier to find part time/unpaid work than it is to find a full time, long term job. You can sign up with a temp agency or apply to internships and work on those as you look for a real job. They look great on your resume and by all accounts it appears you are working.
• Consulting/Freelancing – Need some money? Want to make it look like you have been working throughout your unemployment? Why not rent out your services via consulting or freelancing. There are a number of places to find short term, variable paying projects that will earn you some money and give you the appearance of being an entrepreneur.
• Go Back To School – Continuing education is just like work experience. Employers love to see that you are taking classes and improving your skills. Some employers may even see it as more of a benefit than working, depending on the skills you pick up. It should be related to your field, but if you like the field that shouldn’t be a problem anyway.

Overall, it is not as though there are a lot of things you can do, and you probably have considered many of the choices above. Yet they do represent a remarkable opportunity for you, and all of the above activities may eventually help you find employment in ways you could not do previously, via education and networking.

Skills Based Resume

Finally, if you have spent an extensive period of time away from work, consider using a skills based resume instead of a chronological resume. Skills based resumes allow you to sort of “fudge” your time off so that it doesn’t look like you had a long absence. It’s not the greatest plan, but it should make it a little easier to at least get to the job interview portion (so it won’t look like there are gaping holes in your resume) and if you present a likeable personality, employers may let the absence slide.

Take Away Tips

• Do things
• Do things like volunteer, intern, freelance and learn.