Survival Tips for the Unemployed
Due to a few factors; unemployment rate north of 7%, a large majority of those have hit friends and family of mine all around Indiana, and I get the call at least four times a day asking – “Kyle, what else can I be doing to find my next position?”
Here are a few survival tips I have developed (or gathered) over the years.
Ideas for recreating your career, staying sane, and/or finding the perfect position:
-Make sure you use your extra time productively.
Being out of work can be a shock to the system in many ways not the least of which is all of the free time you have on your hands now. Make sure you still plan your days and be as productive as you can. It might be easy to get into a trap of lying in bed for a few extra hours. You have probably gotten up at 5 or 6 o’clock for the past 15 years straight…ok maybe you deserve one morning of sleep, but that’s it! Get up and be productive.
–Keep networking
In your daily plan make sure you have 2-3 meetings per day where you might just be “picking someone’s brain”. Call your past supervisors from previous jobs, former co-workers, friends from the basketball league, friends at church, the father of a friend of your daughter’s at soccer practice who you know is an executive but you have never had the guts to get to know him – well there was a reason he is in your life and now if your chance!!
Oh by the way – Never Eat Alone.
–Stay Positive
Statistics have proven over the years that good things happen when you are expecting good things to happen. It might be easy to get down because part of most American’s identity is tied to their vocation. But don’t let it happen to you. Like most things your period of unemployment will be what you make of it.