Unemployed? Don’t worry, you are not alone. The unemployment rate had worsened for the past two months all over the world due to the pandemic crisis. I, myself, lost the job just before the pandemic started. In today’s post, I want to share with you how to stay happy and qualified for a new job during the unemployment time.

1 month or 3 months notice – Preparation Phase

If you have 2-3 months of notice time in your contract, you are lucky enough. You have lots of time to recover emotionally and set up a plan for your crisis. Unemployment is a personal crisis; it is like your own little pandemic.

What is best to do during the last months of employment:

Start your paperwork process. Different countries have various rules regarding unemployment. Look at your state institutions’ website that is responsible for unemployment and learn what you need to do for receiving support from them. Support means unemployment money, job search consultation, language courses, interview-skills courses, etc. Do the research and do not postpone it. It is not the pleasant paperwork process, but it will pay you back, once you enter unemployment.

Ask for a recommendation letter.

Depending on the company, it might take a while. Therefore, start the process of requesting the recommendation letter as soon as possible. Don’t postpone it to the last day, and don’t be shy, asking for a recommendation letter. It will help you with your job search. When you receive your reference, check for spellings and grammar mistakes. If the reference is in a different language, send it to your friends, or translate it by yourself.

Start doing fitness.

Losing a job is a very stressful event. To become more resistant and be ready for any changes, you need to have a full battery of energy. While dealing with the potential outcome of unemployment, the mind can get fuzzy and emotionally exhausted. Therefore, do sports activities you either love to do, or you always wanted to try. It will help you stay fit, and, as sports activities bring happiness hormones, you won’t feel so depressed. 

Take a vacation. 

Treat your unemployment as a breakup. To find a better job, you need to make a closure with your past and do not hold any grudges. Take your time and change the atmosphere. On regular days, I would suggest buying a ticket and flying to another country for a week or more. During the pandemic crisis, you can book a room in a hotel in a different side of your city and pretend that you are a tourist for a weekend.

I did a vacation in Brugges in January, but it was before pandemic evolved. Spending time far away from the city and reflecting on the past two years of work, helped me a lot to accept and decide where I want to go next.

Unemployed phase

Usually, when the unemployment phase starts, you could already accept the upcoming event, and you could probably already have lots of job interviews, which you did not like at all. I think it is okay, mainly, if you worked for a long time and did not train your interview skills. Going on interviews might be challenging and exhausting. However, having lots of interviews is useful for practicing your interview skills. Most importantly, it will help you to understand where you want to work and what you want to do. That’s why don’t take every interview failure personally and note, what went wrong and how you can improve for your next interview.

Let’s discuss what you should do next, once you entered unemployment:

Write your dream job description.

Write on the paper every single detail you wish to have in your career. Think about industry, type of company, location of the office, the size of the team, ideal boss, salary expectation, language, travel time, coffee and snack (chocolate versus fruits), drink out session, or sport team sessions. Anything you crave, write it down.

Update your CV.

List everything you accomplished during your employment and look at similar job descriptions on the labor market platforms. Observe what keywords those descriptions have and mark them somewhere in the notebook, and after you finished the keyword research on your job position, adapt your list, and insert it into your CV.

Warning! Never lie on your CV because, during the interview, the recruiter might ask you about that line in your resume, which is not valid. You will be in the worst and shameful situation.

Send your CV to your friends for feedback.

Your updated CV might look perfect content-wise and spelling-wise, but you need to have a second or third opinion from your friends. There are always little details which you could miss.

Update your job market profiles.

Whichever platform (LinkedIn, Xing, HH) you use for job search and professional networking, update your profile and announce that you are looking for a job or new exciting challenges. For me, usually, after doing the update, I receive messages from headhunters or friends, who know a company, that is looking for new employees.

Send job applications

“Batch” Job application process – If you feel uncomfortable during interviews and want to practice, you can send many job applications and have frequent conversations. There are advantages to this choice: you would nurture your ego, boost your confidence, and learn from each interview, what you want for your next job.

Slow job application process. This approach is slow but more effective, as you would get closer to your dream job or the industry you admire. You can follow companies you like on social media and set job alerts for desirable job positions. In the end, you would appear more intentional, motivated, and passionate during the interview, as you are fighting for a job position, you genuinely care.

“Between Jobs” Phase

Depending on your skills and luck, you might find the job very fast, or it might take a while. But what are you going to do in between job interviews? Let be honest; there is a lot of free time.

Let’s talk what to do between jobs:

Participate in the project.

It is beneficial if you join the project and contribute your expertise to improve your skills or at least sustain the level you have. Better, though, you can try to develop new skills. For example, once my unemployment started, I joined my friend’s project, where I could build marketing strategies, and also practice more SEO optimization techniques.

You can also join online hackathons or find a volunteer job in your industry for startups who need help. Of course, that’s not an alternative for a job, but it will give you the purpose to wake up in the morning and be productive, developing professional skills and learning something new.

Sign up for Udemy/Coursera Classes

Investing in learning should not be neglected during unemployment. It will keep your brain active, and you won’t lose your professional skills. Indeed, you will gain more knowledge. The perfect combination is being in the project and taking courses, specifically focused on the particular skill you lack.

If you don’t have a project, look at your dream job description, choose one skill you lack and start a course. However, you shall not just watch the course and forget everything you learned. You need to practice everything you learned after every lecture. Otherwise, it is just a waste of money and time.

Filling the Gap

The good thing about volunteering in projects during unemployment and for me, during a pandemic crisis, is that you have a bigger toolbox and more skills to offer. You can put your skills and projects into your CV, filling the gap between jobs. It would also be helpful for your interview process when the recruiter asks you: “What were you doing for the past three months of unemployment?” You can freely name your projects and skills you mastered, which would be useful for your next job. Just remember that if you watched a lecture and you practiced once, it does not mean that you are now an expert. You need to practice those skills repeatedly: participate in the project, help friends, or teach a basic course on meetup.

Thank you for reading my little guide on what to do during unemployment. I hope it was helpful. Speaking for myself, I am unemployed for already two months during the pandemic crisis. I feel that I am going to find a job quite soon. Meanwhile, I continue learning and investing in online education, practicing every possible skill on my website (here), helping two friends with their projects, and I am preparing a basic WordPress lecture for June to present it online on the meetup.

Final words, if you lost your job during the crisis, keep growing and don’t give up. It is going to be allright!

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