Unemployment is one of the hot topics in today’s economy that everyone is thinking and talking about. Slappy White says that the, “Trouble with unemployment is that the minute you wake up in the morning you're on the job.” Right around this time last year I came to California not knowing anyone and without a job. Some people thought I was crazy, and well I thought I was a little crazy too. As my dad has always said to me, “Kennedy it’s not what you know, but who you know.” So what do I do? I move to a place where I didn’t know anyone.
When I first started looking for jobs last year, I looked at all of the normal job sites and I drove around and asked people if they were hiring. I was luckily able to find a job shortly after I moved out here. Once I found a job, ironically job searching became my full-time job. I became a recruiter for an IT Company called One Stream. Not knowing anything, I learned from the ground up. I became specialized in sourcing, networking and building/maintaining relationships with IT Professionals (Software Engineers) throughout the Bay Area.
I would like to give helpful insights and tips for the unemployed from what I have learned. That being said, being jobless is hard. It’s very embarrassing, somewhat boring, discouraging and scary. I came across a good article while doing a little research on people who are unemployed today. It is about 7 different people and their lives and how they are dealing with being jobless in different ways. Here is the link so you can read their stories.
http://nymag.com/news/business/53153/
Some of the information below comes from my own experience, but some is also from other people I have spoken to or read about.
For those of you who are unemployed I will try to give you some hope:
-As Alan Greenspan said, “I’m pretty sure we have already seen the bottom," so the only way to go now is up. Working for the staffing division I know that a lot of people are now starting to hire or will be hiring this New Year.
-When you are unemployed you have a lot of time to think about what you really want to do and you find out a lot about yourself, both good and bad.
-You have more free time to get things done that you have put off. i.e. work out, finish that project, go back to school
-You’re able to reinvent yourself.
-Gain the realization of what is really needed and who is important in your life.
Tips for the unemployed:
-Try not to put too much pressure on yourself.
-Remind yourself that you only need one job not a million. It may only be one phone call or one interview away so try not to get discouraged
-Keep your head on straight with a realistic sense of optimism. Keep focused on the goal at hand
-Schedule your job search like you would schedule a meeting everyday. Make a goal of how many jobs you’re going to apply for each day. In today’s economy they say that for every 15 jobs you apply for you will hear back from 1 or 2.
-Make yourself stand out. The hardest part of the job search is just getting the initial interview. You need to let that person know you want the job and why you are good for the job and you can start yesterday.
-If you know you want to work for a certain company call them and talk to their HR person. If they are not hiring keep in contact.
-Let people know how to find you. LinkedIn, Facebook, phone number, email address etc.
-Network!!! Keep in touch with people; you don’t realize how many people you know until you think about it.
-Remind yourself that it is your job search, not your friends' or your family's, but yours. In the end you have to do what you have to do.
-Have Faith and don’t give up.
I asked a few people how to avoid unemployment:
Jason- “Stay in school...be on the 10 year program.”
Johanna - “The way to avoid unemployment is to go live in another country."
Becky – “Find a good company and work hard.”
These are just some helpful hints that I wanted to pass on. For those of you who are working, keep it up and for those of who you are not, remember it just takes one call. It’s a hard out there, but there are jobs, they just need to be found.
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