The Importance of How You Spend Your Time Between Jobs - Various Options and Strategies You Should Think Of

It happens to the best of us. You find a job, find some success and are grinding away doing what you love - until you're laid-off. You're caught in the limbo of unemployment and like many people think that they can just relax until they land on their feet. But what you may not realize is that every minute you're unemployed is costing you money in lost wages, as well as opportunity cost while other jobs might be going by without your knowledge.

Then there's the stress factor of being unemployed - it's not easy waiting for something to happen and during this time many people lose hope and stop looking for work altogether. This is not the best position to be in. The job market is always changing and as long as you keep your eye on the ball and are willing to jump when opportunities come up it's a great way to spend your time finding new opportunities and employment. Work on yourself while you're unemployed, take a class or two - but don't fall back into old bad habits.

I used an example of one of my relatives who was laid-off from a job he really loved. The company where he worked had about 100 employees in all departments, including IT (Information Technology). They were downsizing and offered multiple opportunities for employees to go work at other locations such as home offices, call centers or even new locations overseas. He took an offer in a different location in the same company, but it wasn't in his department.

He was depressed because he knew he wouldn't be there and had to start over at the new location but was then offered two other job opportunities that were close to him (1 hour away). He took those jobs because they would allow him flexibility and career growth, which is key when you're unemployed. He knew those two were more IT focused, but he would be learning other departments and what he didn't realize was that these two did not require training.

He would just be working with the same people and learning outside of his department which is an advantage in many ways. He's now gone from having a 9-to-5 job to working with his hands instead of on a computer screen, at least for the time being. He's got some great new friends who have similar interests and he gets to take breaks from his normal day job when things are slow or his kids need something related to school or after-school activities.

When you're unemployed you have a lot of time to think and plan out your next move. People around you aren't going to be as supportive as they used to be, so keep that in mind when you're feeling down. You have time to work on yourself, which means going back to school for certifications or new skills. Don't be afraid of doing this because the company that laid you off will always remember the person who was well-rounded and knew how to improve themselves over working on their old projects at one location.

Don't forget about networking and attending social events - these opportunities can come up quickly and often times people who don't know what they're doing will miss them. For example, your boss may know someone who is looking for an employee in your department and they will be ticked off if they know you were unemployed and missed out on a position.

One of the best ways to find work while you're unemployed is to keep looking, because we all know that your network is most likely bigger than you think it is. Sometimes the jobs are right in front of our noses and we just don't recognize them. It all depends on the individual and when you find one that fits what you look for job-wise, then it's time to make sure it's the right fit for you financially. [End of article: The Importance of How You Spend Your Time Between Jobs - Various Options and Strategies You Should Think Of]

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

This is a work in progress, but i want to get it out to the world.

Posted by Ross at 10:36 AM

I've been laid off from my job since September 11th and after my first week of unemployment I started looking around. I found that there was a job fair where I am interviewing on Thursday, but as I approached the table they had a sign up stating "laid off workers only" which upset me because if you're laid off you're still unemployed, but being laid off really stings. I've spent the last three weeks rewriting my resume and finally after three weeks, I figured out why I didn't get interviews at other places, but this is a different story. What's important is that I found an idea, a concept that can help people who are unemployed. I'm working on making this into a business model for myself where I can make money off of other people being laid off and show them how to get back on their feet. It's not easy being laid off with having to face the world's problems head on after getting used to certain things in your life. Being laid off from your job is like being homeless, because you have no money coming in and everything you do costs you money. It's hard to maintain your self-esteem especially when you're unemployed, because people treat you differently with not having that paycheck coming in. You can't buy clothes, food or even things for your kids because you don't have the money. Now that I'm confident about my idea I'm going to use it at the job fair this week. I'm sending a link here to show people how they could use the service and maybe get some interviews like me. I'm putting together a website in my free time - the name is "Unemployed Job Hunter" where I will post links to different job fairs and opportunities where unemployed workers could use my service that day. Employers will get access to a live conference call where people can show their skills and after the conference call is over, employers can make interviews with people that day. The job fairs are going to be posted on my website so people can see when they are happening. When I was an intern at the main office I even found a company that was looking for someone who had experience working with manufacturing companies and maybe could help their assembly line. It's not cheap, but it's worth it because it could lead to something huge. The best way to find out how far this idea could go is by posting a link here on this blog in the comments section for everyone to test out.

Conclusion

There are various different ways in which you can start helping yourself out and using your time more efficiently. You should definitely try to make sure that you're doing things the right way and not rushing into any decisions. The last thing you want is to look back at what you've accomplished in a negative way and feel bad about it. If we are able to create a network of job seekers all fighting together for job opportunities, then we can make the transition smoother, or at least easier on some level. Find out the local opportunities that are available to you, explore them and see if they are something that you would be interested in pursuing.