Hate Mondays? Try unemployment. I smiled when I came across this quote. It’s funny cos it’s true. Every day is a work day when you’re unemployed. Weekends don’t count when you’re looking for a job.
Today I have been out of work for a year. I never thought I’d have to say it.
It really hits home. I’ve been unemployed a few times in my life and have always found a job fairly quickly. Even at the beginning of the economic crisis, early 2009, I took some courses and then found a great job pretty soon after. Now, the motivation is gone.
When I was let go in 2015 (for economic reasons), my boss said: Enjoy your vacation. Was he kidding? Had he ever been out of a job?
Ronald Reagan once said: Unemployment insurance is a prepaid vacation for freeloaders.
Well, I can tell you, it’s no vacation. Not even a walk in the park. At first you start off fully motivated. Then you stop getting replies or interviews. So the motivation makes room for a black hole. While everyone was at work, I was lying on the couch eating comfort food, binge-watching Netflix – Supernatural, if you’re wondering. Right now, I’m onto Once Upon A Time. Any tips for other great shows are more than welcome. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? I can assure it isn’t.
Last September, I got inspired to dive into the world of content planning and social media management. And I loved it. I never realised that it was an actual job. So I started taking courses, doing a lot of reasearch on my own, volunteering to become people’s community manager, just so I could try out all the tricks I’d learned. I’ve realised it’s my thing, my niche.
Communications has always been my thing, but finding a job in that field is tough, because I don’t have a degree. No Master’s, no Bachelor’s. And every single time I apply for a job, I get the same reaction: no degree, Madam. With summer almost here, and 366 days of being stuck at home with no real prospects, I’ve set myself a deadline.
No job before the summer means I go back to school in September.
It seems to be a returning theme in my life. Quarter life crisis (30) was just around the corner and I decided to enroll in a month-long Shakespeare Course at RADA. (more about that experience in another post) At the time I felt I needed to pursue what was most important to me and it has always been theatre. I enjoyed every minute of it, even if I was the oldest one there.
With 40 looming (and possibly a midlife crisis to celebrate it), I decided I need to go and get that Bachelor’s degree; in Cross Media Management. So unless anyone wants to offer me a job before September, it’s back to school we go.
For everyone looking for a (new) challenge: you are not alone. It’s a struggle. There’s no shame in admitting you’ve made some bad decisions in the past, whether it be work related, quitting school or anything else.
Remember that we are more than just our work. We will accomplish great things.
Let me know how it goes and I will do the same.
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