A Plan of Action, When You’re Out of Work
1. Understand there are always job vacancies out there, even if the Recession is deep. In January, 2009, 4,300,000 people in the U.S. found new jobs. 3,000,000 vacancies went unfilled. (See chapter 1.)
2. Understand the amount of time you’re likely to be out of work. Currently, the average time to find one of the job vacancies that are out there, is over twenty weeks. You must hope it will be shorter than that. But prepare for the possibility it will be longer.
3. Understand that finding work is your job, not the government’s.
4. Understand that you need to use more than one job-hunting method. There are 18 to choose from. That way you keep hope alive. The key to Hope is having alternatives. (See chapters 2 & 4.)
5. You will likely feel powerless and frustrated. To combat despair and depression, figure out some part of your life that you do have control over; and work on that. Dress. You can always dress up nicely, no matter what, while you’re unemployed. You never know who you will run into, who could recommend you if you don’t look skuzzy. Gratitude. You can always say Thanks to everyone, for anything. Your choice, as to what area you choose.
6. Since you likely have twenty weeks at your disposal, make your first duty to catch up on your sleep. You’ve got time. Don’t fret if you don’t sleep straight through eight hours. Normal rhythms of the human body, down through history according to studies, are three to four hours of sleep (called first sleep), then a couple of hours of wakefulness, followed by three to four hours of sleep again (second sleep). Impractical, maybe, when you’re employed; very possible while you’re unemployed. For further reading, see “Segmented sleep” in Wikipedia. Also: “Sleep Now, Remember Later,” at http://tinyurl.com/cxoc6t.
7. Take a nap after lunch: 37% of all U.S. adults do. Twenty minutes long, three times a week, makes you 37% less likely to die of heart disease. Not practical now? “Nap time” may be a perk you can inquire about, at your next place of employment.
8. Start living very frugally, if you aren’t already. Discount stores, farmer’s markets, eBay, flea markets, should become your best friends. (See chapter 3.)
9. Find a bunch of other job-hunters that can meet regularly with you. A nice list of these, across the country, is to be found at http://tinyurl.com/7a9xbb on Susan Joyce’s great site, job-hunt.org. If you can’t find a group, start your own. Meet at least weekly, maybe even M, W, F.
10. Hunt for new work on the Internet’s job boards (or SimplyHired or Indeed, omnibus job-search engines). Use search engines like Google, list the word “jobs” and then components (see chapter 7) if job-titles don’t turn up anything (see chapter 5).
11. Instructions on how to write a resume are all over the Internet. Just use your search engine. Compose a nice resume, with or without help, summarizing what you want an employer to know about you, and post it on the Internet, to combat all the scattered stuff about you that a prospective employer may turn up by “Googling” you. (See chapter 6.)
12. If searching for your favorite job-title runs you into a brick wall, then learn how to break down a job into its most detailed parts, using your most recent job to practice on. This should be fun, if you’re doing it right! (See chapter 7.)
13. Using this practice, then, describe the parts that make up a detailed vision of your dream job. Detailed visions enable us to hit the target, more often than not. (See chapter 8.)
14. If you decide you want to start your own business, go visit those who have already done the kind of thing you want to do. Pick businesses 75 miles away. Pick three. Humbly ask for their advice. What skills or knowledges do you have to have, to be successful in this line of work? Make a list. Back home, send a thank-you note to those you interviewed. Then look at your list: check off the skills or knowledges you already have. Then figure out how you’re gonna find the ones you don’t have. Usually it will be a knowledge like “accounting.” If so, beg, borrow, or steal an accountant, part-time or full.
15. Work hard at your job-search. 9 to 12 noon: Three hours at home in the morning, working the Internet, working on your self-inventory. 1:30 to 4:30: Three hours out visiting places, in the afternoon—places that look interesting to you from your Yellow Pages phone book, whether or not they are known to have a vacancy. Your job-finding success will be directly proportional to the hours you put in.
16. Watch what you believe. Two cars are going down a one-way street. They are neck and neck with each other, in parallel lanes. There is a green traffic light ahead, way down at the next intersection. They both see it. They both get a thought, as they look ahead.
One says to herself, “I’ll bet that light is gonna turn red, before I reach that intersection.” She doesn’t slow down, but she does begin to tap the brake pedal ever so slightly. Just as she is about to reach the intersection, the light turns red. She slams on the brakes. “Aha!” she says triumphantly, “I was right!”
But the other says to herself, “I’ll bet I can get across that intersection, before the light turns red.” She doesn’t speed up, but she does tap the accelerator pedal just a little bit. As she reaches the intersection, the light is still green. She sails across that intersection, just as the light turns red behind her. “Aha!” she says triumphantly, “I was right!”
The moral of this tale? What you believe is going to happen can help determine what actually does happen. Stay upbeat, optimistic, and as Winston Churchill famously said:
“Never never ever give up.”