*Sigh*Gentle readers, your MatchGirl is disheartened. I'm not going to lie.
While I have been keeping busy, keeping my chin up and trying (very hard) to keep a positive attitude over this past near-year, the simple fact of the matter is that next month, dear ones, it will have been a year since I was laid off.
And I never thought that I would be unemployed for so long.
I've been unemployed before - sometimes by choice, sometimes not so much - but this is the absolute longest that i have ever been without work. And the prospects look dim, dear ones. Very dim. Having spent several hours job hunting this morning (and countless of hundreds of thousands of hours over the past several months), I am frustrated. Very.
Is no one looking for employees? Is every job out there simply an internship? Am I going to be able to pay rent over the next few months?
I keep thinking that I should have a great idea, something entrepreneurial. Something where I can do all the things that I love to do - sewing and crafting and baking and making art - and work with my creative, and, unfortunately un(der)employed friends and former co-workers. But ideas escape me. Today I am going to spend some time on my Etsy shop. Tomorrow I am going to spend the afternoon at the computer lab at FIT. And somehow, I am going to try and learn some things, think of some things ... do some things ...
But will any of it lead me to a job? If you'd asked me a few months ago, I would have had a different answer. This morning ... not so much.
just wanted to thank you for the blog. i recently got my masters and after having graduated i've been unsuccessful in the job search...it's been unbelievably disheartening to hear other being employed in my same field while i sit home anxiously checking my e-mail or waiting for a call that never happens. it seems that courtesy in the form of a reply has completely flown out the door, taking my faith in myself with it. at least with blogs like yours i know that i'm not alone and that there maybe hope somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this blog. You really hit the nail on the head for my situation as well. I too look for bizness opps thinking making my own way would be better for me than working for someone else.
ReplyDeleteI'm just scared. small business is america's most Endangered Species.
Yes, I'm going to punch the next person who tells me that I have to be innovative. It's the biggest wad of cliche for 2009. Since my laid-offness from the world of IT Procurement, I have designed websites, business cards, done construction work, helped a friend's business get off the ground, volunteered for several things, made little electronic things like in a sweatshop and have twisted and bent my cover letter slash resume to make it look like a man of a million trades, just so I can stay "innovative", even though the people who say this are the lucky few who didn't didn't get fired and are not being innovative in any way at all. On top of this, I have been "innovating" my on the side art career for over a decade. It's really frustrating hearing from friends, family and neighbors who aren't really doing anything all too exciting that I have to be innovative. Growwwwwwl.
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/rSR - this blog post is helpful for me when i get overwhelmed and am unsure where to focus my attention (i didn't write it). really opened my eyes to what's worth spending time on and what isn't!
ReplyDeletegood luck with the job search!
Aside from the fact that they make getting a job incredibly difficult these days, deep down inside I find unpaid internships to be wrong. Incredibly wrong. It's not about gaining a learning experience these days, it's more about doing the work that no one wants to do and doing it for free. Granted, there are exceptions, but it just seems outrageous that huge businesses can get away with employing a ton of people that are not getting paid at all. Shouldn't it be just a little bit illegal?
ReplyDeleteTo make rent/upcoming student loan payments, I have started hostessing at a restaurant! Not glamorous, but at least I will scrape by (barely) and will meet lots of new people in this big city.
I'm feeling the exact same way. 11 months for me, as you know. I'm losing my confidence....my spirit is broken. I have nightmares about moving into a dump of an apartment with 6 roommates and ending up in a retail job barely scraping by. these are not happy thoughts. It makes me feel truly inadequate. I never thought, with my job experience and skills, that I would be unemployed for a whole year. This then makes me question things I thought I knew for sure...like that I have ANY amount of talent. And what's worse, when I feel like the interview went really well and I don't get called back.
ReplyDeleteMy only solution to prevent depression has been to keep myself as busy as humanly possible. It makes me feel proactive. But then sometimes I feel like I'm running in a pile of mud and getting nowhere =/