Continuing from the previous part I of " Stay motivated when unemployed series" , personally I got involved in some of the following things ->
1. Start reading books
I have always been very intrigued by the phrase
" TV is my best friend. Whenever TV was put on in my house, I always left the TV room and landed up reading another book"
I have started to read a lot of books lately. There was a time when I could read half a page per minute and I was reading a lot of non-fictional books on various subjects ranging from Philosophy to Physiology and every thing that you can think :) But trust me, the book reading exercise is very interesting and very more interesting than you think it is! I got into so many books reading, so many subjects and so many things that you can actually think of! I love reading books now and I keep busy with a target of reading a book every fortnight. It might be an awful target or too lame but it is worth it.
For once, you need something to keep your mind off the layoff thing that is brutally tormenting your mind with everything possible.
2. Reaching out to my inner self
What we see every day of us is mostly what you got from your upbringing. It is easier said than done. My parents made me what I have become and as it is said,
"When a man is in trouble, he either caves in or reaches out"
I took time to know myself. I love my spirituality and my religion. I am so glad that I took time to discover my own life and what principles we have and what we stand for.
3. Updating resume/professional skills
Since you are not going to be working after you got laid off, so technically you are not adding anything on your resume. So what's the best you can actually do is that give your resume a full polish to impress the recruiters. There are actually a lot of resources that you can do for no cost to you to examine and improve your resume. A term called as Resume consultant is popping up on all search engines these days. These people touch your resume and improve your resume to an extent that you actually thought it would.
I would be more than interested in understanding what more you would like to know specifically.
June 7, 2009
Unemployed? What to do next? Tips how to stay motivated, busy & connected!! - Part 2
May 21, 2009
Unemployed? What to do next? Tips how to stay motivated, busy & connected!!
Well you are laid off, now what are you going to do?? All news says its gloomy out there and some of them are audacious to hope even in this situation. What are you going to do next? Find a job right? Before that you need to prepare yourself and heal your inner-self and confidence !! Start believing that there is still light out there.
I have made a list of things that you can do for your personal and emotional health after you are laid off and are struggling to keep it up to your own-self.
1. Reach out to people for help. Most often all of us have enough self pride that we might appear fragile or weak and torn after laid-off if we might ask for help. But that is not the case. Friends and family are the people who are the most supportive. You will see that even those family members that you don’t gel with so well are more supportive than you thought they would be.
2. Reach out to friends and your well-wishers. I don’t think that I have to go rounds and rounds about friends. They are just great human beings. They will sogg you up with your and their tears and yet make you smile at the very next minute. They crack stupid jokes that you know are stupid and you know that they are making an attempt to make you smile, but you smile anyways. Same goes for the well-wishers. They know why they are going to be there for you, when you need the most and when you have almost no one to depend on. Just reach out to them, talk to them in general or whine ( if you choose to do this), and I guarantee that you will feel atleast 10 times better.
3. It was just a job and your world hasn’t crumble just yet. Read this line once more, read it as many times you need to before you can get this past your head. For most people in this materialistic world, job and source of income is very important and so was for me. But all doesn’t end there. You have a wonderful life that the Lord gave it you. Now, this door to make it even more beautiful and fun, might have closed for now, if you work and struggle through it, you will find another as well. Here is a quote that I read years ago in one of the books by Robert H Schuller
“Every opportunity is unique. If you like something so much that you want to follow it even when it has passed by, then you should. But remember this that this second time the same opportunity is not going to be the same. It can be better or worse. You will have to pay a different price for this opportunity this time. Now the question is that are you ready to pay the price for it?”
Are you ready to pay the price to find another job? Are you willing to work your way up again as you did before? Are you ready to stand in lines for interviews and mocks? Have you had a chance to look up to your resume? These are some of the questions that I would you to ask yourself and make your mind before you go out again and try for new jobs.
4. Get involved. That’s so big that I can’t explain how big. While I was growing up, my folks always told me this: “Your mind is like a page. If you write good things, you will get good things and vice –versa. Alternatively empty mind is devil’s playground.” This implies that mind will keep on thinking, if you direct it to do constructive things, it will work for that, if you let it loose, you are doomed very soon. So get involved. For example, in my case in Rochester, NYI joined Rochester Young Professionals group! They are not really big, but have size-able membership and all of the them are young people ( mostly ha ha). There are monthly events and weekly events. It is upto you how much and where you have to get involved. It helps in organizing networking events and building professional relationships as well. So, get out and get involved.
5. Take a minute or two and also a paper and pencil. Remember all of those things that you always wanted to do, but didn’t do till now because of time commitment or job involvement. Take time to hone the skills what you got and what you always wanted to get. Personally I got involved in some of the following things.
May 19, 2009
Unemployment blues
Two months after being laid off and facing unemployment blues at every breathe of my living life now, (this sentence seems pretty depressing, isn't it?? but believe me I am not depressed, not even a shred anymore)
After graduating from RIT and interning with UTC in Connecticut for nine months, I thought I would be marketable and would land up a job in US economy. Well the fact that I am writing unemployment blues says that I was in fact working, obviously I did land up a job at downtown Rochester.
It is this year I started my full time job with enthusiasm obviously it was my first full time job after master's education. It went from good to great everyday for first three months. I was just so much in love with this job. It was like the perfect kind of job. You have flexible timings, knowledge transfer if you need, supervision if you need,( which I hated bTW), and a couple of young people around to keep you busy and energetic.
Well that being said, due to "economic" reasons in the middle of March month I was laid off and it came to me as a surprise. At the time I got laid off, I had 8 projects in hand, ( 2 were at a nascent stage, one was almost complete). It comes to me as a no brainer that I wasn't mentally ready for this. Saying that makes me think as if someone is going to be ever ready to take their job less in their face with a smile. If no, I am with you for the moment, if yes, you can tell me why and how !! :)
That one moment is diamond clear in my head, in my eyes. Not that I want to insert the drama mint or emotional flavor right now, but the intensity of this event is far reaching and has been tremendously intense at the same time. As an international kid, I was hoping that my parents would be able to participate in my commencement activities that are starting today at RIT, and will last into this Saturday. But irony of my situation is that I did this for few and those few aren't going to be a part of this. The blooming of flowers have failed to cheer myself about this event which was supposedly bigger than anything before, but now the transformation has made it just another day event for which I will push myself to go. Ultimately the attempt to gain a master's degree (and to earn my strides as they at RIT) was for my parents and my family.
It has been two days over two months after I was laid-off and I have been actively involved in networking events and "keeping me busy". I must tell you it's not easy; but its not hard as well. So keep on getting into something you like, and soon you will see your mind is off this enigma.
