Unemployment: What Worked/What Didn't Work?

[Anonymous]

I relocated with my spouse and had to give up my position. I've been able to put together some remote part time work, but that is also coming to an end. I'm in a high supply, low demand field, so I'm concerned that I will have a significant period of unemployment.

If you were unemployed and then found work, what were the smartest things that you did and what would you do differently?

[Anonymous]

Grind. Unless you have an amazing network or can provide a very unique value-added, the job hunt is like dating.

It is a purely numbers game. I've done the whole 'custom cover letter/resume' thing and not gotten anything back and have received interviews/callbacks from elite shops with just throwing a generic resume.

Also, I would trawl through linkedin to find recruiters at firms you want to work in and directly message or email them regarding your interests.

But it comes down to Grinding and Discipline. I was in a long term unemployed situation and what killed me was not staying focused and getting disraught, and that killed my confidence.

Also, go to the gym....even more than you do now. you need to gain confidence from another avenue 'not work related' that can bolster your confidence in interviews.

Another thing that killed me in some interviews when i was unemployed was i was so beaten down and not-confident that I came across very poorly. You need to gain confidence in some other aspect of your life to make up for the confidence hit you take by being jobless.

That helps immensely.

[Anonymous]

Try to bypass HR whenever possible. If you can use Linkedin to get connected to someone - anyone - at that company who can put your resume in front of the hiring manager, there is a much greater chance of getting an interview. Find a company/job you want and call the company, walk the resume over in person, anything you can do for them to see you and not just a random piece of paper.

Like PP said, its a numbers game so just keep applying, setting up meetings, go to coffee, etc. No one is too unimportant to talk with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try to bypass HR whenever possible. If you can use Linkedin to get connected to someone - anyone - at that company who can put your resume in front of the hiring manager, there is a much greater chance of getting an interview. Find a company/job you want and call the company, walk the resume over in person, anything you can do for them to see you and not just a random piece of paper.

Like PP said, its a numbers game so just keep applying, setting up meetings, go to coffee, etc. No one is too unimportant to talk with.

PP here, yeah definitely that. These days it is very easy to figure out people's work emails when you know their name and the company they work for give the standardized email format for various organizations. Using linkedin, you can easily find employees in divisions at firms you want to work in and email them...no matter how low level or high level. You will be surprised how friendly many are.