Things to do while unemployed

Are you out of work?

....or is someone close to you out of work and you don't know what to tell them?

Unemployed has been a huge topic ever since the beginning of the recession in 2008. Months after that, people got tired of hearing about "the economy" and "unemployment rates" just like people got tired of hearing about Charlie Sheen, Justin Bieber, etc. (although its a lot more justified for the media to perseverate on the former mentioned topics)

I'll wrap this article in a nutshell since there are many guides like this to be found elsewhere on the web, and also because most people don't like to read a lot on computer screens.

1) Network on sites like LinkedIn and to a lesser extent, Facebook. Separate your personal accounts from professional accounts. Consider not even using your real name when signing up for Twitter, Facebook, etc to make it harder for employers to pry on your personal life because its a well known fact these days that they will search for you.

2) Make use of job hunting websites like Career Builder, Monster, LinkedIn, Indeed, Jobs.com, Dice.com, and many others. You're already aware of many of these. You'll want to log into each of these accounts at least once per week for employers to find you at a higher rate. More importantly, most jobs are not even online and networking to get a job is almost mandatory. (The hidden job market is the much larger one!)

3) Get up early every morning with a list of tasks you'll work on each day. This helps you to avoid laziness, depression, procrastination, and you'll be more focused and goal oriented. These tasks may include straightening out financial problems and personal problems as well, and these issues are especially common among the unemployed.

4) Visit your local WorkForce centers to take free classes on how to improve your resume, search for jobs effectively, networking, and interview tips. This kind of information can also be learned about online. As an example, this YouTube video covers the Dos and Don'ts for job interviews.



5) Stay active and positive. Consider selling stuff you don't need to help a bit with finances, and because sellings things can be refreshing anyways because it gets some clutter out of your life. Meetup.com and Volunteer Match are a couple of helpful websites for meeting people and for finding volunteer work, which you can put on your resume. Meetup an is all purpose for meeting new people, whether it be for networking, hobbies, or finding a date and I use it often to find events in my area.