I went to class, I studied hard, I got top marks, I volunteered along the way, I networked, I went to free educational and social events, I schmoozed, I engaged, I did all those things that pave the way for that nice secure 9-5 prize at the end of half a decade of studying and living off a minimum wage.
Or so I thought.
When I finished my studies, I was lucky enough to walk into a basic admin job at the university I studied at. This was a casual contract during the busy summer period. Nothing related to my knowledge and educational background. Just a simple, routine, customer service role.
So unemployed and feeling low, I would stop to assess the situation and remind myself of how much I had already achieved:
- I have a Bachelor of International Relations with Honours (first class)
- I am the Editor-in-Chief of a political journal for young professionals and recent graduates (volunteer)
- I am the Producer and Editor of a Podcast (volunteer)
- I worked as an Editorial Assistant (volunteer)
- I worked as a Research Assistant (paid)
- I worked as a Senior Officer Student Experience (paid)
- I worked as a 2iC in bars (paid)
- I worked as another Research Assistant (internship)
- I worked as a Community Dinners Coordinator (volunteer)
- I worked as a Communications Officer (volunteer)
- I worked as an Events Coordinator (volunteer)
- I worked as an IT Executive (volunteer)
All this, and I was unemployed for 8 months, 24 days, 9 hours, and 24 minutes after that bar work and short admin contract ended.
That’s a relatively short period of time compared to others. Research shows it takes young people 2.7 years to find any work after completing full-time education. And 4.7 years to go from full-time education to full-time work.
So how did I get through it without pulling all my hair out or falling into a dark pit of despair?
1. I kept really busy
The whole time I was unemployed, applying for hundreds of jobs, I continued to work on my volunteer jobs (3 of which are still current). I treated them like a paid gig. And, importantly, I stopped listing them on my resume as volunteer roles and just put them as part of my bundle of experience.
2. I talked about it
A lot of people don’t necessarily feel confident enough to talk about unemployment struggles with friends or family. It can be a really embarrassing and shameful time for some people, and for others it’s just a private thing. But talking about my struggle with unemployment, with the welfare system, and with the level of faceless rejections I received, actually really helped me ensure I didn’t cripple under the weight of it all.
3. I let myself have days off
While parents, partners or housemates may be on your back about getting a job, I found it was important to actually let myself have days off where I didn’t work on my projects or apply for a whole bunch of jobs. For me it was about recognising that while I wasn’t formally earning money through a traditional job, I was using a lot of my weekdays to produce something, and that this work was worthy of recognition and reward in the form of rest.
4. If the rejection letter was automated, I didn’t read it
With each rejection, I told myself it was their loss, not mine. Whenever I got a rejection email, I would look at the return address to see if it was a person or a bot. I would not read the full email unless it was the former. So many of the jobs I applied for would receive well over 200 applications and more often than not, I just got an auto-email to say I was unsuccessful. The way I saw it, I didn’t need to read over what I could already tell from the first two lines of the rejection. On the other hand, if it was a phone call from an actual person with feedback on what I could do better next time, I read it and took the info on board.
The post I Spent Almost A Year Between Jobs. Here’s How I Kept It Together. appeared first on FYA.