10 Things You Need To Do While You're Unemployed

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If you’re unemployed and worried that employers will turn you down for taking on unimpressive work during the recession or for the large employment gaps on your résumé—you needn’t panic.  A new survey just released by the careers website CareerBuilder.com reveals that the vast majority of employers are sympathetic to such circumstances.

The nationwide survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive, on behalf of CareerBuilder, among 3,023 hiring managers and human resource professionals between November 9 and December 5, 2011. Not only does it offer unemployed job seekers some hope, but it also provides tips to help them land a new position.

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 “More than 40% of unemployed job seekers have been out of work for six months or longer,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder. “There’s a sense that such a long gap on a résumé negatively affects a candidate’s chances, but the survey shows that is not true. That’s very positive news for this group of job seekers. If you fill the gaps with activities and experience that illustrate how you are still developing your skill sets, the overwhelming majority of employers will look past your unemployment and focus on what you can bring to their team.”

Eighty-five percent of those surveyed employed reported that they are more understanding of employment gaps post-recession. Ninety-four percent said they wouldn’t have a lower opinion of a candidate who took on a position during the recession that was at a lower level than the one he or she had held previously.

But this doesn’t mean you can sit around and wait for a sympathetic employer to offer you work. “The worry is that employers may think job seekers are losing some of their skills because they haven’t been utilizing them. By volunteering, taking temporary work, or signing up for a class that develops your professional tool kit, you show employers that you’ve made the most of your time and will be ready on day one,” Haefner says.

Employers and CareerBuilder experts recommended a variety of activities you should engage in to build, expand, and strengthen your skills during period of unemployment, in order to increase your marketability.

Take a temporary or contract assignment.

Seventy-nine percent would recommend doing this. Why? “The key is to get people to see your work and to see what you’re capable of doing,” says Andy Teach, the author of From Graduation to Corporation: The Practical Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder One Rung at a Time. “If you do a great job, even if it’s for a temporary job, whoever hired you is more likely to recommend you for a permanent position.”

Take a class.

Sixty-one percent of the hiring managers surveyed recommended taking a class during a period of unemployment. “You never stop learning in your career, so the more technical competence you have, the better,” Teach says. “When you take a class in your field, you are also showing that you are serious about your work and that you take initiative.” Another advantage to taking a class: It’s a great networking opportunity.

Volunteer.

Sixty percent of the hiring managers said volunteer work makes you more marketable. “When you volunteer for something, you are telling potential employers something about you as a person,” Teach says. It shows that you are passionate about something and care about helping others—and it demonstrates that money isn’t the most important thing to you, he adds. “When companies are hiring, they are looking not only for people who can get the job done but also for people with character and integrity.”

In Pictures: 10 Things You Need to Do While You’re Unemployed

via forbes.com

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Career Advice: Learning to Think Like an Optimist

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No doubt, we are living through some very challenging times. Never before has our world faced the global economic, social, and psychological crises it faces today, and it's having a significant impact on many through added stress and strain on our minds and our bodies. In fact, the impact on women may be worse than men. According to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, women are not only reporting more stress than men over money and the economy, they're also experiencing more stress-related symptoms, such as headaches, fatigue, irritability, and depression. In addition, unchecked stress increases the risk for serious illnesses, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. It also can lead to other problems, such as infertility, ulcers, sleep disturbance, chronic fatigue, severe depression, overeating, memory loss, substance abuse, and lowered productivity. However, looking on the bright side (which is what this article is really about), there may be some merit to the saying, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." 

Although worries about job retention and growth opportunities represent the greatest fears I see in the career women I coach and mentor, recent research suggests that workers who are resilient--those who possess the ability to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities--are more likely to be retained than those who are not. In a recent survey of over 500 senior executives representing 20 countries,¹ results revealed that more than two-thirds (71%) of corporate leaders reported that resilience was "very" to "extremely important" in determining whom to retain. Another interesting finding was that respondents viewed women workers to be as resilient as men workers, and most importantly for women, these executives reported an investment in providing their female professionals with programs to further develop resilience.

From these results, the researchers concluded, "Resilience may be the new criterion for professional advancement. In the current world of economic uncertainty and intense competitiveness, organizations that instill resilience in their up-and-coming leaders will have a clear advantage. Like other skills, resilience can be learned. Leading organizations will provide high-performing women with a variety of experiences including training, mentoring and 'stretch' roles to increase their resilience and confidence, thereby preparing them to succeed in senior leadership positions."²

So what makes a person resilient? And how can someone build resilience?

 

According to Martin E. P. Seligman , commonly known as the father of positive psychology, the key is optimism. Through the development of questionnaires and an analysis of the content of verbatim speech and writing to assess subjects' "explanatory style" (optimistic or pessimistic), Seligman discovered that people who don't give up tend to interpret setbacks as temporary, local, and changeable. This led him to theorize that the best way to immunize people against depression, anxiety, and giving up after failure was to teach them to think like optimists. 

This can be accomplished in several ways, beginning with how you interpret and explain events that happen in your life. In other words, it's what you believe about what happens in your life that determines how you react to it rather than the event itself. So when you encounter a negative belief (i.e., I never get what I want), force yourself to do a reality check. Have you never gotten what you wanted? Ever? By looking at the factual basis for your beliefs, you can train yourself to turn that negative belief into a more realistic, positive one.

Another way to improve your outlook is to consider alternative causes for negative experiences. It's often the case that a bad experience is brought on not by one cause, but by many. In addition, it helps to keep things in perspective. For example, even if you are the sole cause of bad experience, is it a world-shattering catastrophe, or is it simply a bad thing that happened in your life?

Finally, resist the "all or none" mentality. If you convince yourself that because you failed once, you will always fail, you're likely to not try more than once. On the other hand, if you see it as an isolated failure (or even two or three) and believe that with perseverance you'll have a chance to succeed, then your behavior is likely to correspond to your new belief.

The truth is that disappointments and challenges are an inevitable part of life. So why not view them as opportunities to learn, grow, and improve? If you do, you're on the road to resilience and that's exactly where you want to be during tough times.

^{1 Research reported by Accenture , a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company.}

^{2 Ibid.}

© 2011 Sherrie Bourg Carter , All Rights Reserved

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Sherrie Bourg Carter is the author of High Octane Women: How Superachievers Can Avoid Burnout (Prometheus Books, 2011). via psychologytoday.com

 

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Jim is also a business and personal coach. Providing confidential advice on empowerment and making the right career choices in an age of accelerated competition. He can help you achieve your goals. Contact him. 719-649-4118.