Looking for a job while being unemployed

Looking for a job while you are unemployed must be really hard. You do all kinds of things: you update your CV, you search for job positions, you send your CV.

Then you wait.

And wait.

Sometimes you might get contacted.

You might have an interview here and there.

But most of the time you wait.

Without any feedback.

Without seeing any progress.

I am not looking for employment, but in certain ways I have similar shoes. Lots of waiting for results, little or no feedback.

Even worse, at the end of the month I look back and it seems I did not do anything. Besides watching Netflix. It happens because I do lots of small things. None of them significant to remember.

What I do to reduce the anxiety

Regular sport - I like walking so I walk about 1 hour every day. Sometimes I even listen to a podcast while walking. That either teaches me something or just plain fun. So I don't feel it as a wasted time.

I maintain a private diary of the things I have done. That helps me look back and see all the small things I did. They add up.

I learn new things that increase my value to a potential employer (or client in my case).

I create and publish content about the things I know and about the things I've just learned. It helps my learning process. It might help someone looking for that subject. It can also show the potential employer the extra value I bring.

Not only will they see that I know these things, they will also see I am ready to learn new things. That is critical today, especially in the hi-tech world.

In addition, when I finally get that interview, I'll have something to talk about besides the series I watched.

Conclusion

It is not easy to maintain good mood and feel high self-worth when you are out of job for a long period of time, but you might reduce the pain. Find little wins along the way and get to your goal.