Unemployment: Day 7

Today I’m going to celebrate what I’ve accomplished in a week, even if it doesn’t seem like enough (I’m not sure it ever will until I’m employed again).

1. I have applied for 26 different positions.

2. I have been rejected by one of these positions. (It’s the day after Christmas, so I’m sure more are to come)

3. I had one company that was very interested in interviewing me. Unfortunately the compensation isn’t much more than I’ll be making on unemployment. I’m grateful they were transparent about the pay and expectations up front so that I didn’t waste their time with an interview. I kept the door open - they may have a role that fits me better in the future.

4. I have created resumes for five different verticals: Business Intelligence, Marketing, Creative, Training, and my current industry. I have read that every resume should be customized to the position, parroting the specific words and skills used in the job listing. This is obviously a lot of work. I am learning and fine-tuning as I apply. If there is a position that I really want, I believe I will take this highly customized approach (if there’s anything I’ve learned the last 10 years it’s the importance of hyper-relevant messaging).

5. I have reworked my primary resume into an ATS-friendly format (I hope. Online tools are obviously trying to sell themselves so it’s unclear how reliable they are).

6. I have compiled a list of projects to feature that showcase my skill set. I have started to add these projects to my personal site. Once I’ve got them added there I will also add to LinkedIn.

7. I received a recommendation from a former coworker. It definitely didn’t make me tear up. I can’t stress enough the value of recommendations on LinkedIn. Even if they don’t help land a role, they do help with the confidence to continue searching to find the right fit.

8. I reworked my recommendation for the same coworker (his was better, I had to make sure mine was up to snuff). I asked him what positions he was applying for and made sure to highlight the skills that those positions are looking for.

9. I reintroduced myself to LinkedIn Learning. Pro-tip: A lot of libraries allow you to take the courses and certifications for free with the use of your library card. See more about this and other learning platforms in this previous blog post if you’re interested.