Adventures (?) in Unemployment: Day 185

Hi, my name is Eric, and I’m a stay-at-home-husband.

So this is what it feels like to be unemployed for six consecutive months: It’s a nagging, frustrating feeling that no matter what I’m doing, I could be making better use of my time. It’s avoiding former coworkers, not because I’m embarrassed, but because I’m afraid they might have survivor’s guilt. It’s an aversion to malls.

Actually, that was there before.

But on the whole, it hasn’t been so bad, and here’s why:

• I keep myself moving. When I’m not actively looking for a job, I try to remain productive in other areas – lots of reading, writing, and exercise, and not too much Netflix or idle internet browsing. I actively try to add structure and variety to a day that would open and close just fine without it. That’s not to say I don’t have off days, because I do. Days I slink out of bed at 4 p.m. so sick of Reddit, FaceBook, and YouTube that I can’t breathe.

• It's been a busy, beautiful summer: Getting married, honeymooning, vacations, family and friends visiting – each of these milestones separate what could have been indistinguishable months of beautiful monotony. And the weather, oh my god. Perfect. That’s helped keep the spirits way up.

• I’m not entirely unfulfilled. In its absence, I’ve learned that “to work” is so much more than to simply draw pay. It’s a place to add value, to perform on a team, to grow and create. But when all that is suddenly gone, the hole in my day isn't simply plugged by finding things to do for eight hours. And yet the reinforced sense of self-worth I got by doing good work at work has been somewhat replaced by doing good work at home and, when I can, volunteering now and again. I am bored though, absolutely, but I don’t hate myself. So that’s good.

What the job search has been like:

I’ve created profiles on a number of jobs boards (Monster, Indeed, Careerbuilder, Seattlejobs, ad nauseam), and I keep them on recruiters’ radar by updating information or uploading resumes on a weekly basis. From these boards I have received hundreds of canned emails telling me about the wildly exciting and lucrative career in insurance sales. C’mon, Farmers! I’ll probably respond to the next one! I also have a profile in the career section of most major Seattle area companies. 

But from these avenues, aside from insurance spam, I mostly get notes or calls from area 3^rd party recruiters who, as far as I can tell, are tasked with providing maybe a dozen options for a particular opening that hiring managers can then chose from. Usually the process is a quick call to determine I’m alive and not currently drunk, an email confirming my interest in the job description and compensation, and another call to talk through examples of situations I may encounter; lovely, lively conversations that typically end right there. These interactions account for around 90% of the attention I get from passive searching. Occasionally an in person, follow-up interview will be scheduled, but this is typically the exception that proves the rule.

A strategy with a much higher take-rate has been trolling through craigslist posts. The downside to this approach is the amount of inapplicable gigs to filter through before the ones that fit show themselves. The upside is directly (in many cases) contacting the hiring organization, an exposure to a wide variety openings, and oddly, a total sense of treasure hunting. In a really lame, anti-climactic kind of way.

So there is movement. That is to say, I am getting interviews. So I guess the job search is going exactly as well as it could without actually landing a job. But here’s an unanticipated consequence to all these interviews – after each one I have to report back to my wife, friends, and family how it went. These conversations are below in chronological order;

1. “It was great! I’m excited for this one” 
2. “No, I haven’t heard back yet, but I’m still waiting” 
3. “Guess I didn’t get it. But I have another one coming up!”

I said that to say this: In some recent cases, I no longer announce when an interview comes up. The idea is that if they don’t know it happened, I won’t have to say I didn’t bring it home. That sounds more negative on paper than it did in the old coconut, but there you are. The other idea is that hopefully soon I get to say “hi, honey. I know you didn’t know about this one, but since Ballmer was stepping down they put me in at CEO”. Or something to that effect.

New thoughts have been stirring of late. I have been clinging to the mantra of “recent, relevant work experience is more valuable to perspective employers than a newly minted English grad, so prioritize work over school”. However, as moments turn to months and I’m still not working, the possibility that I will neither have a degree nor my precious “recent, relevant” marches steadily into the forefront of my mind. Since one of those pieces is within my control, I’ve decided to press on with school, full time, regardless of what is happening on the work front. If I get another gig, I’ll be in school at night. If I don’t, I’ll be in school during the day. More on that later.