If there is one piece of advice I could give to those who find themselves newly unemployed, that is to keep to the same pace of work that they're used to. You'll just need to spend your time working at tasks other than what you might be familiar with.
The sabbatical is a dream for many people in the tech industry. When I speak to people about how I've spent my time since my last position, what I've been doing, the training I've taken, the conventions I've attended, the programming languages I've played with, there is this pain filled sigh they release. This is usually followed by an "Oh man, that sounds so good."
Being able to take the training that you want, when you want is a luxury. Unemployment is viewed with suspicion. I'm not quite sure why that is. To me, it smacks of victim blaming: "Her skirts were too short, she deserved It." "He shouldn't have walked alone down the street that night." That sort of thing. The fact is that in our culture we expect people to remain on the hamster wheel until they drop dead at their desk, or they hit "the age." Otherwise: "There Is Something Wrong. Red Flag! Red Flag!"
If you've followed the standard advice & socked money away in case of a layoff (hello!!! Uncertainty in the job market has been going on since the devastating layoffs of the '70s, and really, well, since FOREVER - Hello Industrial Revolution), you have an opportunity. One which shouldn't be wasted.
Job searching is painful. Brutal on the ego, often times anxiety ridden because your efforts are met with a wave of incredulity, suspicion, and cynicism. Still, it is an adventure, an exploration, an opportunity to add to your skills, and frankly - there's a lot of personal growth which can come of this time.
Hopefully, after your initial shock, you take your "vacation time" but then begin to set your clock to get out of bed to be "at the office" - bankers hours. No joke. Set yourself a specific time when you will be "at work." Because you will be doing work. I, myself, begin my day at my desk or heading out at 8am. I usually wake up between 5am-6am (when I haven't done the menopausal wake up at 2am, fall back asleep at 4am), and never any later than 7am. If you need to set an alarm to get your ass out of bed. Set it. I don't care if you don't have breakfast, go drink coffee, or spend your time doing yoga, just don't let the bed conquer your will.
Set a course of action for your day is a scheduling problem we've all worked with in our professional lives. Frankly, I work two weeks in advance. Yes, I'm scheduled out, booked nearly solid every day, with events, training webinars, meetups. This month is NaPoWriMo - National Poetry Writing Month - so I'm writing a poem a day. Make sure you have planned days to hustle your submissions
into the Applicant Tracking System BLACK HOLE. Set yourself a weekly target. I can tell you response rates will vary widely according to season. Call back some of the recruiters you liked and see if they have anything for you. If you haven't had a recruiter contact you, and you have more than seven years' experience, something is seriously wrong with your LinkedIn / Indeed / Monster / TelecomCareers.Net / Dice / CyberCoders entries. I'm your friend. You can contact me and I'll go look at it and give you some feedback. Take up reading technical / business related blogs. Catch up on the industry news you haven't had time for. Now might be the time to learn about how to launch that business / app / game idea you've had rolling around. Although, one piece of advice I did receive is that if you have worked with only one company (like I did), or in one industry (like I did), it would be good to get some work experience with another company or another industry.
I've also taken up getting up from my desk, adding more exercise into my life - even if that does include shopping. LOL. So make sure that this time off includes time for pleasurable events you otherwise haven't had time for. Settle in at an independent coffee house on a Tuesday morning drinking a cappuccino in a wide mouthed white ceramic cup. Pour a heap of sugar on the top of the white foam, and watch the foam turn to a light brown as you mix it in with the sweet and the espresso. Sip your coffee slowly while you nibble at the ends of a croissant, the flake so crunchy they burst around you making a mess at the table.
Buy a small notebook and carry a pencil with you. Consider your options. How little can you live on? Contemplate downsizing, moving to Italy or Portugal, or to Key West. Desperate times call for desperate measures, think of how your skills might be transferable into becoming a magician's assistant, or a personal assistant. Conquering the world is over-rated anyways. It's too much work. There's little or no downtime when you are building an evil empire.
For some, these small luxuries I'm writing about will still be not enough. I can tell you from a friend's experience who's gone through quitting one job, moving between two others, and experiencing two layoffs (i.e., lotsa mobility), 2015 was weird. W.E.I.R.D. Weird. He didn't get any nibbles on his submissions for months. Then everything picked up in the fall. Me. I went from a 1:20 response rate to a 1:2 during the months of November & December. I'm running a 1:2 right now, even if it's negative.
What I can tell you is that this time since I walked away from the tt is not what I call "unemployed," or even "looking." Because I'm not. I'm fully employed with various projects including my writing.
“Don’t aim at success— the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect...Frankl, Viktor E. (2006-06-01). Man's Search for Meaning . Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.
Some weeks, I'm over-employed, exceeding 40 hours of work related to meetups, technical talks, conventions, poetry, blogging, webinars, and working on my portfolio. Am I looking for a job? Yes. Yet I turn down more requests to interview than I submit. Interviewing is exploration, it's meeting new people, hearing new things. Being new myself. There are many reasons to "want" a job, including financial necessity. I can't speak to that at this point. I can only speak to the experience of having the opportunity to step off the hamster wheel, breaking the mold, trying to find another way to earn a living. If you have this opportunity of sheer time separated from financial necessity, it is a blessing. Take a deep breath. It is spring and the lilac are blooming.
best wishes,
-a
