I’m unemployed. Now what?

First of all you need to know that although being fired or unemployed is not pleasant it’s a very common thing. What I mean by that is that being unemployed happens to the best professionals and the brightest careers.

So DON’T FREAK OUT and think you’re incompetent or spend time blaming others or looking for mistakes that you might not be sure were even made. Act!

Below are some of the most common doubts at the moment and how I address each one of them:

1)   How should I talk about my exit from the company in an interview?
Being truthful about it, that’s the only way. Also because some of the references you provided might put you in a tight spot later if the information you shared wasn’t true.

2)    What’s the most assertive and successful way to seek new placement?
Always remember this rule. There are no fixed rules or universal truths when it comes to careers. When unemployed many professionals prefer to hide this truth out of shame or because they think it will somehow demean them professionally. But this is a mistake!! Your next job will come through a headhunter, linked in, recommendations, friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. That’s why it’s important to let as many channels as possible know that you’re looking for a new job.

3)    What’s the average time a good professional remains unemployed?
Remember the rule I mentioned above? There isn’t a right answer. For those who were used to a crazy corporate schedule being unemployed for 1 or 2 months might feel like 1 year. So calm down and focus your energy on actions that might generate results and not on being worried.

4)    How long can I be unemployed before it becomes an issue?
There’s no universal truth about that either. The important thing to remember is that the longer you remain unemployed the more detailed you’ll have to be when they ask you, “What have you been doing during this career transition?” Some women might have chosen to stay home until their baby turned one year old; others might have tried to open their own business and realized they prefer the corporate world. And there’s nothing wrong with that. For sure these professionals have learned a lot and such lessons should be shared with headhunters at the time of the interview.

5)    I had no job offers for a while. Now, all of a sudden, I’ve been offered 3 at the same time. How am I going to decide?
This is not unusual. When you start looking for a job you develop several contacts, and they all tend to have a similar response time. That’s when offers come up simultaneously. To help you decide, think about what you really want in your next professional opportunity.

Being unemployed even when the market is hot doesn’t mean that you’re less qualified than other employed professionals. There’re many variables involved with being fired, not only competence.

And being employed doesn’t mean that someone has a secure job at a large company either! Brazil is experiencing excellent growth in several industries and there’re many opportunities. Take advantage of this moment and GOOD LUCK!!

When is the right time to seek something new?

Is this the right time to change jobs? Or yet, does it make sense to change your career at this point in time?

So, how do we know when the right time to seek something new is?

In a previous post I had addressed the issue of how long one should stay with the same company (read here).

But sometimes the issue is more complex than that. It might be something that impacts your professional life, but it doesn’t exclusively have to. For example, it might involve following your spouse to another country; or yet giving up a corporate career to become self-employed or open your own business. Such decisions are much more complicated than changing companies.So, how do we know when the right time is? The answer seems obvious, but it came to me when I watched for the second time the play “The Immoral Soul” (with Clarice Niskier) last week.

In the play Clarice says that we should leave behind the narrow path in search of a wider space. She also states, “In certain moments of our lives we face situations that cause us to feel physical or moral discomfort. These spaces that have become narrow—which have helped us evolve and grow—become stifling and limiting.”

And this is very well represented by this Biblical story:

Sometimes we think there’s no way out and ahead of us there’s only the vastness of the insurmountable sea.
Regardless of your religious belief the analogy that sometimes we have to cross a sea in search of a wider space seems to make sense. And like Clarice Niskier says in the play, if we show courage and determination in doing it the universe will conspire in our favor.

And all of us have already overcome a vastness of water from a narrow path toward the wider space, from the womb to the world. And I don’t believe this is an easy thing; all newborns come out crying a lot!

So, when is the right to seek something new? When the place you’re at becomes a narrow space and you’re ready to be born again.

GOOD LUCK!