How Long Is Too Long to Be Unemployed?

No one likes to be unemployed. Anxiety is high as uncertainty becomes your daily bread. Doing the hard work of securing a job is enough to make you want to take very long naps even on the sunniest of temperate days.

You put on your “big boy/big girl undies” and get to the biz of finding the next job. There are nibbles, bites, interviews and close calls.   Then, time drags on and …nothing. Things are adding up to nothing!

How long is too long to be without a job?

It’s not a question about living off your savings or how long you can keep yourself from sliding into a hell of self-doubt. More pointedly, how do you know when it’s time to take another tack?

Here’s my answer: As soon as you start feeling hopeless. Even the slightest bit.

I’m not kidding. If the doors are not opening and you are in your mid-fifties or over, it’s time to reinvent. If you’re younger, and your industry has changed radically, the same goes for you. If you do something that a younger person can do for less money, it’s time to move on.

Here’s the good news: You already knew that. You were likely hoping the easy solution for getting another job would turn up. The best way to get it to turn up (if it will at all), is to start on a new track.  You know how that is. Once you’ve moved on or you don’t want something anymore, it shows up. I’m not suggesting this as a trick, but it is a likelihood I want to make you aware of.

In the meanwhile, gather up your gumption and start moving. I’m not suggesting being irresponsible, but I am suggesting that whatever has been tempting you in the periphery may now be viable. Even if it takes some time to build, move in that direction.

What have you been putting off doing for a long time?

What have you been trying to sell to the job market that might be the foundation of a new business?

What other industry could use the skill set you’ve built (even if the industry is foreign to you)? What is something you’ve always dreamed of doing but fear you could not make a living at?

You likely have the answers to these questions. Here’s what will still keep you from taking action.

FEAR

It sounds like this:

“I can’t.”

“I won’t make money at it fast enough.”

“No one will take me seriously.”

“I don’t have the money to invest in starting something or going back to school.”

There are likely a myriad of other messages, but allow me to tell you the part you can’t see yet because you haven’t tried. I’ve seen what happens when people set the wheels in motion, and it’s usually pretty positive.

At first, you’ll get little bites or meet people who are willing to talk to you and explore with you. You’ll research on your own and see new possibilities. You’ll take baby steps and they’ll feel pretty good.

These are signs to keep going. Will this turn into the next job or career? It may or it may not. Either way, I can promise that the time you spend on it will not be a waste. You’ll either hit upon your next success (even if you need to supplement with other work) or you’ll discover something to apply to the original job search that will accelerate things. It will get you out of your slump and seeing things in a new way.

I would put my money on the new tack becoming the permanent change. That’s not just wishful thinking – it’s what I’ve learned from experience.

I recently worked with a man who had a middle management position in IT. He had suddenly been let go due to a merger and was not finding it easy to find a similar position elsewhere. The industry wasn’t shrinking, but he was well paid and not willing to settle for less. Not settling led to being unemployed for longer than he would have liked. Once out too long, it became harder to get a job.

By the time he came to me, his stress was high and the pressure was mounting. That’s never a great mindset for exploring next steps. Nonetheless, in an attempt to knock out the brain fog, I had him focus on something that he’s always wondered about doing versus trying to drum away at the same thing (that wasn’t working anyway). He quickly identified that the photography he did for fun was something he dreamt about doing for a living.

With some resistance, he started to talk to professional photographers in different aspects of the field. He spent more time working on his own photographic stories. In a few short weeks, he was getting positive feedback on his work, and he was getting a clear idea of what it would mean to try to give it a go.

He ultimately decided not to make it his livelihood, but spending time exploring it (while continuing his job search)made him realize he needed more creativity in his job. He felt he could achieve that by getting more creative about how he managed people and started talking about that in his next interviews. That seemed to make him more attractive, because he did land a job, in his industry.

Unemployment quickly turns from being an event in one’s life to a defining mindset.

THAT must be avoided. Treat it like a correction in the stock market. Things will get better, but it’s a time to adjust your portfolio for future gains. Similarly, adjust yourself. Consider things you’ve written off as useless or non-revenue making and see if they could become a new career path or infuse the old one with a new twist.

The trick is to act sooner rather than later.

When do you give up? Never. Just try a new tack.

Let us know how we can help.