Today’s the first day that my jobless status feels “real.”
The weekend was a weekend—they weren’t days I would have worked anyway. Yesterday, Monday, I was able to dig in and check off items on my list of daily things to accomplish, making the day pass by fairly quickly.
Today, however, it’s been harder to jump into the new routine. I signed up for the outplacement service offered by my former employer, and I started working on a piece of writing (not this post) that feels like a bit of a slog to get through.
Then, I made breakfast.
Applications
I have two kids in college. This morning, the younger one came over and we’re sitting in the living room filling out applications together. They’re applying for scholarships, while I apply for jobs. TikTok has taught me that this is called “body doubling.”
To be honest, I’m already a bit sick of applying to things. I haven’t even been doing it that long. I can only imagine what folks who’ve been doing this for months—or longer—feel like.
As I get frustrated, and at times bored, rewriting my resume into text fields (seriously, why do they require this?), I try to keep in mind all of the things that I have this time around which I didn’t have during my last bout of joblessness:
- More experience, skills, and knowledge to bolster my resume
- More family, friends, and connections to offer support, advice, and potential leads
- More resources to draw on should time and environment cause my situation to be extended
I feel a lot better about my prospects of finding something relatively quickly this time around. Hopefully, that’s not a delusion on my part.
AI Help
Another thing that I didn’t have last time around was AI. I’ve already asked ChatGPT to help craft a cover letter for one job…which I rewrote heavily before sending.
I then asked it to build me a tracking spreadsheet to make sure I’m keeping track of the various applications I’m sending out. The AI was a little bit more helpful in that regard. I created a Google Sheet based on the return, and I only had to make one small tweak before I could use it as intended.
I’m sure there’s other ways I could be using AI to help me land something. What ideas do you all have?