Unemployment is no joking matter. It’s scary to be unemployed right now, but if you’ve just been laid-off, recently quit your job, or are scared that your job won’t even exist in a few more weeks, know that you can still find jobs out there. And finding a job as quickly as possible is the goal.

But to ensure that you minimize the amount of time that you are unemployed, it is key to not dwell on the fact that you are now unfortunately not employed. You have to remain focused, optimistic, and – most importantly – flexible to get yourself un-unemployed and back to work.

I think you can quickly guess why I say that you have to be focused and optimistic when it comes to your job search, but the flexible part may be a bit puzzling to you. I’m sure you’re thinking that you’re more than willing to be flexible when it comes to a new job: maybe you’re willing to take a pay cut, a lower title, or work a job in an industry you never thought of working before. That is not what I’m implying by being flexible though.

Being flexible in this economy means being willing to take on a job that you may never have thought of working before. Maybe you were scared that someone would scoff at you for dreaming of being a Deputy Supreme Knight, Product Design Manager, or even a Playboy Bunny. Before you completely write me off, take a look at the salaries of the positions that I just listed. I guarantee you that each one of those jobs is being paid more than someone who is standing in an unemployment line.

Take a minute to really look at the entirety of your career. You may have held the title of CEO, Director of QA, or Marketing Manager. Take that title and think about if you were really happy working that position. Maybe you really loved your computer coding class in college, or you want to have the option of making an unlimited amount of money working in sales, or you really want to help people. This could be the time for you to press the reset button and start a new career in something that you’ve always wanted to try. It doesn’t even have to be as drastic a change as I implied above. I’ve heard there’s a growing demand for Ruby programmers and keep in mind that a company will always need Sales Managers to ensure the cash keeps flowing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 8:25 am and is filed under Companies, Job Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.