What To Do With Your Free Time While Job Searching

When you are unemployed and looking for a new job, you often have a great deal of unstructured free time. It's important to structure that free time and take on variety of tasks to maximize your search effectiveness (i.e., being involved in networking, letter of inquiry campaigns, job fairs, etc.). There are also ways to use your time to advance your skills, give back, reflect and get back into the job market a new and more improved person. Here are some ideas about utilizing this time.

-Volunteer Your Professional Skills

Think about keeping your professional skills fresh and offering them to someone or an organization in need. It's important to keep using your skills and to contribute to your community. It is also a way to address a work gap on your resume. Check out organizations like the Taproot Foundation - http://www.taprootfoundation.org/ where you can work as a part of team to assist a non-profit - it is also great opportunity for networking.

-Take a Class

Advance your skills by taking a class or take a class in something you have been interested in, but never had the time to. It's a way to learn something new, meet new people and account for your time away from the world of work with a productive endeavor. It's important during your time out of work that you grow and offer something new to an employer and also to yourself.

-Do Some Self-Reflection

Take some time to learn more deeply about yourself. Also, the job search process can be lonely and difficult and raise all kinds of negative feelings about yourself, the world and others. Often when we are working, we have excuses about why we don't do this type of reflection due to time restrictions, but it is vital to know yourself and take care of yourself to get the most of your life. Think about therapy or counseling. If due to a limited budget you cannot afford a clinician in private practice, you can check out clinics which offer low fee services such as Fordham University Psychological Services Institute - http://www.fordham.edu/academics/colleges__graduate_s/graduate__profession/education/centers_and_institut/psychological_servic/

Usually, clinics associated with schools or training institutes are a good place to look for affordable services.

-Travel

Think about going somewhere you wanted to, but either didn't have enough vacation time for or couldn't schedule at the right time. You can also do a volunteer vacation where you give back while in another city, country, continent. This kind of opportunity also is often a great time for reflection, giving back and explains time gaps on your resume in a very interesting way.

While you are unemployed, there are often a lot of negative feelings about the new found time on your hands. But take some time to think about what YOU would like to do with this time and take advantage of this time to grow yourself, assist others and make the world a better place.