22:44 || 2.2.26
“In-Between Jobs”
5 Mistakes I Made When I Was Unemployed
As of November, I became unemployed (again), but this isn’t my first rodeo.
I keep having conversations with people who have recently found themselves in-between jobs or have just got back into employment.
So while I’m in-between jobs myself, and off the back of my last post, I figured I’d shed some light on the mistakes I made last time I was in this scenario.
Here are 5 mistakes I made while I was unemployed, abeg, don’t be like me.
1. Not Applying to Jobs Sooner (Rookie Mistake)
The moment you lose you job, if you have no other means of getting paid, the first thing on your mind should be getting another job, or a source of income.
Granted, I was on my high-horse when I lost my job. From young, I’d always said that I didn’t want to work a 9-5, so to have been working a 9-5 job and get fired from said job, my pride wasn’t having it. So rather than look for a new job, I decided I’d “hustle” my way out.
Long story short, it didn’t go as I’d envisioned it. Debts racked up and bills went unpaid.
I was out of a job for 18 months. Not because I was unable to find a job, but because I refused to. Don’t be like me, put your pride aside and get some money in your pockets ASAP. At the end of the day, bills don’t recognise “effort” they recognise cash in hand so get cash in your hands!
2. Not Having a Plan
I said I was going to hustle my way out of it. Now this would have been great if I had an idea of what that actually meant. But truth be told I was operating on vibes and what Nigerian’s, Yorubas especially, commonly refer to as “Lagbara Olorun” (Translation: By the Power of God).
Don’t do that. Because God will watch you sprinting in circles and laugh.
Set a plan for what your next move is. If it’s get a new job, then obviously that would look like, having an idea of what industry you want to work in. What role. Who’s hiring. And tweaking your CV accordingly when applying.
And if you are going down the route of the Hardknocks then have a plan that generates cash, or at least keeps your expenses to as close to zero as possible.
Whether you choose to have a plan B, well that comes down to your mental wiring.
3. Wasting Time
In hindsight, it still pisses me off how much time I wasted during that period. I think back to all the work I should’ve created, all the projects I could have worked on and all the time I had to learn new skills.
Whether or not you’re working, time is still ticking, so you might as well find something productive to do with it. It’d be unfair to say that I didn’t use my time wisely at all because I met some great people during that period. I also picked up new hobbies which have formed a greater part of my current foundation, and I learned more about myself then than any other period in my life.
However, with reference to point 2, because I didn’t have a plan, I had no reason to be intentional with my time. Rather, I was just letting life take me wherever it wanted, which isn’t bad in its entirety but in that situation, it wasn’t the wisest move in the book.
One thing I did towards the end of my stint that really brought me back to my senses was taking a course on Udemy and finishing it.
We all do it. We sign up to courses with great intention to learn and upskill but somewhere along the way, usually by day two it becomes another deadend in our digital footprint.
On this occasion though, sitting down for a couple hours a day to do the Udemy course gave me an added bit of structure that I’d been missing for a while. On top of that, it added a sense of purpose to my day. The act of learning, definitely added some HP to my confidence bar which was in a severe deficit at the time.
It’s simple, the more you fill up your schedule, the less time you have to waste.
4. Racking Up Debt
There’s good debt, there’s bad debt and then there’s “f*ck my life” debt. The latter is debt that you didn’t realise you had incurred. At the time it seems like the only way out, until you eventually find a way out and realise the extent of the damage you’ve done.
It’s so easy to apply for an overdraft on Monzo. Fill in a few boxes and slide the gauge to your desired “Gbese” (Translation: Debt). Before you know it you have an additional £1500 to play with that’s seemingly come out of thin air. The thing is, that £1500 comes with a monthly subscription fee of £40, give or take.
But hey-ho, rent is due now. We can pay that £40 back later. Or so it seems.
Brother! Sister! Don’t do it to yourself. Because first it’s an overdraft, then it’s the credit card, soon it’ll be the loan sharks and before you know it you owe money to the Mafia.
Your credit score is your ticket to Heaven or Hell in the UK (and most western countries). I advise you to make sure your ticket number gets you a good seat.
5. Thinking Somebody’s Coming to Save Me
Forget it! Nobody is coming to save you. Your friends/family may support you here and there but even at that, after a while, your situation will become a silent burden they never chose to carry. So my advise to you, as well as myself, is find a way to build yourself a life jacket and swim until you get to shore.
It’s not going to be fun, but you’re more likely to get help on the way when people can see you’re actually trying to do something about your situation and not languishing at the state of your life. And the worst part about languishing is you won’t even realise you’re doing it.
You’ll just notice that, the more you speak to people, the quicker they are to put an end to the conversation. And you can’t judge them for it. People have too much going on in their lives to be worrying about a grown man/woman, who would rather victimise themselves, than make sh*t happen.
Yours to Take
My mistakes are yours to take into consideration. Some of them I made 3 years ago, and as I write this, I realise I’m making them again, so I need to go and check that.
That said, if you made it this far, I hope you were able to extract some value from this. And I pray you still see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Feel free to connect with the boy, be that DM, text or call. Until then…
Stay Blessed
W
.•*
📧 wndy@awndywrld.com
📥 @awndyday
📲 +447415788447
