How I’m staying positive and productive during my job search

Fairly recently, I lost my job.

It was a weird moment. Especially waking up on Monday morning and realising I wasn’t needed at work felt incredibly weird, and slightly upsetting. I’ve found that the impact of the situation didn’t really hit until the start of the working week.

This post alone has taken more than a week to write, it’s taken time to get my thoughts down.

I decided I needed to create a strategy that would keep me positive and productive during this time. I wanted to avoid slipping into depression or just getting frustrated with applying for jobs and to maximise the amount of free time that I had available to me. I knew it was important that I found the right strategy.

So in this post, I wanted to share the strategy I’ve created and how it’s been going.

Updating my website, LinkedIn and CV

One of the first things I did was update my website, LinkedIn and CV. Which has honestly more difficult than I thought it would be. It was slightly embarrassing to be honest as I thought I’d never find myself in this situation.

It needed to be done as it would honestly reflect the situation I was in to future employers.

I’m looking forward to when I can update it again when I have a new role, and to remove the ‘open to work’ ring on my profile picture.

Taking care of myself

Self care is still very important during this time, so I’m getting enough rest and engaging in activities that bring me joy and relaxation.

I’ve also found it important to speak to my family. Finding the time to speak to my wife or parents has been very helpful throughout this difficult time. If there’s anyone else going through the same situation, definitely go and speak to anyone that you’re close with. I’m very lucky to be surrounded by a supporting family during this challenging time.

Also, I’ve found that writing helps as well. I’ve been running this blog for nearly five years now and it’s been a great hobby to have. Not only do I enjoy running and maintaining it but also it’s been a good way to destress and to distract myself.

Plus, I’ve thought of a few upgrades and improvements I can make to my site, which is great.

At my desk by 9AM

I’m still treating each weekday as a work day. So I’m at my desk by 9AM, ready to work. Reason for this as I not only want to maximise the day as much as possible, but I wanted to avoid staying in bed for most of the day. I found it was easy to stay in bed and that could impact my mental health.

So I made the effort to set my alarm to the time I normally do. And so far I think having this habit is good to have, having a routine has definitely helped with me being productive and active through a work day.

Train

I wanted to use my free time effectively and efficiently as possible. So I decided to enrol in some online courses to boost my skills in areas that I’m interested in. At the moment, I’m working my way through a data analyst course on YouTube created by the freeCodeCamp charity (which has been a fantastic course by the way).

I’ve also been spending some time practicing my new and existing skills. Turns out there are a few areas that I needed to revisit. I tend to store course notes in Notion so I can revisit them later and this has proven to be extremely useful during this time (on a related note, the ‘Ask AI’ feature in Notion is very handy when searching notes on training courses I’ve done)

I have some future blog posts planned on what I’ve been doing and learning recently so keep an eye out for those posts in the near future.

Plus, I’ve been investigating potential updates to my other projects that I have, such as Super Blog Starter. Which is a project that I haven’t been able to work on since February, so it’s good to make time for these projects again.

Apply for jobs

It seems obvious but it’s worth mentioning. One of the best things to do is to search and apply for jobs when it comes to addressing any worries or anxieties.

I’ve created a Excel spreadsheet to log which jobs I’ve applied for (it even has drop down choices for several fields), just so I can keep track where I’ve applied to and the status. I might share the spreadsheet to help others who are looking for a new job.

I’ve been using resources such as LinkedIn and Indeed when it comes to finding job postings.

Once I have a new job, I plan to create a Sankey diagram of my overall experience in finding a job.

Reflect

At first, I didn’t really feel the impact of the situation. I think I kept myself distracted from thinking about it over a weekend. But I knew I had to spend some time thinking and reflecting on the experience and ask myself questions on what I learned from it, what the positives were, etc. I’ve found it’s important to take the time and think about the experience, as it can give guidance on what to do next.

Did this plan work?

It’s been just over a week since I lost my job and I think the strategy I created has been working well so far. I’ve applied for (at this time of writing) twelve jobs and I’m hoping to hear back from regarding my applications soon.

I haven’t found a job yet but I imagine things on that front will change soon.

If you are currently hiring for a business analyst, a data analyst or a test analyst, then please do get in touch and let’s have a conversation.