Advice: Keeping Skills Updated During the Search (applying, interview, unemployed)

[tluv00]

Advice: Keeping Skills Updated During the Search - Laid Off And Looking - WSJ

Good article on how to keep things going while searching. The longer the search, the more opportunities to lose skills. Good luck to all searching for work!

[NewUser]

* Take classes—in person. Taking an online class is easy, but it eliminates that face-to-face networking that often lands jobs and opens doors, says Ms. O’Donnell. “You need something where you physically show up,” she says

Unfortunately, you may not have that option. In my situation, I could take an evening class locally, or an online class. I searched high and low and could not find any classes in my field of expertise that I could take locally, so I had to take an online class based 2500 miles from my home.

And another problem is cost. When you're unemployed it's really hard to stomach tuition and book expenses. Let's see. . . . . would I rather take this class or do I want a roof over my head for an extra month.

[GypsySoul22]

Originally Posted by NewUser

[i]
And another problem is cost. When you're unemployed it's really hard to stomach tuition and book expenses. Let's see. . . . . would I rather take this class or do I want a roof over my head for an extra month.

True. This is also true (expenses) when you are long term unemployed and do not have a lot of money for the hairdresser every 6 weeks, new interview outfits or work clothes.

I have 2 interview outfits...One for summer, one for winter. If I get a second interview (which is a joke because I am not applying for those sort of jobs) I will have to go out and spend money on another outfit.

It costs money to look updated and good and when there isn't a lot of extra money, the options of 'taking classes, even community college ones at a few hundred dollars a pop' or buying nice clothes becomes less and less doable the longer you are unemployed.


And please don't talk about thrift stores. I have never seen anything here remotely nice in our thrift stores.

[denverian]

I'm volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, working for their marketing and communications team in my city. That way I keep using the skills I wish to use in a new job. Doesn't cost me anything but a little time each week.