Use Redundancy as a Time to Grow

Are you struggling to find a job despite all the time and effort you're putting in? Well here's some inspiring advice from Sital Ruparelia for you – stop looking so hard.

That's right, stop spending your whole week job searching and instead spend part of your week doing something completely different. And I don't mean watch TV or 'doing lunch' with friends.

If you've been made redundant in recent months, you may be low on cashflow, confidence and job opportunities. But one thing you do have is that commodity we all crave: *TIME*.

Instead, go and do something of value, something that would make a difference to someone else.  By spending more time helping others, and less time on your own search, you'll actually find that you improve your chances of finding work.

If you're out of work, here are 10 suggested projects you could do:

1.  Volunteer your time and skills to a charity or non-profit organisation
2.  Start a blog and share your opinions on a topic or subject you care about
3.  Teach your kids, neices or nephews something of value (e.g how to manage money, how to cook)
4.  Learn how to play that musical instrument you've always wanted to learn – and then entertain a small audience for free
5.  Enter a charity walk or run
6.  Give a talk at a local college or university about a subject you are an expert in
7.  Share everything you're learning about job searching with other job seeekers who are out of work
8.  Teach your parents/grandparents how to use the internet, email and text messaging (it will give them a new lease of life)
9.  Help an immigrant family to improve their English. You'll help improve their lives and enable them to make a bigger contribution to the community and wider economy.
10. Create and share something that would bring joy to others – e.g. a poem, a script, a dance, a sketch, a sculpture or a painting maybe

The costs to you?  Nothing.

All that's required is your time, some focus and the right intention.

The benefits to you?

• You'll have a sense of purpose and achievement each week (something that's difficult to achieve if your whole week revolves around chasing leads, applying for jobs and handling rejections).
• You'll consequently see your self esteem increase (which often gets crushed when you get laid off). Increased levels of self esteem improve your chances of securing a job.
• You'll meet new people and widen your network. The wider network improves your chances of finding a job (particularly in a recession when a large percentage of roles are being filled via contacts and referrals)
• You'll have a unique answer to that interview question: "So what have you been doing with your time since you finished your last job?"
• You'll become a much more interesting person to be around – after all, there's only so many times friends and family can ask "So how's your job search going?"
• You'll develop some new skills (e.g. speaking, writing, mentoring, teaching) which can give you another edge in the job market
• You'll develop some new hobbies and interests for the future
• You'll look back at this period with few regrets. You'll know that you didn't waste the time you had between jobs and that instead did something of value.
• You'll enjoy some good karma. What goes around, comes around.

The benefits to the world? Huge.

Just think what would happen if every single person that was laid off invested part of their week (or month) to at least one of the 10 projects listed above? And then inspired other people to do something similar.

I speak from experience!  In the downturn we at Recrion are actively promoting the Response to Redundancy scheme in the East of England to help those at risk of losing their jobs.  Our career advisors give up 2 days a week to provide free career coaching to anyone who is eligible and we love doing it!

Visit www.recrion.co.uk/free for more information or call 01780 484910 for a confidential discussion.