The Ugly season of being Jobless

This is my third week of being jobless, and I can't even imagine some people have survived a year, not even a month, of being jobless. Job seeking is hard. Job seeking will have you scrolling on LinkedIn for hours and switching between several job listing platforms on Google and social media pages.

The most tiring part is it's not easy to get your preferred job, so you always have to go back to your resume to edit it to fit the position that you randomly found on the internet. Sometimes you do not even find anything that fits your skills for days, and you are left questioning your existence.

It has been a hectic few weeks for me. My mental health has been tested. In a day, I can move from being highly motivated and in good terms with life to being overly stressed and hopeless.

My stress levels elevate every time I find myself in a financial crisis or when I get too idle. Idleness will have you thinking about things like being old enough to be working and not idling in your father's house. Also, idleness gives comparison room. Being idle will have you compare yourself with friends who are already living their best lives with either good jobs or who may have opted to venture into entrepreneurship, with some who moved abroad and others who decided to further their studies.

Comparison is the enemy.

In this season of being jobless, I have also given thought to the idea of venturing into personal projects. I am a counseling psychologist, and I have acquired several skills. The problem is knowing how and when to apply these skills in exchange for money (of course). Something about monetizing your skills.

I am currently in the middle of finding clarity and motivation to do what I am good at. I am also in the middle of looking for opportunities to grow and learn in this field. I am aware that building a brand or selling myself out here won't take a day or two. I will have to do a lot of work learning, unlearning, believing in myself, becoming confident, and accepting failure as part of the process.

As I try to navigate this ugly season, I am hoping that I will come out successful either with a job, a successful personal journey, or both.

love and hugs.

Comments

Pushing On

I think there comes a time when you stop blaming unemployment and start examining your own contribution to being unemployed. It has now been almost two years since I graduated, and I haven't been lucky enough to get a psychology-related job. But I am not the problem. The counseling psychology job market is very small for various reasons, mainly because our country is yet to take mental health seriously. There are no jobs because therapy is still seen as a luxury, and therapy is not cheap. Ideally, we should have counselors in every school, hospital, and corporate organization, but we are not there yet. The last time I checked, one psychiatrist serves at least three hospitals, and the only hospitals that have their own counselors and psychiatrists are level 4 hospitals and above. When this year started, I swore to work on building myself as a brand and to start sourcing personal clients. By March, I had identified a niche and had already started building my online presence, marke...

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