Bored? Yes. Unemployed? Yes. Now is the perfect time to try something new! You have plenty of extra time on your hands after all.
I had a daily routine of checking websites: job centre, various employment agencies and several companies that never seemed to be recruiting. That only took a few hours a day at most and often it was the same old jobs being posted – especially from the agencies (do these jobs even exist?!). I was painfully bored until I started looking into how to make a website/blog (this one!) and it has kept me pretty busy so far.
If you don’t fancy blogging then depending on your financial situation you could learn to play a musical instrument, try a new sport/hobby or have a go at learning a foreign language. There are plenty of websites that you can learn new things from too.
It doesn’t have to be all about entertaining yourself though, there are free courses available to help your career and beef up your CV. I have enrolled on a ‘Business IT’ course that a local college runs through the Job Centre. There are courses in the following areas: Care, First Aid, Hospitality & NCPLH, Security, Construction, Electrical, Business Professional, Business Communications, Business IT and Book keeping. Some of them are only introductory courses but there’s a wide range of career paths to choose from, some providing certificates/qualifications.
Another option available is the Open University. Most of the courses are home-based and there are hundreds of free short courses you can work through on the site. If you would like to gain a recognised qualification, you can apply for funding if you are receiving qualifying benefits. You may have to wait a while for the course to start though. I have enrolled on a course which begins early next year and is the first step to achieving a degree in Computing & IT but there lots of other options – too many courses to list here!
You may gain a skill that makes you more attractive to potential employers, or at the least you will be able to show that you haven’t spent all your time out of work lying on the sofa in your pants!
