Take a Full Advantage of the Opportunity

I'm not about to claim that this is in any way scientific since I only got 17 responses. But the time is up and the poll is closed. It looks like what we most appreciate about being unemployed is the opportunity to consider switching career.

Personally, what I initially appreciated most was being able to take some time off, so that I can think straight for the first time since college and also rest a little bit to become healthy again. But now that I've done some thinking and realized that I need to change something, the opportunity to consider switching career is something I'm starting to appreciate more. It's encouraging to know that many of you also view the opportunity to consider switching career the most significant benefit of being unemployed.

Switching career is tough. It's not easy even when the economy is great - you'd probably need to get new skills and get some experience somewhere or start from the bottom - but when the economy is as bad as it is now? It's just really hard. And as your unemployed days go by, you cannot help but wonder whether you should just give up and go back to what you were doing before just so that you can show you already have the skill and experience.

But what I've been learning so far is that if you stay persistent and keep looking what you are interested, "it" eventually opens up to you and starts showing you a possibility. Now, the possibility presented to you might not be what you had in mind or even look feasible. But dig a little further and you find something else. You just have to look at it from every possible angle, through all channels that you can think of. It's amazing just how much you can learn. Take detour if you see something else interesting along the way, too. Who says that you have to stick with the first area that you investigate?

It's possible that I end up taking a job that has nothing to do with the field that I'm looking in. I might just have to compromise somewhere along the line. But that's something that I can think about when the time comes, right? And even if I couldn't make the switch this time, I know that the ground work that I'm doing now would give me a jump start when I get my next chance. None of this will be wasted. I'm going to not just appreciate but also take a full advantage of the opportunity.