Have you ever watched a friend spend months unemployed?
Maybe they seem a little too relaxed for your liking, as if maybe they’re not panicking the appropriate amount of panic, what with their “coaching their kid’s softball team” and “going for leisurely walks” and “meeting friends for dinner.”
I have definitely felt un-chill about their chill. I want to tell them, with love of course: panic.
But now, as a recently, unexpectedly laid-off graphic designer/writer, I kinda get it. They — we — are indeed freaked out. (Especially if they are, hypothetically, maybe a single parent with no family nearby and a steep mortgage in an expensive town on the verge of paying for college.)
Pssst: They’re faking it. Your job-seeking friends are keenly aware employers can smell desperation a mile away. They need to stay in a confident headspace. They need to act chill, in order to feel chill, in order to convey chill to people handing out jobs. Chill gets jobs. Routine feels chill. Everything is fine. Panic is your enemy. Shove it down.
I’m now five months into not-very-funemployment, and here’s what I wish someone explained to me:
1. You’re going to find a job. You just are. If you’re a halfway intelligent person with decent social skills who has successfully held…
