Unemplojed
My name is Jed, I have been unemployed since the beginning of 2018 and this is my attempt to justify adding “writing” as a hobby to my CV.
Since handing in my resignation over 5 months ago I have been working on my CV…a lot. I must have changed, updated or completely trashed and redesigned it about 7 times. I have received a lot of tips and feedback and as I apply to more and more jobs I have started to see certain requirement patterns, which have giving me ideas of things to add that I had previously figured were irrelevant (a topic I will dedicate at least one future post to).
While rethinking version 2 or 3 of my CV I decided to add writing as one of my hobbies because I might be interested in a future in communications or public affairs or media or research or wherever…basically, it just seemed that adding writing could have its benefits. To be honest though, besides recently writing motivation letters and the e-mails and business documents I wrote during my last job, I think the last time I actually wrote anything was my master thesis. I don’t think you could consider writing a thesis a hobby. Yet, thinking back, as much as writing papers for school annoyed and pained me at the time and as much as I would procrastinate before writing the actual paper, I remember that I actually really enjoyed the process; brainstorming a topic, doing the research, developing and redeveloping your point and eventually putting it on paper. I, however, took a very chaotic and intense “last-minute” approach to these steps. This mostly resulted in simultaneously doing the research and writing the paper, while obviously also freaking out about the deadline, but it nevertheless left me missing it.
When I think back to those times staying up all night in order to finish a paper, I regret not spending more time on them. Not because I might’ve received a better grade — in most cases I actually did pretty well — but because I have fond memories of learning about something, processing and analyzing it and then arguing my point in my own words, something that always came easier to me in writing. It is an adventure…and whether it is through overcoming the struggle of the writing process itself or through the knowledge you gather and develop along the way, I believe you grow as a result of this experience. It has crossed my mind several times over the past years: I would love to write as a hobby. I would love to write in an environment that was not weighed down by the constricts of academia (ex. getting a grade, limited topics, professor’s expectations). Regrettably though, writing just became one of those things “I would love to start doing”.
I am now at a point, where the only excuses I have left are my laziness and my insecurities. I am unemployed and although I am looking for a job, I have more than enough time, time I have been using for my hobbies: sports, reading, cooking, playing video-games and of course playing with my 2 adorable kittens… So why not use this opportunity to include a further pastime to this list and start justifying adding “writing” as a hobby to my CV.
So yeah…Welcome to my blog: “Unemplojed”
I want to discuss topics and experiences that preoccupy me during my every day unemployed life. I want to share my experiences while looking for a job, but I also want to discuss all kinds of random topics ranging from political and current events to sports, traveling, food, video games and other media, as well as my kittens…obviously. Thank you very much for reading…I appreciate any and all feedback, comments and discussions. As much as I am nervous about finally starting this, I am excited about the prospect of rekindling the joy I used to experience staying up all night writing a last-minute paper because, once again, I procrastinated.
