It's ok to be Unemployed (for a while)

Don't be afraid of taking a career break

In social circles, if someone asks you what you do, and you say unapologetically that you are unemployed, they will look at you as if something is wrong with you. It is as if being unemployed is a sin, something to pity about. They imagine a scenario where you cannot hold on to a job and get laid off.

If you want to follow your heart, build a project, do freelancing, or build a Micro Startup, then the cost of following your heart is some level of social disapproval. No one ever had social approval for quitting their job and starting a business. No one gets social approval for staying single or quitting a marriage. The world is sheep and expects you to be a sheep.

I have been unemployed at several points in my life. I was between jobs or had quit a job without having any plans for the near future. It is scary to be in that situation because it might feel like your career is ending. But that's also the place where new careers begin.

It's hard to believe that something will happen with your career when there is nothing but blankness. After you quit your job, you need at least 30 days to recover from the toxicity of your previous workplace. During that time it might feel like you shouldn't have quit your job. Your creative energies will be low and you won't feel inspired to start something new. That’s the price of a new career. Pay that price. Go through the discomfort.

However, if you have faith in quitting a job and waiting for 30 days to get back your natural creativity, I promise you that you will get started with something or the other. An idle mind is difficult to manage. You can watch TV and relax for a while, but you will soon get bored of it. What you would want is to build something. Build muscles, build a business, build a family. You cannot be idle and step away from building things.

The energy to build something will arise from boredom. So you need to be unemployed for a short time before you start converting those dreams into kinetic energy.

Most people cannot handle that period of unemployment. If you have 3-6 months of savings to live on, just live on your savings. Quit your job. Let the days pass. Even if you are afraid, let it be. Don't think too much about the future. And see what happens. Something always is born out of boredom. You are more capable than you think.

During your unemployed period, you will have plenty of time. Meet some old friends. Read some books. Watch some documentary videos. Join a course. Be part of a community. Use your time wisely and don't be anxious about your future. No one can control the future. It will be uncertain. It will unfold with time. Seeing your life and career unfold with time is the whole point of life. Life will not be interesting if you know for sure what's going to happen in the future.

In the worst case, if you quit and don't get any good freelancing opportunity or business opportunity, you will be able to use the time to build some experience, and gain some knowledge, and getting another job is always an option. If an interviewer asks you about the gap in the resume, tell them that you were in the soul searching mode, traveled, and were trying to figure out the point of life. It's understandable.

So take that leap. Take that career break. Be unemployed for a while. Don't be stuck to a job or jump from job to job without a break ever. We need to stand and stare.

I will leave you with a poem by William Henry Davies

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Life is short. Don’t take everything so seriously.

Make some time to stand and stare. I promise everything will fall into place, sooner than later.

Cheers,
Deepak Kanakaraju