If you’ve been out of work for awhile, you’ve probably already found that the longer you are out of work the harder it can be to get back into the workforce.
First off, the longer you’re out of work the easier it can be to get out of the routine of getting up and the same time each morning and going through your normal routine of getting ready for work and then actually going to work.
Secondly, the longer you’re out of work the more than hiring managers and recruiters wonder why you haven’t been working.
In this economy it’s easy for people to simply think that when they’re out of work for a long period of time, employers will understand and simply put it down to the economy. In some cases this might be true but in other cases, you might not get a sympathetic ear.
I recall back in 2000 when I started working as an IT recruiter that I used to meet with many job searchers who were out of work. Some had finished contracts after the Y2K frenzy ended, some had been laid off during the dot com implosion and even into 2001 particularly from September 11 onwards, many other people had been let go as the economy started tanking and many industries suffered as a result.
We got used to meeting good people who were out of work for a few months but when we met people who had been out of work for 1 year or longer – and didn’t seem to have done much during this time – a warning light went off in our heads. For employers that we were dealing with, it often seemed that they were willing to give some unemployed people the benefit of the doubt but the thing we always needed to remember was that not everyone was unemployed!
There were people interviewing for the same jobs who were currently employed so the unemployed people were competing with people who were actively working and so they immediately had one strike against them as a result.
That’s a simple fact.
The unemployed person was probably going to get asked at least one question that the employed person wouldn’t get asked: why have you been out of work so long? Depending on their answer, the fact that they were out of work was just another thing that could get held against them.
Just because all you read about in the papers is how “no one is hiring” and “everyone is laying people off” doesn’t mean this is actually true because it isn’t. Not all industries are suffering, not all companies are laying people off.
Not all hiring managers are used to interviewing people who have been unemployed for a long period of time so if you’re thinking that you’ll get a get out jail free card, that might not be the case.
In fact I can recall occasions when companies specifically asked our recruitment company to only send them resumes of candidates who were working at the time and hadn’t been out of work for a period of time. I recall these cases quite clearly.
Bottom line: While being out of work is a reality for many people, it can sometimes be used against you. If you’re out of work, use your time off work wisely whether it’s searching for jobs, working part time, taking courses or doing anything that you can point to and let potential hiring managers know you were keeping active and busy while out of work.
