Jobless for 7 Months

How I kept my sanity through the job-seeking period, after close to 100 applications and 20 interviews

My Honest, Heart-Baring Account

I have been wanting to document this season of my life for a while and finally got down to it. I hope my sharing serves as some encouragement to those who may be going through a period of job searching and thinking you may be struck.

First, Some Context

I left my previous marketing job in July 2016 and shortly after, spent an invigorating 10 weeks at General Assembly’s User Experience Design Immersive course. Completely inspired and full of fire in my belly, I was optimistic that I would land a UX job soon after graduating. 💪🏻

That was in mid November and unfortunately, the timing couldn’t be worse.

It was fast approaching December, companies were slowing down their hiring and many were starting to clear their year end leave. I certainly wasn’t planning to take any break and frankly, getting a job was top most on my Christmas 🎄 Wish List. I got into the full swing of things, spending my days polishing up my portfolio, applying for jobs and meeting recruiters. Alas, I only landed 3 interviews for the rest of 2016. 😕

New Year, Same Goal

2017 rolled in and things were gearing up but still moving along at a snail’s pace. With Chinese New Year occurring earlier this year in end January, employers were holding off their hiring till after the festivities. I could only hope and wait for hiring to pick up soon. What I didn’t expect was a slight detour to my original plan. 🚧

SAHM for 2 Months

My domestic helper left in early February and the new one didn’t arrive until 2 months later! There were delays after delays on the immigration side and I stayed home full time during this period. Watching my twin boys, settling household chores & cooking whilst continuing my job search, was tough, tough, tough. So thankful I had my mum helping me out! 💪🏻

Final Lap

Once things settled down on the home front with the new helper, I re-started full-time job searching. During this last stretch of my journey, I spent a fair bit of time working on a paid design task for a legal start-up as part of their recruitment process. Ultimately, I wasn’t selected so it seemed like it was back to square one.

Thankfully, around a week later, the long awaited call came — I was being offered my long desired role of a UX (not UX/UI) designer 👩🏻‍💻 at a local bank! I was ecstatic and relieved at the same time. Finally, I could come out of wandering around the wilderness and into the promised land!

If you are in a similar situation I was in, take heart. ❤️
There will be a light at the end of the tunnel. The sun will shine again. ☀️
Trust me, I have been there and here’s how I made it through those 7 months.

// Get into a Routine

Having a daily routine helped me lots. Despite not having a job yet, I would leave my house the same time everyday, as though I was off to work. I would lug along my MacBook Pro to wherever I had decided to spend my day at. Sometimes it was a Macs, KFC or Starbucks. Other days, it would be the library or the community centre. Anywhere that I could tap into free Wi-Fi and sit uninterrupted.

I would plan my week based on what I hoped to achieve — X number of jobs applied for, X emails spent to contacts in the industry, complete this case study, work on that side project. I recorded the details of the companies I applied for, the interviews I went, the people I spoke to on an Excel sheet, allowing me to see my progress and note down my learnings & reflections.

Working out a plan and working towards the plan gave me something I could control, whilst I grappled with the uncertainty of when I would actually land a job.

// Give Yourself Space to Vent

You know what? It’s okay to feel discouraged. It’s perfectly fine to be angry that you weren’t selected. It’s totally normal to cry in frustration that this whole job search thing is way too long and difficult. But once u have given vent to your emotions, move on. Give yourself a day to mope in self-pity, moodiness, anger, whatever you are feeling, then… move on.

// Get the Support You Need

I ranted a lot to my career coach, Bryant, who was always there with a listening ear. Texting my fellow classmates and other job seeking friends just to update one another was crucial too. Knowing I was not alone made going through this so much more bearable.

Get Emily Ong’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

Remember me for faster sign in

My parents-in-law and sister also helped watch the boys when I had interviews to attend. Bottom line is, find your squad — people who will cheer you on when the going is tough.

// Find Ways to Chill

It’s incredibly stressful looking for a job and you need to find ways to decompress. For me, I relaxed by playing with my boys and reading to them. Watching light-hearted Korean dramas like Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, tear-jerkers like This is Us and thrilling Sherlock was something I looked forward to in the evenings. Even for just an hour or so, my mind could escape to a world where money worries and job fears couldn’t bother me.

// Compare Not

In my batch of 15, I was the second last one to finally land a job. Classmates would share their happy news over the group chat we shared. As much as I was happy for them, I was upset for me. There was a sour knot in my heart, wondering when it would finally be my turn. To be honest, it’s difficult not to compare, especially since we all graduated at the same time. But you just have to stay strong, keep focused on your journey and fight on.

// It’s Not You

Becos’ the truth is — it may not even be you that you were not selected for a job. Perhaps the company was looking for a certain type or personality to gel in well with the existing team or a candidate with certain work experience for the kind of projects that were upcoming.

There could well be a multitude of reasons why you weren’t picked and the reason may not even be you.

So don’t take it too personally, take it that it wasn’t meant to be and push on to the next opportunity that comes up.

// It’s You

Similarly, it may well be that you simply are not up to scratch and you need to be self-aware enough to realise what the gaps are in terms of your skills and experience. Or is your resume or portfolio not doing you any favours in terms of presenting your capabilities accurately? Do they need further iterations to allow you to secure a conversation with a prospective employer?

And, during the interview, you’ve got to show them what you’ve got.

Merely showing your portfolio is not enough, I realised. If you can, do a simple redesign of a key feature of their product and present it during the interview or ask to do a whiteboard design challenge. Personally, I was only able to proceed to the next round with companies with which I showed actual design solutions for their product.

//It isn’t the End till it’s the End

There were numerous occasions when I left an interview full of hope that an offer would come in very soon. There were even instances that the hiring manager verbally gave me his word that he was ready to take me in but things later fell through due to HR headcount issues or management considerations. My point is — don’t rest on your laurels till a definite offer comes in. Continue your applications and continue going for interviews because nothing’s a done deal until the contract is signed and you actually start work.

// Don’t Give Up

At many points of those 7 months, things did seem kinda hopeless. I felt like I was never going to get out of this slump but this turned out to be false, of course. As cliche as this may sound, DON’T GIVE UP. Keep on keeping on and you will find yourself at the right place … at the right time.

// Cherish This Season

From the perspective of a lifetime, 7 months probably seems insignificant. Of course, when you are going through it day by day, it can seem like eternity (especially when you are surviving on your savings and have a family to feed 😕 Grateful to the long suffering hubby who bore the brunt of the financial load).

Nonetheless, on retrospect, I had much time on my hands — time to do what I have always wanted to do — read countless books, complete online courses, watch tutorial videos, work on side projects, and most importantly, spend time with my family.

Treat this time as an opportunity for character development. You build resilience. You get more creative with the use of your finances as you experience what it means to be in lack. You appreciate the simple things in life.

Time is something so precious that once it is gone, nothing can get it back. So cherish this season of your life, embrace its ups and downs and when you look back, you know you have grown all the better through it.