Unemployed?  Only if you sit at home all day and watch TV while you fill out online applications online for jobs posted in the local newspapers or the ‘big boy’ job boards.  While published jobs are less than 65% of the real openings ‘out there,’ if you are leaving an unemployed date gap in your resume, you may be hurting your chances of getting another job soon.

Why?  You don’t want to become an UNNA – Unemployed Need Not Apply, the latest buzz word that refers to companies, headhunters, and recruiters who foolishly believe if one is unemployed, you are your last employer’s reject (laid off, terminated, or unskilled).  What can you do to avoid that dreaded black hole? Take training courses, educational classes, or volunteer.  Use these to fill in that gap without a ‘real’ employer, and the return in investment (ROI) may turn out exponentially profitable for you.

Training and Education – where can you find cheap or free training classes or educational opportunities?

Navigating in LinkedIn’s Event notices (a great place to announce your own classes or events, or find them – especially freebies), lets you find training classes that might be free within 5, 10, 25, or 50 miles from your own home.  You must establish a profile in the site (3 minutes), but once there, look for the “More” tab, pull down the menu to “Events” and start shopping.  Look for events that will expand your skill sets – how to use WordPress (blogs), financial investment classes, website design, mass emailing programs, as well as job search training classes, are just a few.  Being unemployed means every dime counts – there are also inexpensive classes in the LinkedIn events.

(https://www.linkedin.com/)

EventBrite is a great place for meeting organizers to sell tickets for events, but organizers also can post free events at no charge, and what better place to find an interesting work or share in a hobby related presentation? Look for training events or round-table discussions that increase your knowledge (https://www.eventbrite.com/)

MeetUp.com is another very popular group organization membership site.  If your interest ranges from wine tasting to iPad users to play-dates for your children, you can find it here. A recent search came up with a six-series job search training class less than 30 minutes from home. Many businesses create their own groups as a means to reach potential customers, or new employees, via networking groups.  Always take a stack of business cards with you and make sure you have plenty of resumes in your car to share if someone has an interest. (https://www.meetup.com/)

Webinars are another excellent opportunity to learn new skills or knowledge.  If you are a member of a trade organization or business group that provides learning opportunities online, sign up for these presentations.  At the end they will most likely try to gently encourage you to consider a product or service for purchase, but the front-loaded part might be full of interesting business-related information.  As a Human Resources professional my email box is filled with HR.com, HCI.com, ERE, and other HR business organizations who are consistent in providing online webinars for my trade.  Look in your trade organization’s website for free webinars or simply Google “free webinar” +(your interest) for amazing results.

SlideShare.com, Box.net, and YouTube are one of the most amazing repositories of knowledge shared by the virtual learning community.  You can find just about any subject and a ‘how-to’ on these sites on just about any subject.  (When struggling through statistics classes for a PhD, YouTube provided stats processes and SPSS software steps.)  If you want to learn website design, how to husk corn without bothering with the silk, or to fold origami, these sites are super for simple to complex information.  What skill set are you weak on?  Find a PowerPoint presentation, white paper, or video that explains how to do it, or the fundamentals, or detailed higher-level processes.

Once you get the additional training – add it to your resume under the Education /Training section, and place the dates there to document when you achieved the new skills or learning.

Volunteer / Consulting – The last thing you want to do is show you are ‘not working’ on a resume.  The best action is fill in that gap with volunteer activities and/or consulting gigs. Where can you find opportunities to provide services and teach others – even if unpaid?  The local newspaper (Sunday section or Entertainment section) usually lists volunteer organizations in your local area.  March down to the non-profit offices and immediately volunteer your services, your education, your skills, and start making yourself useful.  Volunteer to teach others what you know and become a ‘teacher’ on your resume.  You’ll learn more than what you pass on to others!

What can come of it?  You can get a recommendation from a happy organization director for your work.  You can keep yourself in practice for your skills sets (IT, office work, marketing planning, business development, etc.).

You can add volunteer activities as work to your resume.  It doesn’t matter if you aren’t paid – you are ‘working.’ Your resume won’t have an ‘empty hole’ of inactivity that makes recruiters and hiring managers leery of the unknown. Note the activity as a “Consultant (Volunteer).”  What does this volunteer work prove to recruiters and hiring managers?  It demonstrates you are an active, ‘go-get-‘em’ type of worker, who does not sit around waiting for the world (or a job) to come to you, who is eager to learn new things and be a team player.

So – why aren’t you still learning?

Copyright, 2005, Dawn D. Boyer