“Unemployment has risen by xxmil people”

“The difficulties of people over 50 in finding work”

“Thousands of families face expenses of up to 500 euros with the return to school”

“Precarious contracts”

“Many young people with a university education are forced to leave their country”

These headlines sound familiar, don’t they? They give a very discouraging picture to all those people who are looking for work. In addition to the frustration that many people suffer every day, to refusal after refusal, to silence after silence of their mobile phone, there is the image of a world that seems to have very little to offer us.

If this is not enough, sometimes you have to add the typical “become an entrepreneur”, which although it is an important option to take into account, is not always the plan B and only increases the feeling of guilt and that feeling of “doing nothing” . Looking for a job sometimes makes you desperate and weary.

Looking for work without despair: some keys

What can you do to avoid dying in the attempt? How can we renew our energy day by day and face up to finding a job? Looking for a job is something that all of us at some point in our lives have seen or will see ourselves doing, and it is not superfluous to have some tools and advice so as not to decline in that search. Here are 5 essentials:

1. Where to go to look for a job?

First of all we have to know which search options and where we can leave our curriculum vitae . We have from the already known Infojobs (and thousands of other search portals) to the classic one of leaving your CV in hand. There are also employment advice centres where you can get guidance and help according to your case and specific search websites according to your profession. The professional associations also have their job boards or notice boards where you can advertise.

Send your CV via e-mail or go and deliver it in person?

Each option has its advantages and disadvantages. Nowadays with the internet it is very easy to send your CV to many companies, centres and offers (even in some cases it is the only way to contact them depending on the call), but there is also a risk, many people will be sending their CV, so the competition will be higher .

Leaving the CV in hand is more direct, more personal, the company sees you directly and the interest shown is different from a simple e-mail, but its disadvantage is the investment of time that has to be spent in walking around the different sites that interest us . The best option is to use all means, both mail and in person in those offers that interest us most. Spend all the cartridges.

Here are two articles on this topic that can help you have a more successful presentation:

“The 10 tips to improve your resume”

“VC types: which one suits you best?”

2. Is it better to be an employee or an entrepreneur?

Do I become an entrepreneur? Starting your own business can be very tempting, even more so if you have been looking for a job for some time without success. But you have to have everything very well organized and tied up for that business to work, as well as doing something purely vocational. Being an entrepreneur sometimes is a job to 24h, everything depends on you (at least at the beginning), and the investment of time and money is usually high at first.

To make it work you have to spend a lot of time on it, and sometimes that means sacrificing time that you can spend on your leisure or your social and family life . You also have to control important issues that escape many of us, such as accounting or the more legal parts. The key to making everything work is vocation. Vocation will be the energy that will move you to take your business to success, to learn those necessary and unknown subjects and to overcome the possible problems and frustrations that may arise.

3. The importance of organization (and dosage)

Set yourself a schedule . Not having a job doesn’t have to be synonymous with doing nothing and having empty hours. Organize your day, decide what hours you are going to spend looking for a job, what hours you are going to spend, for example, taking care of your house or shopping, save some time for leisure and to see your friends and family, and yes, why not, reserve some time for doing nothing or watching TV.

We should not stop pampering and taking care of ourselves in this stage of the search , moments of disappointment, frustration and anger may come, and we should be strong and prepared. Besides, having an organized schedule will take away the feeling of “wasting our time”.

4. Reflect on what conditions you are willing to accept

One aspect that generates a lot of debate is what are you willing to accept in order to have a job? There are many factors and situations to consider here, but it is not superfluous to know what things we will accept and what things we will not. Many companies take advantage of the crisis situation we are going through and hire in unacceptable conditions taking advantage of people’s desperation .

Don’t let them demand or absorb you more than you want and need (and watch out for legal limits, sometimes they are too fine and play into their hands)

5. Who are you and who do you want to become?

Finally, it doesn’t hurt to have a final objective : what would you really like to do ? what is your dream job? what can you do now to reach that goal? No one can say what the future will bring and where we will end up, and it is true that there are situations in life that will more or less help you to walk towards your goal, but not losing sight of it guides us and gives a meaning to what we are doing, even if it is the most sucky job in the world.