Trials and tribulations of unemployment

My blog is more of a rant than anything else. If you are unemployed, or have been unemployed in the past, you too may have come to the same realisation as I have, being unemployed is depressing. Yes, you will have family, friends and past colleagues offering words of encouragement and support, but when you are personally experiencing unemployment first hand, you feel isolated.  

I have been unemployed for the past 13 months, having tried in vain to secure employment through various approaches; writing countless letters, emails and following up with phone calls directly to employers, registering with recruitment agencies, offering to work for free to gain experience (especially in roles where I would gain useful experience and knowledge that I could in turn use in the construction industry), I also completed a 6 month intern-ship on the Job bridge scheme (company had a recruitment embargo), sought out a mentor in construction industry for career advice. On top of all that, even applied for jobs outside of the construction sphere, just to keep busy and earn some money, but to no avail.  

Now, to the crux of my problem; every day we hear from our ‘out of touch’ politicians, that the economy is getting better, our problems are fixed and Ireland is well on the way to recovery. I have heard similar expressions from our politician’s before. Do any of these phrases sound familiar to you? We are “turning a corner”, “important announcement”, “and investment remains strong”, “green-shoots”, "our plan is working”, “major endorsement” and the best of all, the news-less news conference. Honestly, is it only me, but very little changed over the past 5 years, and the next 5 years don’t look a whole lot better either, least of all in the construction sector.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that having a positive outlook in these gloomy times is better than having a negative outlook, but to make a difference to your own life, you need to have realistic optimism. Likewise, many of you will have heard positive quotes like “believe that success will come to you, and it will” or “visualise your dream job and you will get it”, well it’s simply not true. If you want to achieve success (or in my case a career in the construction industry), you must put in a lot of effort, time and planning. Thus, my reason for completing B.Sc. in construction management, it is the first stage of my new career strategy. I hope it will be the stepping stone future employment and a successful career in construction industry; although that is unlikely to be in Ireland with the current economic climate. Offers please!!

Don't visualise success -- visualise the steps you will take in order to make success happen.