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Confessions of an Unemployed Professional
Dealing with unemployment can be isolating and professional development opportunities can exacerbate feelings of being alone. Even when surrounded by your peers. Read more about what I learned about the power of being vulnerable and honest about myself.
I spent a great deal of my time during 2018 and 2019 trying to find a new job since my last college closed. Since that time, I documented some of the ways I prepared myself for interviews, where I improved my skills in managing tough, personal questions and how I examined my personal values in relationship to the work did in the past and will do in the future.
I tried to prepare myself for a life that would segue from that immediate past into a future that allowed me to put my skills back into the working world. Honestly, I believed I was in a good headspace to navigate the professional development conference I attended in 2019.
I quickly learned that was not exactly the case.
At the closing session of the annual conference, I began to feel very panicked. Not from what was being said on the stage, or by the friends as they prepared themselves for flights home. I panicked because during the short time during the conference, I felt like my old self.