I found an article that claimed that US job hunters only spend forty minutes per day looking for a job. Maybe that's forty minutes checking job boards, but that's only 10% of an 8-hour work day on your job.

You may think "I don't have a job!", but you do. When you're out of a job, your full-time job is to find your next job. Treat it like a 9-5 job. No matter what you do, don't sit around and do nothing. Don't allow the gift of time you've been given to find a job be squandered by doing nothing.

There are three big reasons to treat your job hunt like a job:

  • You'll increase your chance of success

  • You'll fight off the depression of being jobless

  • You're going to get asked about it in interviews

Let's look at each in detail.

You will have more chances of success

You may think there are no jobs to be found, but there are. You just haven't found them yet, probably because you're looking in the wrong places. Checking job boards doesn't count as job hunting especially since only 7.5% of jobs are filled through job boards. You have to get out and talk to people.

Talk to everyone you can. Even if you've exhausted every source you can think of, try for just one more. Look back through your hunt logs and find a target you haven't checked in a few months. Wherever you pursue, look for a new option you haven't explored yet. You can't get a job from a contact that you don't make.

One excellent source of information you may not have considered is your local Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce is a group of businesses organized together to help each other. The website will probably have a directory of members and job listings. More important than these sources is the opportunity to talk to the Chamber staff themselves and find out what they may know about the needs of companies in the area.

Don't just call or email the Chamber. Show up at their office, in person, and talk to someone. You're far more likely to be remembered when you meet someone than you are just from email. Be sure to show up with a number of copies of your resume, and some of your personal business cards, so that you can leave some if it's appropriate.

Just keep pushing. Keep making one more step, checking one more idea. I know it can be disheartening, but anything is better than doing nothing. Chance favors the prepared mind, and the more time you spend working, using the Internet, the more likely you are to stumble across the job you need, and maybe even one you will love.

You fight off the depression of not having a job

Sitting around on the couch watching bad TV is a great way to aggravate your worries about not having a job. Playing World of Warcraft or napping all day may feel like a little vacation, but they're not going to get you that next paycheck. Don't give in to the temptation.

Treat your days without a job as if you do have a job, and your job is to find a job, and improve your skills. Get to the office at 9:00, even if your office is just the kitchen table, take lunch like you normally would, and then keep working until 5:00.

What can you do besides look for jobs? Take advantage of the time off to start all those projects you've just never found the time for. You've been given the time, so use it!

  • Start a blog. Write about what you're learning in your time off. This becomes a record of your progress, to help you remember that your time's not been wasted. It's also a record that a future employer will see when he Googles you after he's seen your resume. Finally, it helps you practice writing, since you're in a field where the written word is crucial to future success.

  • Teach yourself something new related to your job. Always wanted to learn a new programming language, but you told yourself you never had the time? Now you have the time. Want to learn a new Linux distribution? Clear out a spare partition on your home machine and get to it. Maybe you're a project manager who wants to learn more about programming. Get going, and then blog about it.

  • Take a business or technical class, maybe at your local community college. Community colleges are a fantastic value for your dollar for introductory classes. My local community college charges only $77 per credit hour. Start with business classes before you worry about the technical. You can always learn technical skills on your own. Business knowledge is important to any employer. Take a class in accounting or marketing, or a good business overview if you've never taken one before.

  • Take an unrelated class in something fascinating if you haven't found anything appropriate technical or in business. Maybe you'd like an introduction to automotive repair, or to get your feet wet in conversational Japanese. My local community college has programs in criminal justice and fire protection, both of which I'd love to find out more about. Whatever it is, learn something. Then blog about it.

  • Contribute to an open source project. Somewhere you're likely using some open source software. Learn about it. Learn about the culture surrounding it. Find out what its needs are. Find out what kind of help they need. Then provide that help. You don't have to be a programmer to contribute to open source. You can provide documentation, answer user questions, respond to bugs in the bug tracker, and so on. Blog about it.

  • Contribute to Wikipedia, or a wiki related to a project of interest. Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia, and can always use improvement. There are tons on Wikia. Find a topic related to your job, not arguing about Jabba the Hutt's family history. Then blog about it.

  • Frequent mailing lists and bulletin boards related to your area of expertise. See what you can learn, and who you can help. Blog about the most interesting ideas.

  • Go to your public library. Libraries are amazing storehouses of knowledge. The chances of finding something fascinating and enriching are high!

  • Read read read! Find something new to inspire you. Blog about it.

You're going to be asked about it at interviews

Chances are that an interviewer who sees that you've been out of work for a while will ask about your job search. She may even specifically ask "What have you been doing in the four months since you got laid off?" How will you answer this question?

You could answer:

Well, I've gone on a few interviews, and reading Monster every day, of course, but, uh, that's about it.

which is hardly inspiring, or you could answer:

I've gone on some interviews, but those weren't very encouraging. I've been investigating companies in manufacturing, because I feel like that's where my heart lies. In the downtime, I taught myself Python and I wrote a tool to analyze the RSS feed coming from Simply Hired using Python. The source code is in my portfolio of sample code that I brought today.

or maybe

In the downtime, I've been monitoring Stack Overflow for SQL Server questions, trying to help with the problems that novices post. It's kind of fun because I know how to handle most of the problems, like optimizing indexes, but some of them are stumpers so I go dig and find the answer. The latest was a problem someone had with...

or how about

... and I've been hitting the topics that I've never had time for. The accounting class I had my eye on was full, so I'm in my fourth week of a class in metallurgy. Plus, I've been checking out cookbooks on German cooking from the library, and I practice a new dish every day for lunch.

Imagine how a hiring manager is going to be impressed with your drive and initiative! In all these examples, you're showing how you're making the most of your down time, improving yourself and maybe even helping others. That's the kind of drive that you can't train into someone.

Keep thinking like you're working

Stick to the notion that you have a job. Keep a regular schedule. Work at your job of finding your next job. It can't help but improve your chances and get you back on someone's payroll.

For those who have been out of work, what do you do during the day to keep yourself active and working on the job of finding a job?