Life on the bench: in my dressing gown

[chris79]

You've fallen into the trap of setting your focus on getting a gig and dwelling on the situation too much.

I spent 5 months benched not long ago and I can see how you could let it get to a situation where you just wake up, no inspiration, same old crap on jobserve, feeling that things will never change and that your future isn't a good one.

I'm now back on the bench and from my past experience I've learned to deal with it in a positive way...

Set yourself a routine - routines are good because they help you get stuff done and leave you less time to let your mind convince you things are bad / getting bad.

Get up early, set your goal being 2 hours max job hunting whilst eating your breakfast... once this is done, put the "client hunting" out your mind until tomorrow. That's it, job done for the day - don't sit all day at the computer hitting F5 on Jobserve - it can be demoralizing and drag you down. Use the time you have now whilst benched to go and do stuff you've always wanted to do, but never had the time?

If you can't think of anything or have no list prepared then it's time you got one sorted.. have you ever been to a gym before? Do you care about your health and well-being for instance? Ever been fishing? Squash?.. one of the most important things is to keep social, this is one thing you have taken off you when benched unless you keep social 'outside' of work.

Look at your home - is it clean and tidy? Go round each room one at a time and decide what could be done/improved and do one room per day - by the end of the month you'll feel far better about yourself, your home, and done some physical exercise in the process feel better inside.

Don't waste your life sitting around waiting for a job - it's just the way things are right now, get your CV updated / checked over by someone who can help do a good job and get things back on track.

Hope that helps! You can make bench-time fun, it doesn't have to be depressing.. I'm into week #2 on the bench myself now and loving it..

[MrNoMotivation]

Thanks.

only kidding. See above. Makes alot of sense.

[RichardCranium]

lots of good advice.

That was great! Positive, insightful, constructive, great!

Shame you had to spoil it:

I'm into week #2 on the bench myself now and loving it..

Week 2? Oh god. That was so long ago.

[chris79]

Oh by the way - if you're bored don't sit and read the news all day - it's been proven through research that people who read the news more than others in general feel more depressed and down about life.

Probably because the only news we get is bad news these days.. nobody puts on the headlines that despite being in recession and jobs are fewer, we still live longer, and have a far far far better quality of life than say 80% of the world, or people who lived just 100 years ago..

[minestrone]

I would try to do my job hunting in the afternoon, if a gig comes up in the day the pimp will no doubt ignore any CVs after the first 100 he will get in the next 2 hours from bob and his pals.

I would think many roles are dead looking at them before 9 in the morning.

[Cyberman]

You've fallen into the trap of setting your focus on getting a gig and dwelling on the situation too much.

I spent 5 months benched not long ago and I can see how you could let it get to a situation where you just wake up, no inspiration, same old crap on jobserve, feeling that things will never change and that your future isn't a good one.

I'm now back on the bench and from my past experience I've learned to deal with it in a positive way...

Set yourself a routine - routines are good because they help you get stuff done and leave you less time to let your mind convince you things are bad / getting bad.

Get up early, set your goal being 2 hours max job hunting whilst eating your breakfast... once this is done, put the "client hunting" out your mind until tomorrow. That's it, job done for the day - don't sit all day at the computer hitting F5 on Jobserve - it can be demoralizing and drag you down. Use the time you have now whilst benched to go and do stuff you've always wanted to do, but never had the time?

If you can't think of anything or have no list prepared then it's time you got one sorted.. have you ever been to a gym before? Do you care about your health and well-being for instance? Ever been fishing? Squash?.. one of the most important things is to keep social, this is one thing you have taken off you when benched unless you keep social 'outside' of work.

Look at your home - is it clean and tidy? Go round each room one at a time and decide what could be done/improved and do one room per day - by the end of the month you'll feel far better about yourself, your home, and done some physical exercise in the process feel better inside.

Don't waste your life sitting around waiting for a job - it's just the way things are right now, get your CV updated / checked over by someone who can help do a good job and get things back on track.

Hope that helps! You can make bench-time fun, it doesn't have to be depressing.. I'm into week #2 on the bench myself now and loving it..

WHS

[chris79]

That was great! Positive, insightful, constructive, great!

Shame you had to spoil it:Week 2? Oh god. That was so long ago.

What's your scope for working location, are you applying for contracts 'nationwide' ?.. or just in your local geographic area?

I spent 4 months on the bench before I widened my scope to further out - in the end I took a gig paying half the rate because I wanted to work local and see my kids every night.. but looking national there are plenty jobs - you just have to be prepared to travel.

Are you focusing purely on your specific skills or can you tweak your CV to be a bit more generic and open up some other lines of work perhaps? I'm not a project manager but I've worked on projects before and have P2, etc.. I started applying for project roles and got a few interviews doing that despite it not being my mainstream profession.

[chris79]

I would try to do my job hunting in the afternoon, if a gig comes up in the day the pimp will no doubt ignore any CVs after the first 100 he will get in the next 2 hours from bob and his pals.

I would think many roles are dead looking at them before 9 in the morning.

I agree with this - I rang up about a job at 5pm last night, it had been on 30 mins and got into a good convo with the agent - CV being put forward for it.. seems the best time to do your job hunting is around 4pm I think.. maybe even try a split shift .. 9-10am and 4-5pm.

[OwlHoot]

Oh by the way - if you're bored don't sit and read the news all day - it's been proven through research that people who read the news more than others in general feel more depressed and down about life. ..

Yes, I normally post doom-laden news clips in General, but you could always try Light Relief

[The Lone Gunman]

I agree with this - I rang up about a job at 5pm last night, it had been on 30 mins and got into a good convo with the agent - CV being put forward for it.. seems the best time to do your job hunting is around 4pm I think.. maybe even try a split shift .. 9-10am and 4-5pm.

I always figured the split shift was better.
the morning shift catches the late adverts from the night before the afternoon gets the days new ones.

1 hours job search first thing then again just before dinner.

Try and plan to have something to do each day.
Try and plan to step outside at least once per day.