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Job hunting by its very nature will involve a significant amount of downtime. There is no getting around this simple fact. You’ll be sending out resumes, going to interviews and following up with phone calls or e-mails, but ultimately, these things only take up so much time. So what do you do with the down time that comes with job hunting? Here’s how to make that time productive and useful:

Get Organized

First of all, most of us are not particularly organized by our very nature. Most of us have the ubiquitous “junk drawer” because we always have stuff that we don’t know quite where it should go. While this may work for the things you rarely use, it’s a recipe for disaster when you are job hunting. So use you’re your down time to get yourself organized.

Have copies of your resume stored and ready to roll. If you haven’t done so yet, build yourself an Excel spreadsheet where you detail which companies you’ve already applied to, what you did and what happened. This could prove invaluable later on as you continue to apply for jobs (being able to mention that you met with Jane Smith back on May 3 and that she was impressed but felt that you were missing the skills needed for this particular job could well make the difference in landing a different position with the same company).

It can also be helpful to keep notes about your interviews, both because there is a possibility that you may meet with the same person later on and because you may learn from your mistakes when you don’t get the job.

Learn Something

Those who do the best when they have down time while job hunting are lifelong learners. If learning new skills hasn’t been your thing until now, then it’s time to start. Look into taking classes, ideally at night or on the weekends which can enhance your resume so that you look more impressive. The reason you want to do the classes at night or on the weekends is because you want to be available to start a job in case it comes along.

Plus, by taking the courses at night or on the weekends, your classmates are more likely to be employed themselves at companies which may be hiring, thus providing you with valuable networking contacts which you aren’t likely to get from a day class.

Network

It’s never too late to look up old friends whom you haven’t spoken with in years. Especially in this day and age, when Facebook makes it easy to find and get re-acquainted with old friends, it’s time to renew old contacts, no matter who they are. You never know who will help you find the job you are looking for. Just be sure to keep it casual.

Renewing old contacts and saying “hey, I’m looking for a job” will more than likely get you blank stares. Renewing old contacts and talking over old times while casually mentioning that you are looking for something may spark a new job (i.e. when talking to an old friend, inevitably, the question “so what are you doing these days” will come up. Just mention the industry you work in and that you are between jobs right now).

Keep Your Appearance Up

It’s easy to get discouraged at the long periods of downtime while you are job hunting. However, it’s important that you keep your appearance looking professional, even if you aren’t expecting to go to an interview. First of all, you never know when someone will call asking you to come in for one and second, you never know who may see you walking in the street and remember that you are perfect for a job they need filled.

Frankie Eybsen is a education and career blogger. He is currently helping ResumeBucket compile the largest collection of sample resumes on the internet.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 at 7:58 am and is filed under Career, Job Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.