Job hunting is stressful. As is finding a partner. Doing both at the same time can be soul crushing. Even if you spend your days in looking for work, go on occasional dates and try to earn a buck to pay your bills by doing low skilled jobs (totally NOT worth your Master’s degree, because racism is “awesome” in Europe!!🤣), you will eventually get bored. Especially if you are blacklisted from the job market and NOBODY wants to help you find a job (500+ Linkedin connections are useless when you REALLY need them). 🤷🏽♀️
I think the “geniuses get their best ideas alone, crazy and bored” concept is totally OVERRATED BS and does NOT work or then I’m just simply not smart enough to come up with a billion dollar business plan when I’m been constantly mentally tortured! 😂 I hate spending time alone and that’s why I live in the WORST country for my personality (Finland). Anyhow, here are 30 things I have done to defeat boredom (because there’s a limit how much you can spend on writing your freaking job applications per day ok??!). These can be utilized for your mental health as well, because obviously excess boredom and isolation decreases your mental wellbeing A LOT.
- Watched cake videos. 🎂 It’s amazing to see how they create beautiful (and tasty!) art from cakes and sugar. It’s very relaxing and satisfying to see these perfect cakes.
- Sent more than 200 job applications in seven years and FAILED. (Most of them to Finland, because apparently I’m not Finnish= white enough to be hired for a job worth my fucking Master’s degree. 🤷🏽♀️)
- Went to Malta for work, got fired and spent two months looking for work and attended eleven job interviews! (Eleven in two months vs. three in SEVEN YEARS in Finland!) Unfortunately the industry was apparently wrong for me so no luck in getting a job or something fishy. 🤔
- Binge watched TV shows, such as Desperate Housewives, The Handmaid’s Tale, Good Behavior, White Collar, Criminal Minds, New Girl, The Mindy Project, Family Guy etc..
- Literally attended tens of CV improvement courses and even bought a book about cover letters in a work in a library in NYC. Didn’t help me unfortunately.
- Attended job searching courses/ unemployment office events/ generally hanged out in the unemployment office. 😆
- Volunteered for Unicef, UN Women, Amnesty and Finnish Animal Welfare Society. Turns out they are more than happy to take my free help, but not actually PAY me and hire me for a real job. 🤣 👍🏼
- Spent excess time with my cats (they are kind of like my children now ahaha). 🐈
- Drank A LOT of wine. 🍷🍷
- Joined different networking organisations and went to SO many different networking events with ZERO luck in finding work. Met a lot of cool new people though! 💯
- Went to local church events to try to find new friends, failed. 🤷🏽♀️
- Joined Twitter and have tweeted more than 5000 times. (doesn’t include all the deleted (rage)tweets.)
- Created Instagram for myself and one for my cats. Have updated them regularly with pictures I have taken myself.
- Tried to become a Marketing Consultant, created a professional Facebook account (in addition to my other FB account) and a Facebook page for my new “business”, but failed to get clients. ☹️
- Learned how to use WordPress and started blogging after SEVEN years of sending bullshit applications and getting rejected from everything and getting mocked by everyone.
- Did free online courses by Google Digital Garage and got a certificate for one course. Hopefully it will be useful in finding some work. ✌️
- Exercised a lot, checked my weight every day and tracked what I eat but eventually got bored of counting my calorie intake (especially when you’re single) and started eating cakes again. 🎂
- Got a job in Bulgaria, got fired and returned back to square one.
- Traveled for leisure when I had money. 🌴
- Read a few books. 📚
- Organized monthly events for an international expat group. Met so many well travelled cool people! 🌏💯
- Went to NYC alone, found an apartment from Craigslist, networked with a bunch of people, skipped parties to write my fucking job applications (!), sent job applications, attended job interviews, missed my flight back to Finland, stayed and sent more job applications, and finally FAILED. 😫
- Drove around in a tram/ bus to pass time. 😆
- Went shopping in random locations just to get out of the house.
- Tried to talk to Finnish mental health professionals but their arrogant white supremacist attitude and condescending way of talking to me, made me NEVER want to see another mental health professional in this country ever again. ☹️
- Helped my old retired relatives.
- Worked all shitty jobs not worth my Master’s. Funny how some people love to see you do their dirty work for them but whine if you actually have a real job. ( I have been bullied in every office job I’ve had in Finland.)
- Experimented with new cooking recipes.
- Ate too much cake and chocolate. 🍫🧁
- Sat home alone most weekends and wished that I was in NYC. 😔🗽
I hope I inspired someone who is also job hunting, haven’t managed to find a job worth her/ his degree, all the singles out there and anyone who needs encouragement and tips how to handle excess time (in more or less productive ways😝). Remember to be grateful (because that will pay the bills. NOT.) Sending positive vibes to everyone in any case!! 😂😬✌️
