Unemployment Times

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Unemployment Times  - Chronicles of a recently unemployed working class fellow

Monday was my last day at work, for the first time in 6 years since college I am without a job and today is my second day of unemployment. How does it feel? I will be honest about the first 48 hours at least, a sense of freedom mixed with bouts of nervousness about the future. 

Lest I be misunderstood let me clarify at the outset that the sense of freedom is borne out of no other reason other than the apparent freedom one feels in the initial days from the monotonous rhythm to which one has got used to as a working professional and the bouts of nervousness is ironically borne out of  addiction  to the very same rhythm. 

You see for the last six years I had a job, a steady source of income and more importantly a sense of direction. Whether I wanted to head towards that direction is a different matter but there was always someone to guide me towards one particular direction and the moment I stepped out of the venerable corridors of my former employer I left behind all that rhythm, direction, money, security. 

When I first announced my intention to quit no one quite believed that I have no counter offer from another cushy corporate office, and probably still don't. In India quitting a job is a big deal and quitting a steady, decently paying comfortable job with one of the Fortune 100 companies without a counter offer in hand is outright taboo. 

The reactions to my apparently insane move has been mixed with 50% saying that this was a bad idea and that I will immediately regret it and the other 50% saying "Good going,I wish I was you"

Since the opinion is equally divided between the two camps I though I might as well document my days and see the outcome both as a lesson to myself and perhaps to someone out there who may find himself/herself in my position in future.

Firstly I would like to clarify that I quit primarily so that I can take care of my health. But apart from this rather morbid reason somewhere in my heart I wanted to take this risk to pursue a greater calling. Sadly the exact dimensions of this greater calling eludes me yet and I intend to make the most of this "free" time that I have in pursuit of the same. 

In the same vein I will try to increase significantly, my blogging and also add a couple of new topics. I have at least one in mind right now, book reviews. I am a voracious reader and many of my friends have asked me to try my hand at reviews. So far  I have been reluctant largely due to an impossibly lazy disposition and lack of time, but also because of the genre that I prescribe to: military literature (non fiction). Not really everyone's cup of tea but seeing as I have some time at hand, I might as well give it a shot. Right now I am reading 'Chosen Soldier' by Dick Couch and as hilariously scandalous the author's name is, the dude was a certified bad ass (ex Navy Seal. ex CIA) and as soon as I am done with the book the review will follow. 

So that is one of things on my mind apart from, like I said, the chronicles of my unemployed days. Watch this space for more. See you guys soon with the next post. Cheers for now!

Oh and here is a video I wanted to share which I found rather inspiring 

Fun fact: This guys lost his job in 2012 and became a full time YouTuber, today his channel ranks as one of the top channels with more than 3 million subscribers worldwide (including yours truly) and he makes significantly more money (six figures apparently) via his weekly videos than he ever could with his full time job. 








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