The Unemployed Life

No Comments »

November 8th, 2009

I have been unemployed for over two and a half months now.  The startup where I had been working for the last year was unable to secure its second round of funding (fell through at the last minute), so the company was forced to dissolve and now I am on my own.  It was very unfortunate but completely out of my control, so “que sera sera”.

Some people ask me how I am “coping” with being unemployed, and the truth is that I am really enjoying myself. Luckily I had planned ahead and saved up some money so I can support myself for awhile without having to desperately grab the first job I find.  I am trying to take full advantage of this opportunity and often find myself just as busy as when I had a job.  It’s funny how when you have a job, you have plenty of money but lack the time to enjoy it, but when you have no job, you have plenty of time but lack the money to take advantage of it.   I have been trying find the right balance between utilizing my time and trying to conserve my savings.

Here is what has been keeping me busy lately:

• Working on Personal Web Projects – I have been spending a lot of time learning Python and Django to create a new site to help developers find cheat sheets (I will write more about this soon).  Over the past few years, I have accumulated lots of ideas for websites and have started to horde domain names for these projects.  I think that being unemployed has finally given me the push I needed to start developing these ideas.  I’m really excited about my new site and can’t wait to start working on some of my other ideas as well.
• Intensive German Course – I finally signed up for an intensive German class at Allegra! language school that meets 5 days a week for 2 hours each day.  I just finished week 9 of the course (beginner level A1).  I feel like I have made a lot of progress, although I am still very much in the beginner category.  However, I definitely notice a difference already in being able to understand a little more of what people say and what signs mean, which is an important step in the transition to living abroad.
• Travel – After my crazy summer of traveling, I was ready to stay put in Zürich for awhile…but that didn’t last too long.  In the past 2.5 months, I have been to the Black Forest, Prague, Munich, and Amsterdam.  Plus I am currently in Berlin and have plans to go to Copenhagen and London later this week.  Have I mentioned that I love to travel?
• Job Search – Looking for a job is basically a job itself.  I have been working with a local company in Zürich, Spouse Career Centre, to help me prepare a Swiss-style version of my resume and to help me in my job search.  Looking for a job actually does consume a lot of time between revising my resume, searching job listings, reviewing technical skills, preparing for interviews, and then attending the interviews themselves.

All that being said, I am looking forward to finding a job in Zürich.  I have a few good leads so hopefully one of them will work out.  But in the meantime if anyone knows a company that is looking for an English-speaking programmer/developer/software engineer in Zürich, let me know!