Most people dread being unemployed. With unemployment typically comes more negative consequences than positive ones, but if you’re already unemployed, an important question to ask is “what will help me more in the long run? Focusing on the negative consequences or the positive ones?” One of the positive consequences of unemployment is the opportunity to learn new skills so you will be more attractive as a job candidate and more versatile as an employee. The vast number of skills out there to learn and equally vast number of ways to learn them can be a bit overwhelming, however. Here we will discuss one helpful strategy for learning new skills while you are unemployed.
First it is important to narrow down the limitless list of skills out there to the ones you want to learn. That may seem obvious, but when doing so, it is also helpful to make sure at least most of the skills you want to learn (in the near future) are related to your field/industry/position. Next, most skills people want to learn are actually made up of a collection of sub-skills aka simpler skills that add up to one more complex skill. For example, if you are trying to gain the skill of being a proficient guitar player you would need to gain sub-skills of reading music, strumming patterns, chord properties, and more. These sub-skills are not always mapped out so it will take some researching more information about the skill and practice on breaking down skills into simpler parts.
Speaking of research, that is the next part in learning a new skill you’ve picked out. Depending on the skill, you may seek out information from sources like people who already have a good grasp on the skill, written sources like websites or books, and audio/video sources like videos or instructional CDs. Since you are unemployed while you are learning this skill, the most prudent financial move is to get the information for free, no matter what source you use. But if you need the skill bad enough and there is no way around it, like skills that require specific testing for certification, by all means.
One more essential ingredient for learning any new skill is practicing. Only be applying the information you collected via research will you eventually learn the new skill. The biggest factor in practicing is time, but one positive consequence of unemployment is that you should have more time at your disposal. Just make sure you are practicing properly (per the information you collected) because typically bad habits from practicing improperly are hard to break.
First it is important to narrow down the limitless list of skills out there to the ones you want to learn. That may seem obvious, but when doing so, it is also helpful to make sure at least most of the skills you want to learn (in the near future) are related to your field/industry/position. Next, most skills people want to learn are actually made up of a collection of sub-skills aka simpler skills that add up to one more complex skill. For example, if you are trying to gain the skill of being a proficient guitar player you would need to gain sub-skills of reading music, strumming patterns, chord properties, and more. These sub-skills are not always mapped out so it will take some researching more information about the skill and practice on breaking down skills into simpler parts.
Speaking of research, that is the next part in learning a new skill you’ve picked out. Depending on the skill, you may seek out information from sources like people who already have a good grasp on the skill, written sources like websites or books, and audio/video sources like videos or instructional CDs. Since you are unemployed while you are learning this skill, the most prudent financial move is to get the information for free, no matter what source you use. But if you need the skill bad enough and there is no way around it, like skills that require specific testing for certification, by all means.
One more essential ingredient for learning any new skill is practicing. Only be applying the information you collected via research will you eventually learn the new skill. The biggest factor in practicing is time, but one positive consequence of unemployment is that you should have more time at your disposal. Just make sure you are practicing properly (per the information you collected) because typically bad habits from practicing improperly are hard to break.
