How to Balance Summer Fun and Your Job Hunt

Ahhhh, the longest day just passed and we are officially in the summer season. So that means it is time for the beach and trips to the parks, mountains, aquariums and other fun spots! Oops, wait a minute. Can I really have fun while the prospect of continued unemployment is looming?

 

With Owen and Evan’s preschool almost over for the academic year, I have to figure out how to balance their vacation and educational needs in the next 2½ months with my job search. For them, mommy still has to work very hard even though she goes to a different office (library, unemployment services room -- see #7 in this blog post). But from a preschooler's view, summertime means more fun with mommy and friends.

 

Since having a routine is reassuring to little ones, I'm holding a junior version of a planning meeting with my boys. This way, they can have input in their priorities for the summer and we can figure out together what makes fun and sense for everyone.

 

This will be a unique summer for all of us, so I wish to maximize the amount of time I can spend with them without neglecting the job search. With vacation time at the doorstep, the boys are finding it appealing that they can sleep-in late most mornings. That would give me an extra hour of early morning job search/networking time. Another idea is to be sure they have at least a half hour of swimming/beach time midafternoon; that way they expend lots of energy and feel more inclined to go to bed on or before time, and it leaves me another 4-plus hours of evening job-seeking time.

 

Maybe the boys and I will even do a little fun project together to help me with the position quest. One idea is to do the traditional lemonade stand (we live near a busy foot/bicycle path to the beach) and offer up free lemonade in exchange for career insights, advice, leads, tips, etc. For all others, it would be 25 or 50 cents depending on the size of drink. Of course, the lemonade profits would be theirs for their summer fun expenditures or to bank for a rainy day (a learning concept already in active place for them).

 

Around Fourth of July weekend, I'll even plan in a few mental days off for myself and take the boys on an educational adventure. We will do a road trip out to Chicago to visit my sister and her boys (about the same ages as Owen and Evan) and stop at a few museums on the way. They love dinosaurs, so we'll stop at a site where you can excavate for fossils with special tools. Part of the educational adventure will also be planning with free maps and books from the local library. Although, in the back of my mind, I will keep the networking approach skills I've learned active and strategically engage in conversations before, during and after the trip. I'll just leave the computer at home, but I’ll take the cell phone along for perhaps sudden interview calls as well as for road safety.

 

How do you plan to combine your job search with your other life needs this summer?

 

Need to kick-start your own summer job hunt? Check out our “Sizzling Summer Job Search Tips.”

Share this post: Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Facebook, Twitter, etc.