Been unemployed since April. Normally not that big of a deal. I work in manufacturing, and that is a very fluid profession where plants open and close or consolidate all the time. I’ve kinda gotten used to things hitting the fan and me either losing my job or realizing finding another one is just a good idea. I’ve gotten good at writing a resume and generally do well in interviews. In the past, I’ve never been unemployed more than three months and there were only two times I had a face-to-face interview that didn’t turn into a job offer.

I get there is an unprecedented disruption going on right now. But there just haven’t been many employers looking for my skillset, and the ones that have seem to be looking for a bit more junior personnel that what I bring to the table. I’ve gotten a couple of phone calls that never went further after we talked about the position a bit, and a couple of face-to-face interviews where I didn’t get the job (I think) because they were looking for someone younger/cheaper.
On the plus side, I live below my means, have a decent stockpile of cash, and I could probably weather 2-3 years of unemployment if I had to. So this isn’t money stress so much as career path stress.

I can only see two options for me right now:

1 – Be patient. As your professional skillset matures, it does become harder to find the best fit. Good opportunities may not really manifest until some semblance of normal returns.

2 – Eff-it and start a handyman business. Been doing a bunch of odd-jobs for friends, family, and self during the shutdown anyway.

There are a lot of problems with both strategies. For #1, longer and longer employment gaps look “bad.” And there is the possibility the way I job hunt and interview that has worked in the past doesn’t work anymore and I don’t realize it.

For #2, I’ve never been much of a shameless self-promoter and I find most social media narcissistic and offensive…but I’m not really sure how to market a new business without shameless self promotion across multiple social media platforms. And I don’t own a truck or van to get materials/tools to jobsites. And I live in the NRV, which is a semi-rural area where dudes tend to know how to fix things themselves. It’s not an urban area where fix-it skills are scarce and business plentiful.

Helpful and/or loungeworthy opinions welcome.