Surviving Unemployment: My Six Month Takeaway

I recently sent out an email sharing some of my takeaways from six months of surviving unemployment. People really seemed to resonate with it, so I wanted to share it here for anyone in a similar position.

There's an artist focus in this piece on surviving unemployment, as I am an unemployed artist in NYC. I think a lot of what I have to say can be applied across industries, but you've been warned.

The email about surviving unemployment in question.

In May of this year, I was laid off from my 9-5. Prior to this, I had worked in marketing for four years. The last six months have been a pretty informative period, I'll elaborate:

1st takeaway: If you're surviving unemployment, it's a full time job.

According to LinkedIn, I've applied to around 400 jobs on their platform. That right there is applying to two jobs per day.

On top of that, those 400 don't include listings on LinkedIn that redirect to external job sites (a majority do) or jobs applied to on Indeed. I'd estimate I've applied to around 1000 job listings in the last 6 months.

Out of those 1000, 20 became interviews, 2 of which I made it to the final round. Pay for these listings ranged from 45k-155k, companies I've interviewed with include AI startups, consulting firms, massive arts institutions, and more. 

All this breaks down to a .02% interview rate, and .002% chance of making it to the final round. 

Kim Kardashian recently said "It seems like nobody wants to work these days".

What an idiot.

2nd takeaway: You're closer to full-time freelancing than you think.

I've somehow managed to not financially destitute myself during this time. As a 27 year old living in NYC, this was shocking. When I first moved here, I tried freelancing my way through life, a terrible idea. Five years later however, through the midst of a pandemic, I made connections here and there. Those "here and there"s have turned into a little spider web of gig work opportunities. I'm not catching big bugs, but these lil five year flies are pretty tasty.

3rd takeaway: The Arts don't bear many fruits, but keep planting seeds.

Really blowing your minds with this one, but yes, making a living in the arts is as challenging as they say. 

The good news is: I've planted some exciting seeds. Seeds like the successful revitalization of a decade-old independent theatrical program, the expansion of a non profit focused on arts exposure, overhauling my approach to painting and sales, and developing new original work (which may have some exciting announcements in 2025). 

The thing with planting seeds is that you never know which ones will sprout. So, in between the planting and reaping, there's waiting. There is a lot of waiting in this field, and waiting is expensive.

I hope this post helps some folks. It can be really rough out here, but if you can find ways to hold out and find joy while you do it, there's so much satisfaction in doing it. Simply becoming the artist you are meant to become is it's own reward, one that not many people get to claim.

Wishing everyone a happy holidays. May your seeds sprout soon!