I was unemployed for about 5 months in 2015 and very unsure about what I wanted to do next. I was spending 50-60 hours a week researching and applying to jobs. It took a while but I found a great job and it put my career on a new trajectory.

But burnout is real even when you're unemployed and I was worn down. Here are my tips for treating yourself with kindness while you're unemployed now that I'm on the other side of it.

1. Set daily time limits for your job search/applications.
2. Allow yourself to still have fun and stick with your hobbies.
3. Lean on other people, more people have been unemployed than you might think.
4. Unemployment, voluntary or involuntary, doesn't change your worth as a person and new employee somewhere else. Speak positive things to yourself daily.

While working in retail I always got the bottom of the barrel jobs like moving pallets and stocking in the early morning or working the second or third shift which was the straighten the store shelves. But did not get the change to use my other skills like price unit scanning, price changes. It was always the heavy jobs that no one would do even to the point of unloading the trucks in Big Lots for 3 months and a couple of times at Walmart. and at Big Lots you not only unloaded the truck then you stocked the shelves. At Target you had to bring the heavy pallets to the department and unload them then stock them. there were times I cold hardly walk out the door and all the way to my car then dig it out before i got home then shovel myself a place to park at 11:30 to 12:00 at night in the winter. when I was finished I took a OTC pain med and went to bed. My employers took no interest in that fact that i could do more than stock or straighten the shelves.