Dianabanana12, Thank you for posting your story as I'm unemployed now (for 2 days) and was in a thankless job for over a year and that was after being unemployed for nearly a year! I'm a similar age to you, I was in finance as an analyst, got a little disenchanted with my career. I went away to school got my masters and haven't been able to grab on to life the way I had before. Your story gives me hope everything can change inside a week and I hope with hard work that I can find another job that I love too soon.
Thanks for sharing! I was pretty down on myself tonight. So appreciated.
OMG trust me...I know the feeling!!! I felt like crap and freaked out for the first two weeks, it got easier after than, then i started enjoying the time off (esp when the unemployment checks came in, i didn't feel as freaked out about having no income coming in, since it was!)
I have to admit, thankfully, it wasn't really even that hard for me to find a job, not sure where you live, but I am not far from Boston, I know its a city and theres typically a lot of job openings in the finance/ accounting fields...I got a recruiter, two actually to keep my options open and they did all the hard work for me I just had to go and interview, one interview I didnt get because they didnt want to give me a pay cut (which i didnt want either) the second i nicely told my recruiter I am not interested since it was NOTHING I wanted, but then i found the perfect one and got it !!
Dont feel bad, I know, I know easier said than done!! It helped so much writing this post and hearing encouraging thing from others!! So glad this helps you but honestly, think of it like this, SO many people are going through the same thing you are going through, and I went through.
I think its great you have your masters, and your field is one of the best in terms of ease of finding a job!
Put in for unemployment, take two weeks before you job search (trust me, especially if you dont want to just rush into another job you will hate) then get a recruiter, try to find a good one without stalking tendencies, they really are helpful since they can weed out things you want and things you dont and handle the compensation side of things.
But honestly, I know $$ is tough taking a cut with unemployment, but for me it wasnt too bad since a lot of my money went to commuting (Gas & parking expenses) which i no longer had sitting at my house most of the day lol.... but if you can, like I said take two weeks, collect yourself, and make this a positive thing! Plus, the biggest thing is, since you are close to my age, we are so young, and have our WHOLE lives ahead of us, this will be nothing when we look back at it!!
Think if what you REALLY want to do and what job you want to see yourself getting, then be a bit patient and hopefully it will come at the right time for you. I looked at it as a month and a half vacation after the initial shock ran off and started to enjoy it, almost too much :X lol
good luck and feel free to message me or anything if you need anyone to talk to!! It makes things so much easier. Also not sure if you have the same feelings I had but I felt almost embarassed telling family and friends, but then i realized, I was the only one really making it that big of a deal, everyone else understands (w/ the state of the economy) so if you do have any of those feelings, let them slide! That was the hardest thing for me.
I will end my novel now lol ... Good luck keep us updated!!!