Tere!

Technically speaking, I did not bum or was not completely unemployed as I had some other freelance job every other week. (I have a Japanese colleague who lives in the U.S. and we take turns every other week.)

However, even though I worked every other week, the income was not so much, so there was little difference between when I had work and when I didn’t.

Then what have I been doing?

Of course in the beginning, I tried so hard to get a job. I had some savings with which I could live a life for several months, but such savings would run out some day, and in Estonia the unemployment allowance is not so big (which is around 180 EUR or so), so I wanted to get a job as soon as possible.

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Table of Contents
Difficult to get a job in summer in Estonia
What I had done during the unemployment
A sudden email
Skill up
Unregistration on Estonian Unemployment

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★Difficult to get a job in summer in Estonia

I was fired in May, and sometime in June, I received an email from one of Estonian job search platforms about a job that I saved just in case, so I made a CV and cover letter shortly.

Luckily, I had the second interview, where they said they stopped hiring people, and they wanted to ask me if I would still be available in autumn.

I told this to my friend, he said this was a common way in Estonia because in summer they are on holidays and usually don’t need new people.

After that, I applied for some other jobs since I got offers from Malta or Manchester, the UK, but the interviews and portfolio were not successful. (I’m usually okay with interviews, but as for the job in Malta, they didn’t proceed due to the fact I was fired. However, it was more like failing a probation because the supply and demand didn’t match. I wasn’t that interested in that new job anyway though.)

Therefore, it is up to you whether to quit a job in summer without the next determined destination, but it might be hard to find.

★What I had done during the unemployment

Praying to be hired in autumn, I still continued job hunting, I did many other things. With the tax return in March, I bought a new iPad Air (the one that you can choose a colour) as well as Procreate (which is a drawing app), and I had drawn something for 30 days.

This is harder than it sounds because my drawing skill is quite good but I didn’t have any skill to use such technology. Therefore, it is still difficult for me to use the app. However, I killed time, and completed a project, so all is good.

Simultaneously, I practised human posing using the posing book that I downloaded a long time ago. I did two pages – four angles a day.

This was an easier task than the Procreate challenge, and although it took 10 to 15 minutes at maximum, one book had many poses, so I started in the middle of June and finished on the first of August.

Also I resumed learning coding. I have used an app called Mimo which I used while I was in the hospital.

It looks like a game, and if you don’t purchase anything, then you consume one heart out of five every mistake. It takes four hours to get the next full heart, so with a free mode, I did in the morning, consuming all the hearts, and after one night, I got five full hearts again.

Personally it took 30 minutes to use all the hearts at maximum, and 10 minutes at minimum.

However, even though I did those three activities, everything was done basically in the morning, so I had a lot of time in the afternoon.

Occasionally I made postcards or took a nap because I couldn’t sleep at night. My mental health was not good, so I was quite depressed even though it was summer.

I also learnt Estonian using a platform, but I finished it all in June. At this time I thought I wanted to take an exam someday, so I guessed maybe it was a good idea to start studying for the exam.

I am a person who basically does not like to be bored and have plans all the time, so this unemployed time was like a torture. I also think I relatively have more hobbies than usual people, but depending on the situation, I couldn’t do them all. However, I believe that unhealthy mental conditions were the biggest cause. I was scared to be unemployed for more than half a year.

★A sudden email

Then it became July, and on the first Monday in July, I suddenly received an email. I opened it and found that it was from a company who told me to ask me again in autumn.

They mentioned that their business had grown faster than expected, so they changed their mind to hire people now. Of course I accepted. I don’t miss any opportunity.

★Skill up

When I received an email suddenly, I had no idea what to do, and my mood was still down, so I had lots of empty time, but from the following week I got way more active.

Perhaps this was because I could finally buy medicine that I couldn’t buy for a while. (Strictly speaking, I used this medicine of 150 mg, but it was not effective, and requested my doctor to increase it to 300 mg.)

Otherwise, I basically drew manga about my mental condition and situations or wrote some other blog articles. After that week, I got better enough to learn Estonian again. Then one thing came up to my mind strongly:

I want to learn Swedish again!

I might summarise what I have learnt from Estonian and Swedish learning, and make them serieses to upload here so I’m not going to talk about them here now. (Maybe.)

To sum up for three months, I did these different things. I had cried for two days when I lost a job, but now I can think in a way that it was a good experience because losing a job hardly happens to a Japanese person in Estonia.

★Unregistration on Estonian Unemployment

Once you get a new job, you need to unregister yourself from the Estonian Unemployment Fund.

They emailed me in July to start working in August, but my life supporter said to me not to unregister yet as anything could happen.

Then in August, I thought I needed to unregister but I wanted to receive an allowance so I had not done it until I received it.

I wanted to unregister on Monday because I was told to talk with an Employment Fund’s worker.

Then I received the allowance on Monday, and I completely forgot to unregister (as I got something to do).

On Tuesday while working, I got a phone call from them, and told them that I already got a job which had already started, and just forgot to unregister, and then the Fund worker said he couldn’t confirm that I had already started. After the call, I asked my boss, and she asked the human resources, and they registered me as a worker. (This happened because the person-in-charge was on holiday, so they couldn’t just proceed.)

After unregistering, you will receive an email from the tax board that you have been registered as a worker, by which, my employment status has also been updated, so the Fund’s worker could confirm as well. I told him that, and he unregistered me.

Therefore, I still don’t know how to unregister on my own.

However, now everything is alright.

Aitäh! 🙂