November 2009
1 post
Exit, Stage Left
I think this blog has run its course. Or maybe, I have run my course with it.
The month since my last post is one sign. Another is that I realize now that the month off was rooted, I think, in a bout of significant depression.
Since June I have applied for more than 200 jobs. I rarely even get a rejection letter in response. Employers have their pick of so many applicants for every position,...
October 2009
2 posts
What, Again?
Some jobs that I have applied for, and been rejected for, are being advertised again.
Either I’ve been at this longer than I think, or those employers made some pretty bad decisions.
Does it reflect on them, I wonder? Or did they just get snookered?
Things to Avoid While Looking for Work
1 Daytime TV. You quickly get a very sad picture of this country, from the shows but even worse for the ads for job training, ambulance-chasing lawyers, snake oil medicines and those folks who can get you a power chair through Medicare, maybe. You have to ask yourself, am I really part of this audience? Save your video hours for the one or two shows actually worth watching, and DVDs from the...
September 2009
10 posts
A hundred bucks
I did a little freelance job back when I was still employed, a favor for a friend really. As a token payment they offered me $100. Sure, I said.
Yesterday in the mail I got a check, along with an effusive apology from my friend for letting my invoice sit on her desk for so long.
No harm done, I said.
And then I realized: My life has really changed since spring.
This hundred bucks is huge.
I...
Heh. Funny. Heh. →
Props Where Props Are Due
Hey, the UC system really was up and running at 2:30. My claim was filed by 2:35. And since I’m set up for direct deposit, the money hit my checking account this morning.
Woo-hoo!
I never really thought much about UC during all the years I was paying into the system, or generating wealth for companies that paid in.
The only time, before this, that UC entered my life was several years...
Did we say 1:30? We meant 2:30
The over-under on this is 6 p.m.
Sunday Funnies
It’s getting to be a regular part of Sunday: Log into the UC system and apply for last week.
It makes a lot of sense to do this online. The phone system in this state is awful. The local paper looked at the records and found that something like 86 percent of callers got hung up on.
So a little while ago I used the last of the coffee in the house to brew up one last cup, topped it off with...
I Ran Out of Money Today
My wants in life, really, are pretty meager. That is one of the things that has sustained me during this lean time. I am not interested in a flat screen TV or a new car, or even cable TV.
But today I ran out of money anyway.
I’ve gotten by on my severance, and on a little bit scratched off the top of my UC checks (the rest goes to pesky mortgage and food costs). I had a few bucks, just a...
What Rejection Letters Really Mean
So, I’ve gotten about 100 rejection letters or emails since I started this process.
I guess it’s better than the 20 or so who just never bothered to contact me.
But I am seeing some patterns in the language used in those messages. I think I’ve got it figured out:
“We had many excellent candidates but unfortunately were unable to go to the next stage of the process with...
The Day of Labor
Um, do you get to celebrate Labor Day of you’re out of a job?
Oh well. Judging from the latest numbers, at least I’m in good company.
To the 9.7 percent of us out of a job this September 7: I with I could buy each of you a beer or a glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade, and shake your hands and with each of you luck, and better times next Labor Day.
Must... Email... Resumes....
“It’s going to be one of the most beautiful days of the year,” said the TV weather geek as I sat in the waiting room at the oil-change place just after sunrise this morning.
And it’s a Friday, right before a long weekend.
And the kids are back in school.
No one would blame for for skating today, right?
Sitting at my laptop, I distinctly a hear a small but persistent...
Back to the Want Ads
“Experienced web editor needed for ambitious startup” - Translation: We have absolutely no idea what we’re doing and are hoping you will tell us.
“Part-time editor position” - This one was interesting until it turned out they would not accept telecommuters. They wanted my butt in a chair three days a week, 300 miles from here. Oh well.
“Dynamic, multi-tasking...
August 2009
6 posts
"And So Castles Made of Sand...."
Something else you can do when you don’t have a job: leave.
As in: I put some clothes in a backpack, got in my car and left.
Don’t get me wrong. This was no Springsteen song. I came back. And I made sure the family was cool with my going.
But I cannot tell you how many times, sitting in my cube, I had fantasized about just getting in the car and leaving town, with no destination in...
"If yes, press 9. If no, press 6"
It is clear the unemployment compensation system is set up to discourage the weak.
Yes, my state has a nifty online service that lets you do all sorts of things…. except correct a mistake. I made one tiny error on my initial claim and just spent a full week trying to rectify it.
An interesting feature of the UC phone system here is that if too many people are already on hold, you get...
To Be Severed
My employers tried to be the nicest people they could when I got laid off. Included in the deal was a continuation of my saslary for a little while.Severance, is the name for it.
Need I tell you that time is over? I still have enough money in the bank to buy a decent bottle of red. And there is unemployment, which will help immensely. Though I can see already that they set up the UC system to be...
Help Wanted: Must be naive
Job ads to which I have responded recently:
1- “Freelance writers needed, work from home.” Christ almighty, is there anything on Craigslist that isn’t a scam?
2 - “Editor needed for exciting online startup.” Translation: We need an adult with a lot of money to make our crazy idea real.
3 - “Emerging nonprofit seeks experienced fundraiser and web...
Things I learned or remembered last week
1 - Driving a truck is a hard way to make a living. After 10 or 12 hours of racking up miles, just getting out of the damn truck to buy fuel and use the bathroom is like visiting another planet. You’re strung out from all that noise and vibration and the intensely visual activity of keeping your rig betweenthe lines, and all of a sudden people expect you to do weird stuff like make...
Time out
Four years ago a friend of mine left a ton of stuff in a storage locker and moved halfway across the country for medical treatment. Last week she asked if there was anyone who could help her get her stuff.
Why, what a coincidence. I have no job to report to and I have experience trucking stuff across the country. It’s something I did when I was younger, before I became a reporter.
So...
July 2009
8 posts
Beyond Stuff
All these things I brought home. My stuff. It has nothing to do with living a better life. I can put it places, good places, and I will have my table back.
The Unpacking -- The Sequel
So I yanked out the suitcase and unzipped all the pockets and laid everything on my dining room table.
A month after I grabbed them, a lot of the items from my cube struck me as totally worthless. Maybe I have been through a bigger change emotionally than I realized.
I kept a few potentially useful files and shredded the rest. The pictures have found new homes on the shelves here. My dictionary...
The Unpacking
I finally cleaned out the backpack I stuffed with my personal effects when I left my cube. Tea, a wool hat, a full-size bath towel which came in handy often, the last of my cables. I have my big backpack with all the pockets back. Nice.
The previous week I removed a suitcase full of stuff, which remains unpacked downstairs. Suggestions?
Back to the grindstone
Aaah, nice weekend. Farmer’s markets, driving with the iPod plugged in, and I finally found a fishing reel worth buying that cost less than $20.
But tomorrow I have to start the job hunt again, for real. Not quite the grind of actually going to work, but it must be treated with similar seriousness (and lots of coffee).
I am reminded again and again of a Doonesbury cartoon from years back...
My Classmates
I went to an employment workshop a few weeks back, where we talked resume language and search strategies and the like. As a former freelancer who deals in words, I felt like a lot of it was old news.
But for many of my classmates, the class clearly was a revelation, and a blessing on a couple of different levels.
First, these were men and women who had not written a resume or pitched themselves...
1 tag
"Watch Who You Work For"
The copy editor in me knows it should be “whom” in the title, but that would not be an accurate quote of Joe Strummer.
The sentiment is the important thing. You do need to watch out for where your money is coming from, what you are asked to do for it.
I used to tease undergrads who would say they were in PR and marketing, because so often they had no answer for this simple question:...
What Do I Want To Be When I Grow Up?
I don’t think a lot of us were expecting to be in this situation. Even before I got laid off I saw others around me dropping out of the work force, people who had seemed to be safe and then suddenly just didn’t have jobs anymore.
For me this marks the end of nine and a half years of full-time employment. Before that I did some freelancing, and a bunch of parenting. So I am not totally...
A Guy Looks For A Job - It Begins
I should warn you first of all that I am a recovering newspaper reporter. That means I blather on in print.
It also means I spent a substantial portion of my life in an industry that I knew was in deep trouble, dying in fact. My daily paper is now delivered to my doorstep folded in quarters, like a shopper. It is no longer thick enough to roll up.
I saw this coming quite a while ago — I...