Unemployment

My job now, get money from people who have worked and claimed.

The longer you leave it, the less motivation you'll have to do anything.

How to cope:
1) lower your expectations. It's easier to get a job when you already have a job, so get something crap and work from there.
2) don't be too down on yourself. It's easy to lose confidence when you're not getting any interviews, and it's a vicious circle because lack of confidence makes you less employable. Blame clueless employers and the job market, not yourself.
3) that said, check your application form filling technique/CV. Get friends to read over every application before you send it. Are you constantly making some error that you haven't spotted?
4) look into volunteering or work experience. This helps fill up the long hours when you would otherwise be eating chocolate and scouring the job pages for the 100th time. It's also good for the CV and you might even learn stuff.

Have an interview on Fri. but not sweating it too much. I have a pretty good idea of where I want to work and am just waiting it out.

Lost my job today. Great.

last day at my job!

which means my ilx browsing will decrease a great deal probably. Or not.

coming for many people soon, have fun!

Aw man, sorry kingfisha. That is crummy. I hope you find a new one soon. You could always move down here & work at White Sands and do peyote in the desert all day with your desert wallabies.

my ilx browsing led to me losing my job. well, that and the fact that the company is doing whatever they can to cut staff, and i somehow didn't go from a jr engineer-level to full project manager in a year's time. Best not to give them any excuses to do so, i guess. I really need to get on the ADD meds before my next job.

1st day = visit DMV, consider to attempt to update resume, find out that it might be weeks until the unemployment money starts coming, etc. wheee.

only a week waiting period in new york state. they got direct deposit now too!

turns out that i declared my reasons for separation incorrectly, and they won't just switch it back. I better not have to wait til the middle of september for this.

Jesus F., bureaucracy.

Enh, i'll call 'em again on friday, see what the progress is. Who in ILX-land wants to help me edit down my tech resume?

also, unemployment: GREAT for getting drunk and watching plenty of older sci-fi flicks, then drunkenly reviving whatever ILX thread we've had about said older sci-fi flicks.

Also, I've now taken to selling off my DS/GBA games to cover costs until the UI starts flowing. So far, so good.

Dammit, turns out my ex-company is saying i was discharged, even after my ex-boss(who is on vacation til mid-Sept) told me to tell the UI people i was laid off. This sucks and sent me into another round of anxiety attacks today.

kingfish I'll take another shot. this email works.

you know the only reason you can't get an starter pos with yr aeronautical degree is because the fuckin boomers won't retire early

T-minus 19 (work) days for me. My looming unemployment is going to be coupled with a move back home, after nearly 7 years overseas. I'm actually really looking forward to it.

you know the only reason you can't get an starter pos with yr aeronautical degree is because the fuckin boomers won't retire early

not surprised. Thing is, i'm not even looking for (much) of a starter spot. Hell, I'd take a spot that just needed a project engineer type or tech with only a coupla years experience. Tho i have gotten more mileage out of my EE degree than my Aero one. Funny that.

instead of the résumé i intended to sent out today to a prospective employer, i attached a document entitled 'résumé_omissions_6-07.doc'

said document includes phrases like:

• Facilitated (add something here ... some bullshit about people skills)

• List of written works? Tailor for individ. résu -- omit BP / AICJ for leegit plcz

I sent an email immediately after I discovered my mistake and received the following as the only response:

>:(

What an odd response.

Still, at this point, it's the anxiety that's killing me. I'd even put up with two years of working for the TVA or moving to Chattanooga like my parents suggested if i was secured a spot with decent pay for once, where i could actually live in the black. Anything to make the stress/angst/miasma go away. A sixer of Hamm's, Coast to Coast(douche who wrote the swift boat book is on tonight talking about how the UN is going to invade us thanks to Dubya), and Dark Cloud 2 is keeping me sane tonight.

http://www.ntsc-uk.com/reviews/ps2/DarkCloud2/01.jpg

you can customize your own hoopty droid and run around smacking things with a wrench.

Fuck, i still have health insurance for another month. I wonder if i can get loaded up on Xanax for a while.

yeah but for reals DC2 robo ricing only lasts so long

RESUME SEND IT

I sent you an ilx-mail. I still need your real addr, since I can't attach things thru ilx-mail.

Mine is jdsalmon at that google mail place that's popular with the kids.

Also, drinking a lot of beer last night to fight off an anxiety attack did not help things, strangely enough.

I have no health insurance. I wonder how much a new asthma inhaler would cost me right now?

Have you called around to local low-cost clinics?

i'm getting a bit sick of this whole unemployment thing, as well. everyone laughed at me when i expressed nerves about packing up a good job i'd had for 6 years and moving country, saying i'd find something in no time. ha, i say.

i'm really getting into dawson's creek, though. too bad it only had like 6 seasons, who knows what i'll do when i get through it all.

you might kid yourself that the oc is a suitable substitute. you're better than that. don't.

can't really sympathise, never having been unemployed. I almost feel like I've missed out on something, there was a nasty period when 1 in 2 of my mates were working for the prime minister (Paul Keating at the time). I've often been overemployed, that sucks a bit too, but not as bad I'm sure.

kingfish, B3cht3l is hiring at H4nf0rd apparently. Have you done the EIT yet?

I'm employed again! I'm now working at a small company on the east side of portland, so i no longer have to cross that stupid river and commute to hillsboro anymore. Hooray!

Congrats!

That river isn't so stupid.

sometimes i imagine unemployment >>> my current job, but then i think better

...but maybe

fun bit: my unemployment claim finally went thru, just in time for me to finally get a check two days after i'd started the new job. Great.

Also, new job has an office cat!

That river isn't so stupid.

getting back home across it in the evening sure as fuck is

office cat can't be beat. fantastic.

It may not be stupid, but that river definitely smells weird.

JESUS CHRIST DID I GET THE GODDAMNED MONEY OR NOT YOU BASTARDS

at this point i don't even care if i got denied. or if i have to appeal and drag the fucking process out even more. i just want to know.

checking email 100x per day in hopes that job i applied for/really want/would be good for me responds...

interview tomorrow for part time work at beer and cheese store tho! so that would rule, even if i never heard back from the speciality mystery/crime bookstore.

In politics, being mean to some group is taken as a given and being powerful is prima facie evidence you are not dumb, so, yeah, the GOP won't mind Krugman's judgment on it.

Is it sensible to work out some kind of daily routine while unemployed? Something like job hunt from 9-12, lunch, go for a walk, job hunting 3-6, dinner, read for a bit, job hunting 8-10?

The most important part of this is the 'going for a walk' part

But yeah, a routine is helpful, but you know, set up your own one that you actually like doing

Depending on whether you are on any kind of state benefit that requires you to apply to X jobs per period, I also find that quality as opposed to quantity of job applications was the way to go. But I might be full of shit here, I am of course still unemployed

Oh and

I'm looking for editorial assistant/junior copywriting stuff mainly atm...I'd like a job that made me feel like doing an MA and writing for magazines/websites for free for the last five years was actually worth something.

it would seem we're in the same holed canoe

So I graduated with a history degree almost 7 years ago. Since then I've worked a string of crappy jobs (one data entry, everything else retail/restaurant/coffee) plus there was an accident and I was out of commission for almost 2 and a half years. How do I get a decent job that's beyond just 'high school diploma" document scanning or working in a coffee shop. I'm pretty consistently depressed with all these job applications and never, ever hearing back.

So on Friday, I got the written interview portion of a job I applied for (the answers were due yesterday). The e-mail said that those who pass this round "will be asked to interview in-person or by phone" tomorrow. The wording of the sentence is so bad/confusing that it's been driving me crazy as to whether it means that the interview will be tomorrow (I have not been contacted yet, hence why I'm going crazy) or that applicants would be contacted about the interview then.

I think it's the latter because: 1. as important as a job interview is, an employer can't possibly think that all the candidates would be available on the same day, with no indication of what time of the day, on less than a week's notice, right?; and 2. in my experience, whenever an interviewer gives you a timeline (albeit this is my experience in an in-person interview), it's for when they'll contact you, not when the follow-up interview will be.

Oh, never mind, just got an e-mail from them, I'm not even going to get an in-person interview with them. Fuck 'em.

FUCK EM

'14 FUCK EM

Fuck em, yeah.

Cardamon's guilty confessions: I feel jealous of Gukbe's document-scanning jobs and of literally everyone in the stupid annoying co-workers thread

Only been 6 days I know but I'm jealous of my old document-scanning jobs because I've got an interview at a Coffee Chain and I'm sort of desperate to get that job.

The thing that grinds my gears about not getting an actual interview with them is that this is a volunteer-run organization that I've been a member/volunteer of for almost a decade, I have relevant experience elsewhere, and I thought my answers to their questions (first interview round was written, as I think I mentioned above) were pretty good, and they can't even spare me an hour of their time for an interview? I may be coming off entitled here but seriously, fuck them.

xp(Have a feeling that if I got a job I would end up being the stupid annoying co-worker, without realising it. Oops did I say if? I meant when, of course. When when when)

Gukbe, any chance u could throw out some hints n tips for coffee jobs?

well i've only been successful getting one, but i think the trick is to be desperate enough to want it but capable enough to hide your desperation

thoreau, right?

scraping for a job with pay lower than the living wage is what drove him to the woods in the first place iirc

my dream job is now data analysis how do i get it

I know someone who (I think) does that for a bank ... that person has a degree in maths. That's all I've got and it's anecdote, soz

I'm not an aspiring writer, except of emails, but I've heard that if you ever want to get paid for your writing by a given outlet, never write for them for free. It will not endear you to them and make them seek you out with a paying job later; it will brand you as free labor and they'll think if you'll do it for free, they can get someone "better" if they pay them.

I'm assuming this is also brutally true in the entire non-profit world, which may potentially affect me too.

Yeah that's the picture I'm getting too - like internships, it's a pre-recession model for getting into an industry which people have been pushing, but now in the recession it's just going to be exploited and not actually get you anywhere

You there, in your cubicle, the company is pleased to inform you that you are now an Operational Cost that the company intends to save. Be out of here by the end of the week.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/A_Marriage_Made_Elsewhere_Than_In_Heaven

xp There's a whole school of 'Ya gotta be smart – ring the guy! Work for free! Get networking!' job-seeking advice which basically assumes a lot of things about the jobseeker in terms of how much money they have, what their options are, how they were brought up, etc, etc

Like I was thinking about how much I've raised the game of this local newsletter that I volunteer to do, and that is by a VERY LARGE AMOUNT. It could go a lot further and we need to increase our reach and get people STUCK IN as readers and members, and this is my organizational mission for 2014...but even if I work miracles, if for inst it ever became a paying position (which it won't but), they would be pretty justified in thinking, well we got her for FREE, imagine what we can get with an actual salary! (This is also complicated by the fact that I'm kind of a placeholder until there's a non-white person who wants the job, I mean I'm appointed for this calendar year but I wouldn't blame them for wanting to appoint a young aspiring Black journalist possibly who's from the neighborhood, in fact I think they should do that in fact--but if this were the job world, it would suck for me.)

(The way I got into Data Analysis was: get caught hacking the database you've been doing data entry in. For real. n.b. this was like 20 years ago now.)

Brushing up on a few stats texts and a language like R would be a good start imo gukbe (just started a new role in data analysis and these are the things i'll be spending my evenings/weekends at for the next few months)

And previous qualifications?

I'm sort of drifting into it every so often after having 'dabbled' with it, by which I mean understanding how to use Excel when no-one else did, and learning some basics every now and then. I've always had jobs that are data/programming-adjacent and I am often the person going between the user who doesn't know how to articulate what they want and the coding ppl who can't get out of the 'user' what the real issues are.

If yr asking me for mine gukbe, not much more than confidence with excel, tho im currently studying comp science in the evenings- nb i moved internally in a big org so sorry for non-helpful comparison maybe

xp otm

ha I've always felt a bit of a fraud that 90% of what I know about coding is from trying to use Excel as a shortcut, or my ZX Spectrum, but then one of our coder guys explained it as 'basically excel formulae' to a bunch of colleagues who wanted to know what coding was so I don't feel too bad now. I have learned basics of various languages in the past and a fair amount of SQL and still agree with him (and twice today taught one of our senior coders some Excel 'tricks')

I did some actual coding/programming stuff about 12 years ago (C++ mostly) for about 5 years but have since drifted through life as a student and then odd jobs like retail and restaurants with the occasional stint in data entry and aforementioned document scanning. I was hoping there'd be a few classes I could take or something to bolster the old CV.

someone just sent me a message that was word-for-word the bottom scam on this page (with a different name):

http://jobsearch.about.com/u/ua/jobsearchscams/jobscams.03.htm

republicans are starting to (pretend?) to feel the heat about extended unemployment compensation?

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/jobless-benefits-unemployment-insurance-gop-republicans-103651.html?hp=t1

job title:

'scrum master'

Scrum Master J, the DJ of hip-hop group Run-XML.

are you the schedule-keeper, i am the scrum master

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnJvsBbELvk

i am now part of the interviewing process at work, and man it is depressing as fuc. because of both the desperation of the applicants and my own nitpicky responses to them.

the position is part-time/involves weekends and late nights, but the employer has a certain cachet that makes ppl think 'if i can just get my foot in the door . . .' and the supply of ppl who think that is endless and cheap. one dude kind of slumped and said 'i've interned everywhere' and it was more or less true.

and any of them could probably do the job just fine -- it's not terribly demanding and several applicants are technically way overqualified -- but now i'm supposed to judge them like i'm some fucking frat dude interviewing pledges. am i really factoring in the fact that one person wore jeans and another wore a three-piece suit + homburg? i mean, yeah, the latter is pretty wack but he's not some hipster -- he's been out of work for six months. ugh

who says you have to judge them like that?

btw among the other jobs i have applied for in the past year i keep throwing in applications for low-level library jobs that do NOT require library degrees (hs diplomas is all), and every single time i get rejected with something like 'we chose from the people who had relevant experience'. now probably they know some people and are hiring from within, but if not then that shit is intolerable for a duly executed duly applied-for job search. like there is relevant experience for these jobs that couldn't be picked up in a week or two. if you've got way overqualified people willing to do your job just cut one of them a break and don't bullshit the unfortunate ones!

this could be hella 'basic' as they say but despite receiving unemployment benefits more than once (and researching it anxiously etc as one does) this is the best thing i've ever read about how it works

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1466

Huh that's helpful. My parents absolutely INSIST that rather than being a mandatory tax per employee, that when my dad laid someone off 15-20 years ago he had to pay the guy's UI, like, DIRECTLY. Which he's still bitter about bc apparently dude was going on vacation, not looking for work, etc (as one is entitled to do because fuck it).

Maybe there's some kind of different thing for very small corporations? Or maybe my dad is a batshit conservative, that's always an option too.

(inspired by the onion 'finally i have achieved pay equity with men while on unemployment' gag, which is funny but i think probably not true anyway, even then, since benefits depend on prior pay, work history, etc. though the capping of taxable contribution levels might have an equalizing effect?)

apparently dude was going on vacation, not looking for work, etc (as one is entitled to do because fuck it)

as soon as the sev sum comes in, i will be fucking it