I just wanted to let me readers here (the few of you that are left) know that I will be returning to work next week. After 9 months of unemployment (pretty much exactly), I have a new job. I will be back up at our University and working as the Administrator for an academic department. Now that the stress of the process is over, and also, now that I will be back on a regular schedule,read more…
From June 16 to July 31, we spent almost $9,500 dollars outside of our regular budget. I have been unemployed since January 10. C has not worked since May 2009. And I do not regret any of it. I will admit, my stomach dropped as I watched our savings account balance fall more in those six weeks than it had in the previous 5 months of unemployment combined. And yet, our balance remains at about halfread more…
Part of the point of this post is that tomorrow I am attending open session interviews with Tableau, the company that makes the program (Tableau Public) I used to create these little infographics. I also thought it might be interesting to other people who were currently searching for jobs and struggling with long-term unemployment (or at least longer term than they’d like) to see how someone else’s job search was going. The first graphic is prettyread more…
Since May 2013, I have spent six months working, and almost nine unemployed. Two of those months were last summer, but I have had almost seven straight months of not working as of right now. Was this intentional? Not by any means. It never occurred to me when my boss and I made the mutual decision for me to leave my last position that I would spend this long not working. I have been struggling withread more…
One of the issues with being out of work again is health insurance. We have been lucky in that part of my severance package from the lay off last year included one year, employer paid COBRA coverage. Guess what, that one year is up at the end of this month. We got the paperwork for continuing COBRA coverage and learned the premium would be almost $1,200/month, just for C and I. (Pop Tart does not needread more…
The next story comes only a couple of years after the first one. I had left Nevada and was now in Washington working for a small manufacturing company. I had answered a job ad for an admin “who’s not afraid of computers” and was spending most of my time doing tech support and database administration. One of the things I did was create part numbers for new products as well as new materials. One day, Iread more…
We all make mistakes. We make them in our personal lives and in our professional lives. One of the ways I judge people (because we all judge people) is based on how they handle those mistakes. Do they deflect? Offer excuses? Or take responsibility and try to make it right? In our work lives, it can be scary to take responsibility for a mistake. It could cost you your job; it has me. (Well, not necessarilyread more…
I have now been unemployed for longer than I have ever been since I was an undergraduate. I am doing my best to learn from the experience the same way I would learn from other experiences. One of the first things I am learning is that I need to set a schedule for myself. My life works better if I have a schedule. Getting into a routine makes me more productive overall. As part of havingread more…
This is absolutely a silly pet peeve of mine, but it came up again today, and I feel the need to mention it. If you are someone who wants to interview me, and you have my resume in front of you, why do you think it is necessary to tell me that I should dress professionally? As you can clearly see from my resume, I am a professional. If I don’t know how to dress forread more…
Our mortgage agent sends us these little newsletters occasionally. The most recent one has sections on both talking to your parents about money and teaching your kids about money. One of the tools for teaching kids about money is VirtualStockExchange.com, where you can participate in games, or even create private games where you can “compete” against other players. Here’s the thing- we all know I know almost nothing about the stock market, so I actually thinkread more…
