No, I am not yet working. You perhaps figured that out by the fact that I am not blogging. For some reason, I am much better about blogging when I have a job, and a daily schedule, and I plan my blogging into that. When I have no job, and no schedule, I have no plan, and therefore, do not blog.

The job I really wanted that I mentioned at the end of the last post? I did make it to the fourth interview. I did not get the job. In fact, that’s been the story of the job hunt so far- I am a top candidate, but not the candidate. And truthfully, it is getting frustrating.

I have now been unemployed for 3 months. It is driving me crazy- and not slowly. (And it is not a very far drive to begin with.) I am really quite bad with not having somewhere to go and a plan for each day. I tend toward entropy on my own. I do still take the dogs to the dog park, almost every week day, in order for all of us to get some exercise and not spend the whole day on the bed, but that’s really the only thing that does get me out of bed before Pop Tart gets home from school.

I am still happy with my resume and cover letter. My call back rate is about 1 in 7 for a phone interview or screening. My advancement from initial phone interview to a second phone interview or in person interview is about 1 in 4, which I am a little less happy with.

I got one email back letting me know I had not made it on to the in person interviews which told me that the interviewer enjoyed speaking with me and was impressed with my poise, relevant experience, and knowledge of their mission (it was a non-profit). Yet, despite those things, I was not making it to the next round. When that’s the feedback I am getting, I feel like I am doing things right, even though I’m obviously doing something wrong, since I am not moving forward.

Minor updates on the state of our finances:

We finally (almost 6 months after the adoption was complete) got around to opening up a savings account for Pop Tart. I had taken her back east to meet her great-grandfather, and he sent us away with a check. We don’t need the money, so I decided it could just go in a savings account for her, and that was the impetus.

We have only two more monthly payments left on our new windows, so that will be almost $800 less money we are sending out each month starting in July.

C has applied for graduation. He will need to take 8 upper division math credits this summer, but then he will finally be done with school, and we won’t have that expense.

The COBRA’d insurance from the position I was laid off from last year will run out at the end of May. To continue that coverage (it is very good coverage), would cost us almost $1,200 a month. We will not be doing that, which means that if I don’t have a really good job prospect by early May, we will be on the state exchange site looking to buy ourselves different insurance.