The Official "Unemployed" Thread

[Stella]

Since there seems to be an increased number of unemployed, fee free to request input on resumes, rant, share interview or other related stories, lessons learned, whatever during this "ebb and flow" time.

My rant:  Being unemployed is the suck.

[ZLTFUL]

I think my biggest problem is that I am not accepting "job" offers. But that I am looking for a career change. Apparently my resume says insult me with your offers of literally half of what I was making.

[Stella]

I'd be happy to get that at this point.

[CairnsDuc]

I'm unemployed by Choice, the Wife and I decided to move to a new State here in Australia.
So now I'm doing the job search thing, Not a hell of a lot of jobs around for what I want to do
I have a lot of Electrical retail experience, but they only want to offer me full time work, but I
only want part time work. So I gotta keep looking. Might even look outside of my range of
jobs and see what else is around.

Total opposite to where I just came from, lot's of Casual and part time Retail work, no one wants
to put on full time Retail staff.

Weird! 

[ZLTFUL]

I'd be happy to get that at this point.

But you got that handsome man and Randy to help you get by.

[TiNi]

hang in there guys

i hope you all end up with better jobs than you had before
good luck!!!

[fastwin]

What's a job? I heard those were extinct. I had given up but it's time to start looking again. Hell, at this point I would work for health insurance!! I am stuck in the State's health risk pool and the premiums are mandated by the State to be twice what the normal premium for a guy my age should be. Twice! It's killing us but I have to have it.

[LMT]

I miss having someplace to go.  Staying home and surfing the web for jobs is the suck.

Even lame part time ones now seem to require this. They won't take a resume in person.

I do have a 2 days a week unpaid internship that starts next week.

[Bick]

I think my biggest problem is that I am not accepting "job" offers. But that I am looking for a career change. Apparently my resume says insult me with your offers of literally half of what I was making.

Sometimes career changes can be a good thing. 

Even though my current, part-time job only pays @ 10% of what I was making 2 years ago, it is the best job in the world!

Three more months until it temporarily goes full time, and time is not going by fast enough.

[Pip]

Day one of the job hunt begins. I brought a tranquilizer gun and a snare. Hope I catch one. 

and I mean this very sincerely, good luck to all of the rest of you out there. I hope the tide of your luck comes in. 

[Stella]

Thanks Pip!  Same to you.  With your attitude and spirit, I highly doubt you'll be posting on this thread for long!



I have my daily goals/to-do's, my non-paying volunteer work a few hours a week with great people, my health and a great b/f.  Above all, I have to be grateful first.  And I am. 

I'll continue to do my due diligence....manage the means and the end will take care of itself.  Right? 

[The Architect]

I'll add to the shit pile.  I know it helps no one, in fact it only adds to the pile of suck.  But it gives me a chance to vent.  An it's a view from the other end.  (Should I really be writing this in a public forum?  No.)

We have a lot of work lined up.  We've had the work in queue since late winter/early spring and some from last year; a bank prototype, two new bank branches, a dental office and several residence. 

One residential project was going to be a champ for our office; over $2.5 mil budget!  I get a call early spring they need to down size the budget, $1.5.  No problem.  Another call late spring, budget down to $800K. No problem.  Got the call last month, they're selling the land.  make the beast with two backs me!  We've lost several of the projects due to circumstances outside of our and the owners control.  The designs that we've started are in slow motion. 

Basically we have no work and the work we have is costing us money. 

A couple of years ago we knew it was coming.  The signs were all there just like they were before all the other recessions.  So we saved as much as we could and worked hard to find work so we had a chance at weathering the storm.  We've made it this far but now it's time to tighten the belts even more.

We're not a big office; two employees, a manager (my wife) and two architects that work as consultants.  My wife was the first to lose the little pay we gave her.  The consultants work load were reduced early this year and eliminated this spring.  These are good people with families and bills.  Those were shitty conversations.  They've been helping me since 2005. 

The cost of health insurance for the employees increased 35% this summer.  I spoke with the two remaining employees and they opted to eliminate health insurance.  I helped them get insurance for their kids through the State.  Another shitty conversation.  It looks like we're (my wife and I) are going to lose our health insurance the first of August (I haven't paid the bill yet.)  We had a separate policy because we couldn't afford the office health insurance.  DOn't get me started.

We eliminated the retirement plan.  Another shitty conversation with they employees.

Last week I gave one of the employees the option of being laid off or reducing his time to a day or two.  He opted for the day or two.

I just had the same shitty conversation with the other employee.  He also opted for the day or two.

We've been in this industry for some time now (20 years for me.)  We've seen a few down swings and they've become second nature for us.  We did everything we could to lessen the blow but I feel like it was in vain.  Letting people go is a task I wish for no one.

We all still need a roof over our heads, food, clothes, to pay our bills, etc.  This can't go on much longer.  Keep looking, sooner or later you will find the right fit for you!

[fastwin]

Wow. Sorry to read your story. This shit is spreading everywhere, effecting damn near everyone and getting deeper. The gov't. and media try to put a happy spin on it but not many are buying it.

I am the executor of my late father's estate and I'm stuck with selling his house. Which 3-4 years ago would have gone in a heart beat for full appraised value. Right now I could maybe get half (hopefully 2/3s) of it's value if I could sell it at all. And this is in a relatively good market here in North Texas. I can't dump it for peanuts, the heirs would string me up and I'd help them... I'm an heir too! So I sit looking for work and wait for the housing market to creep back up.

The longer this thread gets the more depressing it could get. But hopefully it will become an avenue for good ideas, positive thought and a place to vent a little.

[zooom]

The longer this thread gets the more depressing it could get. But hopefully it will become an avenue for good ideas, positive thought and a place to vent a little.

or a deeper group for commiseration and drinking!

and yes...the economy sucks and though I have a job (sorry if I am posting here innapropriately and if it offends), we have a general manager that looks at the bigger picture and said outward to everyone in this building in a town hall format a year and a half ago, "we will sink or swim together. No one is going to eat steak while others are eating ramen. We'll all either eat steak together or we'll all eat hotdogs, but no one is going to be starving and no one is going to be higher on the hog than anyone else during this!"...and we have had some months where we had our belts pretty tight during this...my cushion I had built disapated pretty quickly and there have been a couple times where I had to choose who to pay and who I could float till the next month on paying....so I understand completely.

[Stella]

These web applications are killing me!  I can't complete an app because it's saying this about my employment dates:

  1. Start Date Error
  2. The start and end dates for the qualification are outside of the start and end dates of the establishment attendance.



Over the last 25 years, I've had 3 employers.  Sept. 1986-April 2003,  April 2003-May 2008,  May 2008-current (self-employed/contractor).   How can this be "...outside of the start and end dates..."?  I tried changing so that the start/end months aren't the same to no avail.   uh.  

Rant over.  Moving on.      


Hang in there Frank!!!  We all do what we have to do as tough as it is and can be.