Hello my fellow residents of the unemployment line! Happy Saturday! I'm back with a little update on my unemployed life. First things first, I quit smoking, so no more posts about how to find cheap cigarettes, I know you will all be disappointed with that but it has been five days, and I feel great! What that means is the ten dollars I get to cut the neighbors grass or the thirty bucks I get for moving my friends furniture out of the house gets saved up for better things like a trip to interview in another state.
Now as far as the title goes, learning new things, well what have I learned since I last posted? I learned the value of the cover letter. You see in all of my years looking for work I had to figure out on my own how to write a resume and how to apply for jobs. No one ever told me what was good, what works, and what doesn't. Through my adventures into networking, I learned that a good cover letter can make you or break you when the HR department receives your application. When they are getting hundreds upon hundreds of resumes, a cover letter serves as a snapshot. It is a short blurb that tells them why they should bother looking at your resume.
I am still learning as I go, so right now I have just a few general cover letters, two tailored to the job fields I really want to get back into, either security or telecommunications, and one general letter that can fit the odd jobs I have been applying to. I used a form template from monster to write mine, and as I learn more, I will write a personalized letter for each application, but something is better than nothing!
Well that is all from my corner of the Unemployment office for now, but I would love to hear your feedback. Tell me and the other folks what works and does not work for you in your day to day adventures in the job hunt, I look forward to hearing from each one of my readers, so leave a comment, shoot me an email, or find me on twitter!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Tips on stretching a buck
The other day I wrote about how I was out of money and how I had run out of unemployment 9 months ago, and that I had lost my part time job 6 months ago. Some of my readers were probably wondering how the hell I made it so long without running out of money completely, well the answer my friends is simple.
First I chose generic whenever I could. A 20 oz Coke is $1.45 where I live, but Walgreens sells a liter of generic cola for 99 cents, so I learned to enjoy "refreshing cola." I used to eat name brand Kellogg's cereal, but those are four or five dollars for for a small box, but for two dollars you can get a large bag of knock off cheerios, and they taste just as good as the ones from the box.
Second strategy is sales. I usually smoke Newport cigarettes, but in the city of Chicago, they are $9.40 a pack. I have started smoking whatever brand is on sale this week, normally Camel or Marlboro. Along with sales there is buying in bulk. One pound of the coffee I like is usually 9.99, but if your smart and keep your eyes open you can find the same coffee on sale for 15 dollars for four pounds, and four pounds of coffee lasts a LONG time.
Third is coupons. I don't do extreme couponing like you see on A&E, but I keep my eye out for good deals. I never used to pay much attention to the register coupons that you get at the grocery store, but since money got tight, I started taking notice of these things. You can often find coupons for buy one get one free name brand items, or ten dollars off your next purchase. In addition to the coupons, alot of stores have rewards programs, and you can build up points that become the same as cash.
Combining all of those things I can often stretch a hundred dollars over a couple of weeks, and that my friends is how I've lasted so long. So fellow members of the unemployment line, be sure to clip those coupons and learn to love generic!
First I chose generic whenever I could. A 20 oz Coke is $1.45 where I live, but Walgreens sells a liter of generic cola for 99 cents, so I learned to enjoy "refreshing cola." I used to eat name brand Kellogg's cereal, but those are four or five dollars for for a small box, but for two dollars you can get a large bag of knock off cheerios, and they taste just as good as the ones from the box.
Second strategy is sales. I usually smoke Newport cigarettes, but in the city of Chicago, they are $9.40 a pack. I have started smoking whatever brand is on sale this week, normally Camel or Marlboro. Along with sales there is buying in bulk. One pound of the coffee I like is usually 9.99, but if your smart and keep your eyes open you can find the same coffee on sale for 15 dollars for four pounds, and four pounds of coffee lasts a LONG time.
Third is coupons. I don't do extreme couponing like you see on A&E, but I keep my eye out for good deals. I never used to pay much attention to the register coupons that you get at the grocery store, but since money got tight, I started taking notice of these things. You can often find coupons for buy one get one free name brand items, or ten dollars off your next purchase. In addition to the coupons, alot of stores have rewards programs, and you can build up points that become the same as cash.
Combining all of those things I can often stretch a hundred dollars over a couple of weeks, and that my friends is how I've lasted so long. So fellow members of the unemployment line, be sure to clip those coupons and learn to love generic!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Harsh Realities
Every morning I wake up and I try and think of something positive to write here. A little bit of happy thinking to help myself and others in my situation face another day in the unemployment line. Not today though, today it is time for a dose of reality.
The reality is that I no longer exist. I am one of the long-term unemployed that the government stops counting to hide how bad things really are. My unemployment ran out last September when I got a part time job as an office clerk at a local auto body shop. I made minimum wage twenty hours a week and started going to school. Yes the part time hours were yet another cut in pay, but I was happy to be working, it closed a gap in my employment history, but it was nowhere near enough to live on. It was enough to put an end to my benefits though, and the state cut me off. I worked there four months until the shop owner hired a management company and I found myself outsourced and no longer necessary. Twenty hours a week at $8.50 an hour was not enough money to re-qualify for unemployment, so when December rolled around I was left with $40 in my wallet and the generosity of family to keep a roof over my head.
January rolled around and I went back to school, got my W2 forms and threw in my tax return early. The refund left me with a little pocket money so I was able to get a pair of jeans without holes in the crotch, a few packs of cigarettes, and pay down some of the accumulated debt over the last couple of years. With the new semester meant new financial aid, and in mid-April I got my financial aid refund. That kept my head above water for a little while longer.
Now it is June, I am down to my last five dollars, I have holes in my shoes and won't be getting new ones for quite some time. I have chronic pain from my time in the military and the VA is useless, I have filed several claims for compensation and treatment, yet they continue to deny them saying there is no proof it is service related even though it says right in my record "Pt injured knee falling from window ledge during training exercise."
That is my reality. I write this blog and put advertisement on it in the hopes of making a little money, I walk the neighborhood every day in my holy shoes looking for help wanted signs, and I search every job board I know on a daily basis in hopes of finding just one employer who is not black listing the unemployed. Now that I have that all out of my system, maybe I can go back to bringing some positivity to the unemployment line!
The reality is that I no longer exist. I am one of the long-term unemployed that the government stops counting to hide how bad things really are. My unemployment ran out last September when I got a part time job as an office clerk at a local auto body shop. I made minimum wage twenty hours a week and started going to school. Yes the part time hours were yet another cut in pay, but I was happy to be working, it closed a gap in my employment history, but it was nowhere near enough to live on. It was enough to put an end to my benefits though, and the state cut me off. I worked there four months until the shop owner hired a management company and I found myself outsourced and no longer necessary. Twenty hours a week at $8.50 an hour was not enough money to re-qualify for unemployment, so when December rolled around I was left with $40 in my wallet and the generosity of family to keep a roof over my head.
January rolled around and I went back to school, got my W2 forms and threw in my tax return early. The refund left me with a little pocket money so I was able to get a pair of jeans without holes in the crotch, a few packs of cigarettes, and pay down some of the accumulated debt over the last couple of years. With the new semester meant new financial aid, and in mid-April I got my financial aid refund. That kept my head above water for a little while longer.
Now it is June, I am down to my last five dollars, I have holes in my shoes and won't be getting new ones for quite some time. I have chronic pain from my time in the military and the VA is useless, I have filed several claims for compensation and treatment, yet they continue to deny them saying there is no proof it is service related even though it says right in my record "Pt injured knee falling from window ledge during training exercise."
That is my reality. I write this blog and put advertisement on it in the hopes of making a little money, I walk the neighborhood every day in my holy shoes looking for help wanted signs, and I search every job board I know on a daily basis in hopes of finding just one employer who is not black listing the unemployed. Now that I have that all out of my system, maybe I can go back to bringing some positivity to the unemployment line!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Resources
So as I have posted many many times before, I tend to browse sites like Monster and Careerbuilder looking for work. Yesterday I was checking my email for the millionth time to see if any of the applications I had filed had been accepted when I got an email from the state of Illinois.
You see, I had been receiving unemployment compensation from the state until September of last year, and along with the bi-weekly paycheck, they state has job search resources. I had forgotten about Illinois Work Net, a free resource from the Department of Employment Security. I ran over there, got a resume built and started using their job search tools. The search tools they have there are pretty amazing, instead of being limited to just one site like I had been before, they search all of the sites and give me a list of jobs meeting the parameters I entered.
You see, I had been receiving unemployment compensation from the state until September of last year, and along with the bi-weekly paycheck, they state has job search resources. I had forgotten about Illinois Work Net, a free resource from the Department of Employment Security. I ran over there, got a resume built and started using their job search tools. The search tools they have there are pretty amazing, instead of being limited to just one site like I had been before, they search all of the sites and give me a list of jobs meeting the parameters I entered.
In addition to the awesome job search capabilities the state offers, it has resources for building a good resume and writing a cover letter. It connects you with networking sites like linkedin and has facebook resources as well.
The point I am making here is do not make the mistake I did. Find out about your available job search resources before two years go by without a real job. Take advantage of every opportunity offered to you and as always, good luck fellow employment challenged Americans!
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