A brief history of unemployment part 1

A brief history of my unemployment

It’s good to be the King sayeth Mr. Brooks

 

I figured with all the unemployment posts that I’ve written, I should probably give you a little background as to why I’m unemployed. Yes, I quit. The first time. I needed to quit. It was a decision that was not made lightly and it was a decision that took me several years to think about and six months to decide. I didn’t want to quit because I saw it as a failure but when you’re coming home stressed to the point of not giving a shit, moody and despondent and prone to panic and depression, it’s time to make a change. It honestly wouldn’t have been fair to anyone if I had stayed.

So here it is, my history of unemployment part 1

2010 – After five years working at a legal education provider, I quit. I didn’t have another job lined up because I quit due to the fact that I was going bananas.I started looking for a few jobs before I quit but I wasn’t getting any call backs then. So I figured, better I leave before my head explodes and the nice cleaning ladies have to clean up brain matter off of my cubicle walls.

June – July 2010 – My rest period. I needed a break and my husband agreed with me about this grace period.

July – August 2010 – I was supposed to be writing. Instead I was beginning to get writer’s block because all I could think about was how in the hell am I going to get a job. Though I hadn’t been applying (please see grace period) I had been looking. It was scary

August 2010 – May 2011 – Sending out resumes like a mad woman, learning how to write a cover letter and hating the fact that cover letters aren’t even read, no interviews, no call backs, a few rejection emails

May 2011 – Call a temp agency and get placed at a company for a gig that is supposed to last two weeks

May 2011 – June 2012 – Two weeks turned into 13 months because they liked me

November 2011 – present – sending resumes out like a mad person, cover letters, jobs that I really want and jobs that I could take are both ignoring me, sending resumes and emails to other temp agencies. We all know how this one ends.

August 2012 – my temp agency proves even more worthless than I originally thought. I turn down a gig because I don’t have the qualifications and it would only be for about a month.  This is the one and only time they had gotten back to me

September 2012 –  Start All Mirth No Matter so that you guys can enjoy my insanity

 

So there you go, in a nutshell, why I’m still unemployed and how a decision two years ago can affect your everyday life in the present.

unemployment mondays. pajamas and whining

NYC Unemployment Rate as of July 2012: 10.2

Days Spent in my pajamas since July 2012:  23+

There is very little that is glamorous about being unemployed. Unless you’re rich. Then you’re having an extremely different experience than the one that I’m having and to that I say, “good for you, you lucky son of a bitch”.

For me, who is decidedly not rich, unemployment is something that I never thought that I would have to suffer through. As a kid, back in the day when the economy wasn’t so weird, I always thought that I would have a corner office by the time I was in my early thirties while living in an awesome large Manhattan apartment. I thought that I would be able to hop around if I didn’t like my chosen career.  Clearly I was watching too much television.

I’m a writer; I’m probably a couple of years away from being a failed writer. Writing doesn’t pay the bills though.

I’m nearly 30. I neither have a corner office nor do I live in Manhattan. Which is ok. I discovered that the kind of office environment that I thrive in is not the one I envisioned when I was 12 and desperate to be an adult. In fact those jobs are extremely hard to come by, because no one wants to leave a fun and creative environment.

I also don’t have a book deal.

I would say that I feel bad for the graduates that just got out of school but I’m not that altruistic because at the end of the day it’s between me and them. I have about 7 years of office experience doing everything from answering phones to coordinating events.

That and a dollar can get me a small cup of street coffee.

The experience, the know-how and the awesome personality? I have all those. What I don’t have is a job because guess what, I’m competing with hundreds if not thousands of people for one job.  I mean, I’m good, but I’m not that good.

So, I wake up at a very late time, sit in my pajamas while I wait for my stomach meds to kick in and my coffee to brew and I scour the same internet sites for several hours hoping and praying that today I’ll go up against less people. Or, maybe, just maybe, they’ll be an awesome job out there that I am qualified for.

If nothing else, at least a job that I’m qualified for.

I check my email like a crazy person for emails from companies; I check my SPAM (why am I getting things in Russian?) and I check my phone manically. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Nil. Nada. Goose Egg. The operative word here is “crazy” because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.  The results are the same. Nothing. Zip. Zero.

This concludes Monday’s unemployment rant.

Pardon me while I check my gmail.