Most stories you read about unemployment and the unemployed are written by the working. Rarely are we given a glimpse into the lives of those who have suffered the loss of a job, which can be as devastating as losing a family member.
I write from my perspective at times to help others avoid my mistakes and to serve as testimony to the fact that there’s light in the morning.
Not only had I lost my job, I also went through a life altering experience where I could have lost my life. This all occurred within a 30-day period.
Imagine losing a full-time job and then becoming ill. I had to thank God for President Obama’s COBRA legislation capping insurance payments at 38 percent of actual cost. Without that I’d be in a spare room at some relative’s house.
While unemployed I was fortunate enough to have the company that laid me off provide Career Transition Services, which enabled me to take control of my situation. What were my strengths and weaknesses, how do I work best with my skills? These were all values we question when we’re suddenly without a regular paycheck.
And in our darkest moments we even question our self worth, all because of an external force that, face it, we have little control over. Economic adversity hits and you either sink or swim.
Is this unemployed state your “life?” Or is it, as author Eckhart Tolle says in The Power of Now, “your life situation?”
As any job seeker does, I checked every resource, agencies that worked with the unemployed, even places that assisted “older” workers. As a former quasi-government worker in support of local initiatives I even assumed that there’d be some work in those areas.
It was disappointing to experience many of the initiatives that have been funded to assist the unemployed, well-intentioned job coaches and heavily publicized jobless job fairs.
I had to ignore those “helpers” who showed me jobs that were minimum wage and dead end. I ignored the federally funded employment specialist who told me to “tone down your resume, you’ll never get a job – you have too much experience.”
Disregard the agency that holds my mortgage that refused to interview me because I was “over qualified” for the position, yet wanted their mortgage payment that month.
I created a spreadsheet with columns and dates and job titles and tracked the results. I conducted a detailed search not for a job but for a position that would allow me to use my skills.
I sent over 50 resumes and cover letters to professional-level positions that were suited for my experience. Months passed with no response, but even the occasional rejection letter was a sign of life.
What followed was an experience that can only be described as transformative and empowering as I had to navigate through the disappointing and degrading experience of being out of work in a depressed economy.
