Can't find a job...what to do next? Blog of course.

Until now, I have never even considered starting my own blog.  I have never considered that people might actually be interested in my thoughts and musings on a relatively boring and standard life.  I still don't think people will be interested, but I am interested. I figured I could use a blog as an avenue to express my frustrations and constant discouragement. After stumbling upon a blog by a fellow unemployed that helped me cope with the impossible task of trying to reach EDD by phone, it struck me that maybe my experience might resonate with other people too. So, here I am. And here are my unemployment stats: unemployed since 3/6/09, making ends meet by supplementing unemployment with babysitting, have yet to receive one interview or even an actual rejection that didn't come in the form of just refusing to answer my emails or phone calls. 

In late January of this year, I entered a meeting with my new supervisor excited to share all the program development ideas I had come up with. My after school program had just been placed under the jurisdiction of the Child Care department, and they assured me they would provide me with more support and the necessary resources needed for my program to reach its potential. The week prior to the meeting, I attended a meeting with the school staff and the counseling department and I started developing ideas for a lunchtime mentorship program for 8th graders who spent lunch on the porch of my outdoor classroom everyday anyway. I knew my boss would love the idea! Unfortunately, before I had a chance to share it with her she called in another supervisor and awkwardly informed me my program was being closed so the resources used to fund the program could be redirected. The last day would be February 27th, and I needed to get a letter out to the parents and students immediately. "So we won't be finishing the year?" I asked. No, and encourage the students to join the other program on campus program so they have a place to go. Nevermind that the other program is severely, severely lacking, to put it kindly and mildly. 

Surprisingly, I didn't cry. Thank God. I wanted to, but I've been told that isn't very professional. Students were devastated. Parents were outraged. Staff members wanted to start a revolution. I felt the same way, but after awhile I just wanted it to be over. I knew there was nothing we could do, and I accepted defeat.  I was kept on for an extra week because no one else wanted the job of cleaning out the classroom. The last time I told someone that they thought I was being paranoid, but actually someone told me that directly. "We're keeping you on until the 6th because if you don't clean the room that means I have to." 

At first, I didn't try that hard to get a new job. I'm a full time graduate student and I thought it would give me a chance to take an extra class and focus on my studies. Now it looks like I will be graduating a semester earlier than I anticipated, so that's great. I decided to start nannying, but that was easier said than done.  Now I have two part time babysitting jobs that are over 20 miles from my home. For $12/hour.  In May I thought it'd be good to go back to waiting tables, but over 25 applications and only one interview later, I gave up on that idea. 

Commercial break: my sister just called to say my one year old nephew is eating dog food. "Put that in your blog." So there it is. 

By late June, I scrapped the idea of serving tables and had come to hate nannying, so it was time to pursue a full time "career" type job. Bad timing I think. I'm pretty sure the job market is worse now than it was in March when I first became unemployed.  I act like I have been applying to jobs like that is my job, but that's not entirely truthful. But I will leave that for the next post. 

Til next time.