My Unemployment: Trip Report. (for sale, health insurance, how much)

[loyalty4sale]

I’m not sure where to begin. I might be placing this is the wrong forum, in the event I have; mods please feel free to replace it into an appropriate one.
]The past 6 months of my life have been a rollercoaster. To be honest, I’ve learned more about life in the past 6 months of who I am, what I am capable of, and finally what I really can do. I lost everything in the process, sold all my belongings on Craigslist, I sleep on an air mattress, literally sat on a park bench on a busy weekday and watched the people walk by, and realized that there was only one person that was capable of doing anything about my situation – me.
]I went bankrupt, I am in the process of a divorce, and I had to give my children to my parents since I simply couldn’t afford them. If there was ever a year in my life I never want back, it is the last one. And if there is one year in my life I learned everything that is going to define me, it’s the same.
]I accepted an offer last week, after 225 applications (trust me 50 of the early ones were as horse ***** as it gets), I received an offer. The employer told me they were concerned I was overqualified, I would leave upon a better offer, and they didn’t want me to continue pursuit of some of the certifications I was pursuing. My recent unemployment stint did get an honest guy better at one thing, lying. So I sold what I learned and convinced my new employer I would never dare self improve myself. God forbid, an employee who wants to be successful, it makes me laugh to think about.
]The offer I accepted, a 40% pay reduction from what I had been making. I have to wait 3 months to be put on the health insurance plan. Family run business and I have corporate experience, although I spent half my career in small business as well.
]I have a graduate degree, over ten years of operations management, and a solid resume that gets me calls on about 10% of the jobs I make a serious effort to apply to. I realized early that cover letters are essential. Follow up phone calls are essential to make sure it’s in the right hands, and what to say and what not to say in an interview. For some reason as confident as I am, I stuck my foot in my mouth and pulled the trigger on my opportunity more often than not early when I got in for the sales pitch. LOL, looking back at the way I said some things I just shake my head, chalk one up to learning experience.
]Government is not going to do anything more than what a government can do, throw money at an issue. The unemployment number is drastically understated, each and every state and the federal government department needs a drastic overhaul to make it actually productive, and no one has any answers. At least that’s what I came to the conclusion of. I decided that no one was looking out for me, so I better get it on track to realize I am the only one that has any stock in my success.
]I talked to a good friend that is having the most success he has ever had in the past few years a couple of months ago– he is a headhunter. Unfortunately, he is concentrated in another industry than I am in. I stopped him when he was running away about how well he is doing. I asked him how much of that has to do with him having an endless supply of applicants and the employers looking for the needle in the haystack that fits their job description to a “T”. He admitted that had a lot to do with it. He also admitted he hadn’t placed anyone in the last year that didn’t already have a job. He told me that some of the companies specifically stated they won’t hire someone unemployed. That made me think I had to take an offer, any offer, once offered.

Two months ago, after my conversation with my friend, I called a family friend I trusted. We created a new reference and company that didn’t exist. We talked about all the details and what I did there, he became my number one reference. I decided if a company is going to discriminate against me that I didn’t have a job, than I have no problem waving a magic wand and creating everything I ever wanted to be. I decided to lie, but in so doing, I had backup. My hits on my resume triple that week. For the past month there hasn’t been a day I didn’t receive a call. And yes, I still keep the insurance company sales people on long enough to refine my sales pitch.

]I didn’t get the offer I wanted. I am in such bad financial shape that I have the potential of losing my children. There has been a dark cloud looming over my life ever since I was given a cardboard box and told, “you are the most qualified, and the youngest.” Youngest meant, “Least tenured” trust me, there was no court case there, lol, yes I explored it initially.

]I have a lot more to say about this. Today is literally the first day in 5 months I haven’t spent all day pouring over job boards, rewriting a resumes, cover letters, reading interview books, and throwing what I had at it all. I packed my car up today and got ready to move and stopped and reflected.
]I accepted a position and will take home less money after taxes than what unemployment is paying me.
So here are the cliff notes I learned:

]No one cares
]Don’t dare rely on government, but use it as a crutch
Don’t be afraid to lie. Government, the company you are applying to, and the headhunter’s are
]You aren’t anything special[
]Rethink everything[
]Bitching about your situation will literally get you nowhere
Do a complete makeover of who you think you are and what you want to be
Don’t ever fear that you may have to start at the bottom again[
ce you get an offer, take it. Being employed (for real, lol) will get you more future offers
]Never give up and become complacent

I am 38. I am going through the toughest time of my life. I am not happy with where I am. I am going to do something about it.
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]I am one person and the only person that has any capability of doing anything about it. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]No one can do anything about my situation, other than me.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]I would say more, and am open to replying to anyone that wants to slam my approach and tell me I am misguided. But I am too busy right now getting ready to accept a position that sucks and one that I plan on not being in a year from now. I will check back in a week, because once where I want to be geographically speaking, I intend to take the sales pitch to a new confident level. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]I wish you all the best and will check back here often, I am just in the beginning phases of the job search, one I am convinced will never end for a number of reasons. At the end of the day, I fully realize I am the only one that cares.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]Loyalty exists insofar as the employee hired regards it. My loyalty is still for sale.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[xandrex]

Holy BBCode tags :O

[back2M]

Good Luck with the path that you travel.

[maui-intoxicated]

Good luck for sure! Do you go to church? Sometimes it's understanding how to believe in yourself that is the toughest part.

It's therapeutic to vent once in a while too!

I wanted to add that Minnesota is an "at-will" state, meaning employee and employer can quit the relationship at anytime.

[pete6032]

I think its a bot.