Jobless

I plan to be jobless in a month, can any of you guys out there who've been in a similar position recently tell me what to expect?
A friend of mine (who is now head of IT at a company) went to a temp agency a few years ago where they literally told her she typed too fast and sent her away. SHE TYPED TOO FAST. Can I expect b.s. like this or have times moved on?

You will land, bereft of all material things, terminator-like, at night, in a strange landscape.

There will be nothing between you and emptiness... except your own special abilities, and steely, untold, inhuman purpose.


What are your chances? I say, pretty good.

Maybe you'll be the next state governor.

Chance, it all depends on your skill set, how your resume reads and what kind of temp agency you apply with. Good luck.

You're a well-known SL personality. You should try your hand at generating your primary income in-world.

OMG! I thought I was the only one! When I was in college, I applied at a temp agency in Minneapolis and was turned away because I typed too fast and the interviewer told me that I could work for them, but I would only get maybe 1 daya of work a week because none of the companies they hired out for would pay the speed bonus that would be required if they sent me. HAHA! Too good!

I've been an IT contractor for years, the world has moved on since the "you type too fast" days. You should get your resume together and start hitting every online job posting. 90% of the folks who contact you will be recruiters for a contracting firm. I make good money contracting, although the benefits can suck.

Hahaha. I think I'm only well known in Off-Topic, and usually for being a flippant rabble rouser.

Speaking as a former Air Force Enlistee. There's always the...ick...Military.

Heh. Nah, not for me. Mercenary, maybe, but not soldier.

I'm sort-of jobless at the moment too. Been that way for over 2 months. I even went back to the restaurant I used to work at, but I'm only getting 2 days a week. It's one of those Family Restaurants, and there's a lot of High School & College kids working there. THEY get the hours just because.... Well, they're cheap to work! As for folks who do work in food service- I know how much it can suck.

I have an associates in Industrial Design, a Bachelor's in Multimedia & Animation. Both are rather useless in SW Pennsylvania. But then most degrees are- its either programming, nursing, or doing assembly line stuff. Then the catch is, I'm considered "too educated" for some of these jobs, or not educated enough. The temp agencies here used to be great! I worked thru them all the time. Now all they want is customer service people & telemarketers. BLEH! I hate telephones to begin with.

Ended up moving back in with the parents. Not bad. Not good. My fiance likes to kid me about being the proverbial 30-something living in his parents basement

I have an interview tomorrow for a Field Tech position, driving around fixing cash registers and other stuff like that. Sounds like fun!

Anyways man, fix up your resume, post it on as many job boards as possible. If you throw enough mud at the wall some of it will stick!!

Losing one's respectable full-time job is only marginally worse than keeping one's part-time source of low denominations.

Good luck, guy! Times are tough and it's hard to find a decent job. My fingers are crossed that this will be it for you.

Thanks. I hope it works out. I'd like to have some money saved because I'd like to marry my fiance eventually. Heh- she figures for 2009! It'll be sooner if I can help it!

Temp agencies have some of the worst health insurance out there. It's generally how temp agencies can afford to pay their temps more than minimum. I had to go to the ER once (but didn't have to stay in a room at the hospital). They gave me a catscan there. Turned out my insurance covered $50 of that. Which left me with around a 3000-8000 bill.

Frankly, I strongly recommend looking at the highest paid job you can find no matter what. I'm told that bus drivers in NY make 50-100k a year or something. 50k is twice what I could ever get doing data entry (which at my job requires a lot of skill to stay employed). So weigh benefits, total pay, and what you're willing to do against your options. If your area has something crazy like extremely high paid garbage collectors, you have no sense of smell, don't mind the weather and they get great health benefits, it'd probably be a great job.

Also, while you're unemployed, stick it to the man for unemployment. And if you don't get a job before unemployment runs out, stick it to them for welfare. You paid taxes at one point, you certainly deserve the help/time to get another job.

P.S. never work in retail or for minimum wage...

Or Food Service!

Yea, after hearing what some garbage men make I got to thinking all them years ago in high school, how the nuns were shocked & quickly scolded a classmate for wanting to be one. Same went for being a "ditch digger". Hmmm, work construction or maybe even as one of the State's Road Crew? Not bad if you like that kind of thing.

It's funny how around here, some companies will start you at $6.50/hr- WOW! Thats what? $1.35 more than minimum wage? WOOOOO!!!! You can at least rent a mobile home on that.

lol... $6.50. Man, I could barely live on twice that in this city.

As for health insurance, I haven't had it in 7 years and figure I don't need it at this point. If I'm injured that badly, they can let me die. I'm not avoiding it or anything, but I don't really care about it either. If I get it, then that's cool. If not, whatever.

Often a good health insurance plan is an indicator of other good benefits, like paid holidays (many temp agencies won't pay you if you aren't working for instance), paid vacation, paid sick leave, 401k plans (okay we know you're gonna work until you die but you can get 20% more money out of your company down the road by putting 20% of your paycheck into this thing and having them match it. Then you get more by managing it and investing wisely), free life insurance (important if you do any kind of dangerous work), free tuition, etc. So it's not so much that you might need one of those things, but that they do offer them and will treat you less like a robot and more like a person.

Hi Chance, I see you're in Los Angeles so you might want to check out this temp agency if that was what you were thinking: http://www.starstaffingservices.com/home.htm. Based in Beverly Hills. Nice people, and not corporate (though they work with corporate companies).

Well I found a job like three weeks after i found out i was gonna be let go. The tech market here in chicago looked very good. I found a great job, better than the one i had with more room for advancement. I don't know maybe I got lucky but I wish you the best and I am sure you will land another job.

If you type that fast, you may want to try transcribing for doctors and lawyers, they make pretty good dough, They pay by the word or used to any way. Or try for a state job, the bennies are great. Here's a link for Californias openings, there's alot of them.

http://www.spb.ca.gov/employment/wvpos_index.htm
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Let Peace be your Fortune

Pure forum poetry.

Chance and everyone else in work transition--I am cheering for you!!



Never truer words spoken.

Heh- Guess it depends where you live as well. SW PA is pretty cheap. So are the pay rates. Housing is cheap too, compared to California. A split-entry house, 3 bed, 2 bathrooms, 2 car garage, runs about $130000. I myself am nearing the late 30s and havent had any medical benefits since I was 20. So far...so good. Dental is so-so. The ocaissional cavity. But I've been going to the same dentist since I was 3. He's used to people with little to no money, so he'll let you pay later. Costs me about $90 for a cavity.

Just got another phone call for another interview. It pays a bit less than the other job but not bad, considering its just Data Entry for a mail-order pharmacy, which I've done before. And I was informed that our neighbor has a brother in IT and he's always looking for new people, so I'm taking over a resume. Heh- its the least they could do since we're always buying candy & stuff their kid sells for school functions!