After three months of searching, interviewing, freelancing, and fighting unemployment, I received a formal job offer today! A job offer that is interesting, challenging, and with one of the most prominent local companies.
It also doesn’t hurt that 410k matching and a $10k raise is part of the job offer.
As excited as I am to go back to being a two paycheck household, I’ve learned some things over the past three months that I don’t intend to forget any time soon.
- I take things for granted. Things like Starbucks, ordering a new book, going out to dinner with friends, and throwing something fun in the cart while at Target started out as special treats but turned into unappreciated habits. I had to break those habits and those special treats will now stay few and far between to keep them appreciated.
- We need to pay down our debt. We managed over the past three months. We never missed a payment. But it was close several times and that is not a good feeling. I’ve never before had to put our bills in order of which was due first and pay them as money came in instead of all at payday. I’m looking forward to eliminating a few of our small debts with my first paycheck and chipping away at the larger debts until they vanish.
- Sitting home in my pajamas wasn’t as glamorous as I thought it would be. I like working. I like making my own money. I like putting 6 years of college and grad school to good use. I like the routine and the opportunity to socialize and dazzle my coworkers with my marketing prowess.
- Unemployment compensation is a joke. It favors the employer and rewards laziness. I’d would have been more than happy to volunteer my time to government programs in exchange for enough money to pay our bills until I found full time employment.
- An emergency fund is great – until it runs out. Which ours did. I don’t think you can ever be too prepared and we will continue to add to our emergency fund no matter how comfortable we get with our place in life.
Have you ever been unemployed? What did you take away from the experience?
Hello. I feel you. I quit my job in May 09 after saving a year’s worth of emergency fund and it took me 5 months to find another job (not a career like my last job, mind you). so yes, those things i took for granted (starbucks) came into light.
that said, if you’re interestd in a part-time day job or a part-time part-time night job in data entry (mindless and the night time crew was really fun). it’s in leander, if you’re interested and want more details email me
.-= linda´s last blog ..Friday Food Definition: Scrapple =-.
Linda – I start my new job on Friday, otherwise I would have taken you up on that offer!
[...] Things Learned While Unemployed: After months of unemployment, Corrin from Broke as a Spoke has found a job—yay! She’s sharing her insights on life with no money. Stop by and wish her luck with her new endeavor! [...]
I still don’t understand the volunteer argument. Go volunteer. I’d hate for it to be mandatory because I spent half of every unemployed day looking for and applying to jobs. If I had to share that time with something else, I doubt I would have found a job as quickly as I did.
.-= Leslie´s last blog ..Weekend: April 2-4, 2010 =-.
Leslie – I was unemployed for 3 months and was denied unemployment benefits. Even though I spent A LOT of my time applying for jobs, I definitely had free time. And that free time got depressing. I would have happily volunteered for government programs in exchange for a small umeployment check to pay some of our bills.
If you look in my left sidebar, I have a section called “Do Good Things.” Those are the organizations I regularly volunteer with.
My point is that I’m completely in favor of the government requiring volunteer work in order to receive unemployment benefits. Put those that are unemployed to work bettering our communities. I’d be willing to bet that a good portion of volunteerism continues after people become employed.