Just keep swimming

Let me just start by saying that the man standing in the boat with the complete look of distress as it sinks is one hundred percent me, right now. I recently lost my job; well it has actually been around a month and sadly I still have not found a new source of employment. Sitting here for this month job searching has led me here, to express the hardships of actually finding a well enough paying job to sustain my current living situation. My job laid off over 600 employees due to labor costs and that news was broken to me around 3pm on the last Monday of last month. Now for those of us who get paid bi-weekly (every 2 weeks) and the pay week just passed there were a series of tears and breakdowns I went through throughout that day before I actually pulled myself together again. For lack of better words it was hard as hell. I didn't know how I was going to pay my upcoming bills the next day or moving immediately forward. After pulling myself together I knew that there were a series of steps that needed to happen to have some sort of stability in this otherwise very unstable situation. But these steps also came with their own complications and struggles that add to the sinking ship that is the job hunt. Lets take a quick look at those pros and cons..

Step 1: Unemployment; I applied for unemployment only hours after being let go from my job. The sooner you file the claim, the better it is for you. Or so I thought. I am now on my 5th week of waiting for a confirmation from the reemployment office on the status of my claim. Calling also does you no good because each time you speak to someone they give you a longer and longer timeframe to wait. 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 WEEKS! Even understanding that the unemployment office may be backed up with claims how in the world is someone who needs immediate assistance in a situation like mine supposed to work around that 2 month time frame? It can be very discouraging for a person who is already quite stressed out.

step 2: begin the hunt for new employment; Now as soon as I put in the claim for unemployment, I began to also look for a new job. I cannot tell you how many jobs I have applied for in the past month but it has to be over 100. See, many people on the outside looking in on the unemployed believe that since many places are looking for workers that that means it is easy to find a job and bounce back from the financial crisis we find ourselves in. When in all actuality it is the opposite. Many companies are hiring yes, but I think many can agree that if the pay and the hours don't add up you could find yourself in an even worse situation than you began in. I have heard many people tell me to just take what I could get my hands on, but if the job cannot pay my bills correctly than that is more of a hinderance than a help.

step 3: The scammers; the scammers are a complete nightmare when job hunting. So many have tried to email, text, or call and it is truly disheartening because many look and seem like actual jobs, and all they do in the end is waste precious time that we do not have giving false hopes of employment. So navigating through those scams can be much harder than it seems.

Between the unemployment gamble, the dreaded hunt for employment, and swiper no swiping scams, we jobless are finding ourselves treading very very deep water. Going into the new month of April still without any end in sight of being unemployed I find my little paper boat turning into little more than soaked pulp. But this article is not to discourage the jobless but to shed some light on the struggles that we have to endure as we continue to fight against the current. Many of us hate being without work and it is a constant stress that we fight off everyday a new bill occurs, or rent is due. So if you are in that same little paper boat as me please remember to have faith in yourself and never give up because all we can do is keep swimming and soon enough we will hit land and be on our feet once again.