Kelly's 2016 Apartment Patio Garden

[TexasTycoon]

Originally Posted by Captain Neon

Wow! 9 months? I was unemployed for 4 months in 2012 and was starting to believe that I would never find a new job that wouldn't involve asking, "Do you want fries with that?"

Truly disheartening to see jobs that I had applied to months prior with no response being posted again on the job boards. I had all of the qualifications, but these employers thought so little of my resume that they would rather hire no one than even interview me!

I remember my meetings with my case worker at Unemployment where it was obvious to both of us that I knew more about finding a job and interviewing than she did. All she could do was shrug her shoulders, and give me another pointless check-the-box homework assignment so that I could continue receiving my minimum wage check while looking for a real job.

Yep, 9 months. He left his previous job voluntarily due to health issues caused by the extremely stressful environment he was in (yes he went to HR, yes he talked to his boss and his boss's boss, believe me all outlets were exhausted before this decision was made) and had worked for the company 7 years prior. It's the same company I work for, but a completely different department. We made the decision for him to resign together (at the end of November) and agreed that he would begin seriously looking for another job in January after giving his mind a little break (we've both worked since high school, longest I was unemployed was 6 months in 2009 and he'd never taken more than a week of vacation at a time). He wanted to get out of the finance industry, but unfortunately with so much experience it was difficult to find anything else he was qualified for. So, he'll be returning to the same company he left in about two weeks, but a different department with a boss he's had before who is a wonderful and easy-going person who trusts his employees to do their own jobs. It didn't work out the way either of us thought it would, but he can continue to look elsewhere and probably have a better time of it now that he'll have a job and money coming in.

The job market here in Austin is really difficult with so many people moving here from other states and taking so many jobs. They're hiking up our rent costs, too, to the point where many native Austinites/greater-Austin-area-nites are having to leave the region completely so they can afford the basics. It's really a shame, since I've lived here all my life and can't really imagine living anywhere else.

Edited to add: he did have several interviews over the past few months that were all promising but never came to fruition. He had a short part-time job helping my sister-in-law's store with renovation, just to have some money coming in. The problem with taking whatever job you can in situations like this is that when you then try to get a job making the amount of money you need to be making and were making previously, if you've already taken less doing "grunt work" to pay the bills, employers don't really see the need to pay you what you deserve anymore, since you've already taken less. That was a weird sentence, but hopefully it makes sense. In addition, some of those employers with the easier-to-get jobs won't even hire someone like my husband due to overqualification.