February 6, 2008Day 10

The search continues…

Since I started looking I've sent out five applications. To this point, no response. It's an odd feeling, being ignored. Do I wait a couple days for an answer? Do I email and follow up? At my previous job I would often review resumes and participate in interviews. Whenever an applicant seemed pushy I'd remove them from consideration — figuring out who to hire was hard enough without the added guilt of perceiving their desperation. Perhaps this is payback.

I found an ad for a part-time webmaster position today, it looked like something I was doing for my old company around four years ago. Do I go after this job and buy myself more time to find something better or do I stay on the search full-time? If it were just me I'd be leaning towards sticking to the search, but I've got other responsibilities. As much as I'd like to stick to the search I need to make money anywhere I can (of course, I probably won't hear back from them).

In addition to all the job searching I did today, there was time spent on unemployment as well. I put in my first request for payment and, as expected, received notice of pending issues on my account. I called the customer service line and they confirmed that my severance package would most likely delay me being eligible to receive payments. After the call I hopped online to fill out a self-assessment form to be reviewed by the unemployment office once I became eligible. This is where the fun really began.

I started out answering yes or no to a bunch of questions about how i was looking for my job. Was my search too narrow? Were my expectations unreasonable? All good questions. I answered them the way they needed to be answered, but beyond that I can't say that I answered them correctly. There were other questions, but I'm tired now and I think those questions are best saved for another post.

I promised a post on unemployment and I WILL DELIVER (some other time)!