February 10, 2008Unemployment

I started out by going to the unemployment insurance site for the state where my ex-company is located (find your state here!) and following the steps to create my account. This included entering information on my previous employer and my current situation — what kind of severance package I received, the circumstances behind my termination, etc.

Once I finished filling out their forms I was told to wait until this week and then submit a request for payment. On Day 10 (as detailed previously) I followed their instructions, submitted the payment request and was told that my account had issues that needed to be resolved prior to me receiving any money. This (eventually) lead to me filling out a self-assessment form, where I had to make a number of commitments to maintain my unemployment eligibility.

From the options I received I chose the following:

1. Join a Networking/Job club
2. Network with work peers/friends
3. Register on any job bank
4. Take a Career Assessment exam
5. Utilized the resource room at the Workforce Center

Join a Networking/Job club: Signed up on LinkedIn, so I'm covered here

Networking with work peers/friends: Requested and received reference letters from my ex-manager and a client.

Register on any job bank: I placed my resume on Monster. Uh, that's a job bank, right?

Take a Career Assessment exam: I took the JASPER test. According to the results I'm a Mentor. Yes! Perfect for project management! I think…

Utilized the resource room at the Workforce Center: That's the tough one — I don't live in the state where I applied for unemployment, so I need to figure out where my local workforce center is, and hopefully use the phone in their resource room. Or something.

After selecting those I was given the option of entering in a couple commitments of my own. I thought about writing in "Locate a potential employer" and "Get hired" but decided that the person reviewing my claim might not have a sense of humor. Better paid than funny.