The First Day of Unemployment

This is the fourth time that I've been in a situation where there is not even the hint of employment on the horizon. The first time was in my first year in Chicago when a show I was doing conflicted with my job as an over-night bellman at The Drake Hotel. That experience was pretty grim because during that time I had no money and had to find a new apartment. I spent about six weeks looking for something and ultimately landed three part-time jobs in the same week. Considering I had no marketable skills that wasn't bad. Still, I'd say that those were the six scariest weeks of my life.

The second episode happened when I made the decision to change careers. I decided that working as a starving actor and waiting tables was no longer working for me. I quit after signing a lease on a apartment that basically doubled my rent. Fortunately I was still able to pick up fill-in shifts. Again, it took me about six weeks to find the job that started my illustrious human resources career.

Then I left two jobs, and my period of unemployment during the first was so brief I don't remember how long it was. Maybe three weeks. The second little spurt I was unemployed for a full day.

However, in 2001 I quit my job because of depression and planned to be out about three months. It had been a tough job and I was sick. That bout lasted seven months. At the end of seven months I was deeply depressed, defeated, and desperate. I actually got my next job offer on 9/11 before the second tower fell. Again, I had two offers simultaneously: one in manufacturing, and one in the travel industry. It didn't take a genius to choose the least bleak of the two options. I went into manufacturing, where I spent the next two years firing people and fighting with insurance companies. Not a good situation for someone battling depression.

I quit that job abruptly too. When I got on the train to go home, I swore that I'd have a plan of action before I got home. When I changed trains, I got off at the transfer point, walked into my old restaurant and walked out with a full roster of shifts. I had decided that I would go to grad school. I went home, enrolled in bartending school (thinking that would be an easy way to quickly bring home cash) and plunged ahead. Now, understand that at that point I had just purchased my condo and hadn't even made my first mortgage payment. Tensions were high, but somehow I kept my head above water. I landed one bartending job. Then a better one. Then I picked up a full roster of shifts at the restaurant. Then I was asked to manage one of the satellite cafes. I left the manufacturing plant in June, and the following March I sat down in my first grad class, not having any idea how I was going to pay my bills.

Managing the cafe was crushingly boring, and financially draining. But somehow I managed to muddle through. I did it for almost two years when a recruiter called an practically ordered me to the sports marketing company. The rest is history.

All of that experience has taught me a couple of things. First, save money for a rainy day. Financially, I'm good for about six months. Second, barring mental illness it should take between six and eight weeks to find employment -- at the outside. And since I think I have the depression thing under control I'm thinking I'll be set by Labor Day; at the outside, Halloween. Third, while it's true that looking for a job is a full-time job in itself, it's very important to have other things going on. Otherwise you're a slave to the computer, bouncing between job sites and zipping resumes out as fast as jobs are posted and counting the minutes that the phone doesn't ring.

To that end, I've reconnected with my online writer's workshop and posted my first story. I last posted there about four years ago and at the time I was viewed as something as a dilettante wannabe. My stories received responses that ran the gamut from outright pans to lukewarm acceptance. Each month there is a challenge and the best I ever did was placing third with a story that I'd slaved over. When I started school, there just wasn't time to post fiction.

Yesterday I posted my first story, and if I do say so myself it has received two raves! The first responder started out trying to hate it, pointing out minor problems, but finished with high praise. The second responder did not hesitate to give praise.

And on Thursday I have my first interview.

Things are ticking along.