At Least You'll Have Time to Write: Reflections on Five Months of Aggressive Unemployment
I know my friends meant well, but of all the things said to me after I was laid off in August of 2024, at least you'll have time to write was the silliest. I wanted to believe them, and I tried, at least at first, but as the days and weeks wore on, I realized there was no way I could possibly concentrate under these circumstances. You see, unemployment is not free time. It's not a vacation. It's putting your head under the Sword of Damocles and hoping for the best.
Also, you may also be asking, Daniel, why five months? Why not wait until February so you can have a nice round number in the title? Well, Mr. or Mrs. Number Stickler, that's the kind of negative thinking that almost lost us the war back in '45. Our grandparents would be so disappointed to hear us talking like that.
So here we go: assorted reflections presented in no particular order.
It's a Horror Show Out There 😱
And not in a good way. Granted, I haven't been paying attention to the job market for more than twenty years, but I was surprised to see how oversaturated it is with professionals looking for work. When speaking to others about their experiences, I heard the same things: too many people, too few jobs, and marginal ROI on submitted applications.
My own numbers bear this out. I'm currently running at less than a 30% response rate (good or bad) to a submitted application. That means 70% of applications just disappear into the ether. Did anyone even see it? Who knows? And I won't even share how many applications actually result in phone screens or interviews because I'm not good at math, and that many decimal points scare me.
We Don't Take Marketplace 👎
If you haven't been unemployed in a while, you may not know that the worst part of losing your job isn't the loss of income, it's the loss of health insurance. This is compounded if your work-sponsored plan was supporting your entire family, including two kids who get sick all the time because they're kids.
Did you know? Doctors can refuse to take Marketplace-sponsored plans. That means that even if you go to healthcare.gov and get a United Healthcare plan, doctors can still turn you away because the plan is not sponsored by a corporation. I assume this means they can't charge you as much, and therefore you're not a "good customer."
Definitely an eye-opening experience. Did you save up a ton of money in case you ever lost your job? Good, because you're going to spend that on health insurance.
LinkedIn is Your Frenemy 🏢
It's a scary thing to accept that, besides your network, LinkedIn is your primary chance of finding a new job. The problem is that everyone else already knows that, so most job listings grow quickly from 0 to 2,000 applications in just a day or two. You also have to work on your profile, send connection requests to strangers, and post frequently to demonstrate you're a thought leader. If you're not much for making yourself a public spectacle, LinkedIn can be rough.
My advice? Build up your profile, then forget about it. Bookmark the jobs pages and bypass the LinkedIn feed. You'll miss a few job postings, but the rest of it... you don't need that in your life, my friend.
And if you do decide to post on LinkedIn... well, I hope you like praising AI.
Your Network is Everything 🤝
This one was difficult for me because the last thing I wanted to do was reach out to people and ask for help. As it turns out, most people are more than happy to help! I've had friends, former coworkers, and former customers reach out with support and job leads. I never expected that kind of help, but I can't imagine surviving this search without it.
Also, you are someone's network. If you aren't throwing your entire weight behind someone who recently lost their job, you're letting our corpo-overlords win. Nothing will drive this point home more than losing your job, so get started on it early and build up that karma. If that sounds like a guilt try--it is. Help your friends and acquaintances. Everyone is struggling.
Rejection Emails Are Weird ⛔
From the too-curt to the overly explanatory, application rejection emails run the gamut of impersonal and devastating. When people talk about the applications of generative AI, this is one area where ChatGPT or Grammarly should be able to tighten things up a bit. If you've viewed my application (and you probably didn't) and don't plan to move me forward, that's all you have to say.
Thank you for your interest in [position]. Unfortunately, we have decided to move forward with other candidates. Best of luck, Faceless Corporation.
The ones that really get me are the going forward with other candidates whose skills more closely match the job requirements we generated with ChatGPT. You can't fool me, Faceless Corporation. I know my skills align; that's why I applied for the job.
I get so many rejection emails during the week. Sometimes I just laugh and scream yeah, well, I don't even remember applying to your silly little company and disturbing everyone at the Starbucks.
Desperation Drives You to Strange Places 👠
After a few months of searching, you start to ask yourself weird questions like what else can I do for money? You start thinking about your skills and what you'd be willing to do. Maybe you even buy a satin dancing dress with a split on the side clean up to your hip. That's what drove me to create a second resume for technical writing and take some freelance writing gigs.
I still won't do IT though, and I won't until the last penny of my savings is gone.
Ha. "Docucment." Don't worry, y'all. Your jobs are safe from AI for now.
Not All Job Boards Are Useful 👷♂️
The last time I hired at Uplogix, we posted our job listing on Indeed and Craigslist. I haven't actually checked out Craigslist, but I can tell you that Indeed, Monster, ZipRecruiter, Dice, WeWorkRemotely, YCombinator, and even BuiltIn have done absolutely nothing for me. Indeed gave up emailing me months ago. Monster keeps sending me HVAC listings. And ZipRecruiter... 😔
There's also a disturbing number of pay-to-play job boards like Swooped that want your money in exchange for viewing jobs. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Your product's audience are people without an income?
There is Time to Write ✍️
... but it is tainted by a dark cloud of anxiety hanging over everything. I wouldn't have minded being a starving writer in my younger years, but I've grown to love food, and I've raised my kids in the same fashion. They expect meals morning, noon, and night, and I can't provide that on the 0.5 cents I make for every page you read of my dope cyberpunk novels on Kindle Unlimited.
There is actually a lot of time for everything. If you take away the anxiety and impending doom, I've enjoyed the extra time with my family. I got to spend my first Thanksgiving and Christmas with them not on call. Not since 2003 have I had such an extended time not working, and honestly, I don't know what to do with myself.
Guess I'll see what's in the fridge.
Try to Stay Positive ☀️
It's difficult living with uncertainty, but I promise you, things will start clicking. I went months without any bites, and now, suddenly, I'm juggling interviews and phone screens because nothing is easy and straightforward. You just need to keep going. Pretty soon, you'll be in that new cushy job wishing for a day off.
Just keep checking LinkedIn and smashing that Apply button.
