So I'm going to be terminated from my job in about three weeks. I had a very long conversation with my boss yesterday, we're very open and honest with each other, and he made it clear that I'm not performing at the level required by my performance matrix, and I'm going to be let go after official review by human resources. It's a very high pressure sales environment, I worked there for two years, and things just sort of dried up for me, or my heart isn't in it anymore or whatever. It is what it is.

So the point of this thread is to receive advice on how to go about applying for unemployment and what the process is like, preferrably from people who have experienced similar circumstances.

I'm not on unemployment, but just wanted to throw in my 2 cents - sales sucks like that.

but yay for joining us unemployed schmucks

**** sales.

get foodstamps too!

Maybe I'll get pregnant and go on WIC as well.

Sales always seemed too cutthroat to me - you get terminated not because you suck at your job, but because you're not in the top X percent.

Precisely. I work for one of the largest for-profit universities in the world.

They wanted me to call 100 - 120 prospective students every day.

They wanted me to schedule 60 prospective student appointments each month.

They wanted 45 of those people to show up for their appointment.

They wanted 35 of those people to complete an admissions application.

They wanted 30 of those people to start class.

They wanted 28 of those people to stay in class for a significant period of time.

They wanted 10 of those people to refer at least one person.

Its extremely demanding and horribly cutthroat. When you figure I make about $34,000 a year, and every person that completes one course spends on average of $1500, the expectations are outrageous.

All of that is the minimum requirement EVERY month.

That's silly. Education shouldn't ****ing be saleable in the first place.

I've always found the fact that your job rating is dependent on how receptive your given list of people to call is a rather repulsive aspect of sales.

Which one? You're getting fired anyway. My guess is UoP.

Dead on, Jon'C

wut?

I know grocery checkers who make more than that. Tell them to **** off.

That seems like an abysmal salary for some ridiculous sales expectations.

I was recently fired from my job & chose to file for unemployment as well. I don't know if you live & work in the same state, but typically you file for unemployment in the state that you work in. You're typically eligible as long as you didn't voluntarily quit or if you weren't fired for misconduct or dishonesty. It'll generally take you a few weeks to get your first check, assuming that your employer doesn't file an appeal. I've been unemployed since the end of October & haven't received a single check yet. That's partly my fault, I suppose, because I was out of the country during some initial deadlines & no one was checking my mail. If you were getting healthcare through your employer, try to find out if you're eligible for COBRA & sign up. It's expensive but it's less expensive than trying to get private insurance & there are statistics that show that people are more likely to become ill while unemployed. If you have been thinking about going back to school, this is probably your best opportunity. Being unemployed actually increases your chances of receiving grants. A few states also offer assistance for people that are unemployed by giving them grants/loans to start their own business (mine doesn't). The best advice that I could give to you while you're on unemployment is to become familiar with the procedures & to never miss a deadline, whether it be for submitting paperwork or requesting a check. My best overall advice for you would be to get a job as soon as possible, as long as it pays more than what you're getting on unemployment insurance, which shouldn't be difficult because it's not going to be much, judging by your stated income-level. Being unemployed & having to jump through all of the hoops will make you miserable & you'll soon understand that the amount of people that are "abusing the system" are probably far less than you previously imagined. In the end, you have to stay positive & use this as an opportunity (e.g. my wife & I are attempting to open our own restaurant). I personally think it's great that you've had experience in sales. Now you know exactly what NOT to go in to again. Hopefully you won't have to go through the types of things that I've gone through during this process, but feel free to browse my blog, just in case.



That's a decent wage in many states. I know people with advanced degrees that are earning less than that in many areas of Kentucky.

Both of my parents make less than that. Not combined, but individual income that is.

Welcome to the club. I hope your state/city is better of than mine; I've been out of work for 9 months now.

Screw unemployment, just get a job. Deliver pizzas. If you live near a military base the baggers in the commissary work for tips. Fast food restaurants seem to be hiring (of course depends on your area). Unless you don't want to work. I'm thinking about the latter to do my part to keep the economy depressed for 2012.



At the state it's in anyway...

It's awesome how the employed seem to think it's so easy to find a job. I went in to Toys R Us (my old job) to see if I could get rehired, and found out that they currently had over 300 applicants. While I was at the service desk, five other people came up and asked if they were hiring.

There aren't enough jobs dude. Freakin' Pizza Hut and Walmart won't even hire me because they've got a dozen or two other applicants with better experience.

That's what sucks about living in a big city. Not that it's rainbows and sunshine out here, either, but it's a lot better than that.

Have either of you tried temp agencies in the interim? Sure, they have a million people, but usually most of those people totally suck and are unreliable, so if you've got half a brain you will probably stand out.

Good luck, either way!

Let me guess: Self-injury to help opportunistic businessmen advance their political goals is also why you joined the military, right?

Pick a saturated industry where the standard of employees is generally quite low, it makes it a piece of piss to look exceptional in interviews. Web Development for example.

THIS is the problem. You're uneducated and have no unique skills. That makes you one of 21895824367234 other people who can do the same thing at the same place. Anyone can work at Toys R Us, so everyone tries to. Get a good education, learn to do something valuable, and it opens up more opportunities. It also narrows down the pool of potential candidates.

Sorry that I'm not being helpful in the short-run. I know you've got bills to pay and money is tight and it sucks, but it's not my fault you don't have a job. It is my fault that I have a job, though.

Best of the luck to you Darth J, last year I was unemployed for 11 months, I know how it feels. The other Guys are right, file for unemployment anyway, you never know when you will get accepted for a new position, but keep searching. I have worked in warehouse inventory and industry for almost 15 years. I applied last year to places way under my level of experience, and did not receive one interview, My neighbor, a little older than me was laid off from the postal service after 27 years. He applied at Pizza Hut and was not accepted, but that was last year. I think things are getting better. Hang in there.

If you are interested, an education in the medical field looks very promising out there in the world.
Just a suggestion.

Filing for unemployment is the smart thing to do because in the real-world people aren't psychic & while they may think that they'll get a job soon, they don't actually know it. The whole purpose of unemployment is so that you have a safety net while you're looking for another job. Even if you have an emergency fund, there's absolutely no reason to use your own money when there's a system in place to prevent that from happening. There's absolutely no reason not to apply for unemployment unless you're simply trying to make some sort of deranged ideological stand. I think that we should be giving everyone here the benefit of doubt & simply assume that they'll use the system in the way that it's meant to be used. Otherwise we're no better than the people that assume that everyone that has BitTorrent installed is downloading illegal MP3s or that everyone that has a DVD-RW is illegally copying movies.

I have a degree and a pretty unique skill set, but I still can't find a job. It's not as easy as it seems.

I think that the best thing that any semi-intelligent person can do is to start their own business. This way, if it fails, you can only blame yourself. In the U.S., it's the employer that gets most of the protection, not the employee. In other words, if you can't beat them, join them.

I'm unemployed. I'm also on the dole. Sponging just over £51 off the state a week.

My trouble is...

a) I don't know what I can actually do with my degree. I don't think (or feel) qualified for anything to do with engineering, and I focused on applied maths, so accounting and stats are kind of a no-no. Also you know, not wanting to do accounting.

b) I tend to be either over- or underqualified. Most positions want a more focused degree, or a degree better than a third. If I'm applying for something fitting my A-levels, say, for entry-level work, then they're like "well, he has a degree, **** him" or they ask for experience I don't have.

c) I need a proper job. Full time, £13k or better. That way I can move out and live on my own. So I can't just get a job at Tesco or something. Or rather, I could, if I had any way of travelling that wasn't going to cost me at least £6 a day and be at horribly prohibitive times.

That being said, I AM trying. I could falsify the stuff I have to write to actually get my £51 a week, but I deeply, sincerely want to get off this island. Also preferably before I'm 22.

I am a master's degree holder in business. Education isn't the answer! I would love to start my own business but I want to find something more reliable. I'm contemplating returning to substitute teaching for a semi-stable source of income while I search for a new job. I live in California, by the way.

Why not try both? Substitute teach while setting up whatever business you're going for.

This is what I did. I'm studying engineering and living at home. I got hurt and stopped going to work. When the disability in late ran out in 2007 I quit my job and started an eBay store with a mere $400 that I had in my checking account. After a year and a half I make more than I could ever dream of making at any job I've previously had and who knows, at my current expansion rate in a couple years I may not even need the engineering degree that I am currently working towards.

This is the internet age, the return of small business. This time instead of mom and pop on the corner, it's the college kid in his bedroom with a few boxes of stock and a computer. Find a niche, be creative, and if you have good marketing sense you can pull it off.

I think it's less to do with employment status and more to do with the kind of area they're living. I live in an area that's a mix of mostly upper-middle-class income (I fall into mid...middle-class?) white-collar workers. The area has a lot of commerce (food + stores), but, since a large number of the people here are young couples without kids, there's a higher demand for workers in these restaurants and stores.

Now, if you go to, say, a college town, where the majority of the population is late teens/early 20's, you're going to have a lot more competition for these kinds of jobs.

I think that depends on the area. I live in Toronto now, and while it's difficult to find a job, it's nowhere near as difficult as it is in the smaller areas of Ontario. A few years back I lived in Peterborough, which is a small cottage country just Northeast of Toronto. One year while putting out resumes I started to get sick of having no calls back so I decided to start to keep track of how many resumes I handed out... I reached 65 before I got a single call back and I was more than qualified for the work I was applying for (working on a farm for 3 years, you'd think looking after all the equipment you'd be well qualified to pump gas).

The only thing an undergraduate major qualifies you to do is take the subject GRE.

You argue that intelligent people should voluntarily exchange high pay and a minimal amount of personal risk in the short run for decreased pay and a gigantic amount of personal risk in the long run. I disagree.

that is assuming that there will be a gigantic drop in pay. kind of a moot point if you have already lost your job. also starting your own business has the potential for MASSIVE boost in pay beyond what you can expect from most jobs.

but of course it is not without huge risks also.

*snort*

Some 'minimal' personal risk this crap is turning out to be, eh? Yeah, let's waste 6-8 years in post-secondary education at great financial risk just to be a little competitive for one of these 'minimal risk' jobs in some huge, faceless corporation or inept government bureaucracy. Don't kid yourselves: 4 doesn't cut it anymore. You need at least a master's in a high-demand field to have any hope anymore.

Someone's bitter.

Almost 100% of businesses cannot and will never turn any profit. A very small percentage will be able to generate a tiny amount of profit in the extreme short run. A vanishingly small percentage will be able to generate significant profit in the long run if they're lucky enough to get a valuable government-granted monopoly (patent or copyright.) So yes, there is a non-zero chance for a pay increase from starting your own business. This also assumes our hypothetical semi-intelligent person has the entrepreneurial skill to formulate a cogent business plan, manage the business to the point where it is productive and attract investors who do not care how much our hypothetical semi-intelligent person is paying himself.

It's easier and more profitable to go to Harvard Business School.

What you're not really appreciating is the fact that, in most markets, the revenue from selling a good is very close to (or equal to) the cost of producing that good. When the economy is depressed the sale price of a good is reduced below the cost of producing it, causing layoffs and (eventually) causing firms to go out of business.

Your risk, as an employee, is the potential loss of your source of income. Yes, it sucks. And then your boss loses his house because he financed his business with a second mortgage. I bet he's sure sorry for inconveniencing you and your paycheque-to-paycheque lifestyle though!

Almost 100% of businesses don't turn a profit? How do you figure that? I can think of a significant number of services that I have worked for that I am confident were turning a significant profit.

Really? I don't usually consider the number of natural monopolies 'significant' but good for them I guess.