Being unemployed is a depressing period, one I wish none of you ever face, but likely some of you have, so have I in the distant past, it makes you think about your choices and options.
so today I waited in line at the grocery store at noon time! and deciding which line is best, the one i was on behind 1 guy paying, 3 other seemingly in one group debating who would pay for the items (they all wanted to pay) v.s. the other line with just one guy with lots of single fruits and vegetables (1 orange, 1 apple, 1 peach etc), so i am applying my new found GMAT skills to live action. if 1 shopper paying time is X and it takes each item Y seconds to pass through the register, but you cannot use Y for fruits since there is that whole fruit look up list which makes fruit variables Z,P,V,U etc... and you cannot solve multiple parameters with barely 2 made up equations so i applied an age old trick which is usually wrong and swapped lines, this time i got it right, usually I don't. I am unsure what good it did me since i am in no hurry and nothing special to do, but a good brain exercise nonetheless.
my main focus these days is job hunting, and so far the prey is scarce. I am finding my self fighting with myself on issues of pride, possible future and integrity. I can probably get a job with less pay and less interest but I know that if I agree to take some job, I will not leave it in the short term, since I made a commitment (i guess I a stupid that way), Or i can get a job with less pay or a lesser position, but either will not help my future prospect, and so far i turned down a much less pay combined with a starter position for a short term, though I almost took it. battles with pride and the need to provide are not my favorite pass time.
The issue is insurance, which is new to me. I remember seeing in movies that people get fired and right away they are in financial issues and it was always odd to me, where are the savings? well we have savings but suddenly our insurance changes from very low monthly to well , inability to get insurance, Alla for her Crohn's and I due to my hospitalization of last year, both being un-insurable is a scary thing. further more, we heard that the August, a month that was supposed to be under insurance cover, so we were told by company management, is not covered. they lied (again) and we expect a high bill, not even knowing we were not covered at the time. outrage, yes, we are unsure if or what we can do about it. the best thing is find a job, permanent not a contract one, and when we do, we are both insured.
other than job searching I am studding for the GMAT and learning to improve my grammar, not sure if this new found knowledge is reflected in this blog (probably not). so far i am doing ok on the math and grammar parts, but strangely no matter which test i take, math or grammar, easy level or difficult, the scores are always between 80-90 never less, never more, without any logic in between. i guess i could have it worse, but I cannot identify my own improvement, well i finished 1 book, now on the 2nd GMAT book, test in November but not sure yet where I will apply for continuation of my MBA since we don't know where we are going to live.
since we cant find decent work we have started looking else where, and else where is a lot of places, we hope to find something here but if not, moving is a definite option, where is a tough questions, we prefer going to places we know someone, but open positions don't correspond with those places and for a move , both of us need to find something, which makes it all that harder. so we are in a constant internal debate, of when, where to, for how much including checking civilian army jobs.
I am also checking into various certifications which are important in this market such as six sigma but finding that choosing the proper certification is not an easy task. i can do it for cheap but it may be not respected but decent jobs, or do it for more with a propper institute, but that requires me to complete a project, to complete a project, i need a job that will give me resources to research it with the six sigma methods, for a job i need certifications...i would like to kick both the chicken and the egg.
so i try to keep in shape by going to the gym slightly more then before and enjoying soccer games doing the day which is fun and playing some more disc golf with farm boy, another ex MDG with a job at this point. I am still not good at this game but i found that i am better when I relax and focus, so will see, but its a fun game.
recently we went with farm boy and danger cat (danger cat is a nick name selected by danger cat her self, i forget why she chose this name, but after losing a card game she was forced, not by me, to crawl under the table and wail. and my camera didn't have a card in it so i missed a great you tube video. oh yes, i was saying that we went to a movie with them. DC (danger cat for short) is turning 30 in 3 days so maybe we will have a party to report on.
my car oil needed changing and I being a city boy, usually go to the shop, but Farm boy who is very nice offered to teach me how to do it myself. and though i am not technical with tools and such, i decided to give it a try, so we went to the farm (the residance of farm boy which is not actualy a farm) , we purchased oil and an oil filter after calling my shop to verify which model I drive (just goes to show on the extent of knowledge I posses on cars), so we got model X , then Farm boy used the jack, lifted the car, drained the oil which spilled some everywhere and getting his hands dirty, only to find out that the oil filter is not where it is supposed to be since we were told wrong by the shop, we had a different model... so we returned the dirty messy oil and now I know how to drain and return the oil. today i went to shop to have it done by the paid guys. unfortunately my car's oil filter requires a tool not commonly found in stores, or we would have managed to do it ourselves (or more accurately Farm boy would have done it him self, he is very handy).
to add to this somehow gloomy period, Chad, no nick name this time, who arranges my great D&D games is moving to Toledo! 2 hours away, and we missed the last 2 weeks (he cancelled) and though we are supposed to play this Sunday, I can clearly see these sessions ending... sad, very sad. I was having so much fun. and yes, there are other groups, but it took me 3 years to find a quality group, there is a world of different between most groups and the quality ones. I may have some luck here, with another group, we will start soon, hoping its good, seems promising so far.
I do have some income or expecting to get some soon, since we offer support for the MDG customers , its not much, not enough and no insurance is provided by it and its not enough to insure future, i see this ending as well soon. Yesterday was most depressing since i had a few calls with recruiters and i was expecting 3 calls from 3 different companies with decent job openings, I was sure all 3 would call, but none have (or is it none has, has seems right by GMAT but sounds wrong...they got me all screwed up, I cant complete a sentence) , I got a call today, missed it, and the guy didn't answer when i called but tomorrow i should have a phone interview which is not much but it is something.
one other thing i tried is insurance, well i dint try, they called me, approached me from the job search sites. so i put on my best suit (my only suit that is) a tie and my not shined shoes and drove to their office where the main insurance guy was telling me how prosperous I can be selling insurance, sorry, not selling, simply displaying options that are needed for clients and letting them chose , but not selling. sounds tempting, but I cant see my self convince customers. I work hard but i am not a ferocious sales tiger, I am more of the Mule that does the hard work without being noticed. ok 2 seconds of self pity ... move on.
so i went to the office and on the phone i placed the name of this office , not the address, a mistake since Google had the older address of this firm, so i passed the office, not knowing i did, and parked on the other side of the wrong address, walked to the wrong address, found i was at the wrong place then walked (while already late) in my suit on a hot day to the right address, only 4 blocks, but the 3rd was a cemetery , one block 10 minutes walk... in my suit , did I mention a hot day?, well. not fun.
the thing is that my dad chose insurance for a 2nd career just a few years older then me at the time, but i don't think i will follow, not for me (he left insurance 10-15 years after).
I am still optimistic, I know i will find something soon, but i realize i have to give up my pride and take a lesser job and re-prove myself. well as someone I despise likes to say, it is what it is, there is no more loyalty in the business world, I was a fool for staying for so long when I knew I ought to leave, I was repaid with lies and deceit for my loyalty, and I would like to say that I was the only one, but no, some people are much worse off but this fact does nothing to make it feel any better.
well, they say, everything looks better in the morning , going to sleep now, very much hoping to get an interview and have one less parameter off the equation.
good night and don't trust anyone (at work I mean)
