I am going on vacation. Although, when I titled this post I felt that “vacation for the unemployed” was sort of an oxymoron. If you’re unemployed, what are you taking a vacation from? Not from working, that’s for sure.
You actually need a vacation from the depression of not working and because you feel bad that you’re still living for free at a friend’s house. Why not give your friend a vacation from you?
So I am headed to FL tomorrow and thought I would share my tips for taking a vacation as an unemployed person. Unemployed people have to do extensive planning because while we obviously have the luxury of time we do not have the luxury of money.
Tip #1: Choose a vacation destination where you have family and/or friends that you can crash with for free. Preferably choose a place with both and then you can take a longer vacation because you can stay with family 1/2 of the time and friends the other 1/2 of the time. If you don’t have friends in a nice vacation area then start making some. It’s not hard these days with the internet and you have plenty of free time to devote to building an online friendship.
Tip #2: Transportation can be tricky if you don’t have a car. If you do have a car, gas can be expensive. This leaves you a few options; walking or taking a bus. I’m assuming you’re going to go with the latter so I’ll say that I’ve found buses that are very reasonably priced and although it may take you 8 hrs to make a 4.5 hr trip (this happened to me last weekend) you are still better off than walking the whole way.
Tip #3: Since you can’t afford any new “vacation clothes” I would suggest taking a vacation in an opposite climate from the one in which you’re currently living. For instance, D.C. is starting to get chilly so when I go to FL I’ll get to wear really summery clothes that feel new because it’s been awhile since I’ve worn them. Also, if you’re vacation by yourself no one at your destination will know that you have worn all the clothes in your wardrobe multiple times! If you’re wardrobe is pretty slim because of low funds just tell people at your destination that you “packed light.”
Tip #4: Be sure to be a polite wonderful guest wherever you’re staying. While your welcome may be wearing down at your “home” (aka friend’s house you’re indefinitely crashing at) you are a visitor to the people on you’re vacation. So, suck up to your vacation friends and maybe you will have another place to go after you have been booted out of your “home.”
There you go! Those are my words of wisdom. I hope all of you wonderful unemployed people out there take advantage of your unemployed situation and take a vacation. Trust me, you need it!
Something I find incredibly frustrating is that while the economy is struggling and college grads can’t find jobs the prices for education are going up. This seems ridiculous to me!
A college education is no longer the secure investment it used to be. This article from the New York Post explains the situation in more detail how student loans will be the next debt bubble to burst.
Financial advisers often refer to educational debt as “good debt” because college graduates make far more on average than nongraduates.
But not all degrees provide an equal return on investment. A degree in chemical engineering, for example, produces an average starting salary of $64,500. Someone with a degree in culinary arts, however, can expect to start out making less than $30,000 — a salary they might get without a degree. Yet despite such differences, the government subsidizes loans as if all majors were equally valuable.
The job market, while tough for all, is even tougher for recent college grads. A study showed that among 2010 graduates, only 56 percent had managed to hold at least one job by this past spring. No wonder defaults are on the rise.
So can anyone please tell me why tuition costs are rising?
I wish that I could tell you how to ace a job interview from personal experience but I’m going to leave it to the experts. I found this article in Bloomberg Businessweek that offered eight job interview tips that will help you win a job!
This tip really caught my eye in reference to my recent Walmart post,
Up From McDonald’s
Twenty-plus years ago, I interviewed John for a client-service job. We were both 21; John had just graduated from college, and was working as a crew member at McDonald’s (MCD). “Tell me about McDonald’s,” I said, and John jumped into an explanation of the company’s supply chain: “It’s incredible,” he said. “They know exactly what each store sold on each shift yesterday, so the distribution center sends us just the items we need, based on projected sales for today. The feedback mechanisms are impressive. It’s an incredibly efficient information flow.” John used his ringside seat to study the operation in a situation where many of his colleagues merely flipped burgers. He saw the bigger picture, paid attention to the critical points where service and profitability were made or broken for the restaurant, and used the job interview to share what he knew. John got the client-service job, and today runs a research organization.
The lesson: You can get altitude on your business from any vantage point. Don’t just complete the tasks assigned to you. Use your perch as a place from which to learn the business, and be able to talk about what you know.
We have all heard about the unemployment numbers climbing up but somehow it’s just different when you can actually see it happening with your own eyes.
Here is a map visualization of the climbing unemployment rate from January 2007 to February 2011. This map was created using the unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
I am one of those people who has delusions of grandeur for my life. I like to imagine myself head to toe in Prada walking down the city streets to my glamorous job. This job brings me power, popularity, or a huge salary. Preferably all three. As I walk around with these visions in my head, I can easily change the soundtrack to my life on my iPod to fit any one of these aspects. All I need is a camera crew and a Sarah Jessica Parker narration.
Unfortunately, this is not my reality. The life of an unemployed 20-somethings is extremely unglamorous. I’m writing this post because,
#1 I know many people have gone through this situation
#2 Many of my fellow 20-somethings are in the same boat
#3 I feel the need to vent
#4 I’m shamelessly looking for a little sympathy here!
I’ll begin with my unglamorous wardrobe. My clothes are far from Prada and, while they are decently made, I am constantly pushing up the sleeves of my Gap sweater to hide the little hole on the shoulder. I walk with a slight wobble because I’m afraid that the heel on my over-worn shoe might snap off at any minute. This is not exactly the kind of image I like to imagine.
Another unglamorous thing is my living situation. I live with family friends completely off of their charity. No feelings of empowerment there, although it is a great lesson in humility. Even though they have been kind and wonderful to me, I am constantly stressed that I will be in their way or inconveniencing them. I tip toe around and turn the volume down so low on my laptop I can hardly hear it.
Applying for jobs is also extremely unglamorous. Yes, I know everyone has to do it but I sometimes wonder if the interviewers even remember what it feels like. You get looked at up and down and judged on the hole in your sweater or the scuff marks on your shoes. You sit there, knowing your future is in their hands and they stare coldly at your resume and make you defend all the accomplishments you have been so proud of and worked so hard for.
No, I am not out on the street or starving (although restaurant food is officially off the menu) but the humiliation, stress and rejection is starting to wear me down. I spent years working hard in school and working in extremely unglamorous part-time jobs. I made people blizzards at Dairy Queen and would leave work covered head to toe in ice cream but I didn’t mind because I thought that working hard would give me the chance to achieve my dreams of a glamorous life. I sat at home “unglamorously” studying while my friends went to bars and keg parties in high school and college. I did this because I thought a high GPA would help me achieve a glamorous life in the future.
I sit here and I see my delusions of grandeur slowly disappearing before my eyes and no matter how hard I try to reach out and grab a hold of that life, it’s completely out of my power.
Thank you for bearing with me and listening to me complain. I look forward to your sweet sympathetic comments or your extremely motivational comments which let me know that I am just whining and that everyone goes through my situation. Either way, I love to hear from you!
I stumbled across this article last week and let’s just say it really hit home for me. The story highlights a town in Pennsylvania where over 1,000 applicants are applying for 300 open positions at a new area Walmart. I don’t know whether to feel incredibly depressed or relieved that I haven’t had to hit up Walmart yet for employment opportunities. I definitely felt depressed when I realized the quotes from some of the applicants could have come directly from my own mouth.
“It’s hard to keep up the smile,” says Parella. “I worry that they can read in my face how I really feel.”
She said exactly what I feel. How am I supposed to keep up a positive, energetic, creative front when I don’t know how I will be able to afford my own apartment next month?
Young and old, well educated and uneducated, they’re all coming here for the same thing: a job at the new area Walmart, which has set up a hiring center inside the hall; and most of them don’t care how many hours the store can give them, what they’ll have to do, or even how much they’ll be paid. They just want a job.
First requirement: Humility.
“I’ll take anything,” many say.
Of course I really need a job and the options I have to consider are almost humiliating knowing how much time, effort and hard work I’ve put into my career. Now, I sit here so humbled as to consider a position at Walmart which frankly I would not have taken in high school (Although, I’m no snob. I did make blizzards at Dairy Queen).
“It’s hard,” says Tara Durnell, a 37-year-old mother looking for work at Walmart. She gets just one day a week at a Yankee Candle store in the mall, and a few more hours cleaning up a doctor’s office.
“I love to work. I don’t like sitting at home. This isn’t me,” she says.
I know exactly how she feels. If I haven’t mentioned this before (which I’m sure I have) I’ve been working at least part-time since I was 16 years-old. I really love to work. Having steady work and a steady paycheck makes me more productive in all areas of my life and gives me a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Without some type of employment it’s actually hard to find the energy to keep hunting for jobs and filling out applications.
It is a tough world for the unemployed and my heart goes out to all of you people applying at Walmart. Trust me, I know how you feel.
In my post the other day that featured some of the best websites to waste your time on, I noticed that the site most people visited from my page was 1000 UnAwesome Things.
I decided to have the brilliant blogger behind the site, Tyler Kirk, do a guest post for us. He’s compiled a list of “unawesome” thing about unemployment. Enjoy!
Having to borrow money – You’re already drowning in student loans, and now you’re forced to turn to the only people who are less giving than those at the bank: Your parents.
Trying to explain to people why you haven’t found a job – Why it is that people always think you’re not putting in any effort into the job hunt? If only it were socially acceptable to scream at stupid people…
Coming up empty handed – Application after application, your hopes grow with every call back and interview, but then comes the gut-wrenching nothingness of it all. You didn’t get the job. Time to send the ol’ app to Burger King.
Feeling like your college degree is worth nothing – No, no. Eighty thousand dollars isn’t a big deal. You don’t mind spending that for nothing, right? Psh, pocket change.
Day-time television – You can’t be turning in applications every day. And when you’re not, you’re likely at home, being subjected to Ellen, soap operas, Wendy Williams, Rachael Ray, and midday news, when nothing is happening.
Being bored by yourself – Yep. Everyone else is at work.
Friendly conversations – Girl: “You’re so interesting. Where do you work?” Guy: “Umm, I don’t.” Girl: “Oh. Nice meeting you!”
Ramen noodles – It’s all you can afford, and there’s no way on Earth to make it delicious.
When the days run together – Eventually, after sitting around on your bum day after day, you can only tell what day it is because the mail didn’t come..
Not being able to take a vacation to get away from your crappy situation – People think unemployment is an endless vacation but they’re wrong. Your home is your jail now. Get used to it.
Only doing free things – For instance: Eating meals via samples from Whole Foods and Safeway, going to extremely boring museums, walking
The uncertainty of the future – You’re trying to find a job. You’re trying really damn hard. Every ounce of drive you have left has been poured into this. The rest of your life depends on this, and it’s scary. Who knows what’s going to happen next? Only the many people you’ve given your résumé to. Your future is in their hands. And all you can do is wait. Each day ticks by as you sit by the phone, waiting, not knowing, praying for a better future, lending to the many reasons why unemployment is so very
UNAWESOME!
If you want to read more by Tyler you can visit his blog at 1000 UnAwesome things or follow him on twitter.
Happy Friday and good luck to everyone with the job hunt!
My friend, Steve, wrote this post for the blog today. I think the piece addresses an issue that many of us unemployed 20-somethings have faced.
In a survey of college graduates from the classes of 2006 – 2011, researchers at Rutgers University confirmed that the unemployment forecasts are particularly dismal for today’s newest degree holders.
The study also revealed that half of the graduates surveyed took jobs that did not require a four-year degree, while 62% believed they would require more education in order to pursue their chosen career path – another 18% weren’t sure. Clearly there is a mismatch between the skills colleges teach to students and the talent employers demand of them.
Although the study highlights some troubling facts for young workers, it sheds light on the cause of this disconnect between what fresh grads are supplying and what employers need.
When asked to reflect on their undergraduate careers, 48% of recent grads said they wish they had been more careful when selecting their major. If, as this study seems to suggest, major selection is a strong determinant of job hunting success in the post-graduation world, then that leads us to the uncomfortable conclusion that students make one of the most important decisions of their lives in the third or fourth semester of the undergraduate careers.
To make matters worse, many colleges encourage students to sign up for exotic majors and people are impressed when you tell them you are a “Latin American Studies” major.
As a young sophomore, filled with academic ambition and world changing vision, it seemed like a wonderful idea to major in Latin American studies – not to mention the professor was kind and enthusiastic.
The major allows you to sound so intellectual and unconcerned with mundane things such as a 9-5 job post graduation.You imagine that you will be in some exotic corner of South America studying indigenous groups, untouched by modern society.
Shockingly, most employers do not want to hear all about the history of Central America or send you on an all expenses paid trip to South America to “research.”
So what about you? Are you in a career that relates to your college major?
