In which I’ve chosen a plan of action.
I’ve been unemployed for six months now. I’ve determined that there is no work for me here: I’m either overqualified or under-qualified for everything. To continue living here in the valley, I either have to find a minimum-wage job that doesn’t have thirty other applicants who are younger and less over-qualified than myself, or I need to become more hireable.
Obviously, I don’t want a minimum-wage job. So that leaves education.
I went to a training benefits orientation at WorkSource today, and I learned that I may or may not be eligible for CAT (commissioner-approved training), a program in which they waive your job search while you’re in school, or TB (training benefits), or the Displaced Worker Program (in which they help you with books, transportation, childcare, relocation, and/or tuition).
The result of this is that I now have an 8-page application to fill out and to which I need attach about 20 pages of supporting documentation. I will submit it next Wednesday; I should know 48 hours later if they’ll approve it.
My regular benefits will run out the first week in July (I think). I can then apply for EUC (a Federal program that gives me another 52 weeks of benefits), and, after that, EB (a state program that tacks on exactly 20 weeks), and finally, if I’m eligible and in school, TB (another roughly 26 weeks of benefits). All of which means that I could, if I qualify, receive just enough UI benefits to pay my bills through two years of school, preferably in this program.
Without benefits I don’t think I could do the school thing, since I’m no longer the kind of person companies tend to hire for throwaway P/T jobs and I still have that pesky marriage debt crap to pay off…
I have to show “proof of enrollment in training” by next Wednesday, so today I applied at WWCC, emailed the advisor requesting an appointment, contacted my previous schools for transcripts, and started a financial aid application. All in addition to filling out the CAT/TB application!
Yes, I went to college for six years. No, I don’t have a degree. Yes, asking for transcripts at 41 is totally fucking weird.
I’ve missed the deadline for applying for TB, but I’m going to apply anyway and then appeal. One never knows. If I’m not eligible, then I will regroup and go for the year-long certification course instead.
If I get denied for all of it, I’ll move to Portland in September and rent someone’s couch and job hunt until I either get a job or my EUC runs out and I end up living under a bridge, bitching about the shitty wi-fi signal in the neighborhood and knitting shoes out of plastic bags.
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Hooray for plans! Good luck getting all the paperwork done in time!
Thanks, hon. Paperwork is my bitch, so it shouldn’t be a problem! -m
Sounds like some great plans, although I confess I’m a little disappointed that knitting shoes out of plastic bags came in as such a last resort because that I’d like to see!
I figure one could cut bag into strips and then knit slippers with the resulting plastic yarn. Not waterproof, but certainly warm. -m
And Good Luck!!!
Thank you!!! -m
I need to nut up and do all that too. Getting an accounting certificate would help me immensely in the employability department. Good luck!!
Jesus! NUT UP ALREADY, GIRL! (Just go to the office and tell them you’re displaced. They’ll hook you up with someone who will dizzy your mind with stuff you might be eligible for.) -m
Dude. Some days I can whip paperwork’s ass, other days it can whip mine. It’s like my response to it is tied to moon phases or something.
I’m looking at schools, too. I’m moving my heinous g’mother to FL, so it’s time to leave the state. Too many fucking mosquitoes, anyway.
Good luck with all of the filling in of blanks and the collating and the stapling and . . . I find that a lil’ spreadsheet helps me when I get embroiled in application processes. I loves me some excel.
Yeah, I have a variety of new folders in my Google Docs account. My daily driver doesn’t have a printer attached, so I have to do all my noodling around and then go somewhere with a printer – hence the ‘keeping it all online’ crap.
I chose a 2-year program, but now I’m freaking out wondering if one half that long wouldn’t be better… “Because the mind is a terrible thing.” -m
I would totez purchase your DIY zapatos…but only if there were under five dollars…cuz in a year I too probz will have no $$$! YAY?!
Having no $ = sux0r. But I thought you had a loveable jerb? Why shall you be poor? -m
School is a great idea!! Would you mind terribly doing private tech support work on the side to keep you in beer money????
Move to Maine, we would love to have your voice here!
I wouldn’t mind at all. Send me a beer! -m
Stumbled onto your blog from the mobileread forum. Don’t know your work/experience history but just to throw in my exp w/ the CCNA classes.
I’m fairly bright and took CCNA 1-4. One course/semester. Did it for fun (as my brain was entering a state of atrophy.) Wow, it was high-speed. (I had zero networking experience.)
Of the 40 ppl who started the course only 4 of us completed all 4 sections. I ended up with the highest grade and never took my Cisco Certification exam. The other 3 earned their CCNA certs with 95%+. One of them now teaches the course at the school we attended. (He is the only one employed in a related field, but he had a triple masters degree prior to taking the course – Physics, education, library mgt. and over 10 years teaching high school.)
Anyway, I learned a lot in the course. I bought my own Cisco enterprise routers (3)/switches (3) and created my own lab to practice on.
If you end up taking the courses and don’t have plenty of enterprise network experience you can email me at moopile@yahoo.com and I will forward you several of the online assets I accrued. (Some may still be relevant.)
Goodluck fellow Kindle’er/Calibre’er
Thanks, Moopile! Sounds like you were in a room fulla geeks: funsauce! (And Calibre totally rocks.) – m