Keep in mind that you can use Skype when calling since it's an 800 number, at least if you're going to sit on the phone you don't have to use your cell phone minutes.

3/30/2009 8:28:41 PM

Had my first day today. 11 hour shift. Have another 11 hour shift tomorrow. But it's cool, I think I can actually make decent money at this place. Nowhere near what i was used to, but it will be a good bandaid until the other job I have lined up ends their hiring freeze.

3/30/2009 10:42:12 PM

^^ wish i had thought about that. that's a pretty good idea.

Quote :

"did you ever get to talk to someone?"

Quote :

"This happened to me too. After I was on hold for about 30 minutes some guy answered and fixed up my account really quickly."

i spent about 45 minutes on hold waiting and finally talked to someone. she was very helpful and got my situation sorted out in about 20 minutes. i wish i had known there was an office in Cary, i would have just gone down and talked to someone. tomorrow i have to fill out 4 weeks worth of claims though.

3/30/2009 10:47:26 PM

For those that are unemployed, are you currently using your "emergency" fund? If so, how much more do you have left?

3/30/2009 11:11:05 PM

My emergency fund was $2000. I have been out of work since the last week of January and I have about $500 left.

I have applied to roughly 150 careers, interviewed with Hertz Rental Car last week, and I interview with All State this week.

I am completely miserable San Diego

3/30/2009 11:33:49 PM

Quote :

"For those that are unemployed, are you currently using your "emergency" fund? If so, how much more do you have left?"

The week before I found out everyone was being laid off, I put $3,000 into my IRA Roth, $1,500 toward my student loan, and $3,000 toward my mortgage. So my emergency fund was lower than I had planned.

It's gone way up, though, thanks to coupons, doing contract work, and my good ol' tax returns.

3/31/2009 12:28:12 AM

monster.com job fair is prob going to be a waste of time. you'd be able to search for more jobs on the internet instead of going.

3/31/2009 12:30:41 AM

yeah plus traffic in that area is a mess w/ all the contruction

[Edited on March 31, 2009 at 12:34 AM. Reason : .]

3/31/2009 12:34:18 AM

^indeed

3/31/2009 12:36:52 AM

so are you going?

3/31/2009 12:39:38 AM

I guess I am going to go. Its not like I have a lot else to do.

3/31/2009 2:41:37 AM

Quote :

"For those that are unemployed, are you currently using your "emergency" fund? If so, how much more do you have left?"

Fortunately, I was able to see the storm coming in December of 07 so I made sure to stash away about 1.5 years worth of house payments. Unemployment will pay it for 6 months, we pay the utilities, eat, and maintain a little bit of sanity on my wife's income.

I figure if the economy really poopoos the bed that we'll still be able to make ends meet with me taking a crap job (assuming they are available) and she could get a second job in retail. There is also some discussion that my former employer is going to file for federal assistance (because we were basically put out of business by foreign competition) which could extend unemployment benefits out to 2 years.

[Edited on March 31, 2009 at 7:25 AM. Reason : .]

3/31/2009 7:22:35 AM

I'm confirmed for 9am on Thursday from 9-1145 meeting with 5 different people in the company.

Whoa.

3/31/2009 10:14:23 AM

^ that is awesome! Some good news. What types of jobs are you getting interviews for? Engineering, HR, business?

3/31/2009 10:17:04 AM

Quote :

"so are you going?"

i'm not. just going to keep looking online and calling around to a few friends and see if i can do a little networking

3/31/2009 10:55:43 AM

Quote :

"$3,000 toward my mortgage"

Eugh. Don't prepay your mortgage.

Still employed, but I have 6 months living expenses in my emergency fund just in case.

3/31/2009 11:26:29 AM

where do you guys do most of your looking online?

i am currently employed but looking for a new job

3/31/2009 12:19:50 PM

Haha, this potential employer of mine hasn't contacted me this week and has relisted the position I applied for yet again.

I emailed them this morning and if I don't hear back by 3pm I'm going on an application blitz to places all over the east coast. I wish it didn't take a day to get an email response on a yes or no answer.

3/31/2009 12:26:13 PM

^^^it seems like the current state of the market has shown that prepaying your mortgage is not a bad thing.

if you stuck 20k into the market a year ago, and it has halved since then...you've lost 10k.

if it takes another 5 years to get back where it was, you effectively have a 0% return over 6 years.

if you have a 5% mortage and prepay that 20k, you're effectively probably getting a ~3.75% (reducded from 5% since you'd probably get back ~25% of your mortgage interest) return. and your that much closer to paying off your house, which isn't a bad thing.

i know that the current situation is unusual...but the point remains.

i also understand that some people prefer to invest and some people prefer to prepay...different strokes for different folks.

of course prepaying is a terrible idea if you don't have a solid emergency fund already established.

[Edited on March 31, 2009 at 12:27 PM. Reason : ]

3/31/2009 12:27:35 PM

Quote :

" if you stuck 20k into the market a year ago, and it has halved since then...you've lost 10k. if it takes another 5 years to get back where it was, you effectively have a 0% return over 6 years."

You shouldn't be results oriented. I could easily pick another 6 year period to show fantastic returns you could have made. Instead of prepaying your mortgage I'd invest it for retirement which is 30 years away. Everything will have recovered by then.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/MoneyInYour20s/under-35-hurray-for-the-meltdown.aspx?page=1

[Edited on March 31, 2009 at 12:35 PM. Reason : stupid chart]

3/31/2009 12:33:59 PM

Quote :

"Eugh. Don't prepay your mortgage."

I did that to get over 20% paid off, so we wouldn't have to pay PMI anymore. I do agree that in most cases it's best not to do that, but to invest.

3/31/2009 1:54:26 PM

Quote :

"^ that is awesome! Some good news. What types of jobs are you getting interviews for? Engineering, HR, business? "

It is an engineering position.

3/31/2009 2:01:40 PM

You must have lots of experience. I can't find anything with less than a year of exp.

3/31/2009 2:48:34 PM

Six years

3/31/2009 2:56:49 PM

Quote :

"You must have lots of experience. I can't find anything with less than a year of exp."

Me neither. ><

3/31/2009 3:36:15 PM

monster career fair today was pretty much worthless.

waste of time unless you are in IT. even then, the jobs seemed centered around being a telephone agent.

3/31/2009 3:37:33 PM

^ Yeah, I might have stuck around longer if I was at all qualified to work in IT. Not many opportunities for scientists out there.

3/31/2009 3:46:32 PM

So I thought I was all set to start getting my unemployment and then I find out that my PTO counts against me and I have to wait until that and my severance are paid out before I can file my claim.

Does that strike anyone as weird? PTO is essentially money I've already earned, it shouldn't be considered part of my "severance" but apparently it's a Federal Law that you have to account for that prior to getting unemployment benefits.

3/31/2009 4:00:55 PM

PTO is money that you've earned, but haven't been paid for yet. So.... i think it's reasonable that you can't pull unemployment until the PTO runs out.

3/31/2009 4:11:49 PM

Quote :

"Not many opportunities for scientists out there."

what's your field? just a quick search of ncsu's job openings yielded several research tech positions

maybe i'm a bit naive, but it seems like between the 3 major research universities and NIEHS, EPA, etc there should be a lab tech spot somewhere?

and if not right now, keep your eye open for the very near future as the pulse of research funding into NSF is allowing for many shelved proposals to get funded so some positions may open up

3/31/2009 4:38:32 PM

Quote :

"PTO is essentially money I've already earned"

yeah but if you have like 2 weeks built up... it's basically like two weeks of vacation for a currently employed person. You can't get unemployment when you're on vacation

3/31/2009 4:51:40 PM

Was laid off at the beginning of the month with a months severance which ends today. Start my new job tomorrow morning. Will be glad to be back in Raleigh (and out of Durham)!

3/31/2009 5:12:31 PM

^ Sweet, that's good news.

I got more mixed news back just now. Just was told they didn't make a decision and they'll be in touch soon.

At this point the project I was going to be on MUST have been delayed a couple of weeks at the very least, as they told me it started on the second or third week in April when I first interviewed there. Right now they wouldn't have enough time to train people with the basics before sending them out into the field. I think what they're doing is trolling for resumes and trying to find somebody with a lot of experience who will work for them for cheap, and I'm being kept on reserve.

With that in mind, I'm going to start applying elsewhere today. I saw one or two internships that would be interesting and if I make some money I'll be able to last longer before I have to get another job.

3/31/2009 7:42:12 PM

*raises hand*

3/31/2009 8:22:40 PM

2000 people at the monster thing today...i bet it really sucked

3/31/2009 9:01:43 PM

Quote :

"going on a month and a half. heeeeyoooooooooooo"

4/1/2009 12:30:51 AM

im at 5 months

but ive been temping so im not completely fucked.

4/1/2009 10:52:21 AM

I got a FT temp gig til the end of may
not much, but I don't need much

4/1/2009 4:15:02 PM

Quote :

"^^ when you file initially, you can back-claim up to 4 weeks, as long as you still met the requirements for those past 4 weeks."

Is this done by simply entering your last day of work with your former employer on the application? I just filed a few minutes ago and have been out of work since February 20th. Basically what I'm asking is was there anything specific I had to do to back-claim those weeks? I'd hate to miss out on the extra cash.

4/1/2009 7:13:10 PM

You'll most likely need to file a second claim asking for those back wages.

4/1/2009 7:18:36 PM

Had a 2nd round from 9-11:30 today. Met with 3 engineers and an HR rep. Pumped about this job opportunity and will be let down in a big way if it doesn't work out for me.

Fingers crossed

4/2/2009 2:06:58 PM

question.

my earnings allowance is 115 a week which will not give me what i need to pay my bills and stuff without dippin ginto my savings. the company i was working with brings me in for a day a week to help out which is roughly 200 a day. i guess that will screw up my unemployment?

4/3/2009 11:34:24 AM

No, you'll be fine. If your normal unemployment benefits are $500 with an earnings allowance of $115, that means that whatever you make above $115 for that week will be subtracted from your benefits.

In other words, if you make $200 that week, you'll get $500 - ($200 - $115), or $415 UE benefits.

4/3/2009 11:53:50 AM

how the heck are you supposed to get unemployment benefits?!?!!?! i've filled out my claim, all the weekly stuff, talked to someone on the phone for a half hour and my online page says i still have active issues and it's been 5 weeks with no $.



EDIT:
also, they said they would call me back on wednesday morning to let me know everything went through ok. of course, i never heard from anyone.

[Edited on April 3, 2009 at 12:52 PM. Reason : j]

4/3/2009 12:47:58 PM

this sucks

4/3/2009 1:07:06 PM

d7, you have to be on their nuts constantly. My friend was telling me about her issues to get started and she literally went down to the labor board place to speak with someone multiple times.

I'm constantly hearing about them telling someone something is resolved only for them to find out it's not so they have to go through the whole calling and waiting on hold process again.

4/3/2009 1:20:26 PM

"fixed it" again. apparently i had an active issue because i told them i was unavailable for work one week (when i was on a cruise).

now i have to wait for it to update over night (monday) and then wait 7-10 business days for that stupid debit card. that's like 6 weeks with NO income.

4/3/2009 1:30:14 PM

I get my shit direct deposit.

4/3/2009 1:36:06 PM

Will they let you get unemployment for the week you are on vacation?

4/3/2009 1:39:27 PM

^^ yeah, i applied for that too, but it takes 10 days to go through, so my first check is on a debit card.

^ apparently yes. since i talked with people about jobs.

4/3/2009 1:41:21 PM