Being out of Work

For the past 17 years I have been a technical writer, and it has been a rewarding career. Back in 2008 when the economy was going bust, I was laid off from my job at a well-known high-tech company. I was told they would be using writing teams in India to do more of the work many of us had been doing. The company cut about half of their writers and editors over the course of a year or so.

After 9 years of faithful employment, I felt pretty devastated. Plus the job market was under serious stress and at 59, I was not exactly a hot property. I spent the next year and a half applying for about 200 jobs or more, and had about 40 interviews. For several of these, I was the back-up candidate, which was encouraging but also "close but no cigar" as they say.

I applied for and was willing to work in an administrative job--I was not being picky. Then after about a year  I even started applying for cashier and retail jobs at J.C. Penney's, Academy Sports and Outdoor, Target,  Walgreens, and my local grocery store. None of them even called me back after I spent hours filling out their online job applications.

I applied at hospitals, universities, and city and state government offices. I applied for over 30 jobs at Texas State University where I'd earned a Masters degree with a 4.0 GPA and was a lifetime alumni member. I had some interviews, but no one would hire me.

Fortunately the U.S. government was helping out the unemployed. I got extensions on my unemployment insurance (UI), and my COBRA was partially covered by the government. If it hadn't been, I would have had to drop my health insurance because it was close to $600 a month, about half of what I was taking in with UI.

Luckily I got some part-time freelance writing work in the health care field that helped me make ends meet, and when I didn't work enough hours, I got UI. It seems like everything in my house decided to break during this time. I had to replace my septic tank pump, my dryer, my kitchen stove, my tires, and even my heating and air conditioning system. I figured it was better to fix it in case I had to sell my house to have money to live on.

I knew what was going on with thousands of other people around the country, and that I was really not too bad off. So many other people were living in travel trailers with their children, or in their cars or tents. At least I had a house I could sell; the market in Texas was still OK.

Finally after a year and a half and a lot of persistence and perseverance, I got a job as an editor at UT Austin. I was thrilled to be back at work even though it meant a long commute. Eventually I returned to technical writing when a company I'd interviewed for a year earlier, and had come in 2nd for the job opening, had a new opening for which I applied and was offered the job.

All I can say to those out there still struggling to find work is to keep an open mind. Don't give up hope. Do everything you have to do to make ends meet and be conservative. If you have to downsize your lifestyle and so on, you just do it. I got really good at living on less. It was hard, but we managed.

If you need to, go online and learn new skills and new tools. There are a lot of resources out there for retraining and self training--so take advantage of that. Local colleges have programs and sometimes financing for people to learn new job skills. Look into those. Get out there and meet people, talk to everyone you know, call everyone you've ever worked with or you know who has a job and find out if they know of any openings.

Do not despair--you will get through it somehow and come out on the other end.