Cha-Ching
The right phone call finally came: I got the job.
Whew.
I’ve been un- or under-employed for 10 months now. I was fine with it the first few months; I had a nice fat severance check, I had Unemployment Insurance, I had plenty of free time… The livin’ was easy. But then the Unemployment ran out. And then the fat severance check got skinny. And then there just wasn’t any money going into the household budget from me, period.
I sent out dozens of resumes and only landed one quarter-decent job, the DWP training job I’m now leaving, the one where I only work 3 days a week for far less money than I’m worth and on a 1099 basis so I’m responsible for my own payroll taxes, which just lowers my hourly rate that much more. It barely pays what Unemployment paid, and I don’t even want to think about the taxes I’m going to owe on it. It pays so badly, I feel like I’m moving backwards when I go in to work.
I finally wised up and realized that my resume sucked, so I revised it and sent out dozens more. I finally started getting interviews from the new resume, but they all yielded interview shuffle type results: We like you, we’ll call you … and then they never did. I was pulling my hair out — and I’m bald already.
It was really depressing. Beth worked really hard to be upbeat and cool about it, but my mood and our money woes were really starting to get to her. I think this may have been harder on her than it was on me. Maybe.
But… Whew. Finally, a new job. A real job. A job that I think I’ll like. A road job again, but only 50% travel and I’ll be home on weekends, so I think it’ll be okay.
And on top of all that new-job frosting, there’s a nice big, fat, red cherry on top with sprinkles: Mo’ Money. It pays–
(Well, hmm… I was going to include the double-digit percentage increase here, but I think that might not be wise. So let’s just say…)
–“a lot” more than my last “real” job from 10 months ago did.
Whew.