So this week I applied for 2 jobs and interviewed for one. Then immediately following I finally decided to apply for unemployment, because ideals don’t feed you. Then after completing the process, I thought I would negotiate the difference in difficulty between the two. I have never been on unemployment before, so this is a first for me. But desperate times call for desperate measures. It’s humiliating.
It has been unbelievably difficult for me to find and keep work in the past 8 months. This week It took me an entire day to revamp my portfolio for my interview. The interview process also took about half the day. And it took several hours to fill out each application. I believe it must be more thorough than a credit check to buy a house.
To my dismay, I went online and looked up unemployment (http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/). The only criterion to deserve unemployment is to merely not work. You didn’t even need to speak English. The forms to fill out are available in 7 languages. It only took me about fifteen minutes on my computer to submit my application for unemployment. I get a check in the mail within 10 days. I don’t mean to sound entirely cynical in my overtly simplified analysis. Believe me, I am grateful to live in a country with a system in place to help those in need (meaning myself in this case). I also do realize that there are plenty of people living off of the system who have no option. But I am curious what kind of legacy our society is leaving behind when it’s easier to receive governmental subsidy than to work.
