Please Fire Me

2010 February 26
by Tania Khadder

When unemployment gets you down, read this website. Back at work finally? Submit a post.

 

 

Michael Spafferty makes Gawker’s list of top 5 video resumes. Sorta.

2010 February 25
by John Henion

It’s official.  Gawker likes us.  Today Gawker included Michael Spafferty’s video resume as one of its top 5 examples of how NOT to land a job: The video resume.  Thanks Gawker.  Dreams do come true.  

Maybe Michael Spafferty’s dream of landing the coveted Manager’s manager or project management job at Taco Bell will come true too!

And for those who have no idea what i’m talking about, here’s a little blast from Unemploymentality’s past:

Happy Valentines Day

2010 February 14
by John Henion

From all of us to all of you – Happy Valentines day

Getting through to the EDD: Call for Vietnamese number

2010 January 27
by John Henion

Still having trouble getting through to the EDD?  Have you called the Vietnamese number yet?  We’ve already mentioned this strategy in our ‘mas popular’ post tips and tricks, but if it hasn’t sunk it yet, check out Rudy’s video blog below on how calling the Vietnamese hotline got him his checks.  Besides, although he doesn’t actually give us a shout-out in his video, i’m pretty sure he learned about this trick via our site because he lists ‘unemploymentality’ as one of his video tags. Thanks Rudy, right back atcha!

TwitJobSearch: A New Way to Find Jobs?

2010 January 26
by Tania Khadder

jobdeck

Twitter has teamed up with TweetDeck to offer a custom desktop job search tool. For those of you who can’t imagine finding a job on the social networking service, check this out: 340,000 jobs have allegedly been posted on the site so far. The new feature is supposed to make it easier for those jobs to get to you, without the need to search Twitter yourself. Plus, you can add your LinkedIn and Facebook feed to the mix.

But will it really help job seekers? Or will it just bombard you with jobs you’d never apply to in the first place? Are you really using sites like Twitter and Facebook to find jobs? Talk to me.

Always Curious,
Tania

P.S. For musings not related to unemployment, check out my new blog, Lipstick & Lemonade

One American Dream

2010 January 12
by John Henion

One american dream

Submitted by a colleague, Mr. David Pond.  A worthy project.  Show him some love:

As many of you know, the current economic environment is one of the worst we have experienced in decades.  Many people have lost their jobs, their homes, and their dreams.  Families have been broken apart and lives changed.  Regardless of specifics, the “American Dream” has changed.  It no longer means what it once did, especially to the youth generation (also called Gen-Y and the Millennials).  This is due to the economic situation, as well as the connectivity we now have.  What does the American Dream mean today?  I want to find out.

“One American Dream?” is a documentary exploring the American Dreams of the youth generation.  As a feature length documentary, “One American Dream?” will follow my journey as I travel around the country in search of how the vision of success has changed and what the American Dreams of today’s youth are.  Following in the footsteps of previous generations I will travel on the train and bus talking to people the mainstream media often over look.  This will give a voice to many different people who all have a story and a dream to tell.

 

I encourage all of you to visit the site, oneamericandream.com, comment, read and participate.  I want to know your story and what your American Dream is.

Can Rain Hurt Your Interview? Freakonomics Blog Says “Maybe”

2010 January 12
by Tania Khadder

San Francisco RainForget economic forecasts. It’s the weather forecast you should really be watching! Well… sort of.

According to two smart dudes from the University of Toronto, medical school applicants who interview on a rainy day fare ever-so-slightly worse than their sunny day counterparts (their scores were one percent lower).

I don’t know if these findings are statistically significant or if causation can be established (hell, I can barely spell statistically), but I do know that crummy weather impacts mood. My mood.  And whether the rain is making the interviewer cranky or the interviewee nervous,  it makes sense that the whole meeting might go a little less than perfect.

One commenter has a solution: bring up the weather early on in the interview. She says that if an interviewer is made aware of the weather (and its possible impact on their frame of mind), they’re less likely to attribute negativity to you as a candidate. Of course, you’d have to weigh out the potential benefit of talking about the weather with the drawback of it being a universally understood awkwardness indicator.

Is she right? Who knows. Still, it’s an interesting phenomenon to think about.

For what it’s worth, San Francisco’s forecast is cloudy and/or wet through Sunday.

Oh EDD, how you make people hate thee

2009 December 8

Twas weeks before Christmas and all across the state,
the unemployed waited by mailboxes, checks several weeks late.
Bills went unpaid and rents way past due,
And lil’ Johnny and Susie wanting new christmas shoes.

A fourteen week extension, meant all should be merry,
but ancient EDD computers argue quite the contrary.
A system upgrade in waiting since 2002
Now seven years too late and it’s all I-O-U.

Now Daddy ducks bill collectors while Mom fights depression.
Johnny can’t study, no lights for his lessons.
Susie needs doctors, she’s turned away at reception.
Oh, EDD, you’re the FEMA of our recession.

Twas weeks before christmas and for 111,000 Californians, it was far from alright.

This video was shared with us by ‘JohnB’ in the comments section of Tips and tricks: getting through to california edd. Thanks John!

New Get Rich Quick Tip: Win $100k in cash & Prizes at Nikon Festival

2009 December 6

 

The Nikon Festival will give away $125k in cash and prizes for a 240 second-long video about your life.

The Nikon Festival will give away $125k in cash and prizes for a 240 second-long video about your life.

Alright, I’m sure a lot of you out there are beyond the point in your unemploymentality where you’re looking for that quick score.  That quick ‘out’ of not only dependence on government checks and cheese, but out of the corporate rat race – them are pipe dreams for unemployment rookies. But in the next ten days there exists an opportunity to keep this pipe dream alive!  

The Nikon Festival is looking for people to submit 240 second-long videos about their lives.  Do it with a little style, and you could be winning a $100k  prize!  The kitty for second prize (audience award) isn’t so bad either, $25k.  Either way, that adds up to a whole lot of unemployment checks, my friend.  Consider unemployment extended again! 

The theme of this festival is “A Day Through Your Lens” and prizes will be awarded by judges Dwight Schrute, err…, I mean Rainn Wilson, Chase Jarvis (the famous photographer) and iJustine (I don’t know who the hell this is, but i”m told she’s quite popular on “the internet”).  Movies can be shot on any video-capturing device and must be less than 240-seconds long and submitted to nikonfestival.com by Dec 15.

So, what i’d like to see is one of our readers taking this on and creating a short film that represents “A day through the lens of the broke, the down trodden and the unemployed.”  If you choose to accept this challenge, hollar back at the unemploymentality and we’ll be sure to support your submission by voting you up!

Now get out there and live the [pipe] dream!

Love, 
the managment

Sparrow Songs Project: a short, intimate documentary about unemployment

2009 December 3
by John Henion

I was contacted recently by one of the creators of the following documentary about unemployment.  I really think it’s worth your time.  An excellent little mediation on the ‘condition’ of being unemployed.  The film is part of a 12 month project called Sparrow Songs, where the two filmmakers will create and release a new documentary on vimeo for twelve months.  This is chapter two.  Enjoy!

Sparrow Songs – Episode 2 from Sparrow Songs on Vimeo.

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