Thursday, January 20, 2011

I'm Jobless

For a few years, I've been blogging about personal finance, sharing all I learned as a business journalist in plan English with my readers here. When the economy turned, I turned with it: readers started asking a lot more about how to be safe in this economy, how to save cash, live on a budget and preserve their jobs. Unfortunately some of my friends and readers of this blog lost their jobs to the Great Recession.

I never imagined I'd be one of them, but I am. It's taken a while to decide I should blog about this; the psychological effects of losing a gig are as great as the financial ones. You start thinking things like "Who cares what an unemployed journalist has to say?"

Then you get over it (or at least I did). Truth is I'm one of millions of people who are still without jobs, even as other pundits talk about a recovery. And I've got it good: I have savings and I'm connected enough in my industry to have decent leads on contract and freelance work. In a way, this is a blessing: I'm free to work on projects that have been dormant for months or years. Some of them, like a radio pilot I recorded last year, have gotten more traction since Jan. 1 than they did in the months before I lost my gig.

Revitalizing this blog fits in that category. Being newly unemployed is giving me a first-hand look at what so many others have gone through, from the frustration of job hunting when you're limited by geography, to the maddening bureaucracy of filing for unemployment benefits, to the absurdity of what the state hands you in exchange for all that red tape.


It'll be an adventure I share, along with my reflections on career, next moves and the normal personal finance observations I've always posted here. Hope you ride with me.

*Tomorrow: How I got here and why it's a blessing*

2 comments:

Product Junkie Diva said...

Hey Keith
Great post. Although losing your job may not seem like something to rejoice over, it's great that you see the silver lining. I have an old college pal who has been out of work for quite some time now. He has been working as a freelance consultant but he is looking for something steady, so you are certainly not alone.
I'm so happy you decided to discuss this on your blog because sometimes the unexpected happens.
I'm riding with you, so keep the posts coming.
Pjd

Unknown said...

When I hear "I lost my job and I'm jobless now", it makes me feel frustrated! You are certainly not alone. Just find a freelance job. For vacancies, look at paperwriting-services.com.