Anyone Job Hunting?

I am.  I was typing & somehow my computer lost it.  I'm trying again.

I was worried about losing my job, so I chose to work through it, even though I could have had short-term disability through my company. Now, 4 years later, I ended up laid off anyway. I swore I would never make that mistake again, putting my job ahead of my health. I had terrible fatigue from the radiation, which seemed to last far longer than it should have. Another woman at the same company was encouraged by her boss to go out for surgery and not return until she was finished all of her treatments. I was so jealous. My boss encouraged me to work, and was even proud of the fact that I did.

Now that I'm job hunting, I have other health problems. After I quit Tamoxifen, I ended up with severe bleeding, and am now comtemplating ablation or hysterectomy. And the job issue figures into it again. I struggle between wanting to go out and immediatley get another job, but can't because it's almost impossible to leave the house some days. And I don't want to tell a new employer that I'll need to take time off for surgery/recovery. 

 Job hunt - no success yet and I think my DH is getting annoyed with me. Although he was supportive of me not working (to deal with health) he is ready for me to get back to it.  Trouble is I don't even know what it is I want to do!  He suggests teaching (I am certified and experienced) but I have limited desire to teach in DC - some of the worst schools in the nation.  My real passion is work I left (the profession is great, the company I was at, not so much) and hard to get back into.So I will keep plugging away, resume after resume and hope for the best.

Teresa

ok - deep breath,   have a job interview on Wednesday of next week.  It is a for a short term position on a government project.  Not ideal as it is only a seven month position, but  $, insurance, and a chance to 'get back in there'.   Time to brush up on how to interview! Still trying to decide what to do about the employment gap - only  5 months, but afraid to say it was because of bc.

Teresa

thank you!  What a lovely bunch of people you are.

Teresa

I lost my job 5 months prior to diagnosis. I actually came home from my biopsy (at the time the radiologist told me they were doing the biopsy to PROVE their diagnosis of cancer not IF I had cancer) and the phone rang. Wanted to do a telephone interview the next day. I said yes but I only slept 3 hours that night.  I didn't get the job.

I have been doing freelance work but it is spotty. Just finished a 3 month contract Jan 2nd. I tell people the lapse was a family health issue and all is resolved now. Of course now that I have a few recent freelance gigs fewer folks ask. They just assume I've been doing contract work.

It can be tough going back if you still have appointments. I know when I had  herceptin every 3 weeks, reconstruction surgeries some PT it would have been hard to explain needing the time if I landed a full-time gig. Now that that's all done it's less of a problem… but have yet to find that full-time gig.

Kate: I haven't tried doing cold calls, I would be very shy about doing that. I've just being doing online applications like you. But it can be so easy to do an online applications (sometimes at least) that I think the employers get a deluge of applications from many people that have no interest in the position and then the applications and resumes are probably scanned for keywords and if you don't have those you are out of luck.

But I'm getting desperate now. I'm thinking of putting up flyers looking for housekeeping/cleaning work. One of my volunteer positions is at a non-profit agency when I help out in their tech center. Ironically, what I mostly do is help clients create resumes and look for job openings online.

Oh boy, can I ever relate to this thread!  I was working in a hospital at the time of my dx. My MO strongly suggested/recommended that I take short term disability to get through chemo. He did not think it would be good for me to be around all of the illness/germs when my counts were low. (I was neo-adjudavant...chemo first then UMX)  I went in and talked to my manager about my dx and about me taking short term disability.  She said sure and anything they could do to help they would...that lasted a whole 3 days!  My last day at work would be Thursday, well on Wednesday she told me they would only be able to hold my position for 5 weeks...WHAT?  She knew I was looking at being out 24 weeks for chemo, surgery and recovery.  When I was out 5 weeks they posted my position and hired someone else.  At that point I went into a "disability cost-center" no real position to go back to, but still considered an employee, so I could keep my benefits/health insurance as long as I paid for them, which I did.  1 week before my surgery I learned that a few days after surgery I was being "separated" reason being that I had reached the maximum days of leave. WHAT??? This was the first mention of a limit on # of days of leave! They terminated me.     Talk about stressing! I am single and only have my income to survive on... At the point they terminated me, I no longer had benefits because I could not afford COBRA. My insurance coverage ended just a few days after surgery. My short term disability turned into long term disability, but it was not enough to live on, and by this time all of my savings were gone...as soon as I was recovered enough to get back to work, I started the great job hunt.   I did on-line applications and kept a running record of all the jobs I applied for...110 to be exact! Out of that 110 applications/resumes I got 2 telephone interviews and 3 in-person interviews. I did get offers from 2 of the in-person interviews. I am currently working for the 2nd in-person interview/offer, but at a pay rate that is impossible to survive on! SAD!!! I actually like the job, but it just does NOT pay enough! I have not been at such a low pay rate since I was a teenager and I will be 50 on superbowl sunday! SAD!!! Because I am single and have no other income, I had to take any offer to have some income to be able to eat.  My situation was so desperate that I was looking into the homeless shelters when they offered me the job.  Because of the pay rate of this position I had to take it without health insurance...YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They pay a little more if you decline health insurance and then they charge an arm and a leg for health insurance and the coverage is really crappy compared to what I had...I just absolutely could not afford it. You know how terrifying that is?  Very scary position to be in!!!  Back to the idea of the thread...of the 2 in-person interviews neither asked me about the gap in employment. If they had asked me about why I left my last job...I was prepared to tell them that I was separated from my previous employer due to my medical leave expiring and that I received treatment for a medical issue which has been resolved. I was not going to tell them it was bc. Luckily, neither asked me about it.  My current employer has no idea about bc and I do not plan to tell them. (They just think I have a short "dykey" haircut!)  Sorry this is so long...Best of luck to those who are on the hunt! Just keep on and keep on and keep on and you will get bites!!!

FLwarrior: Wow and wow ... how could they? And can they do that? I thought there was some law against terminating employees because of a cancer diagnosis, which is what they did to you. I find it hard to believe that those in one of the "caring professions" could be so heartless. Are you still looking for another job, or do you have time with your present position? 

Many people who have found jobs in the down economy say their job offers came from networking. I've often been told that it's important to be on LinkedIn. I am, but I really need to develop my profile. Kate, you probably have lots of contacts from previous jobs that you could connect with on LinkedIn. You should try it. I was a telecommuter for nine years before I was laid off, so had almost no face-to-face contact with my associates, which doesn't help now when it's all about relationships. When you join LinkedIn, search for people you worked for in the past and ask to reconnect with them. You never know where it might lead. 

About keywords -- I applied for the local civil service exams at the most basic level. My application was rejected and I missed the deadline for the exam I'd applied for. When I called to ask why, I was told that I wasn't qualifed as they needed people with office experience and that my application/resume did not use the keywords they were looking for  -- telephone and typewriter. Yeah, typewriter! I've been a desktop publisher for years and use the phone and type daily, but haven't seen a typewriter since the 80s.

LinkedIn is great and you can sign up for daily emails with jobs.  The postion for which I am interviewing is from a LinkedIn alert.  COBRA is dreadfully expensive but so glad I have it.  Deduct. met and out of pocket hit so good to go.  Funny, the month before I left my job I changed my insurance from the HMO to the PPO and am so very glad now.  Don't know why I did it as the HMO was working fine for me. Then the DX came in.  And yes, I actually quit my job in this economy.  It was a bad job in a hostile place with mean people.  My DH supported the decision as he knew the stress coupled with BC would be too much.  Altough we obviously took a hit to our income - I think it was he right thing to do (that said as I filled with optimism - check back next week and see how I feel if I don't get the job.)