Well, this is getting thoroughly frustrating. My husband isn’t any closer than he was in July 2010 to landing a new job. That contract position that I reported in July that could have turned into full-time regular employment fizzled. The contract worker was offered an extended contract of 3 months when the first 6 months ended, but that’s not the worst of it. The company in question opened up a new office, and my husband applied for one of two openings. It’s in a related specialty to his usual one and in which he has had a few years’ practice, so he was qualified for the job. He interviewed–in fact, he went through a three-interview process and did well, only to be told he was not hired. We were sure that it was going to turn into a job, but he didn’t make the cut. (At that time, he had also interviewed with one other company, but was not called back. These are the only interviews he’s had in over six months.)
Even though a job in the new office fell through, he was told there still was a chance he’d get his old position back after the contract worker’s contract expired. So, there was reason to be optimistic. In the meantime, things were looking sketchy: One of his excoworkers was let go, due to a low volume of files. He had been with the company for seven years. Then when it would have been time to hire my husband on in his old position, he was told that position no longer existed and the few remaining files that he would have handled would be going up to another office.
So, we are in a worse predicament than before. All his leads from friends dried up months ago. There haven’t been any prospective openings in several weeks. There is little hope that anything will improve. Did I mention, too, that his boss had told him last Halloween that he’d be let go at the first of the year if business didn’t improve? Fortunately, it’s picked up a little, but not significantly enough to feel at ease and that the other shoe won’t drop at any time.
In the meantime, work has picked up for me, thank goodness. I got into the good graces of the boss of the local company that used to send me a majority of my work. She is keeping me steadily busy, and I have some other work as well. Still, what I earn could barely pay even a quarter of our bills. And we live pretty modestly. I’m still scrimping and saving. In fact, this week I made an investment into my old, compact vehicle and got it up and running again for just $200. With gas at $4.31 a gallon in my area, I will more than make up for the cost of the repair in the amount I save in gas money within just a few short weeks. ($85 a tankfull vs. $39 a tankfull to go the same distance.) I’m thrilled about that. Plus, by driving this car, I can put off getting the next oil change in the SUV, which would need it in a few hundred miles.
So, there are some bright spots. But in the long run, not so good. If one goes by the maxim that it takes one month for every 10,000 dollars one typically earns in salary to find a comparable job, my husband has at least another 4 or 5 months to go before he lands a decent position. Let’s hope that maxim is wrong, and that it errs in our favor.
