Bookmarks:
“Virtue” • Job search
Continue reading A few brief notes about prayer
Category Archives: Job search/Job prospects
Job search diary 06/01/16 – 06/07/16
| WEDNESDAY 2016-06-02 |
| Aside: Re: Housing |
| Tuesday, my therapist asked me what I see as the greatest obstacle to employment. Answer: Housing. If I had my own place, I could work any hours, any shift; would be able to conduct job search until 5 pm daily, whereas I must appear at the shelter at 2:30; etc. |
| Wednesday, I met with a woman who comes to the shelter once a week; she comes from some City agency and tries to get guys hooked up with various resources, including housing. She said that, with only one exception, every housing facility she knows of requires that an applicant be either elderly (62 or older; I’m 60.), disabled, or both. She is to touch base with that one exception she knows of, and see if I might can get in there. |
Beginning job search: A rough start
12:22 pm. I would far prefer, for my readers’ sake, to present a wholly cheery picture of my optimistic, upbeat, highly motivated self just charging into the job search full speed. (Any other clichés I can use?)
Turns out that might not be wholly honest. If folk are to have an understanding of how difficult the job search is, and why so many people balk at it, then it may be necessary to talk about the dark side also.
Hope and vision
As of March 7, I will have been homeless five years.
This morning I took first concrete steps to get myself into transitional housing.
This is essential if I’m to get job. For some time, I’ve been living off life insurance policy proceeds, but in the near future, that money will run out. It’s urgent that I get an income.
The shelter where I’ve been staying is extremely comfortable, perhaps too comfortable, but it has very rigid hours that make it nearly impossible to hold a job while one stays there. Currently, having to carry my two heavy bags and backpack with me wherever I go, severely limits my ability to commute. Transitional housing will spell having a place where I can stash my stuff, and freedom to come and go as I please. I will, for example, be able to take a night job.
Related: Obstacles to my prosperity
My last post about McDonald’s
(Probably.)
Coming changes
Originally posted 2015-12-29.
10:56. I have a noon appointment with my therapist. I’d originally thought to stop downtown for coffee afterwards and then go to the mission. However, last night I got turned away, so I now think to go straight from my doctor’s office to the mission: I don’t know how long that walk takes. If I arrive at the mission at 13:45 and have to stand there idle for 45 minutes — after last night, that’s a price I’m willing to pay.
This morning I’d meant to go up to the doctor’s office early, arriving at 11:00, and then try to find someone in Case Management to help me get into transitional housing. I came to the library first, but it got to be 10:40, meaning I’d have less than an hour to work with the case manager; so I cancelled that plan for today. Later this week I’ll have opportunities.
The move into transitional housing, and the transition into that move itself, are likely to bring many changes.
This program turned me away.
Adapted from a 12/03/15 e-mail to my brothers and some others.
Given instability at the shelter where I’ve been for almost five years, I decided to apply to a certain program affiliated with a major national charity and major local soup kitchen. This program is residential, has a nice facility, and (as I understood it) was geared toward taking men with histories of addiction or homelessness and rendering them self-supporting.
Since it is a residential program, I would no longer have to carry my bags everywhere I go, vastly increasing the radius within which I can look for work; and, I supposed, I would be able to work any shift. After all, unlike the shelter where I’ve been, they’ve got a big shove towards self-sufficiency.
They rejected me.
I wrote:
Baptismal grace means: when you get knocked down, you get back up.
Blog post (from October ’14, about getting back up): Life in the outer darkness
In the immediate future, I will be checking out options in transitional housing, and case management services at the clinic where I’m currently in treatment for everything I’m in treatment for.
=====================================
What happened?
If you want to prosper, smile.
Resumes, old and new
The attached PDF displays my old resume on the lefthand side, and my new one, just created, on the right.
I welcome feedback!
The Homeless Blogger 