Archive for February, 2009

After over five months of glorious scruff, the time finally came for me to shave my layoff beard. It was truly bittersweet. Each forgetful time that I try to twirl my mustache or brush my chin between my thumb and index fingers is a reminder of how great it was to have a beard. Treasure yours while you can.

The upside is that I’m now employed (which has its perks). I landed a job in corporate strategy by using some of the know-how that I accumulated while researching TheCanned.com. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be working double-time to share more tactics for navigating the job markets. TheCanned.com will continue to be the best site out there for people facing unemployment. And to prevent us from losing our edge, we brought on two new writers this week, Jennifer and Jeff.

If I had to narrow it down, I would say these four things helped me the most throughout my 5 months of unemployment:

1) Staying busy: you know what they say about idle hands…. Helping to build and market TheCanned.com not only kept me busy, but it also gave me a passable answer for the dreaded interview question of “What have you been doing with yourself since you got canned?”

2) Being selective: I took every interview I could get, but I was very selective with what opportunities I pushed on. A good push involves reaching out to your network, and you can only do that so many times.

3) Focusing on opportunities: I kept an updated list of every potential lead that I had. This helped me to consistently feel like I was making progress, and to remember that I had options.

4) Working with headhunters: of the nine or ten interviews that I got, all of them came through networking or headhunters. I’ll post more on working with headhunters later, but for now suffice it to say that the more the better.

More information will be forthcoming. For the time being, I think I’ll go tape over all the mirrors in my apartment so I don’t have to see my clean-shaven face.

AOL Home Editor - New York, N.Y.

Online publishing is the new frontier for the media industry, so why not get in on the front lines? AOL Home is looking to hire a blog editor on a freelance basis. The editor will work from home. This might not be the staff position you always dreamed about, but it’s a foot in the door, a bullet on your resume, and some cash in your pocket.

This is not a copy editor position — it is a management post with responsibilities for recruitment, budgeting, and story planning, and reporting back to the parent company. AOL wants someone to manage the day-to-day of its new blog in addition to the overall vision and voice. AOL Home is tasked with becoming the go-to destination for home building and decorating needs.

What They’re Looking For

A familiarity with the industry is a huge plus, with a thick Rolodex being key. In addition to a degree related to English or journalism, AOL is looking for three to five years managing people and editing online content. The ideal candidate is familiar with SEO techniques and web publishing and content management tools.

To Apply

We scooped this job off mediabistro.com, so you should check out the listing here for more details. If you’re feeling lucky, you can send a cover letter, resume, and work sample to amezzafonte@aol.com

With the passage of the stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), the unemployment insurance (UI) system will get a much-needed injection of funds from the Federal government. The bill provides funds to increase weekly payments, elongate the extended benefits period, and modernize the way that each state administers its unemployment benefits system.

A refresher on the basics of UI

UI is a joint program between the Federal and state governments.  The Federal government sets loose guidelines for eligibility, and then each individual state narrows them down and administers the program. The program is almost entirely funded by a payroll tax on employers, but in times of high unemployment (like this one) the Federal government will extend emergency funding.

More money each week

Each state will receive funding to increase weekly benefits by $25 each week for everybody getting unemployment benefits. You don’t need to do anything: this subsidy will automatically be tacked onto your payments unless your state elects not to participate.

Extended benefits

Typically, you can receive benefits for 26 weeks. Last December, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008 tacked on an additional twenty weeks due to economic duress. As part of this stimulus bill, the extension becomes 33 weeks. Extended benefits payments are 80 percent of the average weekly amount that you were receiving before you exhausted your regular benefits.

Not everyone will have the full 33 weeks available to them, since it is ultimately decided at the state level. States with unemployment over 6 percent are eligible for funding. In some states, you may need to participate in training programs to qualify. Check out your state page here for more information.

Unemployment modernization

The stimulus bill creates a $7 billion pool that creates incentives for states to make changes to their unemployment administration. In order to qualify, states have noteworthy incentives:  they need to extend unemployment eligibility to those who voluntarily quit to escape domestic violence or care for an ailing relative.

For more information on unemployment benefits

Check out the Unemployment Benefits section of TheCanned.com for in-depth information on Federal guidelines and your state’s program!

We got a few questions following our post “COBRA Subsidy in Stimulus Package“. Here is the in-depth explanation of how this works. We will start with a crash course on the COBRA program and then describe how the subsidy will change things.

COBRA is designed to help people maintain their group health insurance following involuntary job loss (pretty much everything except gross misconduct). If you used to get group health insurance through your employer, and that firm had at least 20 employees, then you are eligible for COBRA. In many states, eligibility extends down to firms as small as two employees.

Employers are able to negotiate discounted rates because they can bargain on behalf of large numbers. If an individual looked to purchase a comparable plan, it would cost far more. Many employees don’t realize this because their employer pays all or most of their health insurance premiums. When they get canned, however, they find out the hard way how pricey insurance can be. With COBRA, you traditionally had to pick up 100 percent of the tab to maintain your health insurance. Although this rate is significantly cheaper than the rate you would pay on your own, it can still be hundreds of dollars each month.

The subsidy, as provided in the stimulus package, will pay for 65 percent of the cost of COBRA coverage each month for up to nine months. This amounts to thousands of dollars per person. For example:

When I got canned, I received a letter from my former employer explaining my COBRA option. It would have cost me about $575 per month for COBRA, but the alternative was even worse: an individual plan would have run me about $750 per month. To enroll, I would have needed to make my initial payment of $575 directly to my former employer. With the stimulus package, I would only need to pay $201.25 each month (35 percent of $575) because the government would pick up the rest. Over nine months, this would amount to a savings of over three thousand dollars!

Anybody who got canned after September 1st, 2008, is eligible for this subsidy.

Instructions:

When you lose your job, your employer is legally required to tell you about how to enroll in COBRA if you are eligible (see above). You will make payments each month directly to your former health insurance plan administrator (usually you human resources department). If you already opted out of COBRA, you are still eligible. Contact your the HR department of your former employer for instructions on how to enroll.

TheCanned was interviewed this morning by KFNN’s Ken Morgan and Julie Dougherty on their morning show, Business for Breakfast.

As companies across the country shed jobs like they’re going out of style, it’s no small wonder that for most Americans, buying a new car falls just behind fixing the busted septic tank on the to-do-list.

Don’t get me wrong – we’d all love a fresh new set of wheels. With the economic 8-ball still touting “future uncertain,” many are opting to squeeze a few more miles out of the old rust wagon rather than compile more debt.

But what if you NEED a new car but you’re worried about your financial future? Try Hyundai.

In an attempt to combat the economic uncertainty afflicting would-be car buyers, Hyundai is rolling out a new plan to attract customers: a return policy. As reported by MSNBC, the auto company will now allow new car buyers to return their vehicles up to one year from purchase in the event of “life-altering circumstances” such as a layoff, job transfer, or even personal bankruptcy for the self-employed.

The “Hyundai Assurance Program” is the first of its kind. With millions of Americans facing the possibility of unemployment, look for other companies to introduce offers aimed at luring back hesitant customers worried about a forthcoming pink-slip. The silver lining, I suppose.

Sure: a Hyundai might not be your dream car. But it’s only a coat of paint and a fresh set of rims away from being a stock car on the upcoming Fast and the Furious movie (you know, Vin Diesel is all over this.) Just make sure you ditch the spinners and neon lights before you try to return it.

– Jeff Gardner

The BBC recently ran an article titled “Is sexual desire in recession?” in which it entertained the possibility that economic anxiety will have a negative impact on libidos this Valentine’s Day. Apparently self-esteem  falls with the markets, or so some experts say.

I don’t know how things will pan out on the other side of the pond. But here, in America, I have an alternative view to cling to. A couple years ago The New York Times Magazine ran an op-ed called “The Economy of Desire” in which the authors of Freakonomics attempted to explain sexual behavior in terms of rational price theory. We’ll use their assumption to make some predictions for this Valentine’s Day.

In price theory, consumption decreases when the price of a good rises and vice versa. Since sex doesn’t have an explicit price, except with prostitution, let’s look at the implied prices.

Buying drinks, meals, tickets, chocolates, and roses are all prerequisites for an intimate Valentine’s Day. Prices are falling (the CPI dropped 0.8 percent in December). If we assume that average prices have dropped to accommodate falling incomes (personal income only fell 0.2 percent in December), then the impact of the recession will be a wash and everyone will get laid just as much as they have every other year.

It gets better. In economics, expectations matter more than anything else in the short run. The media has been stuffing our heads full of rising unemployment figures and dire economic forecasts for so long that I doubt your Valentine is expecting much. Grab a bottle of two-buck-chuck and a copy of Love Actually and count yourself  fortunate. The price of getting lucky hasn’t been this encouraging in a long time.

Don’t let impotence in your professional life equate to impotence on February 14th. Valentine’s dating might not be this cheap again until, say, 2010!

The nicest part about getting severance was that my health insurance continued after I got canned.  It was one less thing to worry about.  After the severance period was up, though, there were lots of tough decisions. COBRA is insanely expensive.  Continuing my group coverage through COBRA would have cost me almost $600 per month.  I ended up going with Healthy NY at less than half that, but sacrificed some coverage in the process.

A recent study shows that for family coverage, COBRA eats up 84 percent of unemployment benefits on average.  For individual coverage it’s a more “manageable” 30 percent.  Either way, the outlook for paying bills and putting food on the table is grim.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (that $787 billion stimulus bill that will likely be signed into law by week’s end) sets aside $24.7 billion to help offset the costs of COBRA.  Uncle Sam will pick up 65 percent of your premiums by issuing a credit directly to your employee benefits provider.  You are eligible for this subsidy for nine months if you were laid off  on or after September 1st, 2008.  Your nine months of eligibility start the first month that you receive a subsidy and no subsidies will be issued for premiums that you have already paid.

If you already opted out of COBRA, contact your former employee benefits provider.  If they are willing to extend group coverage, you still qualify for this subsidy.  Unfortunately for me, I got canned on August 27th — four days shy of eligibility!

To learn more about COBRA, check out this page on TheCanned.com.

Today, TheCanned was listed on CNBC’s On The Money “Sites of the Day.” You can find it here. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we will be mentioned by Carmen Wong Ulrich on her program tonight (2/10/09) at
10PM EST/7PM PT.

Clean Energy Program Manager (pdf)

Maryland Energy Administration
Annapolis, MD

Green is the trendiest color these days. More often than not, a company going green is little more than a well-funded marketing campaign. That is not the case with the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA).

The mission of the MEA, according to its Web site, is “to maximize energy efficiency while promoting economic development, reducing reliance on foreign energy supplies, and improving the environment.” Founded in 1991, the MEA recently channeled a funding boost into the Strategic Energy Investment Fund. In today’s economic climate, a government agency like this one may offer the best combination of stability and interesting work.

The Clean Energy Program Manager will work across the agency to further the use and generation of alternative energy in Maryland. The manager will begin by working closely with the Wind Energy Program, but will have a great chance to soak up more responsibility as it becomes available. The role will involve a good deal of reporting and analysis.

The MEA is considering people with a variety of backgrounds for this position. It is designed to be mid-level (three to five years of experience), but exceptional candidates at the entry level are also fair game. Work with energy or energy policy and a related undergraduate degree is preferred. Organizational skills and an ability to work persuasively with numbers are key skills.

To apply, send a resume and cover letter to Maria Ulrich at MUlrich@energy.state.md.us.