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The prospect of unemployment has only come up for me twice in my life and I was fortunate in that I didn't really have to face actual unemployment the first time. That was the time when I retired from the Navy and I was looking for a job. As luck would have it, I had several offers as I neared retirement from the Navy and took a high paying job in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:off ice:smarttags" />Boston with a cogeneration power company. My other options included a position with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Department of Energy and the State Department among others. I elected for the higher paying job over the security of a government job. As it turns out that was a poor choice!

Almost exactly 18 months after I started I was given my walking papers even though I had saved the company over half a million dollars a year. Suddenly my mortgage payment, car payments, credit card (only one. thankfully) and keeping my house warm in the winter were in doubt. My wife was very supportive but I could tell the event put a lot of stress on her. She had a home based business but it was only starting out and in no way could it possible support us with the bills we had. Our mortgage, while steep, had been easy to pay with my job. Now without it there was a very real possibility we might loose the house and the huge investment we had made in it. Most of our savings had gone into that house and to loose it meant starting over.
Looking back, now that I have a job, I would say that I did many things right and would only change a few things. The things I did right included keeping a schedule where I got up as if I was going to work and I'd spend the early morning hours looking for jobs on the internet. Afterwards my wife and I would have breakfast and then I'd scour the paper. Then my wife and I would address some aspect of the house that needed repair or painting and over the course of my six months of unemployment we made many sweat equity" improvements to the property so that if we had to sell it we'd at least get top dollar in a housing market that was stacked against the house seller. The other good thing I did was enroll in an MBA program with TUI University because it kept me busy at night and the VA educational benefits put some extra money in my pocket.
The schedule was always adjustable if and when I had an interview and after three weeks those started happening on a regular basis and in some weeks I had two interviews. Some went well and others it was clear right from the start that I wasn't going to fit or that I wasn't what they were looking for in a prospective employee. One interview with the Veterans Administration left me feeling that I'd been discriminated against and I wasn't surprised that I didn't get the job even though I was a disabled veteran.
Staying busy and engaged with family members went a long way to help me avoid emotional issues like depression but at times I was still angry at my former employer. I felt as if I'd been hired to get a project done and once it was done I was dismissed when the impression was that I had a career there.
The bitterness I felt was such that I didn't hesitate to take a government job when an offer came along. At least there the likelihood of getting fired is a lot less!

Learn more about this author, Mark Butler.
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