Diary of an Ex-employee - The Costs
Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 1:48PM 
Those of you who read regularly will know that I'm not an Ex-Employee any more. I have a (relatively) new job, and I love it.
But it's tax time and, unlike in England where they just deduct your tax from your salary and you never have to think about it (unless you are rich and have a lot of assets), the process here is a pure unadulterated hell that, like Healthcare, discriminates against the uneducated and poor.
But, I digress.
This isn't a rant about the American way.
To help calculate our tax deductions, I went back through my diary (schedule) to see what I spent on travelling to, and attending, networking events, interviews and career search counselling.
Maybe you remember the post about the first time I went to the Career Transition Center run by a third party firm, but paid for by my ex-employer. Never mind the fact that it was a depressing place, filled with reminders of my previous employer, but it was also 28 miles away from my house! My commute to work had previously been 15 miles, but when you aren't earning any money, trekking out beyond the burbs ain't no joke.
Anyway, going through the costs of those 6 months was strangely interesting... like a mini Forensic Accounting exercise.
I didn't manage to find/remember all the things I did.
Note to you job hunting folks - keep EVERY receipt, put mileage into the appointment on your calendar and assign it to a "JOB HUNT" category, so you can find all this stuff easily at tax time. I figure I'll be claiming about 3/4 of what I really spent, if not less.
So.
Here are the numbers:
- Travel to Career Transition Facilities = $53.90
- Networking event costs = $126.00
- Networking mileage and parking = $124.48
- Interview mileage and parking = $70.71
- Membership (LinkedIn, Networking associations) = $124.80
- TOTAL = $445.99
If you add the costs of phone calls and stuff I have forgotten, we can probably round it up to $500.
Over 6 months.
So, for me, job hunting cost me about $80 per month.
And that is not counting the fact that nobody told me that unemployment is seen as taxable income (yes, you read that right, non-Americans and no, no-one seems to get the fact that the govt giving with one hand and taking with the other is utterly ridiculous), so I have no idea how much tax I am going to pay on the money I got.
Why am I telling you my personal financial stuff?
I am sharing it as a cautionary tale.
Yes, the job I have now is fantastic and, if I consider that $500 of my first paycheck is a write off against what I spent to get it, it's still worth it.
But, if you are out there job hunting, I ask you to note two things:
- Budget for these expenses and and track them religiously
- Keep going. The investment pays off.
The door is there, and it's going to open for you.
As the British say, Chin up!
If you want to read more posts in the Diary of an Ex-Employee series, click here.
Reader Comments (2)
Ah, but it's the state government giving and the federal government taking away. Dunno what difference that makes, but I'm sure it's important.
@Debineezer
Don't get me started on how much better things would be for everyone if the USA actually functioned as one country.