Originally posted by: loki8481
depending on how much/if I could collect unemployment or other benefits (food stamps or housing assistance?) I could probably survive for 4-6 months without a job assuming I cut way back on spending (ie: cancel cable, stop going out, stop shopping at whole foods, etc)... if I hit that 6 month mark without a job or without a job that could pay the rent, my last resort plan B would be moving back in with my parents and taking out loans to go back to school -- the one benefit of where my parents live, tons of great universities within driving distance. I could pretty easily commute to any of the manhattan colleges, not to mention rutgers or princeton in NJ.
I was unemployed from the beginning of November until the beginning of February.
The smartest thing for me to have done would have been to:
(1) File for unemployment on day 1, because it takes a long time to get rolling (FYI, I was in NJ too)
(2) Decide very quickly on where I wanted to work next
(3) Get a part-time internship at that or a similar place, while continuing to apply to the positions I wanted
(4) When unemployment started drying up, find some sort of work on the nights/weekends that allows me to pay the bills
Although this assumes a very narrow focus...