Laid Off

Sites to Visit When You Are Laid Off

SmartMoney – Employment at Smart Money is a great resource for investing and managing your money.  The Employment section specifically has videos, columns, and articles on starting your own business or surviving a layoff.  It’s from Wall Street Journal; it’s quality information.

Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration – The DOL is a resource for those laid off, it outlines ways to get benefits, provides fact sheets, and gives you contact information for your state.

Department of Labor Health and Retirement Benefits Toolkit – This is the DOL’s job loss toolkit.  It has fact sheets and publications on COBRA, pensions, and more.

Mint – A free budget management and finance tracking service.  After connecting it with your online bank accounts and credit cards, you can see all your financial activity and set budgets based on categories of spending.  When you lose your income source, you need to be sure you are keeping on budget.  Mint will even send a Short Message Service (SMS) if you go over your budget or have unusual charges.
 

Laid Off Camp – Is a movement to bring anyone who ahs lost their job or is self-employed together to discuss topics that are important to the laid off – living on tight budgets, becoming a freelancer, and more.

eHow – Has a massive collection of articles that can help you learn everything from how to support a laid off spouse to how to claim unemployment benefits.

Slick Deals – The popular deals website allows you to find discounts and freebies on a random assortment of items.  When you’re in a crunch, every penny matters.

Garys Guide – Although most of us techies do our work from a computer, networking doesn’t always work that way.  Garys Guide lists out tech events and gatherings in metropolitan areas.  Start a system of attending at least two of these a week and shake hands with as many people as possible.  You’re probably not going to find your next opportunity sleeping in late.

Mashable – The Career Toolbox is a comprehensive listing and description of websites that can help you find a job and then land it.

Government/Federal/Post Office Job Search – There are a lot of government websites that can help you directly search for a job.  With multi-billion dollar stimulus packages flying everywhere, there’s bound to be some government jobs.