Hi everyone, I turned 40 last October and was laid off last week. I have never been without a job or school since I was 16 and this is a brand new experience for me. So I signed up on this community to listen to and learn from people in similar situations. I am still recovering from the initial trauma and have an existential fear of running out of money to support my family. How did you all handle the first few days?

Please enjoy! I hope we can get more people next week. What a great group. So much fun and. a great discusiion!

Hey everyone, Still working on Medium Mastery. It's a lot of work. More than I thought it would be honestly. But it's going to be worth it. You're getting the full course on making money on Medium, weekly check-ins where we can go deep on your work, community threads so you can help each other, and access to any future courses I build. The first 300 people who join get it for $5 a month or $48 a year for life. After that it goes up to $14.99 a month or $130 a year. I'm getting there. Promise. @John Sherratt brought up something important in the threads this week. While rants are great and sometimes you just need to get it out, let's also be looking for solutions for each other. Be proactive. Be helpful. If someone's struggling with something you've figured out, jump in. Share what worked. That's what makes this community different. But if you just need to rant? Do it. We get it. Sometimes you just need people to hear you. Remember you can talk about more than just job searching here. I was a finance writer for Quicken for a year so if you want to talk about finances, family savings, budgeting, whatever - I'm here for it. I just created more categories for you to tag your posts with. If you think of any we're missing, let me know and I'll add them. Coffee hour is this Sunday, January 25th from 1-2 PM MST. Last week we had five people and it was great. Real conversations. Real connection. Let's see if we can beat that this week. No agenda. No presentation. Just us talking about whatever's on our minds. Join us if you can. Also, there's a new LinkedIn course in the classroom. I was going to make that paid but honestly I want you guys to have access to as many free resources as possible. So it's yours. Use it. Let me know if it helps. Welcome to all the new people who joined this week. Glad you're here. Jump into the conversations. Share your stories. Ask questions. We're all figuring this out together. Jason

Hi all. Preet here from London, England. Just joined the group. I'm 59 and was recently laid off from an 18-year tech job. Looking to reinvent myself as a writer now. 3 months into my journey. Lots of invisible progress and small encouraging signs, but now looking to create publishable work, put it out there and see what doors open for me.😀

Dear Group: I had struggled with finding permanent employment for years, and so I identify with anyone who is still in that position. However, I would like to share some of my story and what (sort of) worked for me. After law school, I felt like I hit a wall trying to find permanent employment as an attorney. If this surprises you, I would say that job hunting as a new law graduate felt worse, not better, than applying as a non-graduate. To make a long story short, I tried starting my own law practice. Such practice was not successful from a business standpoint, but it was a learning experience and gave me something to put on my resume. Around about that time, I tried applying for jobs as a paralegal instead of an attorney. I got an interview, but I was not sure how it went. 2 things happened: My wife and an elder at our church said some special prayers for me, and, I dropped off a hand-written thank you note for the interview. And - I was extended and accepted an offer as a paralegal! Years later, that the firm had been thinking of not hiring me because I was an attorney - but when it received the hand-written thank you note, the firm changed its decision. And with that, I finally managed to get an 'in' to the employment market and have largely been working as a paralegal for different companies since. So, that was what partially worked for me. I have more to tell, but I think that that is enough for now. Best of luck to everyone in their searches!