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Browsing posts in: Work

Still Looking for More Work

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Bonus changes looking for work

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In my last update, I talked about the bonus changes at my partner’s work being worse than expected. I was feeling kind of down about it, but now we have more reasons to be hopeful. It seems like there will be a new internal role opening up at my partner’s company this summer. It would be a move into a different department that has much higher base salaries because they don’t really have a bonus program.

My partner has spoken to the hiring manager and some other employees in that department and the response has seemed really positive. A few people have even offered their personal recommendations/references when the time comes. Just the fact that there may be an opportunity for my partner to stay at this company without reducing our income has made me feel more positive and hopeful about the situation.

Looking at Roles for My Partner

I’ve also been looking at job listings on Indeed and LinkedIn to see what other opportunities might be out there in case the internal role falls through. It seems like customer success roles would be the right fit based on my partner’s account management skills. I saw salaries in the $80-$100K range, so it seems like it would be a good role to pivot to. If the internal role in the summer doesn’t work out, my partner will definitely start applying for these types of jobs.

I also want my partner to start arranging some informational interviews with customer success agents. I’m in a few remote work networking groups on Facebook that have been helpful. So I’m going to get my partner to join them and start putting feelers out to see if anyone would be willing to chat about their job and how they got into the customer success field. From my research, it seems like a lot of software companies are hiring customer success agents, so it may be a more tech-oriented job. For that reason, I’m wondering if some hard technical skills like coding knowledge are preferred by employers. If my partner has to do some upskilling via Google certificates or other means, we want to find out now while there’s time to prepare.

Still Looking for Work for Myself

Unfortunately, my own search for more work hasn’t been going as well. I landed one new client who I thought would need content from me on a weekly basis. But after completing one assignment and getting paid, it’s been crickets. I plan to follow up one more time and then probably cut my losses with this client. I’m still scanning Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the other job sites for opportunities and applying. If I keep coming up empty, I may start doing some cold email outreach via email.

Getting Taxes Done Early

Tax refund, tax time

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My partner always wants to get our taxes out of the way early, so we just finished working on those and have our estimated refund. It looks like we should be getting $750 back, which will go to savings. Although it doesn’t replace all the lost income from bonuses, it’s still nice to get some extra money we weren’t expecting in our pocket.

As a freelancer, I’m always worried that I’ve done my something wrong and will owe the government money. It’s a somewhat irrational fear because I’m careful about calculating and paying my quarterly taxes. But it’s always a relief to learn that I did everything right and am even getting money back!

If you have any job-searching tips, let me know! We’re both looking for work so we could use them.

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How’s the Part Time Job Going?

Tax Time – Arizona Tax Credit

Must Be Able to See

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Outside of the calamities, ie emergencies that popped up, I still think I’m doing pretty good at sticking to my No Spend Months. I mentioned that in addition to my heat failing, my glasses broke. And I cannot function without them. There is no waiting for new glasses because I can’t see without them.

They literally just fell apart a couple of days after I was let go from my part time accounting job. I tried to stay hopeful that I could super glue them or the eye place could reattach one of the “stems” (I don’t know if that’s the right term but it seems to fit) with a screw. And I walked into the eye glass place with that hope.

She took one look and said, there is no way to fix these. I about broke into tears. Because I knew that I couldn’t afford new ones.

Prescriptions Expire

On top of that, my last eye exam was more than 2 years ago. Even if I could afford new glasses, I would also have to get an exam because they cannot use a prescription that old. And, of course, with no full time job for a year, I have no benefits to help.

She saw my distress. And jumped to help.

She found the same frames that I currently had on the “try on” wall, albeit a different color, and said that I could just buy the frame. They would then take my lenses and just put them in that demo frame. I broke out in tears.

My new frames

For $150, I got new glasses. They had to keep them overnight because she had to heat them up or something to get the lenses in. But the next morning, I was able to pick them up. And could see the world again…

For the Future

Once I have income again, I am going to make it a priority to get a new eye exam. I know you used to be able to get one at Walmart for $67. I imagine it has gone up a bit.