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adrian_turtleA recruiter called me this morning to say the company was hiring somebody else for the temporary technician job (that would be a long commute for me.) It wasn't clear if my commitment to stay for a 6-month contract was not convincing, or of they wanted somebody who wasn't so overqualified, that might be willing to stay with that level of job, indefinitely. Another factor was that they could get the other candidate for less money. That doesn't seem quite right, as my only discussion of salary was with the recruiter (who works for an independent contract agency, not the hiring company.)
Recruiter: What hourly rate do you want?
Adrian: I can be pretty flexible. Do you know how much they're offering?
Recruiter: [number]
Adrian: Wow. Are you sure?
Recruiter: Lemme check. Just a minute. [pause] Yeah. [same number] Is that ok?
Adrian: Yeah, I can work with that.
So, I could work with it, but it turns out they couldn't. Something about the process makes me feel cheated, but the end result with me not having to do the long commute for 6 months may be some kind of win.
I'm still waiting for a couple of employers to make up their minds after interviews, but now I recognize the impossibility of getting a job before April 1. This means I need to buy health insurance in something of a hurry. It's a good thing I live in Massachusetts! (Not just generally. I don't know what I'd do if I were living in Troy or something, and I was in my last month of COBRA eligibility, unable to find a job with health insurance.) Half the jobs I'm interviewing for don't come with benefits, so there's a reasonable chance I wouldn't have insurance even if I found a job, but a lot of things just get easier when one tries to arrange them with a substantial income.
I've been spending a lot of time on the phone and online, trying to figure out what insurance plan I can get that will cover most of my medical care. Bizarrely, I can count as "self employed," if I want to, as I go back and forth between unemployed and employed without benefits. This would make me eligible for various plans with low premiums, limited benefits, and high deductibles. (That's not what I want. They're for people who don't expect to go to doctors much. They aren't for people who need ongoing medical care to be functional. And a high deductible is a bad idea for a plan I expect to bridge the few months between the end of my COBRA coverage and getting health insurance with a new job.) The state agency for helping people get subsidized insurance is pretty clumsy, as one might expect from an agency dealing with a very much larger job than they had 3 years ago.
To my astonishment, one can get information online or over the phone (somewhat different information, but nevermind), but the only way to apply is by mail or in person. Applying by mail is supposed to get insurance in 45 working days. So starting the process last week, when I started calling, would let my insurance start June 1. Or maybe July 1, I'm not sure what holidays they count. But I had some bad days when I wasn't able to pursue anything actively, and some days when I was busy with interviews. Which brings us to the anxious morning of March 25. I knew my application would be processed much faster if I went to one of the community health centers in Boston or Cambridge and put it into their computers (where it would be sent to Tewksbury, rejected for one program, and in a couple of weeks, maybe, accepted for another. Did I mention clumsy?) But I talked to someone at the Cambridge place and determined I did not need an appointment, though I did need to bring proof of income, citizenship, and state residency. Sure, no probl-.
I thought I'd grab my tax return, my driving license, and my passport*, and catch the next bus. I finished my taxes a few days ago, and all the documents were right where I remembered putting them. The problem was that I couldn't find my passport. Or my social security card, for that matter. They're probably together. I brought them both to work, to show HR in the middle of December. I don't remember where I put them after that. I've been turning the apartment upside down in search of them. This is really scary. I thought I only needed to find somebody to offer me a job, and to find the money to pay for health insurance. What could I do with either one without proof of citizenship**?
*My passport expired in November, but I haven't renewed it. I didn't want to send the old one off to the State Department and be without it for 2 months when I might need the proof of citizenship to start a new job.
**Proof of legal residency would probably be ok, if I were a citizen of someplace else. But as I AM a US citizen, not just a US taxpayer, I need to prove it.
Recruiter: What hourly rate do you want?
Adrian: I can be pretty flexible. Do you know how much they're offering?
Recruiter: [number]
Adrian: Wow. Are you sure?
Recruiter: Lemme check. Just a minute. [pause] Yeah. [same number] Is that ok?
Adrian: Yeah, I can work with that.
So, I could work with it, but it turns out they couldn't. Something about the process makes me feel cheated, but the end result with me not having to do the long commute for 6 months may be some kind of win.
I'm still waiting for a couple of employers to make up their minds after interviews, but now I recognize the impossibility of getting a job before April 1. This means I need to buy health insurance in something of a hurry. It's a good thing I live in Massachusetts! (Not just generally. I don't know what I'd do if I were living in Troy or something, and I was in my last month of COBRA eligibility, unable to find a job with health insurance.) Half the jobs I'm interviewing for don't come with benefits, so there's a reasonable chance I wouldn't have insurance even if I found a job, but a lot of things just get easier when one tries to arrange them with a substantial income.
I've been spending a lot of time on the phone and online, trying to figure out what insurance plan I can get that will cover most of my medical care. Bizarrely, I can count as "self employed," if I want to, as I go back and forth between unemployed and employed without benefits. This would make me eligible for various plans with low premiums, limited benefits, and high deductibles. (That's not what I want. They're for people who don't expect to go to doctors much. They aren't for people who need ongoing medical care to be functional. And a high deductible is a bad idea for a plan I expect to bridge the few months between the end of my COBRA coverage and getting health insurance with a new job.) The state agency for helping people get subsidized insurance is pretty clumsy, as one might expect from an agency dealing with a very much larger job than they had 3 years ago.
To my astonishment, one can get information online or over the phone (somewhat different information, but nevermind), but the only way to apply is by mail or in person. Applying by mail is supposed to get insurance in 45 working days. So starting the process last week, when I started calling, would let my insurance start June 1. Or maybe July 1, I'm not sure what holidays they count. But I had some bad days when I wasn't able to pursue anything actively, and some days when I was busy with interviews. Which brings us to the anxious morning of March 25. I knew my application would be processed much faster if I went to one of the community health centers in Boston or Cambridge and put it into their computers (where it would be sent to Tewksbury, rejected for one program, and in a couple of weeks, maybe, accepted for another. Did I mention clumsy?) But I talked to someone at the Cambridge place and determined I did not need an appointment, though I did need to bring proof of income, citizenship, and state residency. Sure, no probl-.
I thought I'd grab my tax return, my driving license, and my passport*, and catch the next bus. I finished my taxes a few days ago, and all the documents were right where I remembered putting them. The problem was that I couldn't find my passport. Or my social security card, for that matter. They're probably together. I brought them both to work, to show HR in the middle of December. I don't remember where I put them after that. I've been turning the apartment upside down in search of them. This is really scary. I thought I only needed to find somebody to offer me a job, and to find the money to pay for health insurance. What could I do with either one without proof of citizenship**?
*My passport expired in November, but I haven't renewed it. I didn't want to send the old one off to the State Department and be without it for 2 months when I might need the proof of citizenship to start a new job.
**Proof of legal residency would probably be ok, if I were a citizen of someplace else. But as I AM a US citizen, not just a US taxpayer, I need to prove it.
