I was let go in December when the independent I was working at in Wisconsin closed with a two day notice. Despite being very well "networked" in the independent world, I was unable to find any work, eventually I just applied to any part time position I saw in a 30 mile radius of my house I just bought (I had to relocate to do take the previous job...). I actually got 3 Fill-in positions rather quickly. I only got rejected from one job. While I have nothing "scheduled" I have managed to average about 20-25 hrs a week and my summer is already booked at more than full time. I used to be a fanboy for the whole independent pharmacy world, but it is nice working for some bigger companies and finally cracking the $50 an hour rate, which the real world of pharmacy did more than a decade ago.
I basically went three months without a paycheck, and I was able to survive on savings, since I was a student only 2 years ago, it was easy to go without buying stuff. I also paid my student loans ahead each month so my next payment wasn't due for a year, otherwise I would have had to defer them, since i had to pay my mortgage.
If this happened to me again, I wish I would have just taken more of these fill-in type positions or per diem work right away instead of just sitting around looking for a full time job. I have pretty much stopped looking for a real job since I actually like the variety of going to different places every day, And for at least the next few months I have ~0.8 FTE worth of work lined up.
I do miss playing on my laptop and watching TV during downtime at the independents I worked at though....
