The 405 Club: The Un-Employment Support Network in New York & Beyond!

January 18th, 2012

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Zoom

Oh Dorothy, when will you learn?

January 18th, 2012

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The hospital cured his pneumonia, but the bill — for an eye-popping $44 million — made him sick. Unemployed doorman Alexis Rodriguez couldn’t believe his eyes when he opened an envelope from Bronx-Lebanon Hospital last week and saw what he appeared to owe.

“I almost had an asthma attack,” said Rodriguez, 28, just one of several hundred patients to receive absurdly inflated bills because of a “system error.”

His amount due was $44,776,587 for outpatient services that in reality amounted to no more than $300.

$44 million bill from Bronx-Lebanon Hospital - NY Daily News

January 17th, 2012

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Losing Your Health Insurance: 8 Things You Need to Know Before You Go On Cobra

cobra benefits

If you’re thinking of leaving your job, Cobra may seem like the one part of our screwy health insurance system that actually works. Named for the health insurance provisions in the 1986 Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, Cobra ensures that if you leave your job, you won’t also lose your employer-sponsored health insurance. In most cases, you’ll get 18 months coverage on your employer’s plan before you’ve got to come up with other arrangements.

If only it were that simple. It’s distressingly easy to be thrown off of Cobra for no reason at all, and you can count on getting plenty of bad information while you’re trying to get reinstated. Here’s what you need to know to make sure your health insurance coverage continues, even if your job doesn’t.

First, the basics.

Cobra is expensive. In most cases, Cobra allows you to stay on your employer’s health insurance plan. But your employer is no longer going to be paying for it. In 2010, the National Conference of State Legislatures estimated that the cost for Cobra coverage for a family was $13,375.

If, while you were employed, your company deducted $500 a month from your paycheck to cover the cost of health insurance for you and your family, the chances are the company was also paying the insurer about $800 on top of that.

January 17th, 2012

the405club

Zoom

Have you ever wondered what happens to your resume when you apply online?

Well, today’s employers receive a steady stream of applications from job seekers for each open position. Those employers can’t go through every resume they receive (imagine how many thousands of resumes are in the system); therefore, Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) exist to manage, scan, and track candidate resumes.

What you need to know: While an ATS will certainly save time for the employer, job candidates unaware of the ins and outs of this technology will likely experience difficulties. It is important for applicants to understand how this technology works. After all, if a resume isn’t properly optimized for an ATS, it might not make it to the employer’s desk. You wouldn’t want that to happen, would you?

I love how technology continues to change how we share information and the use of infographic data has become all the rage in our ever-evolving digital landscape. Check out the infographic above, compiled by Resunate, the world’s only search engine optimizing resume builder, offers a look into what happens to your resume after you hit send – and how you can work with the system. Click the ZOOM button in the bottom right corner of the graphic to, well, zoom in.

Is your resume optimized for Applicant Tracking System success?

(via [INFOGRAPHIC] How an Applicant Tracking System Reads Your Resume « Campus To Career)

Keep in mind, this is fairly similar to how recruiters use LinkedIn. Make sure you’ve got those most commonly searched keywords in your Linkedin profile so you’re in the game!