Student Benefits

Besides student discounts at the movies and other venues, being a registered student for at least half time has its benefits. Mind you, I attend a California community college, where the fees are relatively low, even after they go up $10 to $36 a unit next year. If you can get financial aid to cover the fees and textbooks, and you don’t mind taking classes – to beef up your skills and add new ones, or to go for a degree – the benefits are out there. (The local transit service is free for students, believe it or not.)

I found an incredible student deal on Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Standard – four big programs – for $199.95. Usually, that’s what students pay for one of those programs. There might still be a catch – I haven’t loaded it yet – but I did check before buying, and these are the full versions, not upgrades. I found it at JourneyEd.com. They carry other vendors’ software too, but the Adobe products seem to have the deepest discounts.

Another student benefit I’m looking into is health insurance for California community college students (you might also be able to get an individual plan, but it might not be such a deal). It’s through Student Insurance, and the brochure is very frank about not covering pre-existing conditions. It’s tricky, though, because you have to pay a set amount up front – for three months, six months, or a year – and all current plans expire no later than October 31, 2011. But if I time it right – signing up in, say, September 2011 for the following year (assuming that’s possible), then the $1,450 I would pay for one year breaks down to $125 a month – unheard of these days.

I still have more research to do, to find out which doctors and especially hospitals are on their network, and to make sure there are no age restrictions, and to see if they have complaints or not about paying claims promptly. But if it’s for real, I’ll drop the $535 a month COBRA insurance (I’ll be sad to lose my doctor) and switch to this. Even though it won’t cover pre-existing conditions, it will cover catastrophic events like a car accident or cancer. Definitely worth a look.

Kind of makes up for the ridiculously high cost of textbooks, if only a little.

Finally, Some Action for “Mature” Job Seekers

The photo alongside the New York Times’ story on today’s confusing job numbers – unemployment taking a big dip last month, even as the number of jobs created took a dive, go figure – was of a Job Hunters Boot Camp, with a gray-haired, worried-looking, blue-suited man in sharp focus. The caption said the event was specifically for people out of work for at least six months. That would be us!

So, I searched for “job hunters boot camp” in “Burlingame, California,” and found the January 28 event, which was sponsored by several local government entities such as the City of Burlingame, but primarily by Congresswoman Jackie Speier.

Turns out this event is geared exactly for us “mature” job seekers, and this was the second one held. There are some great videos from the most recent event, including a “mature” speaker, Bernie Martinez, who got a full-time job with Virgin Airlines after two years of looking, using many of the strategies he learned at the first Job Hunters Boot Camp (mainly, he broadened his job-search horizons, looking at new industries, and he volunteered to help other job seekers, which honed his own resume and interview skills). The other video is a collection of interviews of attendees, each telling their unemployment story and how the event helped them.

Although this event was restricted to residents of the 12th Congressional District and of San Mateo County, some of the resource links on the Congresswoman’s Web site are for everyone, so check them out (scroll down the page).

And if you are a resident of the 12th Congressional District and of San Mateo County, you can sign up for the next Job Hunters Boot Camp, scheduled for Friday, April 8, 2011.

And if you’re not a resident of those areas, call your congressperson and ask if they’re holding a job fair like this one, just for “mature” job seekers out of work for more than six months. I did an advanced online search for “job hunters boot camp,” restricting the results to just .gov sites, and there have been at least two others using the exact same name, sponsored by congressional representatives, one in Colorado, the other in Illinois. There might be more with different names.

If your congressperson is not planning such an event, show them Congresswoman Speier’s press release for the January Boot Camp, outlining the event’s purpose and listing some workshops. You might offer to volunteer to help make it happen.

In any case, it’s good to see some action for us “mature” job seekers. Finally.