How to Recover from Financial Setbacks

Whether you are between jobs after an educational upgrade or for other reasons and are experiencing financial setbacks, it is possible to recover, with or without a support system, prior to receipt of that next traditional job and/or pay check. First of all, do not panic! Set/stick to those goals that you made. Write your clear cut path to how you'll get there and go tunnel vision...

If you recently graduated from college, a technical school, or trade program, and need to acquire experience, search for entry level opportunities that will allow you to get the experience you need to ultimately get the job you really want. The entry level position may not pay as much as the job that you want. It is earning you that priceless experience to enable you to qualify and receive said job and pay, however...

The following is a list of legit gigs and some dedicated positions that you can work and pay the bills while between jobs or indefinitely (Click on the name of each company to connect to their website):

Amazon flex — Deliver with your personal vehicle on your own time.

Couriergigs — Create a driver profile and expand your career as a courier or land delivery contracts as a business owner.

Curri — Be your own boss. Deliver on your own terms. Become a gig driver and get paid the next day or become a carrier/courier for dedicated work. 

Dispatch — Flexibly run your own business with exceptional driver support.

Drop off, Inc. — Transport materials using your own or a company-provided commercial vehicle (box truck or cargo van) and a delivery app.

Echo Express — Become an independent trucker with a reliable company that provides regular loads, high rates, timely pay, and respectful treatment.

Fetch — Become a delivery partner. Work flexibly with driver support and maintain a positive work/life balance. Qualify for the preferred driver program and receive priority status and additional rewards and perks.

Frayt — Get matched with companies that need their products shipped. Set your own schedule, earn on your own terms.

GoShare — Drive your box truck (circa $170 per hour), cargo van (full-size $105 per hour), your SUV, car, or mini-van for courier services ($45 per hour), your pickup truck ($70 per hour) or earn $60 per hour for labor only. Be your own boss. Work when you want as an independent contractor. Get paid within four business days.

Instacart — Shop and deliver groceries, medicine, and gifts, etc. for flexible earnings.

Labcorp — Deliver medical specimens, lab supplies, and reports with a company-furnished vehicle that you can take home with you for personal use for a $125.00 fee.

Lyft — Get paid with Express Pay in an hour or two or access your earnings after every ride with Lyft Direct.

Medical Courier Cash — Become a medical courier on a full-time, part-time, or seasonal basis.

Medzoomer — Deliver medications on your own time using custom route optimization software that allows you to make more deliveries per hour.

Red Wagon — Deliver large and small catering meals, parcels, liquor, and much more.

Reliable Couriers — Deliver packages in a fast-paced work environment.

Senpex — Work as a helper or mover how you want and when you want.

Spark Driver — Shop and deliver groceries and everyday items in all 50 states earning on your own terms or choosing which offers you'll accept.

Uber Deliver — Drive for Uber Eats.

Uber Drive — Become a Rideshare driver with an affordable rental or your own vehicle; earn on your own schedule.

USPack — Deliver medications, parcels, and other essentials on a contractual basis.

Of course you'll need to be a licensed driver with an insured vehicle or have access to one for the driving positions. 

If you're someone who dislikes a traditional job and/or have a suspended driver license due to unpaid child support, an unpaid traffic ticket, or for any other reasons, it would behoove you to resolve said issues for the privilege to earn on your own terms.

Click here for a more comprehensive list of gig economy companies.

Transportation Network Companies Should Finance Driver Vehicular Repairs

...Not every potential driver for a Gig TNC (Transportation Network Company) like Uber and Lyft is in need of a vehicle. Some already have vehicles that they are currently financing or for which they have fully paid that are in need of repairs. TNCs should offer an option to alternatively finance said repairs in lieu of purchase of another vehicle. This financing could be contractual or require drivers to make so many pick-ups to at least cover the cost of subject repairs and reasonable interest that would be charged by the relevant TNC...

TNCs could develop partnerships with automotive shops juxtapose those that they already have with specified car dealerships to provide repairs to their drivers' vehicles. They could additionally, via said partnerships, purchase and finance decent cash cars and any needed repairs to them to market to their drivers for reasonable cost. 

This would benefit especially low-income drivers. It would further and significantly prevent/decrease crime where vehicles and driving opportunities are provided to qualifying felons and where non-qualifying felons, including car jackers and/or others who can drive, would be privileged to earn expungement, reinstatement of revoked driver licenses, and/or forgiveness of fees for vehicular and other citations.

Gig driving work would provide the perfect opportunity for many individuals who have had run-ins with the law and/or those who do not like working a traditional work schedule to earn livable wages working whenever they'd like, provided that they stay out of trouble and sustain as economical as possible full-coverage vehicular insurance. 

Streamlining the Employment Application Process

Employment application processes have been historically flawed in requiring employment candidates to repetitively enter the same demographic and other synonymous information into each and every job application that they submit. 

Employment candidates should be required to enter stated information once on an authorized website that would be created for streamlining purposes and when they apply for employment anywhere they would simply provide either their social security number or the last four digits of their SSN and digitally sign to authorize the company to retrieve their employment information from the stated database.

All information that prospective employers would need, including names, addresses, and telephone numbers of supervisors, job duties, reasons for leaving, updated background reports, etc. would be retrievable from this database that would be managed by the Department of Labor ideally.

There would be no more worries about timing out of an application entering or endeavoring to enter or correct information already provided on an uploaded resume, etc.  Employment application processes should be quaint and effective...

Work Behavior Modification Program

There is an epidemic of individuals who are locked out of the work force or who find difficulty acquiring and/or sustaining employment due to their common human flaws that employers should constructively address in lieu of readily terminating them, particularly when said behaviors are non-threatening, do not affect business productivity, and are corrigible...

Because employers, particularly those in at-will states, may lawfully terminate an employee for any reason, with the exception of a discriminatory reason, however, and because previous employers in some states can provide factual* information to potential employers that may not always be impressive or acceptable pertaining to an employment candidate's salary, job performance, reason for leaving, and rehire eligibility, it is imperative to implement interventions that safeguard workers and unemployed individuals searching for work.

*Employers may not share defamatory opinions about employment candidates.

...Employers can neither share information about an employment candidate's race or ethnicity, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability status or medical history per se. Many companies only share basic employment verification (dates of employment, job title, and responsibilities) to be legally safe. Lines are frequently blurred, however, in terms of what is lawful and unlawful and in the course both the innocent and guilty are adversely affected... 

There should be an iron-clad program to which employees can be referred by their employers or by the Department of Labor for individuals who are between jobs who may be experiencing difficulty acquiring employment due to reported work violations, i.e. attendance, dress code and grooming, and attitudinal issues, bullying, physical fighting, theft, controlled substance abuse, et cetera, et cetera...

Employers should make every reasonable effort to retain employees by constructively addressing said and other infractions via programs that would be conducted on site at their companies and/or at the Department of Labor... 

DOL should make every reasonable attempt to address behaviors that prevent subject individuals from obtaining and/or sustaining employment and/or that create obstacles for them doing so; and they should help to re-connect said individuals with employment once they have completed synonymous programs and obtained certificates of completion... 

Work rehab or work behavior modification programs would teach conflict resolution, time management, dress code and grooming etiquette, interpersonal or people skills, theft prevention and intervention, and substance abuse intervention via which employees and prospects would be counseled on the importance of sobriety in and out of the work force as a matter of safety and employment security. Other synonymous issues would additionally be addressed. Prior to issuance of any referral, subject employees would be granted opportunity to explain a legitimate or excusable reason for any violation.

...In addressing said issues employers and DOL should provide any essential resources to subject employees or employment candidates and/or refer them to sources where they may acquire said resources that they are in need of that would help to improve their attendance, job performance, appearance and hygiene, i.e. provision and/or assistance with acquiring clothing or additional work uniforms and toiletry bags containing soap, shampoo, lotion, tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant, etc.), transportation assistance, i.e. creating and connecting employees with company car pools and/or shuttles to retrieve them from their homes or other designated localities that are accessible to them or by any means mentioned here. Employers and DOL could additionally refer employees and employment candidates to control substance detox programs and/or counseling, etc...

Employment rehabilitation (work behavior modification programs), which should exist in every city, state, and point on the globe, would provide damage control for subject individuals to prevent employment loss and reconnect those who have lost employment with new jobs after completion of and issuance of certificates from employment rehab programs (which could last anywhere from a week to a month or more)...

A repeat of programs or update of certificates would be required for forward violations.

No capable worker should be terminated and/or no person should be locked out of the work force for behavioral or any other issues that can and should be constructively addressed and resolved.

Experiential Training Should be a Component of Education or Readily Provided on the Job

It is unfortunate that so many graduates find difficulty acquiring jobs in their fields of study due to lack of experience, those specifically who had no internship or on-the-job training options or who could not participate in such programs for whatever reasons. I did not have this problem as a business clerical trainee at the Atlanta Job Corps because OJT was offered for my cluster at the center where I trained... 

After completing my studies, which included learning to type, data entry, writing business letters, answering business phones, and subsequently graduating from Atlanta Metropolitan College* via Job Corps's Advanced Career Training program, I interned as a receptionist answering the center switchboard for a specified number of weeks. And I had no problem at all getting my first full-time job as a receptionist...

Some form of on-the-job-training was offered for most if not all trades at the AJCC, which facilitated job placement for graduates (*My degree from Atlanta Metropolitan College is an AA in Philosophy, which substantially helped to develop my critical thinking skills and my Microsoft skills via a computer science course). 

I am four classes away from graduating with a Bachelors degree in English/Composition and Rhetoric from Georgia State University, which expounds upon my Philosophy degree from a critical thinking standpoint (when and if I can ever complete said classes).

Graded and/or paid internships at real companies provide real experience that real employers can appreciate, and they should be available for all educational/training programs. 

...On the job training for certain professions like CDL Class A trucker jobs, including those that require flatbed and/or over the road (OTR) experience should be scheduled around students' employment work schedules to enable them to earn sufficient income during said experiential training. Let's say, for example, that a driving student works for four days and has three days off. Training could be scheduled for 1 to 2 of their off days...

This would additionally give said students the opportunity to see if flatbed and/or OTR or driving significant distances out of state would be something that they would actually enjoy, and it would give them the required experience to acquire employment within the industry after completion of the training without need of any additional experience.

CDL Class A truckers who are interested in local driving jobs could optionally only train locally or they could additionally train for OTR in the event that this would interest them in the future, or if they would be interested in periodically driving OTR (depending upon the location, weather, and/or other circumstances) in a local driving position.

Completed internships or apprenticeships for specific programs should suffice for experience to acquire entry-level jobs and reasonable starting pay in the industry. An internship lasts on average from about three months to a year while trucking apprenticeships would last from six months to two years.

...Another even better option would be for more trucking companies to provide post educational experiential training for local, regional, and OTR jobs. This would help to readily meet the staffing needs of many trucking companies that are "urgently hiring" while providing desired and needed employment to recent graduates in the industry. It is essentially impossible otherwise to acquire experience where no opportunity is provided without it...

Allow People Who Want to Work to Work

There are many people who are good workers who want to work who are denied the privilege or who face considerable challenges acquiring or keeping a decent job or who are substantially underpaid for unmerited and at times unlawful reasons. 

I am confident that a substantial number of people dealing with this are being blackballed, very often simply due to culprits' envy. The culprit may be aware that the victim has purchased a nice car or home and they don't want them to have it and do whatever it takes to make them lose it, which is malicious and legally actionable. 

In other instances the culprit may be an intimate partner or ex who is obsessed with controlling the victim. They do not want the victim working and earning an income for fear that they may get away from them, and said victim's employers' or prospects participate in the ordeal by obliging the abuser and denying or limiting opportunities to the victim(s). 

...In other scenarios a victim may be targeted by a human trafficker who convinces employers to deny or limit opportunities to the victim to make them vulnerable to this unlawful trade... 

Many individuals are denied good jobs that they qualify for simply due to their personal appearance, very often because they are overweight. The unscrupulous employer does not want to give the often brilliant individual the job and/or salary that they've sought; yet, they want to benefit from their skills/talent...

...Sometimes a victim is targeted to compel them to commit criminal activities like murdering an individual who they may be close to or who they have been ordered to gravitate to who is considered a dissident or they are outspoken or may have filed an EEOC complaint and/or lawsuit, very often for merited reasons. At the risk of never being employed and losing everything they have until they carry out the deplorable act, offered incentives become more and more attractive...

In more rare circumstances the culprits set out to destroy the victim over something like an intellectual property that he or she and/or someone they are closely related to owns. The culprit, which is very often a previous employer, seeks to financially humiliate and isolate their victim(s) in endeavor to take their intellectual properties without their protest.

Imagine destroying someone's life and the lives of all who depend on them over their talent, appearance, or simply because the culprit does not want the victim to elevate in life or to surpass them or because of legitimate, protected activity that the victim has participated in.

...Even in instances where a victim may have committed an infraction that the culprit feels validates their inappropriate behavior towards the victim, the fact that said victim is not incarcerated is clear indication that he or she is hireable though their access to jobs in the industry of the infraction may be legitimately denied for specific periods of time during which the subject individual should receive certified counseling that would address why the infraction was wrong...

No companies should be participating in railroading any employees or prospects, regardless of the situation. No respectable company would even consider it. Everyone has a right to earn a livable wage and provide for themselves and their families. Anyone interfering with that should be held accountable.

My Daughter's MPloy Youth Experience...

My daughter, Ebony, a high school junior now, participated in the city of Memphis's Mploy Youth program following the 2024-2025 school year. She, of course, was very excited to get her first job, and I was excited for her the way that I was for my son when he participated in the program. 

Things were a bit different than when my son participated in the program in 2017, which you can read about by clicking here. The intake processes were similar. Participants were required to submit synonymous documentation to the Mploy office, documents that could and should have been uploadable to the Mploy website. 

Submitting required documentation electronically would have saved a lot of time and hassle for both Mploy staff and participants and their parents and/or individuals who were responsible for getting participants to and from required Myploy events...

Participants were required to attend an event at a local church where they'd interact with participating employers. Because there were so many participants, all were not capable of interacting with the attending companies though any participants who had not been previously assigned to any company (including my daughter) were assigned during this event after waiting in very extensive lines... 

Some participants were told that they could leave and that they would be contacted the following week. We decided to continue waiting to improve chances of my daughter being assigned to a company, since she had not received the email that some other participants had received informing them of the companies they had been assigned to...

...All participants should have been allowed to attend what should have been a job fair to get a gist of any prospective employer prior to selection or being assigned to either company. My daughter took it upon herself to select prospective employers before I'd had the chance to peruse the entire list, though she did include a few of the companies that I felt would be ideal for her. It would be a company with which I was not particularly thrilled to which she would be assigned...

My daughter was assigned to a day care center. This was not the issue. One of my selections was a childcare facility. It was the name of the daycare center that my daughter was assigned to, among other things, that concerned me or gave me a vibe that some individuals with whom I do not want a connection had been given access to my daughter.

I contemplated not allowing her to participate. The fact that my daughter was so excited about having a job and it would have devastated her had I pulled her from the program is the reason I decided to allow her to participate and closely monitor her participation. 

Some things that perked my antennas were that my daughter was assigned to work with a child who would run and open an exit door and attempt to go outside and on multiple occasions that I took my daughter's lunch to her there were no staff members or students visible and no one responded for substantial lengths of time when I rang the door bell. 

On one occasion when my daughter and other employ participants/daycare staff were to oversee the children while they played in water my daughter was not present outside with the other staff and children when I walked around to the side of the building where the water events were occurring after no one responded when I rang the doorbell.

When I asked the teacher who my daughter had been assigned to work with where she was, she stated that she had sent her inside to change a child. It made me very uncomfortable.

Though the daycare center where my daughter was assigned to work gave her a very positive review, I'm making it my point to be involved in the actual selection of her next prospective Mployer. Parental approval of selected prospective Mployers should be a requirement...