At the end of last year it was made clear by my company that they would start downsizing. I had been with the company for a little over two years, but nowhere near as long as many others who had been there for decades. With the fear of my impending lay-off, I hired a company to help me prepare my resume. I spent $150 on a new customized and fancy resume, which I was actually happy with and used while perusing the job sites to see what companies were looking for and for what might be open to me. I found several opportunities and started submitting my fantastic new resume. I was actually a bit excited! I would send out on average 10 applications per week and but never received any responses. It wasn’t as pertinent in the moment, to find employment, as I knew when and if the time came, I would receive a benefits package, and then unemployment if need be. I remained steady in my submissions, until the day came on February 8, 2011, I received my pink slip. My benefits package would cover my salary and insurance for the next 5 months. It wasn’t horrible and I thought it could be worse and well, this will give me the opportunity to really think about what I want to do, spend time with my family, and then hit the pavement and search for a new career. At first I remained on the same regimens and submitted the same amount of applications about 10 per week, but then once the 5 months started to close in, I started getting stressed. I was not getting any feedback or responses to my thousands of applications. I was bewildered because the jobs were there; I just was not getting any bites. Shortly thereafter my unemployment kicked in. Suddenly, I was making half the money I was used to, I was on food stamps, and I had no insurance. The situation became an instant reality…I was unemployed and there was no end in sight. I started getting up every morning t 4am, tending to the children, then searching, submitting, writing and rewriting cover letters, writing follow-up letters and making phone calls until it was time for dinner. I did this day in and day out for months. The only responses I would get were, sorry you are under qualified, overqualified, with regret the position has been filled (if I was lucky), or my personal favorite…we will keep your application on file should we find a need for someone with your qualifications. I found myself getting angry, depressed, and more and more unmotivated. I was on the brink of losing my family and my home, when I came across this website, I thought my gosh, they are right…all this time that I have been spending searching the job posts alone, by the time I submit, there are hundreds of applicants ahead of me and even with this spectacular resume, I am too late! So I decided to give the trial period a chance, what is $2.95? Immediately I was working with someone to tailor my qualifications, interests, and abilities on multiple resumes to send out to different types of positions. With this alone I was impressed. On the other job boards, I spent hours uploading my resume, having to adjust details because their platforms don’t recognize all formats of resume writing, doing it over and over because it does not save properly; trying to create keywords and formats catered to different positions; all by myself with no real help. On jobmonitor24.com I was given the help and attention to make these things work. I actually felt like I was accomplishing some kind of headway. In my account I could see how many of my applications were being sent out, anywhere from 25-100 per day and I was getting an SMS notification when the potential employer was responding, which was about 3 per day. In that first week, I was able to format and send very articulated follow up letters to try and secure an interview. I was debating cancelling my membership, to save money, but then decided it would behoove me to keep it up for at least another month, because I could see results were far vaster than when I was taking it all on, on my own. Plus, I was nowhere near as stressed, my wife was willing to keep trying with me, and I was able to find a part-time warehouse job on the side to help supplement our income. I have been using the service for almost a month now and I have been on 2 positive interviews and I am scheduled for another at the end of the week. Not only have I gotten my foot in the door, I have choices! Even if these opportunities end up not panning out, I am secure in knowing that what is a right match for me is around the corner and attainable. I would recommend jobmonitor24.com to anyone who has been disgruntled with the arduous time and effort put into searching aimlessly for a job. Rather, had I known sooner about this website, I would have bypassed the agony from the get go.