Step 1: I am an Arbeitslose (person without a job)

So this is Day 2. I'm officially "arbeitslos" (unemployed). Actually even less than arbeitslos because I'm not eligible for unemployment until June because I quit my job instead of being fired or ending it by mutual agreement. This state between your last day at your job until you're covered by unemployment means no medical coverage, so I can forget about getting sick this month ;)

So how does one become an Arbeitslose? It's not so straightforward as it is in the US:

1. Check your contract for how much notice you have to give. In my case it's 3 months since I was a department manager. As a normal employee it's generally around 1-2 months, depending on how long you've been with a company.
2. Check which days you are allowed to quit on. Most often, this is the 15th of the last day of the month. Meaning if you quit on the Jan. 16th, your notification does not go into effect until Jan 31.
3. Notify your supervisor and CC your letter of resignation to Human Resources.
4. Request a "Dienstzeugnis" (basically a certificate of work) from your supervisor. This is an odd invention where by law, the employer isn't allowed to write anything negative, which would make the employee's search for the next job hard. So even if the employee was really bad, you have to choose intentionally neutral phrases such as: This employee performed his assigned tasks. BUT - you're not allowed to use descriptions where it's easy to read between the lines, such as saying the employee tried their best to fulfill their tasks. (unbelievable huh! check this page out: https://www.arbeiterkammer.at/beratung/arbeitundrecht/beendigung/dienstzeugnis.html)
5. Continue working for threeee loooooooooong months. Seriously, I was ready to stick a fork in my eye by the end.

After this preparation, you are now ready to tackle your first trip to AMS Arbeitsmarktservice (for simplicity's sake, let's call this the Unemployment Office). More on that in a later post...