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As someone new to this community who might be facing a RESEA appointment soon, this whole thread has been incredibly helpful! It's great to see people sharing their actual experiences rather than just speculation. @Yuki Yamamoto your update really puts things in perspective - it sounds like going in prepared and being honest about your job search efforts is the key. The fact that digital records on your phone were accepted is especially good to know since not everyone has easy access to printing. I'm curious though - did your advisor give you any specific tips during the meeting about job searching that you hadn't thought of before? Thanks for taking the time to update everyone on how it went!
Hey @Collins Angel! Just joining this community too and your question about specific tips is spot on. From reading through everyone's experiences, it seems like the RESEA meetings are actually more helpful than scary when you go in prepared. @Yuki Yamamoto - I m'also curious about those industry-specific resources your advisor connected you with! Were they things like specialized job boards or training programs? As someone who might be selected for one of these meetings, it s'really encouraging to see that they re'focused on helping rather than just checking up on you. The consistency in everyone s'positive experiences well, (except for @Andre Lefebvre s situation'is pretty) reassuring.
Just wanted to chime in as someone who's been lurking in this community for a while but finally decided to create an account after reading this thread! I'm potentially facing a RESEA appointment in the coming weeks and was honestly pretty anxious about it until I read everyone's experiences here. It's really reassuring to see that most people have positive outcomes when they come prepared. @Yuki Yamamoto thanks for providing the update - it makes such a difference to hear how it actually went rather than just the pre-meeting anxiety! One quick question for anyone who's been through this: do they expect you to have applied to a specific number of jobs per week, or is it more about showing consistent effort across different types of job search activities? I've been doing a mix of applications, networking, and skill-building but want to make sure I'm meeting their expectations.
Welcome to the community @Amara Eze! I just joined recently too after reading through all these helpful experiences. From what I've gathered from everyone's posts, it seems like the focus is more on consistent effort across different activities rather than a strict numbers game. @Carmen Ruiz mentioned earlier that they re'looking for at least 6 work search activities over a two-week period, which can include applications, networking, job fairs, creating profiles on job sites, etc. The mix you re'doing sounds exactly right! @Yuki Yamamoto s success'story really shows that being honest about your varied efforts even with (just phone notes worked out) well. It s encouraging'to see how supportive this community is for people going through the same process!
Honestly this is why I just apply to jobs directly thru indeed and linkedin instead of careerlink. Easier to track and screenshot everything. Careerlink is so clunky its like they designed it in 2005 and never updated it lol
@Dylan Cooper That s'actually a really good point! I ve'been forcing myself to use CareerLink because I thought it was required, but you re'right that applying through Indeed/LinkedIn is way easier to document. As long as I m'entering the job search activities properly in my weekly UC certification, it shouldn t'matter where I actually applied, right? The interface on CareerLink is absolutely terrible - half the time the job postings don t'even load properly.
I went through this exact same thing back in December and it was such a nightmare! The key thing that saved me was keeping a detailed spreadsheet of every single job application - date, company name, position, how I applied (Indeed, LinkedIn, company website, etc.), and any follow-up. When I finally got through to UC (took literally 47 phone calls over 2 weeks), the rep was able to reinstate my benefits retroactively because I had all the documentation. She actually told me that most people who call about this issue don't have proper records, so having everything organized in a spreadsheet made all the difference. Also, pro tip: when you're doing your weekly certification, the work search section is near the END of the process after all the other questions. I almost missed it the first few times because I thought I was done after reporting my earnings. Make sure you scroll all the way down and complete that section every single week! Hope you get this sorted out quickly - I know how stressful it is when your benefits just suddenly stop with no clear explanation.
@Chloe Taylor This is exactly what I needed to hear! I m'definitely going to create a spreadsheet right now with all my job search activities from the past few weeks. Did you have to submit the spreadsheet to UC or was it just for your own records when you called? And wow, 47 phone calls - that s'insane but gives me hope that persistence pays off. I m'prepared to keep calling until I get through. Thanks for the tip about the work search section being at the very end too - I bet a lot of people miss that!
Current processing times are typically 2-3 weeks for clean claims, though it varies. Here's what affects the timeline: 1. If your employer contests your unemployment reason 2. If there are eligibility questions or "open issues" 3. If you worked in multiple states during your base year 4. If the system flags anything unusual about your work history Keep filing your biweekly claims even while waiting for approval. If approved, you'll receive all eligible back weeks at once. You'll receive your payments on a Money Network debit card unless you set up direct deposit.
Just wanted to add - if you run into any issues with your application or need to make changes after submitting, don't panic! I had to call back about a week after filing because I realized I put the wrong end date for one of my previous jobs. It took forever to get through (literally 4 hours of redialing), but they were able to fix it without having to restart the whole application. Also, make sure you save/screenshot your confirmation number after submitting - you'll need it if you have to call about your claim later. The system sometimes has glitches and having that number helps the agents find your case faster.
That's really good advice about saving the confirmation number! I definitely would have forgotten to do that. Quick question though - when you had to call back to fix the job dates, did they make you wait for the claim to be reprocessed from scratch or were they able to just update that one piece of info quickly?
does any1 else think its ridiculous they expect us to do all this just to get benefits WE EARNED through our jobs? careerlink workshops r mostly useless anyway & now we get punished for not doing them?? the whole system needs fixed
Just following up - has anyone heard back about your appeal yet? In my experience, these work search disqualification appeals are taking about 3-4 weeks to process currently.
Just got my determination letter yesterday - appeal approved! They're reinstating my benefits. I had to get pretty detailed with my documentation and explain that I misunderstood the requirements. Thanks to everyone here who helped me navigate this!
Andre Lefebvre
Just want to echo what everyone else is saying here - this is such a common confusion point for new UC recipients! I made the exact same mistake when I first started collecting benefits. The lack of integration between CareerLink and the UC system is really frustrating, especially since they're both state systems. What helped me stay organized was creating a weekly routine: every Sunday I review all my job applications from the previous week, make sure I have screenshots/confirmations saved, and then enter everything when I file my weekly claim on Monday. I also keep a backup spreadsheet with all the details just in case the UC system glitches or I need to reference something later. The extra documentation might seem like overkill, but after reading about people getting audited and nearly losing benefits, it's definitely worth the peace of mind. Keep doing what you're doing with the detailed record-keeping - you're on the right track!
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Clay blendedgen
•Thank you for sharing that weekly routine idea! That's really smart - having a set day to review and organize everything before filing the weekly claim. I'm definitely going to adopt something similar. It's reassuring to know that so many people have gone through this same learning curve with the CareerLink/UC integration issue. I wish they made this clearer somewhere in the initial paperwork or orientation materials, but at least we have communities like this to help each other figure it out. Your point about keeping a backup spreadsheet is great too - I hadn't thought about what happens if the UC system itself has technical issues when you're trying to enter your activities. Better to have multiple records than scramble to recreate everything later!
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Benjamin Kim
New UC recipient here and wow, this thread just saved me from making a huge mistake! I've been religiously applying through CareerLink for the past three weeks thinking everything was being tracked automatically for my work search requirements. When I checked my UC dashboard and saw it was completely empty, I panicked and thought there was some kind of system error. Reading everyone's experiences here makes it clear that I need to go back and manually enter all my applications ASAP. I've been keeping a basic log with company names and dates, but clearly I need to up my documentation game with screenshots and confirmation emails like everyone suggests. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge - this could have been a disaster if I'd found out during an audit instead of from this helpful community!
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StormChaser
•Welcome to the community! I'm also completely new to UC and just started my claims a few days ago. Your experience is exactly what I went through - saw the empty dashboard and thought something was broken! This thread has been such a wake-up call. I've been using CareerLink exclusively too, assuming it was all connected. Now I'm scrambling to go back through my email confirmations and recreate my application history. It's frustrating that this isn't explained clearly anywhere in the initial UC materials, but I'm grateful to find this community where people actually share the real details about how the system works. Better to learn this now than get caught off guard later! Good luck getting everything entered - we're all in this learning process together.
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