Get your unemployment!

From the day you are handed the bad news about your termination, you are eligible to apply for an unemployment insurance benefit. DO NOT BE STUPIDLY PROUD! You have been buying this insurance policy with every deduction taken from every paycheck you have ever earned. Yes it is important to get a job. But think of this as a car accident and report it to the insurance company immediately. Even if you are VERY good about getting a new position, you will probably be unemployed a minimum of a quarter of a year while applications are being processed, interviews being conducted, schedules of orientation sessions run their course, etc. Your unemployment benefit isn't much, but it is the only steady income you may be getting until you are in place somewhere else. So take as much of it as you can. You do not begin to receive it until you apply, so apply quickly. It will probably amount to only $200 per week. And most of your funding will have to come from savings, severance, carried-over vacation (if allowed), possibly IRA withdrawals if you qualify, etc. But presume a half year, and you can see that an early start on receiving your unemployment payout is worth $5000 that you wouldn't have had otherwise.
In Illinois, the easiest way to claim your unemployment is to:
1) Make sure that you are using Internet Explorer as your browser. Nothing else will work.
2) Navigate to http://ides.illinois.gov/
3) Your status is that of a "claimant". Within a couple of clicks, you will find yourself at http://ides.illinois.gov/individual/online_claim.asp
4) Fill in the forms using "Continue" buttons until finished. If you have left out any required information, you can insert it onto the form after failed attempts to submit the form. The rest of your filled-in lines will be saved, so the errors are all you have to correct. You do not have to do the whole report from start to finish.