OT: Yes! I am employed!, damn layoffs! Options

Finally, after 1 year of sitting around doing nothing, I get a job. That means I have money to spend on toys. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif)

[ThinAir]

Every time I hear of someone going back to work and think it's getting better, I hear lots of other tales about the ones that just got wacked. It's discouraging.

I was laid off at the end of October last year and managed to land a new gig after 3 months. I learned real fast that you don't really have ANY extra time - every moment gets filled with something related to finding something new. No 914 stuff got done while I was laid off and not much house improvement stuff either.

The networking thing really is the key. The employment counselling folks here said that 80% of folks find their new job that way. They said to look at it as time management - since 80% of people find their employment through networking, spend 80% of your energy on that.

In my case it was indeed networking that got me the new job, but in a wierd way. I had lunch with a friend a couple of days after I got laid off to find out how he went about setting himself up as a "for real" computer consultant. He mentioned a local network place that I might want to check. He didn't know the people, but he was just telling me of places he'd noticed where I might check.

A couple of days I stopped by this place with my resume to find out about employment or subcontractor posibilities. They don't have anything, but the owner likes my resume and says he's glad to see someone who has some experience instead of someone who managed to get their MCSE but doesn't know anything. Looking at my resume he figures out that a good friend of his lives at the top of my street. I know the same guy from the place I used to work (he was there about a year) and I wave to him whenever I see him outside as I go by.

Nothing happens for over a month & then I get a call from the owner saying that one of his clients is about to lose his 1-man IT staff and am I interested? It takes another 6 weeks before I finally get the interview and a job offer. I end up with about a 20% pay cut, but I'm much happier in the new job and feel like I'm actually making a difference for the folks I support. I was just about out of possibilities when this came through. For sure I learned that you tell everyone who will listen that you are looking and what you are looking for.

One thing that also helped me is that there is a federal program called Workforce Investment Act that helps people who have been laid off to get training to help them qualify for new work. In my case I did computer support, but had no certifications to back it up. I was able to attend 6 classes toward getting my MCSE. I haven't taken the tests yet, but if I pass them all the first time my total cost for education & testing will be $350.

So to end this long tale - keep your chin up and keep working at it even when it doesn't feel like it's gonna go anywhere. You can never tell which contact is gonna come back and be the one that pays off.

Oh yeah - my gift to myself for getting re-employed was to buy the 73 2.0L 914 in Seattle that I saw here on the classifieds!