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

[vortrex]

"Are you in Philidelphia? How has it been so far? got a mullet yet?"

been here for 3 weeks. it's not horrible, at least I have a paycheck. it's amazing how much I appreciate SF though now.

yeah I got a nice mullet growing in and will buy some gold medallions/chains on friday after I get the first check. my tiny house in SF did sell for $56k over the asking price yesterday, that made my move slightly more tolerable. I did buy a new car last weekend, a 201HP '03 VW GTi VR6 6 speed. pretty fun to drive after being in a SUV for the past 2 years!!!


"PS. If anyone needs an RF design engineer hit me up"

check out comcast. that's where I am at now. they seem to have a lot of openings.

[mightyohm]

Brad - Yeah, I do wireless circuit design. Many companies are looking for those senior guys with 10 years experience. I am pretty fresh out of school, got my MSEE only 10 months ago. The recent grad thing can work for or against you depending on who's looking.

Edit..Thanks vortex, I'll check comcast out.

[need4speed]

I do computer support (basically, I fix problems that programmers don't have the time/patience to fix). I was laid off from my job of 10 years last October, and really lucked out and got a new job in a month, though I'm a temp and I took a 30% pay cut (too bad my mortgage didn't drop 30% too), and don't have benefits, I'm getting by, barely.

The thing that sucks is that I still consider myself unemployed, because the compensation is barely subsistence compared to what I was making. But I don't count in the unemployment statistics. I wonder how many other people are in this situation.
It's really bad out there - but it looks "not so bad" on paper.

So if anyone knows of a position for WinNT/2k, Solaris, AIX, Linux, Macintosh admin with experience in Oracle, and Backup Software, email me.

Heh, I run into other technies in town. Inevitably, I start to feel them out as to whether their companies are hiring, and I hit them up for a job. And they end up hitting me up for work. Now that's bad. . .

[Mueller]

I had to take a 20% cut in pay a few weeks ago...OUCH...it is not like I made all that much to begin with (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

At the company my wife works at, there are rumors of across the board pay reductions as well.....

oh, and for my side business of making and selling the needle bearing kits: I've had to lay out ~$3,000.00 of my own money and I have yet to make a profit.....takes a lot of balls and money to do your business.....both are shrinking until I make more sales (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.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!

[anthony]

Ernie, who administers the Workforce Investment Act?

[ThinAir]

Here in Arizona it is done by the counties so I assume that's the way the Feds set it up. We have a thing for Coconino County called the Coconino Career Center, but down in Phoenix (Maricopa County) they have their own name for it. I'm sure that if you call your county government and ask about WIA by name they'll be able to put you in touch with the right folks.

A couple of years ago by brother-in-law got laid off and he qualified for a different program that was for folks where the job went away because the company was shipping jobs to other countries. I don't remember the name of the program, but they paid for 2 years of college so he could get his degree. It will be worth asking about. It was also a federal program.

[need4speed]

That program sounds like a good deal. I suppose I don't qualify for it though.

I got Novell certified back in 92, when Novell had so much momentum, and Microsoft looked like they were about to topple. Then the tables turned, and right now, my ECNE certificate isn't worth nearly as muuch as used toilet paper.
Since then I've taken a few Microsoft classes just to stay current - but I never got certified, because I dealt with cert weenies all the time that didn't know jack. And MCSE's are a dime a dozen. And I still believe that Microsoft is on it's way out. (and someday, VW will start producing aircooled rear-engined cars again).

But now I'm thinking it would be nice to have a Cisco or Oracle ticket.

My brother in law in Illinois has pretty much made a career of chasing the Lotus Notes carrot. Not many people use Lotus Notes anymore, but the ones who do - NEED certified guys.

[Jeff Krieger]

And I still believe that ... (someday, VW will start producing aircooled rear-engined cars again).

Let us pray ...

[Steve Thacker]

Need4speed,...
Sounds like you took the track I did. Spent a ton of money getting a MCNE and then it wasn't worth squat. Plus there was a bunch of paper CNEs out there driving the price down.

I have to slightly disagree on the Lotus Notes thing. Domino is still the number one mail, web and database product out there. I've done them all Groupwise, Pegasus, Sendmail, Exchange and this is the Cadillac. After 10 years of doing this, it still puts the food on the table. I would have never made the money I do now, being just another network engineer. To each his own,...but your brother-in-law is still in a good spot if he is a Notes developer. If he is like me a admin, it is a bit tougher to land something.

[anthony]

These days it's looking like you can't rely on any single certification. Personally I think certification might improve your attractiveness by maybe 10%. The years of experience is what really counts. Certification is also good to round out your skills. For example if you are a Windows admin, doing a Sun Solaris or Cisco certification might help you land that next job or move up in your current company. I used certification to break into the field six years ago. I had lots of self taught knowledge but formalized by taking the NT4 MCSE classes at a local community college. It took a while but it was way cheaper than the boot camp style courses.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) Good news! I've finally landed a job after 7 months. Actually I might have landed two jobs. The first job is a well paying 20 hour a week gig in Marin. The second job is being the IT director for a private school in Berkeley. I haven't gotten an offer yet, but I interviewed well, we've talked money, and they are checking references. I assume they wouldn't be doing this if an offer wasn't forthcoming.

[Jeffs9146]

If anyone needs an RF design engineer hit me up.

I have a friend who is always looking for RF engineers! He is the Director of Network Opperations for Singular Wireless. Send me your info and I will forward it on!

Jeff

[Elliot_Cannon]

I retire in 2 years 361 days and hope to be unemployed forever.
Elliot (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Mr.C]

I don't feel so bad now knowing that I am not the only one out

there looking for work. I went through the workforce

investment act after getting laid off. Got the degree and

almost 20 grand later I still couldn't find any work in this area.

It gets better too. I finally got desperate and decided to hit up

the temp agencies and use them like they use you. The lady

asked me "So how much do you want?" I said I'm open to all

offers, you tell me. After going back and forth like that a few

times I finally said "Man I feel like your trying to sell me a car or

something." "Ok I'm married and have three kids you tell me

what I should make?" She offered minimum wage. Pissed me

off so I told her I didn't want to waste my time. Needless to

say I never got a call.

Went to Comcast everything was going good until the part

about my driving record. Damn 914! So here I sit hoping the

gas company gives me a call now that I am in their pool. Oh

and I was encouraged to find out that Tulare county is number

1 in the nation.......UNEMPLOYMENT 17%

[Joe Bob]

I've had the same job for 15 years....I STILL have dreams of getting laid off or fired.....scares the crap out of me....

I know how ya feel.

[Scott Carlberg]

Brad, Andy, whoever else...


Maybe you guys should start an Employment division of the Classifieds
department, huh??