Elodan
Adventurer
Excuse me while I vent somewhat.
My company decided to change something financially for 2007 so they needed to remove some overhead. They did so by letting 10 of us go. I received a call the week after Christmas while on vacation. I was told that after 9 1/2 years at this company, I no longer had a job. The company gave me a fairly generous severance package (and while on severance they're paying most of my medical insurance) and have been good about helping me find another position.
It's been roughly 10 years since I had to look for a job and boy have things changed. For the most part, things are done via the web and email. I get a couple of calls/emails from recruiters with positions that have little to do with what I've done or what I do. Do they even read the resumes? Out of the 30 to 40 I've had cold call me or had someone refer me to in the past month, I found 3 that I'm willing to work with again. Job search sites can be tough too. I call myself a Development DBA (i.e. I design the the databases and build the SQL that access the DB objects). Do a search on that term and you have to weed through the pure admin DBA and code development jobs. Search on database developer and I might miss the position that's called SQL Developer or Oracle engineer.
The other frustrating part is that you really have no control. You give your resume to the recruiters and to the various companies and hope that things work out to an interview stage but other than making a couple of follow up calls there's not much more you can do about it. I've been told that openings for the type of position I'm looking for is cyclical. Nothing for a while, then a bunch of openings, etc. I hope that is the case (and that we're in a lull).
Finally, it seems like most people think you do nothing all day. I spend at least half of each weekday searching for positions or networking. I'll give them that the rest of my day is pretty empty but there's only so much reading, movie watching (daytime TV is terrible) and hobby stuff you can do before you get tired of doing them. My mother is dying to have me come over and either clean or paint her house.
It's been tough for me as I'm trying to find someplace where I can improve my skills and stay for a while. I also want to make sure I don't rush into a job just because I've had an offer. I did that once and hated the position. Also, I can't really do contracting as I need the benefits and need to feel like a part of the company I'm working for.
The best part of this experience is realizing how many friends I made at that company (some of who have been gone for years and we still keep in touch). I receive a bunch of supportive calls and emails shortly after I had announced the news.
I'm now trying to enjoy some of this time off because, eventually, I will end up working again.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Tom
My company decided to change something financially for 2007 so they needed to remove some overhead. They did so by letting 10 of us go. I received a call the week after Christmas while on vacation. I was told that after 9 1/2 years at this company, I no longer had a job. The company gave me a fairly generous severance package (and while on severance they're paying most of my medical insurance) and have been good about helping me find another position.
It's been roughly 10 years since I had to look for a job and boy have things changed. For the most part, things are done via the web and email. I get a couple of calls/emails from recruiters with positions that have little to do with what I've done or what I do. Do they even read the resumes? Out of the 30 to 40 I've had cold call me or had someone refer me to in the past month, I found 3 that I'm willing to work with again. Job search sites can be tough too. I call myself a Development DBA (i.e. I design the the databases and build the SQL that access the DB objects). Do a search on that term and you have to weed through the pure admin DBA and code development jobs. Search on database developer and I might miss the position that's called SQL Developer or Oracle engineer.
The other frustrating part is that you really have no control. You give your resume to the recruiters and to the various companies and hope that things work out to an interview stage but other than making a couple of follow up calls there's not much more you can do about it. I've been told that openings for the type of position I'm looking for is cyclical. Nothing for a while, then a bunch of openings, etc. I hope that is the case (and that we're in a lull).
Finally, it seems like most people think you do nothing all day. I spend at least half of each weekday searching for positions or networking. I'll give them that the rest of my day is pretty empty but there's only so much reading, movie watching (daytime TV is terrible) and hobby stuff you can do before you get tired of doing them. My mother is dying to have me come over and either clean or paint her house.
It's been tough for me as I'm trying to find someplace where I can improve my skills and stay for a while. I also want to make sure I don't rush into a job just because I've had an offer. I did that once and hated the position. Also, I can't really do contracting as I need the benefits and need to feel like a part of the company I'm working for.
The best part of this experience is realizing how many friends I made at that company (some of who have been gone for years and we still keep in touch). I receive a bunch of supportive calls and emails shortly after I had announced the news.
I'm now trying to enjoy some of this time off because, eventually, I will end up working again.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Tom
