So I work(ed) for Eli Lilly, which had a new CEO come in. One of his goals was to eliminate something like 3500 positions. A lot of the eliminations came from early retirements of older workers, but they cut a bunch of people too. Found out today that my last day is the 22nd. It sucks. My boss said he had all these plans going ahead for what we could do in the future (new projects, etc) but when the new CEO came in my boss took the early retirement and me and my coworker got laid off.
It sucks. I feel bad for my coworker who also got laid off. He had almost 20 years on the job, is in his 50s, has a mortgage, no savings, a wife and a kid (his kid is an adult, but he has trouble finding jobs and lives with him and his wife). I’m guessing the 3 of them will all have to find whatever low wage work they can to keep the house and not get foreclosed.
As for me, financially I’m not overly worried. I always tried to save 30% of my gross income when I work. Of my gross pre-tax income I always set a goal for 30% savings, 25% taxes, 45% living expenses (however some of that savings is retirement, so I can’t touch that money). Plus I can always live with my parents if stuff gets bad, or my sibling.
But anyway, I guess here is what I’m concerned with.
How do I apply for health insurance? My insurance through work sucked. High deductible narrow network. I don’t want to apply for COBRA to keep this. I’m not paying what’ll probably be $300+ a month for insurance I’ve never used in the last 6 years that has loopholes (all my medical care the last 6 years either came under deductible or wasn’t covered anyway). I live in Indiana. Can I apply for a plan via the ACA or healthy indiana plan (Obviously, you guys aren’t the only people I’m talking to about all this. I’m going to contact these groups too). I thought the deadline for the ACA was dec 15th. I’ll get my last paycheck Dec 31st. So I’m not sure how that works.
How do I apply for jobs? The last time I applied for jobs was 2011. Technology moves so fast, that I assume what I did in 2011 to find work is not applicable to 2018.
One of my big issues is I’m going to have to find a job that pays less with few/no benefits. I was planning on doing several vacations next year to visit my sibling and his baby. If I get a new job, I probably won’t have vacation to do that.
Another fear is I don’t really want to leave the midwest. I have family in Indiana and don’t know if I want to leave them to go find jobs on the coasts. Indianapolis has its benefits.
Do I apply for unemployment benefits now, or wait until my last paycheck on the 31st?
I know the unemployment rate is low, but I thought that was because lots of people just gave up and quit looking. Is the market good? I was working in chemistry, but not analytical chemistry. I had more of a desk job.
You apply for the ACA now. It would be for coverage starting Jan 1. You tell the ACA what you think your income will be next year - since it’s just unemployment that you know about, you enter in that amount and they’ll give you a rate. As a soon to be maybe poor person, the way the government sees it (since they go by income not assets…) you will be able to get a silver plan with a low deductible (often 0) for under $100 a month. (maybe $200 if the unemployment bennies are more than I think)
I’ve used Indeed, but that may not be the right approach for your field. I don’t know what your field is - I mean are you a chemist with a degree?
You can probably go do it now but it’s (probably) going to be back dated regardless. That is, if you go there on the 31st and they take a month to actually process your claim and send you some money, it’s going to be from the date you were laid off I think. Since you have ample savings you obviously don’t have to be in a hurry.
Well it’s obviously a mix. Wages aren’t increasing much and employers are being picky, so it’s not as good as 4% unemployment “ought to be”. I would assume it comes down to your actual usable skills. Do you have a significant amount of actual lab-time in industry after school? At least in my field, the challenges in industry were so much more difficult, and the equipment much more expensive, that I look back on the dinky tasks they had us do in schools and chuckle.
Immediately start networking with people you worked for and with. Let them know you’re available and looking.
Email everyone on your friends list. Don’t be ashamed or feel this is your fault.
Friends want to help friends, let them help you look.
Oh, and there are places on line that help with resumes. Get your resume updated and add a few recommendation letters.
Don’t forget to think about your skill sets rather than your last job title. Indiana has a lot of universities - would you be a fit for research administration? A business manager for a school/department?
If you’re not on LinkedIn, get a profile and start connecting and searching for jobs.
I would also get your complete profile entered into LinkedIn. I get contacts all the time from that, and I’m not looking.
Whether the market is good depends a lot on your field and skill set. I would start reaching out to friends and colleagues now and see what happens. I think for skilled fields it tends to be good.
Well shit that sucks. Pharma is a rough ride. Please consider this chemist available to discuss options. I’ll be back with some suggestions.
In the meantime, any further detail on what you’ve been up to on the current job might help narrow things down a bit. Staying midwest should be possible. IME people aren’t hammering for chemists per say but a neither were the folks who hired me last. A little rebranding can go a long way.
You say you’ve been at the desk as of late. Do you have a preference between that and lab work?
If you wanted to make a hasty and last-minute dash at going to grad school, IIRC some schools’ admission deadlines haven’t passed yet. But that’s not really a spur-of-the-moment thing. And it would be for starting next fall semester anyway. But industrial experience is a plus for many programs.
I am sorry that happened to you but it has happened to me as well a few times and I found something better and you probably will too. It may take months but you can find something else if you keep looking. People always claim that trying to find a new job is like a full-time job on its own but it really isn’t. A couple of hours a day is usually plenty and then you can enjoy the rest of the time off as best you can. There is nothing wrong with taking a week off either if you have the time and money for it. It is easy to fall into a rut though so you have to figure out the best way to combat that.
Headhunters may be able to help you but the vast majority of them are shady so be very selective if you deal with them. There are a few good ones around and they have gotten me jobs before but you just have to be careful with them.
Others have said the same thing, but let me reemphasize that you need to start immediately to look for a new job. A lot of people I know just figure, “OK, I’ve got a forced vacation. Might as well enjoy it. And this isn’t a good time of the year to start applying for positions.” Avoid this attitude. Every day you are not working, you are going to be draining your savings. (Congrats on your planning, by the way.) Years ago, I even applied to a local security firm and took some night shifts as a security officer while I was applying for another job. People might laugh, but it brought in several hundred $$$ a week, led to some benefits after 90 days, and left my days open to interview. The work was negligible, too.
You’ll get the most interest if you have your resume online. LinkedIn will break it down into searchable keywords that temp agencies use when looking to fill positions. I tried monster and careerbuilder for 7 years, but never got any responses when I applied for jobs through those sites.
When you sign up for unemployment, you’ll probably have to attend some meetings at the Department of Labor offices, where they’ll give you job-seeking tips. You’ll probably only get 3 months worth. I tried freelancing, but don’t have the inclination to market myself properly.
Robert Haft Technology helped me more than any other job placement agencies. Contact them if they have a local office. If you don’t have skills in Microsoft Office, get training. Job placement agencies usually provide it for free. MS Office skills are essential nowadays, and social media knowledge helps as well. Really, the only interviews I got was the result of job agencies calling me. Job searching has really changed from before the social media age. You’ll get a lot of email from India for 6-month jobs that require moving, so you can filter those.
Medical expenses and prescriptions take a huge bite, but my doctor understood my situation and didn’t suggest any treatments unless absolutely necessary. I’d say if you’re healthy, take a chance on no insurance and try not to take physical risks. I managed to live without insurance for 5 years and still pay for my meds and doctor visits. Of course, my retirement account was emptied, so there’s that. You at least have rainy day money.
You don’t have to sign up for ACA right now. You will be eligible to enroll when you have a “qualifying event” which is, among other things, losing your job. So you can sign up on Dec 22.
You still have 21 days before you’re done, you might get a new job in that time. You don’t want to sign up for ACA insurance (and pay the first month ASAP, which is what they have you do) if you might be getting a new job with new insurance a week from now.
Definitely network. Have you met people at conferences and gotten their cards? Even people on the program committees of conferences in your area might be helpful. Send them an email or give them a call. You might think everyone does this, but actually almost no one does. I even got a Doper a job once through a contact I had.
There are lots of pharma companies in New Jersey, around Princeton. It might be a bit pricier than where you are now, but a lot cheaper than California. And it is a very nice place to live.
I hope these clowns are giving you separation money.
Nick Corcodilos, a headhunter, has a blog at https://www.asktheheadhunter.com/. He has lots of good advice on finding a job, and lots of good advice on what to look out for. He is very much against job boards, and very much for personal contact. His advice, in short, is to stand out when a hiring manager is looking for someone.
When my old company was hiring we’d often try to swoop down to grab people being laid off. Go to the websites of other companies in your field, and see if they are hiring. In my experience the actual jobs on the sites have been long since filled, but if you make some contacts at the company you can jump the line.
Looking for work is not fun, but hiring is not fun either. I’d rather hire someone who had the initiative to contact me directly with a good resume than to wade through 100 resumes of dubious relevance.
BTW, search the Dope for posts by people in the industry. You never know.
All of the above, plus: Get your unemployment insurance claim set up right now, even if you can’t trigger it yet. It’s real money and you’re entitled to it. Cut all expenses to the bare minimum right now, of course.
It will probably take a few months, but not longer if you keep positive and keep at it. Your job now is to find a new job, but don’t just jump on the first offer. You’re good, you’re in demand, and you’ll be in a better position sooner than you think.
Think of some companies, or at least industries, you want to target and find out all you can about them, then get a good resume and LinkedIn profile together and apply through their front (online) door. Targeting always works better than scattershot.
ETA: The basics of networking, resume, and attitude haven’t changed since 2011 or a whole lot earlier than that, but LinkedIn and Glassdoor are available to you now. All that’s changed is that it’s a lot easier now and you have more options easily available.
I’m sorry to hear this. As far as health insurance, you said what you had sucked, and COBRA costs a fortune I believe. Go through the ACA. I would call and actually talk to someone, explain your situation. For the job search, my husband has always used monster.com, indeed.com and some other big ones I can’t think of off the top of my head. I’m not sure what you do, but maybe someone could suggest job sites that deal with your specific field. You can definitely put in parameters as far as location, etc. on monster and the others. Good luck!
I actually heard that a lot of companies do hire in QTR4 before their budget changes in the New Year. I’ve actually started a couple of jobs during that time.
Then again, a lot of people check out during the holidays.
Personally I prefer to do my job hunting in the spring or fall where it’s not too hot or snowy/rainy to wear a suit
I recommend checking for government jobs (city, state, federal). I once worked as a chemist in the lab of a municipal sewage treatment facility (not as bad as it sounds). It was a decent job with decent benefits. Chemist-type jobs are hiding where you might not expect them.
Well, before I was 50, I got unexpectedly laid off what I thought was a lifetime job. I semi-retired. I took my skills and looked for part time work, and it was enough. I did take a cut in earnings, but my family was happy, and my friends actually envied me in my new position of more free time and less work-related responsibility.
I managed to live without insurance for 5 years and still pay for my meds and doctor visits. Of course, my retirement account was emptied, so there’s that. You at least have rainy day money.