Yeah, I’d rather say that I was laid off with the rest of my management team from a job I really liked as part of budget cuts than have to come up with reasons for wanting or having to changes jobs after not quite a year.
Truth is, this might have happened anyway. This company always seemed kind of volatile.
I think what I find frustrating about being laid off is that even at 47, I have no idea what I “want” to do for a living. I take engagement manager tech / business consulting jobs because that’s really all I know how to do. But it’s not really a “profession” IMHO. It’s just smart people getting together to try and solve some random problem. And it doesn’t really have a career path besides “partner at a consulting firm”, which is basically just selling professional services. I always feel like I should have just picked something like “marketing” or “accounting” or whatever and just keep doing that until I become VP of Marketing or CFO at some company.
Yes, the situation sucks and is disappointing. But as I said, the company was pretty generous (more than they actually needed to be) and I feel like I was treated well. Under the current circumstances, I can’t really complain that much. I mean there are a lot of people out there who have real financial problems because of what’s going on.
At least I’ve been saving money by not going out for the past 3 months.
Well, I’ve taught Marketing classes, and 99% of it is common sense. So if you’re smart and can solve problems, all you need to be a Marketing Guru is a new business card.
I’m just using marketing as an example. It could be anything really. What I really want is to just work at some company that doesn’t drive me crazy for 5-10 years. Maybe rise up the ladder a bit.
No, but it will likely be a lot more people looking for work. And it’s an environment will it will be extremely hard to network with people face to face. In the worst-hit region.
I have managed to survive 3 layoffs since this covid thing started. Hard to believe that I only started this job in February. But that tells you what you already know about working in call centers. I haven’t worked in a call center in over 25 years, but nothing has changed except for wage stagnation. I am working my butt off for very little money and they are happy to have someone who can be accurate with information (my job collects information as well as dispenses it) and knows how to spell. I am actually digging into retirement money to pay bills so it’s a lot like being laid off, only there’s less time to job hunt. Still and all, I am grateful for the work which helps distract me from the rest of my current reality.
If there’s anything I can do to help you mssmith, please PM me. I’m overly experienced at job hunting and matching what I’ve been doing with the description of the job I’m trying for. And proofreading resumes, I’m great at that.
Thank you for your offer. My old company is actually providing 3 free months of outplacement service to help with resumes and whatnot.
Unfortunately I am also overly experienced with job hunting. I’ve tried various approaches in the past and I ultimately find a decent job (obviously), but ultimately it always feel “random”. Clearly there is always a bit of luck and chance. But what I mean by random is that it usually feels like me finding a job has little correlation with how much effort I put in or where I direct those efforts.
Right now I’m actually just having a lot of lack of motivation to even look.
When I suddenly found myself job-hunting during the last recession, I lost count of how many people said "Not many jobs out there right now… Har, har…" (including CEOs that I was having “Informational Interviews” with). My reply was “Well, there only needs to be one…” (eliciting another Har, har).
By the way, after two months of pounding the pavement and depleting the savings, I ended up with a great job and amazing co-workers, so hang in there!
Speaking from my experience, the sooner you look, the more interest in you. After a bit, they wonder why you still don’t have a job. My quick answer is “ageism” but there also has to be a willingness to on our part to take a risk. So here I am making enough money to make my house payment and a couple of my bills. I’m digging into savings for the rest right now. But I have health insurance, which is good because I need it.
You can stop your mortgage payments under the CARES Act. Any missed payment will just be added to the end of your term. Interest doesn’t accrue and the mortgage provider is forbidden to tell the credit rating agencies.
It’s just a tedious process and it takes awhile. You have to assume there are at least several people similar to you interviewing for the job.
What sucks is now I have to deal with all the idiots in the “finding people jobs” industry. I mean a few months ago, I’m leading teams of people, working with senior level executives at Fortune 500 companies showing them how they can save money with our cutting edge software. Now I have to listen to morons explain how to tailor my resume so some search engine will select it from a thousand candidates for some generic job posting for a position that would have reported to me five years ago.
So had I, but the other week I saw that Amazon Prime Video had it (I was re-watching House and Hustle over there) and figured I’d just re-watch the pilot episode, for fun. Now I’m halfway through season four (again). Helluva show.
I mean it’s hard not to. Like you can’t just sit at your desk and “job search” 8+ hours a day. You’ll burn out or go crazy from filling out applications.
I don’t understand people who lose their job and then “take time off” (more than a week or two) before starting their job search with no job lined up. Finding a job can take months. What do they need a break from? Most stuff I like to do I can squeeze in while job hunting.
True. My professional life feels like that show and HBO’s Silicon Valley. I kind of bounce back and forth between consulting firms and tech companies (or tech consulting firms, or Technology practices in management consulting firms). I’m kind of like a cross between Jared Dunn (Zach Woods) from Pied Piper and Clyde Oberholt (Ben Schwartz) from Kaan & Associates.
Maybe I’ll start watching that show Billions. That looks pretty good.
