Layoffs / Finding Jobs (UPDATE: NEW JOB!)

Great call with a recruiter yesterday who I've known for many years and landed me some really great interviews in the past. There's a pretty high level position he's working on for a good local company that seems like a perfect fit. Re-writing my resume to specifically target that and start interview prep...hopefully that can kick off before the holidays.

Another call with a recruiter I've spoken with multiple times over the last year later today, so I'm hoping for some options!
 
fretworn said:
Lots of good things probably wouldn’t have come to me if the other things didn’t end. 🙏👍

I know this to be absolutely true.
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While I'm not religious, I totally agree with this.

I was fired from one job - I thought I was doing great there, had a good team, thought I was a key player in the product we were developing as I had programmed quite significant parts of it. But the sales people could not get enough clients for the product to keep it running. They kept one newer guy to maintain the product and fired me and another developer. Why us? No idea, maybe the CEO didn't like me as I had butted heads with him a few times.

At the time it felt like the end of the world. On my last day, my former coworkers (who I'm still friends with) and I went for a good ol' "drink and vent" session. I met my spouse - a friend of a friend - on that very day. I spent the summer getting to know her and then started applying for jobs, landed one after a few tries and it's been nothing but an upward trajectory from there. So it lead to several better things.

Of course there's a lot of luck involved here - business was good so it was easier to find jobs than it is today. All it took for me or my spouse was to say "ugh, I'm a bit tired, I'm going home" that day and we might have never met. But nothing will happen if you stay complacent expecting things to land at your feet.
 
I used to call it luck, until I realized that coincidence was far more than just that.

I have so much empirical evidence in my life, that I no longer can ignore obvious blessings. 👍❤️🙏

There are still hills and valleys… My perspective on the journey and our purpose just got tweaked a little along the way.

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Sounds like a good deal Jarick. Wishing the best for you.

My situation is a little different. I decided last night that my position wasn't worth it to me any longer - it's been brewing in my mind for a bit.

I wrapped up some loose ends on some large things I was working on. Jotted notes into a document for things in progress to help out any colleagues that pickup the work, placed it as the center desktop icon. Made a few calls to my recruiter contacts I've worked with over the years yesterday and I have 3 positions line up. Already received a message this morning I have an interview in 5 days - 100% remote - no travel.

Then I drove home, picked up all of the rest of my equipment and drove into the office, and turned it all in with my badge, and a resignation letter, effective immediately, to my HR partner.

This is something I've never done before, and wouldn't necessarily recommend to others outside of very specific circumstances.

But we all have to really evaluate what is important to us at some point and execute that plan. I've been blessed and I've been working to insulate myself from other's decisions impacting me and my family as much as possible for nearly two decades. This provided me the freedom to choose what I chose to do last night, and it's a bit dangerous to a system that wants you boxed in and dependent upon it - at least at some level.

Be kind, polite and a good friend, spouse and/or parent, and also prepare to be a bit dangerous in a system that will chew you up and spit you out without a second thought.
 
I get the feeling that I really need to get into a different job about twice a year and have been that way for about 4, almost 5, years now. I know the job is not doing my health any favors. I got a major reminder of that in February of this year when I went in for heart surgery and came out with two stents added to my body. I have been trying to not let the job tick me off anymore after that. I figure if they ever decided to fire me that would be my motivation to find a replacement job. I am in a pretty decent place financially and am trying to stockpile as much as I can as I get closer to a retirement age. I still have a good 9 years or so to go. I make decent money and that is the sole reason I have stayed with this job. Nothing about it excites me and nothing makes me want to excel. I just keep the lights on and make sure we are doing things by the rules.

My biggest fear of switching jobs right now is that our economy is not getting any better. I saw some things the company I work for was doing that looked like they are preparing for a layoff at some point. They did a big one back in 2020. They seem to do one about every 10 years or so. I have been here 11.5 years. The company is making money so if they do a layoff it is solely to try to make as much with less people. We are still under heavier work conditions from the last layoff. I don't know how people can take on more work. I would love to find a job where I can learn a new product and spend my last leg of my career working on something that gets me excited to go to work each day.

Sorry for the complaining. This thread just made me think about things again and there are some things going on at work right now that has me almost in the place to start thinking I really need to find something else and leave this behind me.
 
Company reached out to recruiter, they are going to set up an interview next week. I haven't been on one in years, so need to do a lot of prep work this weekend!
 
mavrick102000 said:
Sounds like a good deal Jarick. Wishing the best for you.

My situation is a little different. I decided last night that my position wasn't worth it to me any longer - it's been brewing in my mind for a bit.

I wrapped up some loose ends on some large things I was working on. Jotted notes into a document for things in progress to help out any colleagues that pickup the work, placed it as the center desktop icon. Made a few calls to my recruiter contacts I've worked with over the years yesterday and I have 3 positions line up. Already received a message this morning I have an interview in 5 days - 100% remote - no travel.

Then I drove home, picked up all of the rest of my equipment and drove into the office, and turned it all in with my badge, and a resignation letter, effective immediately, to my HR partner.

This is something I've never done before, and wouldn't necessarily recommend to others outside of very specific circumstances.

But we all have to really evaluate what is important to us at some point and execute that plan. I've been blessed and I've been working to insulate myself from other's decisions impacting me and my family as much as possible for nearly two decades. This provided me the freedom to choose what I chose to do last night, and it's a bit dangerous to a system that wants you boxed in and dependent upon it - at least at some level.

Be kind, polite and a good friend, spouse and/or parent, and also prepare to be a bit dangerous in a system that will chew you up and spit you out without a second thought.
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Oh man, that is ballsy. Good luck!

I have had a few recruiters contact me this week about 100% remote jobs, not sure I want to dive into that pool yet.

The last five years I've been working on Oracle system implementation and that must be super high demand because I see a lot in that space and those recruiters are always pinging me.
 
I'm in a place where I can be extremely choosey for quite some time without it majorly impacting our bottom line - not enough that I want to push it and ask my wife for an AXEFX III for Christmas, or any other major purchase but we'll be fine :LOL:

There's usually quite a bit of Oracle work to be done within most corporations. Upgrades, migrations, Cloud integration short of full SaaS, plenty of work - very competitive though, especially since India has developed quite the DBA staff since the early 2000's. Sometimes that works, other times it doesn't and it's best to have a few Sr. DBA's on staff to at least plan, architect and oversee the bulk of the work.

I did the 100% remote thing for large global projects from about 2001 - 2012. There are pro's and con's and you have to develop some new team work skills and have discipline.

Remote that long in a consultant type of environment with some travel can wear on you a bit, especially when there are RIFs every 3 or so years.

If I could get a long-term contract gig that had plenty of work for the next 8 or so years, that would suit me fine. No listening in to Corporate and HR BS , and I have about the best health insurance available through my wife's employer, so I have some shielding from needs many other people might require.
 
mavrick102000 said:
I'm in a place where I can be extremely choosey for quite some time without it majorly impacting our bottom line - not enough that I want to push it and ask my wife for an AXEFX III for Christmas, or any other major purchase but we'll be fine :LOL:

There's usually quite a bit of Oracle work to be done within most corporations. Upgrades, migrations, Cloud integration short of full SaaS, plenty of work - very competitive though, especially since India has developed quite the DBA staff since the early 2000's. Sometimes that works, other times it doesn't and it's best to have a few Sr. DBA's on staff to at least plan, architect and oversee the bulk of the work.

I did the 100% remote thing for large global projects from about 2001 - 2012. There are pro's and con's and you have to develop some new team work skills and have discipline.

Remote that long in a consultant type of environment with some travel can wear on you a bit, especially when there are RIFs every 3 or so years.

If I could get a long-term contract gig that had plenty of work for the next 8 or so years, that would suit me fine. No listening in to Corporate and HR BS , and I have about the best health insurance available through my wife's employer, so I have some shielding from needs many other people might require.
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I have been 100% remove for a good number of years. I did it for a little over 8 years then moved to where I am now. I was back in an office for about 8 years. Then COVID happened and I have been back to 100% remote for the past 3 years 9 months. It was easy for me to go 100% remote since I had done it for so long before. I live about a 12 minute drive from the office. I was about 13 miles from the office years ago when I was remote. Many of our people moved out of state when they started letting us work remote. I thought about doing that to live somewhere cheaper to live and still make what I make here. My wife is doing pretty good in her job now and I didn't want to uproot her out of that so I am still here. I prefer being 100% remote. I get less interruptions and I can do small things around here so it frees my evenings and weekends up a bit.
 
JasonE said:
I freaking hate Teams. We use Zoom and Google Meets. We use to have Ring Central, it was so so.

We didn't have any of that when I was remote before this time.
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Same when I was remote, we had precurors to Teams, but people had good etiquette and sense and only used it sparingly, if an e-mail wouldn't get action in time. Now it's just constant noise.

Yeah, I did the remote for a few years during COVID as well, but they remodeled the office, so someone made a deal, and we had to start coming back into the office 2 days/week at the end of Q1. Stupid C-suite mofo's. Many people left the company within 60-90 days of that decision
 
mavrick102000 said:
I'm in a place where I can be extremely choosey for quite some time without it majorly impacting our bottom line - not enough that I want to push it and ask my wife for an AXEFX III for Christmas, or any other major purchase but we'll be fine :LOL:

There's usually quite a bit of Oracle work to be done within most corporations. Upgrades, migrations, Cloud integration short of full SaaS, plenty of work - very competitive though, especially since India has developed quite the DBA staff since the early 2000's. Sometimes that works, other times it doesn't and it's best to have a few Sr. DBA's on staff to at least plan, architect and oversee the bulk of the work.

I did the 100% remote thing for large global projects from about 2001 - 2012. There are pro's and con's and you have to develop some new team work skills and have discipline.

Remote that long in a consultant type of environment with some travel can wear on you a bit, especially when there are RIFs every 3 or so years.

If I could get a long-term contract gig that had plenty of work for the next 8 or so years, that would suit me fine. No listening in to Corporate and HR BS , and I have about the best health insurance available through my wife's employer, so I have some shielding from needs many other people might require.
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Offshore rates have been rising really dramatically the last few years, although domestic salaries have risen as well. I've worked with a lot of consulting groups and they are all hit or miss. As always, comes down to how good your people are. I just don't know if I want to be pigeon holed into that work.

At 40 years old, I probably have a couple career shifts in me. I'd like to get into a very good financial position over the next five years so that in my 50's I can be a lot more picky about what I do. Ultimately it may be fun to do some consulting work, but I've mostly been a one company guy.

Luckily travel seems to be nowhere near as critical for consulting as it used to. Our expectations in 2018 were on site four days a week nearly every week for contractors outside the area, which meant flying in and out on a weekly basis. Nowadays it's maybe a couple of site visits per year.

JasonE said:
I have been 100% remove for a good number of years. I did it for a little over 8 years then moved to where I am now. I was back in an office for about 8 years. Then COVID happened and I have been back to 100% remote for the past 3 years 9 months. It was easy for me to go 100% remote since I had done it for so long before. I live about a 12 minute drive from the office. I was about 13 miles from the office years ago when I was remote. Many of our people moved out of state when they started letting us work remote. I thought about doing that to live somewhere cheaper to live and still make what I make here. My wife is doing pretty good in her job now and I didn't want to uproot her out of that so I am still here. I prefer being 100% remote. I get less interruptions and I can do small things around here so it frees my evenings and weekends up a bit.
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I've been 100% remote for a few years now and while I enjoy it, I'm not sure I could do it for an employer 1000's of miles away. That's the challenge, kind of developing a culture and just being social.
 
mavrick102000 said:
Same when I was remote, we had precurors to Teams, but people had good etiquette and sense and only used it sparingly, if an e-mail wouldn't get action in time. Now it's just constant noise.

Yeah, I did the remote for a few years during COVID as well, but they remodeled the office, so someone made a deal, and we had to start coming back into the office 2 days/week at the end of Q1. Stupid C-suite mofo's. Many people left the company within 60-90 days of that decision
Click to expand...
Our C Suite is moving in the other direction. We have two offices. One is about 12 or 13 minutes from me. The other one is across town. They have seen the savings of having people work remote and are not going to renew the leases on them. They are going to go down to one office in a different location, closer to the airport from what I hear. That will be farther away from me but the only time I would need to go in is for larger group project meetings. I have been in our office a few times this year for those.
 
JasonE said:
Our C Suite is moving in the other direction. We have two offices. One is about 12 or 13 minutes from me. The other one is across town. They have seen the savings of having people work remote and are not going to renew the leases on them. They are going to go down to one office in a different location, closer to the airport from what I hear. That will be farther away from me but the only time I would need to go in is for larger group project meetings. I have been in our office a few times this year for those.
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Good deal.

I wasn't suggesting to necessarily go the consultant route. If you can be at least regionally close you can have a better quality of life and still be remote and active with your teams if there are company events etc.
 
mavrick102000 said:
Good deal.

I wasn't suggesting to necessarily go the consultant route. If you can be at least regionally close you can have a better quality of life and still be remote and active with your teams if there are company events etc.
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I was in a consultant role in my last job where I worked 100% remote. I don't mind being a consultant. I am still doing similar work today but for one company that has over 40 subsidiary companies. Before going remote the first time, I had remote employees so I have been on both sides of the remote work. I think that gives me a little bit different perspective than a lot of people on it.
 
For those of you that struggle with resumes and cover letters, ChatGPT is your friend…so long as you don’t mind giving skynet all your personal data.

Provide it your old resume or a set of your skills and work history, feed it the job description, ask it to generate a new resume and cover letter matching the job description and it does an astoundingly good job. You can even request it use a specific tone.

It’s literally how I got my current gig, and a feature I’ve now built for them using a LLM. AI can’t do everything but it can do that VERY well.
 
JasonE said:
Our C Suite is moving in the other direction. We have two offices. One is about 12 or 13 minutes from me. The other one is across town. They have seen the savings of having people work remote and are not going to renew the leases on them.
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This is why some suggest a massive commercial real estate crash is not only imminent, but also inevitable, at this point. :idk
 
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