^^^ congrats!

^how are you getting by after 8+ months of being unemployed

7/19/2009 4:05:46 PM

alot of temp work.

thank god law firms pay 15 bucks an hour for temp work.s

[Edited on July 19, 2009 at 5:27 PM. Reason : interview with whole foods on tuesday tho. Which should help and get me cheapish food.]

7/19/2009 5:27:23 PM

Regarding the discussion on the previous page about relocation, here's my "I was laid off and found a new job" story.

I had : words : typed, but deleted it all. If you want specifics, PM me.

Dec 08 - Laid off in Charlotte NC
Dec 08 - "Activate" my network and apply for jobs, plus have my resume routed for me - start talking with recruiters at major F500 companies and agencies (I work in Marketing)
Dec 08 - Relocate to Raleigh, NC (move in with parents)
Jan 08 - Job offer in Raleigh, NC (less $$ than before, ended up turning it down)
Jan 08 - Receive 2 offers in NYC on the same day and chose one of them
Feb 08 - Move to NYC on Superbowl Sunday (still made it to a few parties...) and start working

NONE of the interviews were found through careerbuilder or any of those sites, and my network kept sending me notices of open positions (most not open to the public). I'd only been out of school for 2.5ish years at the point I was laid off for reference. I did leave school with 3 years of career-related experience (and none were "typical internships").

I now make 40% more than I did, work less hours and work for a growing business unit of a F500 company (mine is one of the subsidiaries).

Going through this has made me realize that my network is absolutely invaluable. Also, relocating to a more expensive market isn't always a losing game... just weigh your options and be prepared.

7/19/2009 6:02:30 PM

my network is slowly being laid off and eaten by the failing music business.

7/19/2009 6:10:37 PM

I start work tomorrow, so I wish all the best to you all.

One week of orientation, six months of training, and then we do whatever it is we'll do. <3 lack of details!

7/19/2009 7:18:17 PM

I'm officially unemployed as of today. Worked over a year as a national IT recruiter for a staffing agency. Our national group got wiped out due to poor demand and an abundance of talent available at the local market level.

*sigh*

Looks like I'll be waiting tables again while I look for the next thing.

7/20/2009 12:14:06 PM

i need to find some temp work. this job hunt is getting depressing... and it's almost august? fuck, rent is almost due and i have no idea where it's coming from.

7/20/2009 1:04:03 PM

^your in new york right?

apple one is a pretty good temp agency thats gotten me some good jobs.

also workforce1

but most of these jobs suck and involve mindless bullshit labor.

7/20/2009 8:01:36 PM

weeee being unemployed sucks

7/21/2009 12:00:58 PM

well I now work for Whole Foods.

7/21/2009 3:28:42 PM

^errr... are they still hiring? at this point, i need to be doing something to at least make rent, ya know? and i'll try to check out those temp companies. i need to sorta do a sweep through and contact temp companies and some of the 'fashion recruiting' companies i've come across.

7/22/2009 8:22:29 AM

I thought about going into Whole Foods, they always seem to have their shit together

7/22/2009 5:28:46 PM

http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2009/01/top-jobs-2009.html

NURSING AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING ARE THE HOTTEST JOBS OF 2009. SNAP, LET ME SWITCH FIELDS.

o wait. we're already in those two fields. woops

7/23/2009 7:55:01 PM

^^ seems so. Im looking forward to the health insurance and access to great food.

7/23/2009 10:23:04 PM

my second job called me today. i kinda had told the person i just wanted to focus on 1 job but he called

7/23/2009 10:26:25 PM

I'm near Morehead City for an interview tomorrow. Had another call earlier today to set up a phone interview, and have a former colleague working on a lead for me in Wilson. It seems I was selling myself amazingly short with my lackluster resume. I perked it up with a proper representation of myself and have 2 leads within days of doing that. lulz

7/23/2009 10:58:26 PM

Fail Boat, where are you interviewing in Morehead City? I'm just curious. I'm at Emerald Isle beach for the week. MC is up the road.

7/24/2009 8:47:11 AM

I WANT A NEW JOB

7/24/2009 10:50:39 AM

What job websites do you guys think is the most useful and not a complete waste of time? I've applied to a ton to not hear shit back from just about everyone.

7/24/2009 1:15:55 PM

^I've gotten one rejection email from a job I applied for from indeed.com. They seem to be pretty extensive and pull from other sites.
You need to network like crazy though. All these job websites get thousands of resumes a day. It's really hard to stand out from the crowd on them.

I have a phone interview with Southern Research Institute tomorrow. They seem to be good people from reading the website and talking with HR. Anybody ever worked with them?

7/27/2009 6:03:17 PM

Quote :

"Fail Boat, where are you interviewing in Morehead City? I'm just curious. I'm at Emerald Isle beach for the week. MC is up the road."

Havelock. If I land the job I'll be living in EI for awhile until I figure out what to do with my home here.

7/27/2009 9:47:10 PM

Question about Internal Job Postings

so, I'm an employee and saw this job posting and would like for a friend (my bf) to look into it. Is it ok for him to apply or is that tacky? As an internal job posting, I don't know if non-employees can respond to it.

7/30/2009 4:53:22 PM

seems like this would be a question for the hiring manager.....

7/30/2009 4:54:45 PM

^^Does the listing have something that says "refer" or "e-mail a friend" - if so I would take that as a good sign to send to your friend, if not, tell him to apply anyway. If they only want internal candidates they won't look at him, but if he catches their eye then maybe he's got a chance...

7/30/2009 4:58:00 PM

just went through about 4 hours of interviews with 6 different managers....... i'm fried. Hope they like me...

7/30/2009 6:51:33 PM

^^ thanks for the advice. It doesn't mention anything about friends but he'll send it in anyway, the worst they can do is say no.

7/30/2009 7:12:19 PM

the project I was working on is getting canceled due to the government refusing a loan . Not sure what that will mean for me. There are not a ton of other projects in our office at the moment that have positions for me. Luckily I feel strongly that if there are spots I will be someone they want to keep on board. Obviously that is still no guarantee.

The frustrating part of it is that the project has been going on for years now (about 5+ at my company) and is now about 6 mos from COMPLETION (on the engineering side, longer on construction of course). The company was denied their last $1.5 billion worth of loans at this stage in the game when Obama himself gave a public guarantee that he would push it through congress back in January. This project will CREATE revenue when complete (uranium enrichment facility to supply nuclear fuel to power plants with some contracts already in place) yet they approve an additional $2 for "cash for clunkers" BS in the same work. ugh.

[Edited on July 31, 2009 at 9:40 PM. Reason : ]

7/31/2009 9:15:04 PM

grats jennifer! where doing what?

7/31/2009 9:58:03 PM

I got an offer from L3 in Boston on Friday. This location is an electro-optical design center where they make nifty optical devices for the DoD and NASA. They have parts on the Hubble and the Mars Rovers. Very cool. It also seems like a relative small and cooperative group where the EEs, MEs, OpticalEs, etc work pretty closely to design and build really cool one off devices. And often its shot into space to do cool things. It'll be interesting to design things w/ design specs like work in zero gravity, vacuum, super freezing cold to super hot, the vibration/G forces of launch into space, radiation proof, etc. Then it has to work literally maintenance free for a 17 year life span.

I'll be working with the electronics and motion control team doing lower level design work. Basically playing with and controlling super high precision servos, motors, actuators, etc.

8/2/2009 2:29:43 PM

That sounds awesome, man. Congrats!

8/2/2009 2:43:50 PM

Is it bad to contact another contact at another Agency that you have talked to before strictly for work related things about potentially moving over to that Agency? I would of never talked to this person had it not been work related. I was thinking about calling him after I know he is gone and just leaving a message saying when you get a chance to call me and that it is not work related....I just wondering though if it will get back to the higher ups with the Agency I am at now (he works pretty closely with one of the managers)...but i figured I am calling after hours, and he may or may not call me back. I think there is potentiallyfaster advancement and in areas of the country I would want to settle down in eventually. I know this guy could at least give me some advice maybe...and he might not ever call back....oh well. I would be waiting until Nov to do this though.



[Edited on August 2, 2009 at 5:53 PM. Reason : w]

[Edited on August 2, 2009 at 5:56 PM. Reason : w]

8/2/2009 5:49:12 PM

This thread is making me realize that, now more than ever, TWW has a lot of users that are in the know about random government happenings and (in some cases) classified shit.

Not shocking I guess, just funny to come back here and see who's going to be working where, who is working where, who's been doing what, etc.

8/2/2009 10:29:45 PM

So our procurement group decided that we have to use a list of vendors for contingent workers, they wont let us hire people as employees right now.

I hate being forced to use contract agencies (internal policy) -- partly cause if I want a Business Analyst or a Developer, I'm paying $80-120/hr (I got a Business Architect I'm paying $225/hr atm). I rather just hire 2-3 college grads for 1/3 the cost and get more shit done.

If you guys are working for contract agencies, they are making huge margins off you. They may be paying you $30-40/hr but they are charging their customer at least twice what they pay you. I mean they are just the middle-man laughing all the way to the bank.

8/5/2009 6:11:37 PM

Had my interview at Micron in Boise last thursday, got an offer today. Will be out there by the end of the month. The position is a big step up, as far as technical knowledge/skill required and skills that will be developed, than my last job (laid off from last December, company bankrupt in Feb), so this will be much more useful for my development as an engineer and for my career overall. Not to mention, got about a $3k premium on my old salary, even though I would have accepted much, much less.

A sincere good luck to everyone still looking - keep it up, and something good will come of it. Notice that I was the 5th reply in this entire thread, and have been unemployed since then. But.... good things come to those who wait?

8/5/2009 6:54:07 PM

congrats Joe, sounds like a good gig. Hope you enjoy Idaho!

8/5/2009 8:33:40 PM

^^congrats

Quote :

"(laid off from last December, company bankrupt in Feb)"

that's exactly what happened to me too. and for the second year in a row!

8/5/2009 8:49:53 PM

w00t, just got a backlog of 5 weeks of unemployment benefits deposited

better late than never i guess, thx Virginia

8/6/2009 1:30:17 AM

4 months so far...

8/6/2009 6:10:14 AM

Congrats agentlion - that's some awesome news.

Also congrats dweedle - getting that money is always an awesome sign in the bank account.

8/6/2009 9:22:03 AM

Grats to everyone getting money and/or jobs!

Almost been out of work for a month now and still nothing, but keeping my head up.

8/6/2009 12:07:37 PM

^x7 -- congrats, enjoy Boise!

8/6/2009 1:29:34 PM

Well, my "dream" job just opened up...after waiting 3 years. It is actually where I was before I came here (the other job wasnt permanent so it was a no brainer coming here). My plan has always to go back if a perm position opened up....I have the contacts to help...now just applying...and applying for a gov job takes awhile.

8/8/2009 11:32:13 AM

Getting close to 3 months of being unemployed now.

Had an interview this morning for a traveling position with a small company. I think I'll send out a thank you email tomorrow. Waiting around to hear back from people sucks. /blog

8/11/2009 4:07:20 PM

hoping we get some more work. I know that I will be off my project (and potentially out of work) in a matter of weeks if things don't turn around.

Congrats to those just getting jobs tho!

8/11/2009 4:15:24 PM

I'm still working on finding a job. I've got a lead on some part-time engineering work, but I don't know how much work/money will be available. I just need something though. It's been nearly 6 months!

8/11/2009 4:51:26 PM

dangit.

8/11/2009 8:28:25 PM

I had a job interview today...DHHS--great benefits, decent salary, meaningful job

I am keeping my fingers crossed

8/11/2009 10:09:08 PM

Good luck!

8/12/2009 9:01:59 AM

No longer unemployed.

Accepted an offer last night for a job here in Charlotte.

8/14/2009 10:27:29 AM

Looking good everyone. Hopefully, this thread will slow down to a crawl within the next year or two.

8/14/2009 10:46:41 AM