Bree

((seebs))

If you don't mind, I'm going to move this out of SL&S.

seebs

Fine by me. I guess it's not very secular, but "support" sounded right.

sakrilege

What line of work are/were you in??

Same advice, go to you library to see what kind of job resources they have. Mine had a workshop on writing resumes & it helped me tremendously.

viscousmemories

I can't speak for seebs, but I do computer stuff. I have about 8 years of experience in computer networking, but I've spent the last 6 months or so doing web development work, which I found I don't really care for. Unfortunately, the vast majority of my experience, and my certification, is in Novell. When I got certified (in '96), Novell had 85% of the market share for networking. Now they have about 10%.

I think my best bet for finding work here is going to be through personal contacts, so I've sent up a flare to the few people I know (I've lived here only a few months) and some solid leads have already come in. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

seebs

Almost anything computer-related. I'm a sysadmin, programmer, and writer; I can write anything from fiction to technical documentation, and, unlike many technical writers, I can write documentation directly from code, I don't generally need someone to explain it to me. I'm sort of a generalist, which is a really good thing when you have a job, and a really bad thing when trying to get one. People are under the mistaken impression that they want specialists.

viscousmemories

Hear, hear!

I would think an employer would be impressed by the fact that I have had responsibility for nearly every facet of building a computer network, from planning to purchasing, and from configuration to deployment, but employers seem more interested in how many years you've put in working with a single technology. Ugh. :banghead:

brighid

{{{ Seebs}}}

Wow - that totally sucks! I know so many people who have suffered lay offs in the IT industry, and elsewhere. My father was just laid off after 25 years with his company. He got a decent severance package, but it will be gone before you know it.

Thankfully neither my husband or I have had to endure a job loss in this current economic market. I hope we don't have to either. My heart goes out to you, but I am glad you are optimistic AND that you have the support here at ii

I hope your hard work and experience pays off and you find a job you really like.

Brighid

Gooch's dad

Hey, seebs, very sorry to hear you're going through that. I checked the Thermo Nicolet jobs here in Madison, and unfortunately there isn't anything right now. Not exactly close to the Cities, I know, but I thought I'd look anyway.

FWIW, I was laid off from a job in the early 90's recession, and it ended up being more of a positive effect on my career than a negative one. I had been too focused on a fairly limited area of technical expertise (design of solid-state lasers) and I've ended up as more of a systems engineer since that time.

Did your layoff include any benefits for retraining? Some companies will provide up to a year of tuition aid for classes, to help you get retrained. I think they get some tax breaks for doing that. Definitely worth checking into.

Good luck, man,

-Kelly

seebs

Dunno about all the severance stuff in detail yet, I have a call with HR in about an hour to discuss it.

I plan to focus on writing. I'm a semi-published author (I sell columns and feature articles to people like IBM's developerWorks), and I'm thinking of trying to push this boundary a bit further.

The Other Michael

Hi seebs,

I'm sorry to hear that the administration's economic boom is passing you by.

Do you have any federal or state government facilities in your city? A lot of the different states are really hurting and probably cutting back, but you might find some opportunities with the feds, as a lot of us are hitting retirement age and bailing out, so they are looking for younger replacements to fill the vacancies.

With the current budget there isn't much staffing up going on (except probably in defense related areas) but there should still be a moderate amount of replacement slots coming available.

www.opm.gov would be the place to check for job announcements

On the other hand, have you considered coming over to the dark side? The EAC is always looking for a few good men and women that they can start in entry level positions.

good luck,
Michael