Another One Bites The Dust

[Retro Red]

Another victim of the economy, here.

Yeah, I know this isn't related to kilts much, 'cept it'll put a damper on any kilt-related acquisitions for a while. Just thought I'd share a major life event with my forum friends.

The major world-wide financial company I've work for for the last 15 years announced last October they were cutting their workforce by 10% or 7,000 employees. Well, my organization finally announced their reorg plans & out of 330 positions, 106 were eliminated (mine included). They'll post 49 "new" positions tomorrow, so there's less than a 50% chance I may still work for them. Otherwise, come Feb. 27th, I'm out the door. For my years of service (& to soothe their conscience for shipping my job off-shore for which they'll probably get a tax break), they will provide me 6 months of full severence pay. But it looks like my 30+ years in IT are finished. So much for computers being the job of the future!

I'll be discussing my options with a career counselor, but this will probably be the time for me to convert my 20 year professional hobby of DJing into my full-time profession.

I should be fine; it's not the first time I've lost a job. Plus, my wife is an RN, so her job should be secure, & we've wisely lived well below our means throughout our 32 years together. Still, it stings a bit when you lose a job you like & are good at.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent a little.

Buckle up, folks, there's some nasty turbulence ahead...

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[Mipi]

Hope you'll be OK as you said. Somehow I have a filling that I'll be on similar list very soon too. For some months our company is fighting and now it looks like another company will buy us soon. My job will be among the first jobs to be surplus.

So, I could join you soon.

Regards!

[Phogfan86]

Hang in there. If coming back is something you want to do, I'd encourage you to re-apply. A friend of mine was laid off twice at Sprint in Kansas City and was hired back weeks later for more money and more bennies.

If not, maybe this is the universe's way of telling you to pursue what you really want to do. Go for it, lad.

[cessna152towser]

It really is depressing. When I worked out my budget for the new financial year I would have been running my business at a deficit due to the downturn in work and the soaring cost of professional indemnity insurance so I decided to quit at the end of October while I was still winning. There are no jobs available in my profession, so I am hoping shortly to start training for something new.

[Sionnach]

Wow, I wish I had something of consequence to say. I am sorry to hear this. May your transition go smoothly and not be difficult.

Regards,

[castledangerous]

Why would you necessarily think your career in IT is over?

[BassClefB]

I sympathize... I lost my job of 2.5 years back in December, right before the holidays. I was in graphic design/layout for a real estate publication. Granted, I'm very young (28) and have many more 'layoffs' ahead probably in my lifetime, but it hasn't been easy at all. Finding another job has been the hardest part. Even with my short professional career (I've been out of college since '03), I'm overqualified for most of the customer service/retail jobs that are available, and they aren't giving people who are overqualified the time of day. Even folks who are hiring for halfway decent jobs are dragging their feet. Fortunately I am also a musician, and that has honestly been my biggest money-maker for the past 3 years at least. I've been playing music professionally since 2000, but got serious about doing it on a full or mostly full-time level about 4 years ago. I tend to make more money during the spring/summer playing music than I did at my day job, even after self-employment taxes and such. The local economy in general where I am is in a freefall, since it is a tourism-based economy for the most part. Restaurants closing left and right, city improvement projects grinding to a halt, the list goes on... It's a bad deal all around. The two promising jobs that I had a very good shot at getting lately were filled from within the company.

So yeah... I'm hustling gigs and saving as much as I can. It's gonna be a rough one for a bit. At least I have SOMETHING to fall back on, as slim as it is right now.

[wsk]

Dragging out an <old_horse>
For every door that shuts, a window opens.
</old_horse>

After twenty five years I'm done with embedded control hardware and software engineering. The love of the work is gone. So I quit at the end of December.

Fortunately for me, I have been building a small business over the last few years that now produces enough to keep me and my cat in the manner to which we've become accustomed.

An additional benny is that I now have the time to do things I've never done before. So this year I volunteered to be a worker bee at the Sundance Film Festival (starts today). I've been assigned to the Press and Industry venue and shall be kilted at least part time.

Here's another <old_horse>
Opportunities come to those who simply show up.
</old_horse>

[Retro Red]

Why would you necessarily think your career in IT is over?

Because I'm a dinosaur. My skill set is all mainframe related - COBOL, PL/I, IMS DB/DC, DB2, JCL & a bunch of other acronyms - & the only folks who use mainframe computers are big companies, which are all cutting their workforce or off-shoring. Based on what IT jobs I've seen available, I would need some major retraining & at 53, I'm not sure that'd be worth the time & effort to then compete against college grads or those who live in a country with a much lower cost of living.

Besides, I've spent 20 years developing my DJing into a nice part-time business. With absolutely no promotion on my part, I do about 30-35 gigs a year from repeat customers, referrals from satisfied customers, or folks who've attend my gigs. And it's something I really enjoy doing. Add to that the fact that we can live on my wife's income & medical benefits while I crank up the DJing into a full-time business & my course of action seems fairly obvious.

.

[BroosterB1]

Because I'm a dinosaur. My skill set is all mainframe related - COBOL, PL/I, IMS DB/DC, DB2, JCL & a bunch of other acronyms - & the only folks who use mainframe computers are big companies, which are all cutting their workforce or off-shoring. Based on what IT jobs I've seen available, I would need some major retraining & at 53, I'm not sure that'd be worth the time & effort to then compete against college grads or those who live in a country with a much lower cost of living.

Besides, I've spent 20 years developing my DJing into a nice part-time business. With absolutely no promotion on my part, I do about 30-35 gigs a year from repeat customers, referrals from satisfied customers, or folks who've attend my gigs. And it's something I really enjoy doing. Add to that the fact that we can live on my wife's income & medical benefits while I crank up the DJing into a full-time business & my course of action seems fairly obvious.

.

Red, Follow your bliss. You will wonder why you didn't do it sooner. Not that it will be easy, or that you will not wake up at three in the morning wondering what the heck your doing, but you can and will handle that; the point is you have an escape plan.

Spend some (not a lot) on getting your name out. Right now is bridal season, check out the bridal fairs, the bridal guides. Look in Craigs list, internet, et al, for planners, offer to work with them, use your church and offer discounts to members for DJ'ing their weddings.

Before you know it, you'll wonder how you ever found time to work the IT Job. You do the math, if you can double your gigs, net $500 a gig you've got a nice addition to the wife's income.

Another thing you'll find is that people who know computers are avaluable resource, regardless of if you know Cobal, Fortan, C, C+.

See it, Believe it, Achieve it. Make it so.