Redundancy gift

[Jock Scot]

What do I know, I have never been in your position, but the road that you are now on is, without doubt, a steep and rocky one and I hope it is a very short one. If it helps at all, your thinking about your present situation and how you are going to cope with it, seems to be a first rate plan. Well done laddie.

[Phil]

Thanks for all the soupport guys.
When I got home on Thursday, having also had a call to say that the interview I'd had wasn't successful (they seam to want a fully qualified MPLS engineer for a project coordinator), I sat down and thought to myself - you have two choices: 1) mope around, blame everyone, and be a jerk; 2) use the time to spend some quality time with the kids, tidy the loft, work on the allotment and look for a job.
I chose the second option.

Then you are doing the right thing. When I was made redundant I remember passing striking firemen on my way to the job centre and thinking what a luxury they had - refusing to do jobs they had. That was your choice (1) but then I got down to seriously looking for a job and never looked back except to think why I stuck in that previous job so long.
Good luck with the search and don't be put off by the kind of initial knock back. Lots come back with the "over qualified" or "specific skill set" excuse but I eventually figured out that they were nervous that you might be better than them so they hired some halfwit to make themselves look good. Just always believe "What's for you willll not go past you".

[ThistleDown]

Well, said, Phil. A better place awaits you, Martin.

[EagleJCS]

I wish you much better luck finding the right job for you than I've had. I'm currently under-employed and trying to escape, but haven't had much success yet.