Laid off? What are You Doing w/ Your Newfound Freedom?

dmorin asks: "Like many of you I'm recently laid off. So as I wake up every morning wondering what to do with my day I got to thinking, how everybody else is handling the new found free time? My original idea, that I would simply spend all my time working on my own software projects in order to learn new skills, went out the window when I realized that I'd burn out far too fast if I thought that the most important thing in life. My wife is working part time so I have at least 3 days a week to take care of my 10month old daughter, time that I would not have had if I was still employed. I'm doing my share of the chores around the house, not just taking care of the lawn but also doing groceries, laundry and so on. As for geeky stuff, I play with projects and technologies because they are fun, not because I think they will make me more marketable. I put away my "personal Java portal" and lately am playing with voice synthesis on my Zaurus just because I think it's cool. So how about everybody else? What are you doing with this new free time that's been forced upon you? How much of it are you using to job search? How much is 'honey do' list, how much is just free play time? Disclaimer: I'm researching an idea for a possible book. Not planning to quote anybody without their permission, just looking to hear what people are up to."

Comments

I am

[Anonymous Coward]

Reading and posting on Slashdot... a lot.

Re:I am

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously, since you snagged the fp this time. Darn it.

Re:I am

[Anonymous Coward]

Reading and posting on Slashdot... a lot.

Hmmm... Me too, here at work....hmmm...I wonder what that means for my future?

Re:I am

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm jerking off three, four times a day to Slashdot. At least four times...

Re:I am

[Hadlock]

Lol. So wish I had mod points right now.

Re:I am

[Anonymous Coward]

Spent a lot of time at http://www.oddtodd.com

Should I be worried that it describes everything I've experienced so completely?

Re:I am

[fooguy]

Karma: 5 (mostly due to unemployment-related /. trolling)

Look for work

[renehollan]

When I was laid off, I made looking for a job a full time job.

Re:Look for work

[missing000]

I started to realize that plugging away and over-pushing my resume was a bad way to do things about my 2nd month out of work.

To keep busy I started volunteering for non-profits I like, and even helped to get a candidate for mayor get 43% of the vote in Denver's latest election.

After 5 months of looking, I finally found a job. Now I spend a lot of free time working for NPOs and campaigning for a candidate sure to get the mayor's job in a month.

If nothing else, unemployment brought me a lot of connections I would have never had, and a sense of accomplishment that's just great.

Re:Look for work

[Anonymous Coward]

If nothing else, unemployment brought me a lot of connections I would have never had, and a sense of accomplishment that's just great.

You met lots of homeless people and discovered that you could push a shopping all across town if you had to?

Re:Look for work

[dmorin]

Lots of people are telling me this (make the job search a fulltime job). But what does that mean, exactly? Get up and leave the house at 8, bring a lunch, dont come back til 5? What are you finding to occupy your 40 hours? I check the web boards daily, send out my applications, keep up on the emails and "checking in" with contacts. When there's an event I try to network. But what else?

Re:Look for work

[Anonymous Coward]

I swore I would not use unemployment the next time I was laid off. So, as the result of my employer suffering the largest losses in corporate history for two straight years, I was laid off as part of a restructuring that was to help them save money for next year. The employer was gracious enough to provide out-placement counseling classes through a nationally-recognized out-placement firm and a fairly decent 3 months of severance pay. Funny, though, the out-placement firm also announced a 20% reduction of its own work force.

After taking the classes and doing the necessary soul searching, I decided I was doing what I wanted to do and set off to find a job where I could continue doing that. Independent of this effort I was solicited by a company who found my name through some publically-viewable projects I was doing at my old job. Even better, the job was to do much the same as what I was doing at my old job.

Now I have problems I would rather not have, like an excessively long commute and some serious personality clashes with some of the long-timers (this is a barely-surviving dotcom firm in an ultra-niche market). I miss the comradere at my old job--most of the people here are battle-weary and angry about what happened to their company. Normally that isn't a bad thing when your product is used by many people to enhance their lives, but this place is in an ultra-niche market with, as I might say, a very small potential audience. There's no sense here of using technology to better people's lives--just to find ways to squeeze pennies out of advertisers, clients, and the very few customers that buy the sort of things we sell.

I'm comfortable with the business problems with the new company, and I figured I would use the job to keep fresh and active while looking for other jobs in my spare time. It turns out that a big downside is that because of my huge commute I have no time to set aside for networking to get the job I really wanted at a location that isn't over an hour from my house by subway. Even though my former employer is hiring the very same jobs that were eliminated last year, and I could immediately go back and do those jobs at the highest competency of any of my peers, they are forbidden to hire me for 1 full year from my termination date. I am not even allowed to work through a subcontractor--I've tried but that annoying no-hire policy gets in the way of their contract bids.

So now I'm stuck in a rather boring job with lousy commute and lousy people (and really lousy salary), but I'm thankful that I got it because the COBRA health insurance coverage costs way too much. I'm not sure the benefits are worth the extra problems I've gained. I didn't have to dodge beggars and hop trains before, and I never had to worry about parking until after 10:00 AM (now it's 8:00 AM or no parking). Feh.

All I can say about this topic is that you should spend the time finding the job you really want and don't take the easy way out by taking the first job that comes along that you know you will be good at. The effort you put into your job search is directly related to the quality of the job you will get. If you have serious, honest credentials, like a good education, training, and serious, honest, real-world experience, maybe you should consider independent contracting. Don't get stuck in a rut--it won't be easier.

Re:Look for work

[Anonymous Coward]

Jerk off three or four times a day to Slashdot, like I do.

Re:Look for work

[Radical Rad]

You may already be doing this but making the job search a full time job means getting out of bed at the same time as you did when you were employed, shaving, being fully dressed and awake by 8am, ready to take phone calls from potential employers or make cold calls to firms in your area who may have openings you can fill. Schedule time with yourself to work on cover letters and resume tweaks and to follow up on ones you've sent out.

The rule of thumb is: Expect the search to take about 1 month for each 10k in salary. I have been trying to find a position as a millionaire playboy for almost ten years so I expect some responses any day now.

Re:Look for work

[Red Warrior]

Making it a full time job means taking it as seriously as you take/took a "real" job (assuming that you take a real job seriously, that is).
It's a research, planning, and marketing job, btw.
Research what you want to do, and who/what could hire you to do it. Whether or not they have an ad in the newspaper/job site or not. Know about that employer in detail BEFORE you go for the interview. Before you apply, if feasable.
Develop and follow a plan to make sure you leave no stone unturned, no lead left unfollowed, no assistance left unthanked.
Market yourself as the candidate to scratch that employer's itch.

And excellent resource is (any year's) What color is your parachute? It can be ordered through Amazon Done well, a job search is EASILY a 60+ hour a week job. AND a hard job at that. But it's your future you're working on.
Oh, and as another poster replied, you're up, shaved, and dressed (professional) before 8 AM, though I'd say 6:30.

Re:Look for work

[Lectrik]

some serious personality clashes with some of the long-timers (this is a barely-surviving dotcom firm in an ultra-niche market).
most of the people here are battle-weary
Normally that isn't a bad thing when your product is used by many people to enhance their lives, but this place is in an ultra-niche market with, as I might say, a very small potential audience.
There's no sense here of using technology to better people's lives--just to find ways to squeeze pennies out of advertisers, clients, and the very few customers that buy the sort of things we sell.

No need to pussyfoot around it, you work for the marketer of hello kitty vibrators don't you!
I had a friend who had one proudly displayed on her desk in her dorm room.

Re:Look for work

[jcravens42]

I'm glad that two people noted that they are volunteering -- it's a great way to keep yourself busy in the time you aren't looking for a job, to make connections that could possibly lead to a job (or a spouse, who knows), and most importantly, it's a way to do something positive with your time. If anyone else is interested in exploring volunteering, contact your local volunteer center, search through www.volunteermatch.org and, if you want to volunteer from your home or work computer, check out www.netaid.org/ov.

Re:Look for work

[twilightzero]

ready to take phone calls from potential employers or make cold calls to firms in your area who may have openings you can fill.

What fantasy world are YOU living in?? The economy's in the gutter, almost all of the large firms where I live either have a hiring freeze in place or are laying off like crazy. The smaller firms are barely keeping their heads above water as well. Besides, research has shown time and again cold calling firms is NOT likely to get you a job. The best thing you can do to yourself is as was suggested above, volunteer, meet people, and network. More jobs are gotten through networking and personal reccommendation than through all other methods combined. You're much better off getting out of bed and dressed by 8 AM, then spend your time volunteering. You can usually even find volunteer work in your field, be it programming, tech work, whatever. The more people out there who personally know how good you are, the more likely you are to be thought of when a job opening comes up.

Sorry about the rant, I just get so fed up with all the self-help job hunting BS I see out there.

Re:Look for work

[twilightzero]

I've been doing quite a bit of that myself - I agree it's a great way to meet people and network. As I said in my post down below this a few, it's probably the best way you can be getting yourself contacts and get known. Besides, it keeps you busy and gives you that warm fuzzy feeling :D

oh wait...that's the cat on my lap. Nevermind...

Why not look for a job?

[AmateurCoder]

What am I missing here?

Looking for work can be a full time task on its own.

In two weeks I'm leaving work

[Joe the Lesser]

and I'm going to go back to school.

Otherwise, I might convince myself out of boredom to get a grunt job, which gives me the shivers.

Re:In two weeks I'm leaving work

[Anonymous Coward]

I got laid off from an internship after a year in grad school. I would have liked the extra income, but I'm doing what I love, either way.

No one else is hiring

[rumpledstiltskin]

So I hired myself and started Linux Screws , a web site selling linux distributions and services. And, like another poster, I post on slashdot. A lot. I get a great click through rate to my site, but unfortunately, not a lot of people seem to be buying. now if only I could afford the $400 for an OSDN ad...

Re:No one else is hiring

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you mean "not a lot of people seem to be buying" or do you mean NO ONE is buying. My guess is NO ONE is buying...bandwidth is cheap.

Re:No one else is hiring

[rumpledstiltskin]

No, I mean, "not a lot". If "no one" were buying, I would have said "no one is buying." broadband may be cheap, but dialup is still cheaper for most. especially if you've been laid off!

Re:No one else is hiring

[Anonymous Coward]

Deceiving Google is a fulltime job, indeed...

Re:No one else is hiring

[Rick the Red]

Lucky for me, my wife needs broadband at home, so she can work from home.

Re:No one else is hiring

[cymen]

Nice site except for all the images that have wrong height/width specified so they get stretched to nastiness. Some time in an image editor or changing the HTML would really help the look.

Re:No one else is hiring

[zero-one]

Also, clicking the "Checkout" button gives warnings about the secutity certificate not matching the host name which might put some people off.

Re:No one else is hiring

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Also, clicking the "Checkout" button gives warnings about the secutity certificate not matching the host name which might put some people off.

These two posts make me wonder: is there a market for "homebrewed website" quality checking? Say, a person with a lot of web development experience (definitely not me: I'm an embedded head :-) who accepts a small fee for testing your site just before you publish it to the world and finds bugs/makes usability suggestions/stress tests it. Anyone want to take this idea and run with it?

Re:No one else is hiring

[Sleepy]

>These two posts make me wonder: is there a market for "homebrewed website" quality checking? Say, a person with a lot of web development experience (definitely not me: I'm an embedded head :-) who accepts a small fee for testing your site just before you publish it to the world and finds bugs/makes usability suggestions/stress tests it. Anyone want to take this idea and run with it?

Yes, there is a market... but it is a LOT of work. Convincing the operator of this is not easy... you could point out example flaws and they would just say "typo" and fix it. You can't prevent this.

Now... if you can write a software package that does this -- you may have a better shot. Check links, check external links (including if they go offline and become a "search/shopping portal"...) checks images for stretching, estimate efficency improvement if you convert Frontpage-crap site to efficent HTML + style sheets, check for HTML compliance, submit to search engines (yeah, right), and auto-generate some "keywork fishhook" webpages for Google etc.

Automate this, and you can go after all the mom-and-pop websites on the net. How big that market is, I don't know...

Re:No one else is hiring

[zero-one]

I would guess that the people wise enough to use your service will be the ones that can do all of this themselves.

Re:No one else is hiring

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I would guess that the people wise enough to use your service will be the ones that can do all of this themselves.

Not always. Consider this: I can build simple dynamic websites, and I understand the need for proper testing. But not having any background in the subject, unless I wanted to spend a lot of time learning about common problems/failure modes, I wouldn't have much of a clue where to start/how to write test cases, etc. And I probably wouldn't be motivated to spend the time learning about those types of quality issues as its time I could best spend elsewhere.
You could argue that in this case I'd be better served by farming the entire job out to someone who could do it all themselves, but I'm considering the case where a small operator knows enough to build a usable site, but can't afford to hire a developer to do all the work.

Frex: a few years ago I had a small company I ran out of a spare bedroom. I wrote my own ad copy/submitted product to trade rags hoping for reviews, cause I could do a good enough job writing copy (had experience doing it at an earlier job), but couldn't justify an advertising consultant. But I wasn't a professional photographer, so I would hire one to take photos of the products I wanted to feature. $100 and I get a MUCH better job than I could have done myself.

That's the kind of thing I'm thinking of.

Re:No one else is hiring

[Sleepy]

You're right... it's pretty difficult to 'sell' something to a customer who doesn't see the need. And once you explain, they'll just fix it (or shrug).

LaughingBoy is also correct (child post)... any good developer realizes a tester with a Quality background is going to make a thorough and methodical pass through the software/site. Anyone can "test", but it's a specialized discipline so the SQE is going to find problems the developer never would.

I can see from my wording, how my meaning was lost. I think this is a MUCH much more probable service IF you can automate it.

Then send your tool out like a spider on the net and email results. You'd have to provide a "score" with encrypted details that only you could read. Maybe a downloadable version for people to run internal tests on.

I have done a bit of web-testing, and I can tell you every time you face a new project, it is a lot of work to automate tools for 'that' project. Designing a "killer" test tool might be a pipe dream... I dunno.. but one can dream.

Write a book

[1001011010110101]

Post in slashdot asking for input, write a book, make it a best seller (so many unemployed), never work again.

Re:Write a book

[dmorin]

Nonono, write book, *then* post to slashdot, thus satisfying the requirement of having a link to clickthru. For kicks and giggles be sure to send the link back through your own Amazon affiliate so you really squeeze the christ out of every penny.

Re:Write a book

[aicra]

Trust me, that


NEVER works!

You live near Andover, get a job with osdn

Re:Write a book

[dmorin]

You live near Andover, get a job with osdn

They hiring? I can't find any Career/Jobs section on their web site.

damn work ethic

[mattsucks]

my $0.02:

My last job ended late last fall when the company went under. 2nd time that happened to me in two years. The first time, I slid right into the new job with no gap in employement. Yes, I know I was very lucky. This past fall, I thought I'd take the rest of the year off, relax, catch up on my life, de-stress, and job hunt. Aaahhhhh, peace.

I made it 3 days.

After 3 days, I was going absolutely batty. Without having the regular schedule of work to frame my day, I just drifted along getting absolutely nothing accomplished. I'd never been one to do much work from home, so I wasn't really set up to do any programming or technical things. I tried catching up on my techie mags, reading some programming books ... without having the ability to try out the things I was trying to learn none of it stuck. Also tried to catch up on music (I'm a songwriter), but it turned out without work to piss me off I didn't have as much to write about :-)

So I took part time contracting type work to keep myself occupied, and found my current job (working as a contract employee, programming) which started Jan 1.

I blame all this on my parents, of course.

Re:damn work ethic

[Godeke]

Sounds familiar... every time I drop off the end of a contract I think "hey, I just keep the contracts I have at a simmer for a few weeks and take a break". Never happens. I'm at one of the "simmering" contract sites and we realize how many things we have put off for them in the past.

I really could use the vacation, but usually it's my fault for seeing opportunity to improve systems and being unable to resist it.

Re:damn work ethic

[bill_mcgonigle]

I really could use the vacation, but usually it's my fault for seeing opportunity to improve systems and being unable to resist it.

Do the companies' you're contracting for pay you extra to do this or are you just a perfectionist?

Seriously, I'm not trolling, I'm just not familiar with how that works.

Re:damn work ethic

[Godeke]

I get paid by the hour. Never work fixed bid, never work for a salary. I do my work in very small chunks (never more than about 20 hours "ahead of the curve"). I believe strongly in delivering a product quickly, and at an affordable price. The client then can see what I have done, and decide to proceed further, use what has been done or cut bait with minimal time and financial commitment.

As long as you design with the long view in mind, very often a smaller implementation will deliver value immediately. For example, a small office that believed that one of the employees was dipping into the till asks for a "write once" invoicing system. For only 11 hours of work, they have a system that allows them to build invoices and know that what they get at the end of the day isn't a "modified" version, with a lower total. With a small investment they close a financial hole.

In the long run I get called back to add more features, because they can see further value in automating more functions. They know that I can perform the task at hand, and they know it will be reasonably priced. When they ask for more accounting functionality, I can build it easily as the tables I used were already designed with an eye for integration with the accounting package they use (that's the designing for the long view part).

Re:damn work ethic

[Mr. Slippery]

So I took part time contracting type work to keep myself occupied

How did you go about finding part-time contracting work?

Late last year, for various reasons I made a decision to "down-shift" - I cut back to working 30 hours/week, and enrolled in an 18 month program in shiatsu and Asian bodywork. I just got the ax, I'm now trying to figure out if it's reasonable to try to find something part-time - not to keep myself occupied, but to pay the bills.

Re:damn work ethic

[bill_mcgonigle]

Good to know. Many thanks for the reply.

Re:damn work ethic

[mattsucks]

I found the part-time contracting bits through my still-employed friends. One of the benefits of working so long in the same market is that you meet a LOT of people (I've been in the Dallas/Ft Worth, TX area for 15+ years now). And in the time I've known them, some of them have moved up the ranks into hiring-decision positions. [Hmm .. wonder why I haven't done that? I'll worry about that later]

For My Sake

[lostindenver]

Learn a different skill and stay out of IT. One less person to compete with. Not that i need to worry about that based on your question you lazy BUM....

Re:For My Sake

[SN74S181]

Who's in IT? I'm an electronics guy. Lots of us aren't in IT. I detest recruiters who think that because I can write tight Assembly Language code for embedded controllers I am in 'IT.' The hell with that.

Get a job...

[eclectic_echidna]

0. Talked with EVERY developer I had known and asked about job leads.
1. Spent 2-3 hours a day targeting resumes for the job(s) listed on about 10 different sites. What a waste of time... Over 300 hiring gits that never responded to me. I mean _NO_ response.
2. Found a short term contract.
3. After 10 weeks, ended up taking an internship @ $10/hr. It was easy to get a job against others that had no experience vs. my 5 years.
4. Worked so DAMN hard at the internship, it has now evolved into a real job with decent pay.
5. Paid off ALL of my debt, so the next time I am unemployed, I won't have so many bills to worry about. Read: cut up ccs, stopped buying gadgets, paid off car.
6. ???
7. Profit and retire at 70?

Kill me now!

A few options I can think of...

[Per Wigren]

Join a programming project. Create something you can show when you're looking for a new job.

If you're single or polyamourous, now is the best time to start clubbing and have some fun while you can!

Sit in front of the TV all day eating pizza with extra cheese and drink diet coke.

Find a new job.

Re:A few options I can think of...

[itwerx]

Indulging in item 3 tends to limit item 2 fairly quickly. (And what was your BMI? :)

Re:A few options I can think of...

[Per Wigren]

I meant that he could choose one or more, not neccesarily all of them.
My BMI is 18,6 :)

Re:A few options I can think of...

[aicra]

I'm game for the first three! :)

Desperately seeking a gad about bon vivant for #2.

I am writing a book about...

[heldlikesound]

... what people do with their free time after they get laid off.

Re:I am writing a book about...

[Misch]

It's not "I got laid off", it's "I got time off to get laid"

Do "a page a day"

[clonebarkins]

Go to Distributed Proofreaders and help put some public domain books online!

Fuckin' A

[Anonymous Coward]

My original idea, that I would simply spend all my time working on my own software projects in order to learn new skills, went out the window when I realized that I'd burn out far too fast if I thought that the most important thing in life.

As for geeky stuff, I play with projects and technologies because they are fun, not because I think they will make me more marketable. I put away my "personal Java portal" and lately am playing with voice synthesis on my Zaurus just because I think it's cool.

Hey Jerky, you ever stop to think that maybe your natural inclination to waste time on shit you think is "cool" rather than spending effort on something that is more "marketable" is why you got laid off in the first place?

Why don't you spend your newfound freedom ruminating on your professional life and why you're in the situation you're in right now. (Hint: don't just tell yourself "The Economy" and go back to playing with your gizmos).

Re:Fuckin' A

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey Jerky, you ever stop to think that maybe your natural inclination to waste time on shit you think is "cool" rather than spending effort on something that is more "marketable" is why you got laid off in the first place?

And what's wrong with that?

Re:Fuckin' A

[Anonymous Coward]

And what's wrong with that?


Well, if he wants a roof over his head then there is a lot wrong with that. Maybe you are a trust fund rich kid or maybe you live in some more enlightened european country so you do not understand the situation, but the fact is that if you cannot pay the rent you end up sleeping on a piece of cardboard in the middle of a dirt field. Once you get to that point it is very difficult to get out of it.

Soooo... maybe he sould be working on more marketable skills.

Re:Fuckin' A

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey Jerky, you ever stop to think that maybe your natural inclination to waste time on shit you think is "cool" rather than spending effort on something that is more "marketable" is why you got laid off in the first place?

Exactly correct. I know so many people who work in entrenched windows environments who spend all of their time learning about Python and Debian when for their jobs sake they should be learning about WSH/WMI and Active Directory. There is a lot of cool stuff that I would like to learn but immediately marketable skills come first. Maybe that is why I have a job and others don't.

Really. My weekends are when I screw with FreeBSD, my Slackware box and try to master the UNIX shell (both Korn and Bash). I also have an old sparc station that I am going to try installing OpenBSD on this sunday. But, on my free time during the week (roughly 7:00PM-11:00PM) I spend all my time learning about .net and windows server 2003. I hate m$ but I do not let zealotry get in the way of a paycheck.

Re:Fuckin' A

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you think there comes a point of diminishing returns to all this effort? From reading the posts I get a sense that living in the IT world is like watching the nuclear arms race between the US and USSR during the cold war. Everyone is stocking up on "skills" that provide a short lived advantage. In a way it seems futile to me because I did everything I thought would provide me with security. I got my computer science degree from Carleton University, progressed from 1 company to the next (about 5 in 9 years now). But it all seems futile so I went back to basics laying ceramic tile when I can get the jobs. This way I have a hedge against layoffs in the "IT" sector.

Pimping my ass

[Gnulix]

That is; business as usual...

Now I'm a Club & College Radio DJ

[szyzyg]

I started producing a specialised dance music radio show for kHz networks, now I'm on a few radio stations.

It's somewhat Ironic, when I wrote mp3serv back in '97 it was so I could do internet radio, that little piece of innovation (before anyone ever thought of shoutcast) landed me jobs with media companies in California. But it took getting laid off 3 times last year to give me the time to get my radio show off the ground. Now I'm working again and able to keep up the dj aspirations too.

If you're in San Franciso be sure to check out DJ S&M

Limbo

[Rick the Red]

I'm really in limbo here. As others have said, looking for work can itself be a full-time job. Our boy is 6 and soon will be out of school for the summer, and I'll have to watch him full-time. As it is, we dropped before- and after-school care because we can't afford it on one income, so my day is suddenly much shorter anyway. I'm not sure how I'll make my three contacts a week needed to maintain unemployment.

On top of that, our daughter is due at the end of June, so I'll have my son, wife, and newborn to care for this summer. Have you priced infant care? If I find a job and go back to work, I'll have to make at least $24,000 a year just to pay for child care. We only get to pocket anything above that, but it's got to be significantly above that or we'll have to sell this house and find a smaller one.

We are truely blessed to live in the house of our dreams, on 5 acres out in the country, but we got it on two incomes and we won't be able to keep it on one. We figure we can go about one year before it comes to that. On average, they say it takes 9 months and at least three interviews to find a job here. After 3+ months I have had zero interviews.

Meanwhile, when I can find the time, I have to empty the basement so I can sheetrock the walls, build the bathroom and office/guesroom, and finish the rest as a playroom. So we can move the office/guest room furniture out of what will soon be the baby's room.

So I'm in limbo. Do I apply for any three jobs just to qualify for unemployment, become a stay-at-home dad, and move to suburbia where we can spit on our neighbor's houses without leaving our back yard? Or do I attend all the job hunt seminars, help an open-source project just to keep my skills up, and do anything to find another job, putting my kids into daycare in the process?

Re:Limbo

[Hadlock]

Don't give up your 5 acres. Ever. In the future, your kids will be the 'lucky ones' to live outside of suburbia. There is simply no way to appreciate Mark Twain and all the "Great American ________ Books" when you grew up in suburbia. Get your kid involved in indian guides, and all of those awesome groups, which cost nothing to be a part of. Those experiences and memories your children will have will be priceless when they are 20, 30 years old. Don't ruin their childhood by moving to suburbia. Have you considered 'offloading' the kids to a friend of the family, even for one day a week? Probably, but it's always looking at all your options a second, or even third time. Daycare is a horrible option, a last resort in my book.

Re:Limbo

[malice95]

So I'm in limbo. Do I apply for any three jobs just to qualify for unemployment, become a stay-at-home dad, and move to suburbia where we can spit on our neighbor's houses without leaving our back yard? Or do I attend all the job hunt seminars, help an open-source project just to keep my skills up, and do anything to find another job, putting my kids into daycare in the process?
I would send out resumes to as many gigs as possible.. just sending out the emails will qualify as 3 contacts. Not you fault they didnt call back. You should easily be able to send those within 15 mins every day. I suggest you hit the job boards every day, sharpen up your resume big time, make sure it is avaliable via the job boards, and bug everyone you know for job leads.. EVERYONE. pull out every single business card you have and ask around. Looking for a job shouldnt take more then an hour or two a day.. you should have plenty of time to watch your kids.

Re:Limbo

[mvdw]

Self-sufficiency is the solution. You have 5 acres; with 5 acres of land you should be able to be self-sufficient in many of your needs. Grow your own vegetables, raise chickens, pigs, sheep, a couple of cows, use horses to work your land. You have anough land for a small farm, that should be able to easily support you and your family.

From there, you should be able to sell your produce at local markets (organic, of course, so at a premium over normal food), to raise cash for other purposes. One man should be able to work 5 acres relatively easily, although a bit of hard work is involved.

Not necessarily a solution for everyone, but if I had 5 acres and was laid off, I'd be using my redundancy package to set up a self-sufficient farm.

Re:Limbo

[mslinux]

We are truely blessed to live in the house of our dreams, on 5 acres out in the country, but we got it on two incomes and we won't be able to keep it on one.

Why don't you try to live within or below your means? It works for me.

Income by your own labor is OK, but it can be very risky as you've discovered. In short, it's an illusion that can be taken from you at the drop of a hat. Boss doesn't like you, economy gets bad, you screw something up and BAM, you're history. The 60,000 dollars a year is gone so is daycare, so is eating out, so is a lot of things. It was all an illusion.

Live in an modest town house or condo. They cost a 1/3 of a house and can be rented easily. Buy 2 or 3 of them, live in them for awhile, pay them off, rent them out for 700 to 800 dollars a month and THEN buy the big house of your dreams! So, when your boss fires your sorry ass, you have 3 rental units brining in $2400/month (around 30,000 per year). If you lose your job, times will still be tight, but you won't have to give up your dream house because the rental money can take care of that.

Unless you earn money in some way other than physical/mental labor, you're screwed. I like going to bed at night knowing that people are paying ME. You'll never make money as long as you are paying OTHERS and your only source of income is work.

Re:Limbo

[Jerk City Troll]

5 acres out in the country.

I hope you use that land. You can do quite a bit living off of 5 acres. Do what myself and my girlfriend do: plant crops. Over time, increase your food intake from your fields and less from the supermarket. Save yourself a ton of money. Self-reliance in this situation is Very Good.

Well, at least you got laid

[Anonymous Coward]

off.

writing

[Anonymous Coward]

I've written a handful of short stories and I'm halfway through what I hope will soon be my first novel.

I was laid off last September.

Being prepared

[Strange Ranger]

Well, I'm not laid off, yet. I'm in the keeping-my-fingers-crossed stage.

So I've been getting ready for it by beefing up the ol' photography skills and equipment inventory. I just picked up the Canon 550 Speedlight wireless flash system (REALLY nifty btw, 2 flashes slaved off of a wireless module that fits in the flash shoe) and I've volunteered to shoot a friend's wedding which is actually coming up this weekend. It'll be the first in what is hopefully a long and fruitfull wedding portfolio. Be nice if I could include a link to all the work (personal, non-wedding) I've done, maybe show-off that I don't entirely suck, but the site's still in its infant stage. The plan is just to move the whole she-bang along at a slow and steady pace. If the pink slip ever comes...well, it's amazing how enough free time can transform a hobby. There's a part of me that even wants the slip to come so I'll get off my ass and make the career change.

Being careful what I wish for though...

Finished my novel

[michaelggreer]

I'm a writer, so I was kind of waiting for the Writers Grant of unemployment when I signed up with a startup. It ended up lasting much longer than I thought it would, but when it collapsed I started in finishing my novel. Whoopee!

I built a webapp to help me do this, where I have to write a certain number of words per day or an email is sent out to all of my friends. The site is called SHAME. Writing through humiliation.

Re:Finished my novel

[7-Vodka]

oh yeah.. that's a great way to ensure you write quality stuff!

Re:Finished my novel

[michaelggreer]

No, of course not, but it is a great way to ensure I write!

Re:Finished my novel

[metacosm]

Lots of writers use a quota system. i.e. I will produce 5 pages of material a day, or something similar...

Writing is the key to getting better.

Spanking it

[Anonymous Coward]

till it's sore.

Do something Good.

[immanis]

I've been fundraising for the AIDS/LifeCycle

Doing something good, to help people out, helps keep me from getting depressed. I strongly suggest that you find a charity and do some free work in your free time. It keeps you from wasting away.

This is my 4th such ride. I've got a team and everything. Though this year, I am WAY SHORT on donations.

get certifications

[austad]

Certifications are BS for the most part, but people looking through resumes and doing the hiring don't know any better, so it looks great on your resume.

I was unemployed for 3 months, and I wish I would have taken the time to get my CCIE. I'm studying for it right now, and it's a pain in the ass between that and work.

Other than that, I spent an hour or two each morning looking for jobs to apply for, and spent the rest of each hanging out with my other unemployed friends at coffee shops and did some people watching. I read some books, I cleaned my house, worked on my yard, and relaxed.

You only get probably a couple of chances in life to really enjoy yourself, and this is one of those times. Just make sure you actually spend a bit of time each day looking for another job, because if your unemployment runs out, the fun is all over.

Re:get certifications

[Amazing Quantum Man]

Unfortunately, certification and classes cost somewhere in the range of several thousand dollars. If money isn't coming in, where and how do you pay for it?

Remember, some of us laid off types have families to feed and mortgages to pay.

Lots to Do

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, here's a small list:

Converting my skills from MS to Linux having been an MSCE

Wired the apartment for CAT5

Studying for the Cisco qualifications and nearly there

Sent out a hundred or so CVs with a 1% reply rate

Learning Hungarian

Just because you're an unemployed techie there's no need to put on the pounds watching daytime TV and eating cheeseburgers. Make use of the time so that when you get that interview you can tell them about everything you have done during your time off.

Re:Like MANY of us?

[p4ul13]

Slashdot caters to the tech sector. The tech sector is in a slump. Many scores of layoffs have taken place (and still are taking place) across the industry.

The original poster's assumption that many of the readers have seen the effects of this is dead-on. Especially considering the replies.

.... now get back to work! =)

Re:Like MANY of us?

[mrscott]

If you're so busy, get off Slashdot. And you might consider taking a little time in a class in people skills.

What am I doing?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm trying to run my own business. Not very easy, but I have another business project I'm working on with some guys I know and we should have something up by the end of the year.

Philosophy

[Hadlock]

I live at the library now. Read philosphy, and then write about it, and then discuss what I write with my friends. It eats up a lot of time. A lot. Huzzah for 24 hour university libraries.

Oh, and post on slashdot. (duh)

Re:Philosophy

[Anonymous Coward]

Does this mean you can now think deep thoughts about being unemployed?

:-)

Au Pair

[Glonoinha]

If you are paying more than a grand a month in child care, consider sponsoring an Au Pair from Europe. The ones I looked into were recent high school grads with average English skills, wanting to spend a year in the US before they go off to college or whatever. My expenses would have been $255 a week, or thereabouts, plus including her in the household grocery expenses.

Sounded like a great deal, have an 18 year European woman live with me to help out with the housework, etc ... but the agency got upset when they found out I didn't have a child. Those pesky agency clerks ... mess up a perfectly good dream.

Topic for a book?

[Anonymous Coward]

How about a compilation of content-free popup-free porn sites? That'd be great and would reflect your new free time!

I wish

[Glonoinha]

I wish you had some mod points too, just to see which direction you would mod him (up or down.)

Troll?
Funny?
Insightful? /. get a pretty diverse group, I am guessing all of the above are possible.

Re:I wish

[Hadlock]

heh. Funny, although 'insightful' might be a good option.

Ice Cubes

[Glonoinha]

Ice Cubes - they are cold and hard, like the truth.

Statistically speaking :
1. You are not going to find a job on Monster, Dice, etc... A job may find you there, but if a job is posted it is either a scam, fake job because some recruited is collecting resumes, or 1,200 other Random L. User .COM flunky wannabe's have already flooded the poster with lies err... resumes.
2. You are not going to find a job in the Newspaper want ads.
3. You are not going to find a job watching TV.
4. Job fairs are a joke. I think the only purpose of job fairs is for people with jobs to go to a zoo-like environment where people without jobs are laughed at behind their backs.

Where are jobs found?
1. Personal references. Odds are your next job is going to be a direct result of you being walked in the back door by the hand of someone that knows someone.
2. Friend of a Friend. Just because the company where your friend works isn't hiring, doesn't mean that your friend doesn't know someone at a company where they need someone.
3. Existing Professional Contacts. If you interacted with other companies, you collected a bunch of business cards and you left a very good (memorable) impression. Do not email them, emails containing 'looking for work' get deleted faster than 'bigger schlong' spam - call ahead of time and meet them for lunch. Discuss your situation with them, see if they have any leads.
4. Contract solutions. They suck, and they suck even more if you don't speak Hindi, but if you are willing to suck it up and work for peanuts just to get your foot in the door and are willing to lie a little on your resume (actually the placement agency will create a wonderful work of fiction and put your name on top of it - don't laugh) then you are back in the workplace. The purpose of being back in contact with loads of new people isn't to make a lot of money, it is to make a bunch of new contacts because your existing contact base failed the first three options.

Re:Ice Cubes

[Muhammar]

1. Why the above post is not rated Insightful?
2. Do you by chance happen to know a biotech company in Bay Area (or in/around San Diego) which is looking for an excellent synthetic medicinal chemist with a drug currently in clinical trials (=me)?

tvojkovsky@hotmail. com

Re:Ice Cubes

[Misch]

Actually, I beg to differ. My current position came as a direct result of a contact I made at a job fair. While I agree that they're often useless, (often feeling like cows walking through the stockyard on the way to the slaughterhouse,) you can make contacts and network from them.

All that aside though, I got more contacts and interviews through the positive points 1-3. I also found a group of people specalizing in networking. While things didn't pan out and I didn't land my job through them, the networking and interaction with them definitley helped keep my skills sharp and my spirits up.

I also found out about 2 other groups in my area, more designed for people like me, Rochester Area 20 Somethings, and the Rochester Young Professionals, which also helped me gain contacts, make new friends and keep my spirits up during the job hunt.

Network, netowrk, network.

Re:Ice Cubes

[Anonymous Coward]

What complete cynical trash.

That recruiters pay big bucks to vacuum up resumes off those sites is hardly a reason to avoid them. I've been interviewed, hired, and headhunted from Dice and never from an illegitimate source. I've gotten into major multinationals from job fairs. I've gotten jobs from newspapers. I've also gotten jobs from personal references. They're all tools, nothing more, nothing less. As with anything, no one solution is a panacea, but wholly writing off a very useful tool because of some arrogance about "lies..err resumes," "flunkie wannabe .COMs" etc. is abusive. If anything, a personal favor is far more likely to land a flunkie in an undeserved position than a match found through a decent headhunter whose job it is to separate the chaff.

Must be nice.

[/dev/trash]

Try looking for a job for 18 months and not getting anything but a 5 day temp job? That's how I spend my time. Sending resumes, filling out apps, calling palces, calling my friends.

working on trying to find work

[angeles13]

In the almost two months that I was laid off (you have to cringe with office politics), I have been working on my house, cleaning and rearranging my home office, job hunting (which there market in Phoenix is dead for designers) and trying to establish my own business.

I have been able to spend alot of time with my family that I would not normally be able to, that part is nice. I also have been donating my design services to a non-profit. That project is huge and they don't have the money to pay a designer so I'm donating my time -- it's a feel good project that if I was working I would not have the time to really work on.

oh -- reading /. and posting when I can...

You could make more money ....

[Anonymous Coward]

You could make more money if you were using a website named www.linux-saves.com instead of www.linux-screws.com

Just my $0.02

Re:You could make more money ....

[Anonymous Coward]

Insightful ? I thought that was funny !!

Bah!

[jeremiahstanley]

I'm racking up debt and going back to school.

At least I'll have a degree AND some debt rather than just having the debt. :)

i soend my days

[Anonymous Coward]

mastering my gormet dish to perfection

nacho cheese

Fighting fires

[Anonymous Coward]

I joined my local volunteer fire department. They really need guys during the daytime, when everyone else is at work.

Re:Like MANY of us?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only do you need a class in people-skills, as another poster suggested, but you also need to learn to spell. I guess that the word "unemployed" won't be covered until you get into grade 3. And once you grow up and join the adult world, you'll also learn that working your ass off is no guarantee of employment. Laugh now asshole, your turn will come.

Re:Like MANY of us?

[anthony_dipierro]

What makes you think that "many" of us are unemployeed.

Well, let's see. The national unemployment rate is 6%. Even if the slashdot population is equal (and I'd guess it's higher), that certainly qualifies as "many."

Re:Like MANY of us?

[Anonymous Coward]

He calls himself "GayMannDude" and he works his "fucking ass off". You folks do the math, but it sounds more like it's pleasure for him than work.

I wish I had extra time

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish I had the free time to go and do the things that I want to do. I want to:

-establish a proper security infrastructure for my home network so that I can put my web server, mail server, etc up on the Internet
-create a web site
-start programming shareware products

I have some of the stuff I want already, and I have my Cisco router working but I want to take advantage of my 5 IP addresses.

As it is, I already spend every Saturday improving my network.

I just recently upgraded my Red Hat Linux 7.3 servers to 9 and then downgraded to 8 when I found out that the NPTLs didn't work well with either DB2 or Oracle.

I want to take a blogger program and dumb-it-down so that my friend who knows nothing about computers, web, html, etc can update a web site with pictures and comments of his new baby. Then I want to host this on my own machines at home.

There's plenty of things to do, as long as your smart with your time. Get rid of cable TV, and you'll find out how much time you'll really have. Give your kids 8 hours, and then once your wife gets home, tell her you need 8 hours to upgrade your skills.

Burn out?!?! That's pussy-talk. If you want to stay in the computer industry you have to keep your skills honed, otherwise you become extremely useless extremely quickly.

Many, many things

[Sentry21]

Here are some of the things I ended up doing all the various times I've been unemployed:

After high school was over, I didn't have a job (well, didn't have one beforehand either). I spent a lot of time coding (PHP, learning MySQL, etc), and studying for my CCNA. Then I decided to go to Israel for a few weeks, so I got a job in Montreal, moved there (from Vancouver area), and worked.

When I was in Jerusalem (kind of jobless, I guess), I relaxed, spent quality time with my friends, and went for walks for the sake of going for walks.

After I got back, I was jobless again, so I did some casual work for my parents' company, and went back to programming and studying in my spare time.

I moved to Fredericton to study at UNB, and went from jobful to jobless a few times. In my off hours, I'd visit Chapters and read random books (why buy? and there's a Starbucks there too). When I moved in with a new roommate, I spent a lot of time playing computer games until I realized that not only was I not accomplishing anything with my time off, I wasn't very good at most games either.

I started getting involved with some friends, working on various programming, webhosting, and application development projects. Right now, I have a half dozen things on my plate right now, but since we're all doing things in our non-spare time, I can work on it without feeling like I have to work on it.

I'm spending my summer in The Middle of Nowhere, NS (about two and a half hours from Halifax). I'm staying with a friend who's staying with his parents, so there's no bills to pay, or rent, or food, or anything. Since they're early risers, I get up early too, because hey, why not. After breakfast, maybe around 9 or 10 AM, we'll go get soemthing accomplished. A few days ago, we tore down an old shed that was falling apart. Before that, it was moving a bunch of split wood from where it was to where it should be. Before that, it was splitting it (for those in the know, there was about ten cord or so, maybe a little more, before we split it).

The most important thing that I've been doing, and I've been doing it the whole time, is self-improvement. Learning trades, getting better at things, getting in shape, things like that. Aside from splitting/piling all that wood, I've been doing chinups whenever I walk through a doorway which has been adequately equipped for them, lifting weights when a particularly energetic song comes on, and working on my website (I find that every time I redesign my website, my design skills get better - practice, I guess).

Basically, the unifying trend I've found in what I do when I have more spare time than I'd planned on is self-improvement. That way, when I get a job, or when a prospect comes up, I'll be more attractive to possible employers, I'll be a nicer person to be around for my coworkers, and I'll feel better about myself as well.

--Dan

Re:Many, many things

[skarmor]

from your blog: Can't imagine four months of this. Maybe I'll die instead. Boredom can kill a man. Yawn. No energy to concentrate on things. Will try to pursue personal projects. Maybe gnaw own arm off. We'll see. Hmm...it seems that there is a fair amount of unhappiness to go along with the self-improvement. Maybe you need to get the hell out of Nowhere, NS (Sounds like its somewhere near Shelburne)

SysAdmin for free

[Anonymous Coward]

Claiming that I am finally going to write that killer database app AND market it myself.

This month, that is generally working out to:

1. Figure out why Phorum and FAQ-OMatic don't work and PHP Helpdesk is funky now that I've upgraded the web server to RH9.

2. Get Samba working among the several machines in the _apartment_.

3. Then upgrade THAT Samba server machine to RH9.

4. Back up some stuff on my machine so I can restore (hopefully recently) after a funky backup that had some crashes and left my machine unstable. Sure, let's have standardization and upgrade my workstation to RH9 then too.

5. After removing the NT server from another machine, install XP and Oracle so I have a current vanilla Windows setup that isn't running in some funky linux way.

6. Hope to do some programming next month.

How long has this monthly cycle repeated itself? You really don't want to know. But it's ok. I have the cats to talk to.

Duh!

[kruczkowski]

Use your .sig to your advantage!

Here's what I did ...

[YllabianBitPipe]

About two years ago I went through this.

First off, I allowed myself one week of nothing, then I would get to schedule and do the job search and all that. I had severance to tide me over for a few weeks anyhow. So I made a short list which mainly consited of seeing all the sights in the city I hadn't had time to do, seeing movies during the day, running all the errands I never got around to, cleaning house, etc.

After the week was up it was hardcore job hunting time, but not so hard core I burned out. I did find the most important thing to do was not fall into a funk and sleep til noon. Get up, do your job hunt, take a shower ... basic stuff. I didn't want to fall into the pattern of waking up at noon, not taking a shower til 3 and realizing the day was over, so not going out, basically becoming a total hermit / night owl, playing video games all night. It was actually hard to resist this ... after all, when you're unemployed, you have no place to "be".

The next important thing for me was to cut expenses immediately. Seems like many people assume they'll get a job in a month and proceed to blow their severance on a trip to Thailand or something. Resist it! You should act as if you're not getting a job for months. Cut cable, cancel magazine subscriptions, stop eating out, etc. I think the only liberty I allowed myself was to keep the broadband going as it would aid my job search.

Once you find a job, that's when you get to slack off. The two weeks or so after you've signed the offer letter and you KNOW you just need to show up at work are the best two weeks known to humankind. That's when you sleep til noon and slack off, with not a care in the world because you know you got it made. I wish there were more times like that in a lifetime.

Re:Like MANY of us?

[Anonymous Coward]

What makes you think that "many" of us are unemployeed.

The fact that you're trolling /. in the middle of a work day? :o)

Looking for a job is a full time job

[bolix]

My idea was that braintrusts NEVER go out of fashion. I took 2 weeks off and then spent 8 weeks stalking Universities and BioTechs. I think i damn near resumed every University in the Western Hemisphere.

I shit myself when the fuckers didn't respond.

Thankfully, in the meantime, i'd spammed enough businesses in my neighbourhood with rent-a-geek flyers to keep myself in a hand-to-mouth existence. Savings got lower and lower until the a flood of invoices from mom 'n pops coughed up. I was actually making a living on my own! Whoopie! Some advice - work around retainers - sell saving 5-10 desktop + 1 server companies money on a dedicated IT guy - then hit 'em up for $2-400 a month + expenses or per Desktop + per Server flat rates. Resell 'em prerolled website packages (opensourcecms.com). Sell Dell machines. Sell soho firewalls. Sell MS SBS and SUSE office server. Swing by a couple of times a month for new machines, virus updates etc. Get 5-10 clients and you have enough to pay the mortgage and feed yourself. Do a good job and it snowballs from there.

After 2 months i started to get responses. A lot of responses. Universities are so swamped with dot bomb resumes that even getting a response is almost a bloody lottery. Academia moves at a glacial pace anyway.

When i started interviewing, i was in the luxurious position of having a choice, again. I was in the driving seat. After another 2 months, i accepted a position in Harvard. I.S. here is a mix of laid back, relaxed hippies and semi-rigid offloaded corporates like myself.

I can reliably state, i'm better off for the experience. Knowing i can bounce back and stand on my own 2 feet is a great comfort.

Re:Like MANY of us?

[stefanlasiewski]

I work my fucking ass off.

And yet here you are, reading slashdot, replying to a comment that wasn't directed at you in the first place.

Next time, if the topic annoys you, skip it and move on.

Fools! I'll get them all!

[More Karma Than God]

They laid me off, so I'm building a giant death machine to seek my revenge.

Starting a company..

[cowmix]

I spent the past 4.5 years bitching how if I had my own company things would be 10X better.. Well, I am finding out if I was right or not.. :)

Re:Starting a company..

[Space_Nerd]

Let me shorten the wait for you... you wont :-(

I left a job (not a very good one, but it payed the bills) to partner up with 2 unemployed friends for a 6-month project. The project fell through the last minute, and we're left to our own to sell it (it's a webmetric project, our partners were supposed to sell the service).

Now we're barely getting by competing against indian and russian programmers on scriptlance.com and doing freelance jobs here in argentina.

Not that im bitter or anything.

On the bright side im only 22 and i live with my parents, so i can afford to screw up on this, although i would hate it if that finally happened. Well, at least i have a gf now :-D

Re:Starting a company..

[pentalive]

Can I work at your new company?

Re:Starting a company..

[Anonymous Coward]

And you never get laid off - instead the number of billed hours heads the wrong way.

I'm enjoying the time with the kids, but living off capital sucks.

Started looking for contract work - 100 positions later (that's one a day since I started) and two dozen applications I've landed a real interview!

Strangest thing is not the few rejections - it's that the vast majority of positions get withdrawn, dumbed down or put "on hold for now".

AC today
--
The boss - the guy who can take holidays whenever he wants and never does.

Construction

[mildness]

I pounded nails to pay rent.

Five months later and out of the blue HP called me back to work in a completely different division.

At half pay.

Still, I would have slept with someone to get that job.

Good luck to all my unemployed Brothers and Sisters!

Cheers,

Bill

Re:Construction

[Anonymous Coward]

Still, I would have slept with someone to get that job.

A man or a woman?

Not unemployed, but...

[HeyLaughingBoy]

..since I realize how quickly fortunes change, I have been making "what if" plans. Financially, I can survive an extended period of unemployment. I was always big on saving & investing and don't spend much of what I make. But I have been considering many business ideas. I spend some time each day thinking and researching niches that a small 1-2 person company can enter and prosper in. Both for side projects I can do now, and things that could support me full time should I become unemployed.
We are all going to be on the unemployment line at some time in our careers (I've been there once), why wait for it to happen? Plan now!

Making my own way

[AShocka]

I'm 48, which makes me mostly redundant in the IT market. I don't mind. I was laid off a year ago, and moved back to the countryside to change lifestyle and live more cheaply.

I got a seemingly good job late last year as a J2EE portal developer. But really, it was the same old problem; management thought they had a solution, but anyone could see all they were really doing was being employed to develop something, without their input, which would not fulfill the real user world requirements, and the problem would go on, and on, and on (but it was a job).

I was also sick of a 40 hour week in an office cubicle.

So now I work for myself. I don't get much work at all in web accessibility (as I feel it's marketability / relevance (ROI) is pretty low.. at present). Instead I am developing strategies to run my own server and offer a business of Open CMS solutions, development, tech content, and other information services.

In the mean time, I break my day up between

• Doing stuff to earn money
• Tech writing for future books and web site publication
• Working on the farm (its great to be able to just step out in to the fresh air and do something physical for a while, whenever I want)
• Working on some Open Source projects to maintain skills
• Working on a CMS that is based on Dublin Core/CVS (but I'm looking more and more at http://www.lenya.org/)
• Emailing past colleagues around 11am saying I am either going for a swim in the mountain stream or like minded activities (knowing they are trapped in their cubicle)
• Meditating... trying to reconcile my evil nature for delighting in doing the previous list item
• Tai Chi
• Walk with dogs
• Helping the local Linux User Group assemble computers for poor and needy
• Enjoying the peace and quiet
• Enjoying the work I do, instead of hating it... even though it doesn't pay the bills anymore
• anything else that improves quality of life
• miss the people I worked with though

hired, tired, bored

[aicra]

Yeah, well, I tried to get a job using my sad ass experience.

Things I learned about trying to get a job:

You can't ask questions, you can't be intelligent, education doesn't mean jack, experience doesn't mean jack.

If you can be dicated to and told what to do and never question anything, take a 2 day job and stretch it into 4 weeks, then... you can have a job!!!

All I did was piss off a lot of loser IT "professionals".

This loser threw away a monitor because of a bad vid card and then wanted to reinstall the O/S because he installed the wrong driver and I put the right driver in and it worked fine! Andrew Vandine is a "linux hater". I couldn't believe it!
My first encounter with a linux hater was on the job. Needless to say, I didn't last very long, about a week.

I have moved around a lot doing temp work just to get the bills paid and have never seen such a sorry bunch of IT "professionals" in my life. I say everyone get laptops and fucking reduce the IT support to janitorial work.

Re:Fools! I'll get them all!

[ader]

There's a coincidence. I'm employed and yet I too am building a giant death machine.

...I predict a major clear-out of middle management soon.

Ade_
/

These guys rock!!

[Ratface]

I supported Team Apocalypse last year and will be making a donation again this year. They put in a massive effort last year - the least you can do is send them a few bucks (though possibly a thread about unemployemnt is the wrong place for this ;-)

Go Team Apocalypse!

(Gothfather - is that you??)

Never met an out of work ..

[ginnocent]

Bookie or porno director... Certified electricians and plumbers don't do so bad these days either, and it takes less time and money to get certified than it does to get a degree. Seriously. Unix admins who are used to installing there own cat5 cable and stuff should have no problems getting certified as good old fashioned electricians. I've heard a lot of stories about _huge_ sums made by electrical contractors on major construction projects, or simply those doing residential wiring who are known and trusted in a neighbourhood. We're talking lawyer/banker-sized paychecks. This stuff is well paid because it isn't glamorous and nobody thinks about setting up in plumbing or electrical contracting after years running up student debt & cramming their heads with useless abstract 'middle class' knowledge at university, ergo:- You won't be competing with thousands of unemployed MIT & Stanford Ph.Ds who have no family to provide for and are prepared to work 16 hour days. People need a plumber to stop the poo backing into the shower _even during recessions_.

Drink some coffee. Stare at the wall.

[Leapfrog]

Odd Todd has some good suggestions. I especially like Captain Todd's Mac 'n' Cheese surprise. He also has a book entitled "Hard Times, Soft Couch" with some good suggestions to get you through your period of unemployment. It's good. Not necessarily practical, but it'll provide a momentary distraction anyway.

Monster & the classifieds: a data point

[Soulfader]

Statistically speaking : 1. You are not going to find a job on Monster, Dice, etc... A job may find you there, but if a job is posted it is either a scam, fake job because some recruited is collecting resumes, or 1,200 other Random L. User .COM flunky wannabe's have already flooded the poster with lies err... resumes.

Just as a meaningless data point, I found my last three jobs (everything since I graduated in 2000) via Monster.com (or a similar site) or the local newspaper. It doesn't seem to be helping me much now, so it may be that those methods are less useful of late. I've been home for two months now.

Make you an offer you can't refuse.

[immanis]

Pledge again and I'll maxflip you. check email.

Spending time

[Dead_B0b]

with my wife and six month old daughter. That and trying to find work/stating positive about life.

Its working out rather well.

Back to College to finish what I started.

[MsGeek]

[aohell]Me too![/aohell]

Apparently there is a lot of clamor in K-12 for teachers who are technically savvy. And there is tons of financial aid available for people who are willing to commit to being a public school teacher, especially if you can teach math, science or special education. I'm going for the very latter...special ed. Adaptive tools for learning require technically savvy teachers to help kids use them, need I say more?

It will take me a while. But five years of being a full-time student beats five more years of McJobs while waiting for the tech sector to pick up. Been there, done that, got the trick knee from working the floor at a consumer electronics store which will remain nameless due to the "non-disparagement" clause in the contract I signed with them when I signed on.

Alma mater, I'm comin' home.

pick up a hobby!

[slobberjaws]

..........like compulsive drinking!

Re:Fools! I'll get them all!

[digital photo]

I can only manage to work on mine just before bed time. Where do you find the time? Let alone the parts?

Anyone willing to sell me some naquadria? >:)

gotta change one's perspective

[digital photo]

It's funny. The first thing one thinks about when they are out of work is: How can I get another job just like the one I lost!?

Sometimes, maybe it's better to change one's perspective. Sit back or go do something you hadn't done in a long while on the first day of your jobless existence. If you spent the last period of your life in a concrete jungle... go visit the beach, the forests, or a local garden. If you've been hacking code for longer than you can remember, why not step outside,take a breath, and make for a change of pace?

Don't change your life, but just one day.

Maybe it's just luck, but sometimes, not banging your head into the wall repeatedly to find a job can help you see other opportunities waiting out there.... if not waiting, then at least, it's a door laying ajar, waiting for someone to come through.

Hope the economy picks up soon... personally, I'm ready for a career outside of IT.

retooling -- for free!

[Anonymous Coward]

When I was laid off, I discovered some free classes were offered for professional developement.

I started by taking a Cisco Academy class! We have something called Centers for Education & Technology. It was free and high quality. Fellow students said it was even better than the for pay classes!

I also (g0d help me) started working on my MCSE. It seems to be a check box item for system engineer job interviews. There were several free classes for this, too. But I found the jr. college classes were beter, so I pay $11 a unit for a few of those. I also found this site:
http://www.mcsebraindumps.com/
to prep for the Vue tests. At $100+ a pop i don't want to fail one.

I also considered learning to be a diesel mechanic (for free).

My wife got into a vocational program, and is going to cosmetology school for free ($8,000 retail). All she had to do was have a GED and file the paper work.

So look around, there are opportunities at little or no cost!

bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

You only get probably a couple of chances in life to really enjoy yourself, and this is one of those times.

It is not relaxing wondering when and where one's next paycheck will come from.
It is not enjoyable watching one's back account drain off.

Semi Exit Strategy

[Lips]

I apologise for the rant and some of the things that are off topic, but I think my answer needs context.

I was retrenched in Feb. Partially my fault since I didn't suck up enough to the bosses. But now this fuckedcompany has announced a second round of retrenchments I'm told by friends still there. The consultant market is just dead in Australia.

I've been in IT for 13 years. Overall, it's been a real let down. Long hours (worker charity business model), PHBs ("can't we release it without testing?" one asked me), crap projects. I love IT, but not some of the workplaces. The problem is I don't know anything else other than IT, I hate working for other people and I don't have the entrepreneurial skills to start a business. But I am a greenie and I care about the future of humanity and the planet. And I detest our overly consumerist society.

I don't trust a business to do the right thing so I don't want to depend on a full time job. How many of you were retrenched so the company can keep up a decent profit GROWTH. Not profit, but profit GROWTH. Those assholes sacrificed you and me to please shareholders and "earn" their share options. Not to mention the systemic corruption and dishonesty in businesses, does anyone really think Enron, Tycho, HIH, OneTel, etc. are isolated incidents?

After a lot of thinking and chance reading of articles I found a solution which could fit all my criteria.

I'm going to partially drop out. In 5 years time I want to have built and moved into my own nice eco friendly house and do the permaculture thing. I want to be self-sufficienct in a practical way. I want to be close enough to Melbourne so I can work 1-2 days per week if I need to. But far enough so I can buy 5 acres cheaply and that I have decent dark skies to pursue my astronomy. I also want to have broadband so I can still do IT from home and participate in open source projects, play games, real Slashdot, view p0rn, etc.

So to get to the point....To achieve all this, while I was out of work I started to learn new skills and do research. I built a raised veggie patch and I planted an autumn/winter crop. I did research on different kinds of cheap and eco friendly building. I briefly researched power systems to see what sorts of things are possible. I looked around for a good chicken coup design, starting to build it next week :) I joined a seed savers club. I looked for decent cheap land within 1 hour drive to the city. I looked around for permacultutre courses and places to visit to see if I really want to make this big lifestyle change. And I was still looking for work of course.

Fortunately I was able to get a new job after 2 months. I haven't changed my mind, so this wasn't an unemployed depression thing. My journey has begun :)

Re:Semi Exit Strategy

[Anthony]

One Question:- With 5 acres, what is you water supply? Chances are the water catchment is overutilised already. Make sure you are part of the solution and not the problem. Good luck.

Re:Semi Exit Strategy

[Lips]

We would of course have a dam or 3. You can buy trout fingerlings cheaply im told :) Greywater system for non food garden. And rainwater in tanks for the veggie garden and home usage. Not all the 5 acres would be used. Some would be left as or reverted to native vegetation(if possible). And I will try to ensure that even after I'm gone, it stays like that forever. I know that people live the "permaculture life" this way so I hope I can as well.

The really cool thing about the power is this...I will make sure the house is on the grid. This way I don't need to have batteries to store power. Everything I generate, I will sell to the power comps. I'll still have normal 240v appliences. But the really cool thing is...I will sell it for more than I buy it possibly, see this, AGL Green Energy.

I don't have all the answers yet. But I'll get there.

thanks!!

How about looking for a job?

[ogre2112]

There are so many jobs out there it isn't funny. I think the problem is this..

When you get laid off, don't expect to get the exact same job you had at another company. Don't cubbyhole yourself into one job title, or even one field. Chances are you won't find the exact same job, and you'll be sitting at home reading slashdot like this fool--when you should be hitting the streets with a newspaper in one hand and your briefcase (purse?) in the other.

Yes, I too got laid off 2 weeks ago. In Raleigh, NC--where it's just as bad as anywhere else lately. As the average unemployment rate goes down, here it's still increasing. I'm not the model A+ worker (I do my best) and I had zero problems finding a job within 2 weeks at a 4% increase in salary in the IT field. The jobs are out there people!

This guy has a kid, and a wife working part time, and he's looking for ways to slack off? Umm.. Hello?

Laid-off

[anythings-possible-b]

TOPIC: LAID-OFF.

hi.

i went camping for 3 months. it's really cool when i came back to "civilisation".
i went to a bookstore first and, oh my god, i looked so different. it's not like
they changed anything, but it just "look-and-felt" different.
-
i felt i was going mad after no work. staying in a city. everyday me hanging around.
people bustling, going to work, etc. so i dicidet to go camping.
i was quit cheap. no rent. free water. more or less free food. of course i went
to buy some groceries once in a while. i even met some people and made new
friends.
i was great. new perspective. i couldn't help it, but i was "surfing the net in my head". i mean
the comp was what i missed most. so i imagined what would be on WIRED, SLASHDOT,etc.
and remembered past websites i had visited ... and reflecting on my live ...
i was living in a tent, when my parents thougt i would be a good idea, if i get some
"degrees" so i told them i would visit a (don't laugh) "Office for beginners" course. since i already
knew everything (more or less intuitive) i didn't need a comp. (YES, some people really sucker you into courses like this ...)
-
else: piled up some stones. went to dam a "river". watched the animals, etc. made a dreamcatcher ...
-
i didn't find a job for few months after camping, and nah, the degree doesn't help, but i didn't
feel so caught in prison called "civilisation" when i came back.
-
plant some tomatoes, etc. garlic, chilli. planting helps.

Re:Laid-off

[Anonymous Coward]

"planting helps."

Especially if you're planting weed. :-)

Farming!

[Chuck Milam]

Fortunately, I was able to take advatage of some good timing and a family safety net to return home to the family farm. I haven't driven tractor since high school, but it's kind of like riding a bike. I have to admit, after cutting all my expenses and doing "real work" here for my family, I might find it hard to return to a cube farm working for the man.

What I do...

[Anonymous Coward]

ATTENTION ALL READERS: THIS POST WOULD HAVE BEEN IN A NICELY FORMATTED LIST, except that the lameass lameness filter kept complaining about some inane bullshit about there being too few characters in a line, or too many junk characters or whatever... I for one could care less - I simply want to provide some information the poser of the question so he'll have some additional information for his book.... nothing more, nothing less.... So here comes the list as one crapply formatted contiguous line... Hope your fscking happy TACO....

Look for a *real* job.,Work at home depot for health care benys... (lost 30+ lbs in 3 months too... fucken hard place to work guys,Consult thru my own company - picked up some projects here and there - maybe they'll turn into a real job.,Work with a general contractor - tore out walls, schlepped all sorts of shit... rewired houses with CAT5 and RG6 and Fiber...,Built firewalls for people...,Wrote books on commission..,Inspected houses...,Worked out....,Learned to drive power machines like fork lifts, electric pallet jacks, reach trucks, order pickers (you really overcome your fear of heights or you just piss your pants),Slept... for like 10-15 hours, then got up, pissed, and went back to sleep - BECAUSE I COULD......,Hung out with some friends....,Funny thing though - I stopped smoking weed because I'm looking for a real job and don't want to potentially fuck that up just for a buzz...,Rewired the house....,Built an office in my coach house.....,Installed a pond....,Cleaned gutters.....,Cut lawns...,Shoveled snow.,Downloaded lots of Pr0n :-) (hey, at least I'm honest)....,Set up monitoring for lots of networks..,Managed some domains for people.....,Wrote resumes..,Gave career counseling.,Attended about 50zillion networking events... met lots of neat people...,Audited and went thru the books of a loan business - that had an embezeller running the place.....,Went to those crazy research for cash events about *whatever* they happened to be on..,Painted the garage..,
Dated some really really really strange girls - realized that the one I should have married 17 years ago is the one I need to marry now...,Cleaned decks with a high-pressure washer..,Helped rehab houses...,Actually took on that nearly sentient pile of laundry in the corner and WASHED IT ALL!,Changed the sheets! :-),Stopped drinking soooooooo much coffee.....,
Read many of the books I always wanted to read..,Pulled the weeds out of my garden and trimmed the bushes...,Watched some old Dr. Who series until my head hurt...,Bought and sold cars at auctions....,Actually threw out a bunch of old computers and shit that were totally useless and worthless...

This man has some advice for you

[Cousin Dupree]

Odd Todd

Enjoy!

teak farm

[Anonymous Coward]

If I get laid off I'm going to go to Costa Rica and buy a teak farm. Plant the trees and 20 years later they can be harvested for good money. Some big tech companies apparently do this. If they can diversify, so should we be able to!

Went back to school

[Anonymous Coward]

When I got laid off for the second time in nine months, I went back to school to finish my BA. I had been working on finishing up the Linguistics degree I stopped working on eight years previously, but taking one course a quarter at night is slow.

It was June and summer classes were starting, so I signed up for the Spanish intensive course, six hours a day for four weeks and I knocked out the equivalent of two quarters of Spanish. Then I spent the next quarter finishing up the Spanish and taking a freshman Biology class.

So, in two quarters, I finished my undergrad degree. Now, a BA in Linguistics is pretty useless if you're working in software, but it's done. I have my sheepskin. I can go to grad school if I want, I can use it if I want to move to another country. It was nice to take a break from work and finish up unfinished business.

Of course, I have the degree now and I'm back looking for work. Not so fun. I'm keeping busy taking online computer courses from the community college.

Lucky you!

[Webmoth]

"Like many of you I'm recently laid..." Like many of me? Are you kidding? I can't even get a date! "...off." Oh.

Lesson number one: finish reading before commenting.

Thanking I still have a job.

What do you do for money?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was unemployed for 3 years once. Best time of my life! It just doesn't pay too well. I think the ideal job would be a part time drug-dealer. Sell dope to make a living and then have the rest of the time to yourself. You living on welfare or is your wife making a lot of cash? If I was unemployed I'd be fucked.

From the other side...

[schizmat]

Many responses here talk about the difficulties of finding a gig.

I've been experiencing the same problem from the other angle - trying to recruit without contract agencies or recruitment pimp^WConsultants.

Networking is failing, job ads recieve little response, online CV stores generate an appalling signal/noise ratio - eg you specify one location, and you get automated/db generated responses from everywhere but. We get more calls from recruitment companies than applicants - and we take the view that is cash is going anywhere, it's better in the applicant's pocket that the recruitment agencies!

We KNOW how hard it is to find work, but it's damn hard to get good people also!

I know I'm gonna get battered for this, but: Job Ad Here I know that Slashdot is NOT a recruitment board, but do I get clemency for for relevance? We're moving (a little too gradually IMHO) away from M$, and Slashdot seems the right place to go

Seriously - WHERE do companies like ours and "direct recruiters" look to avoid swamping by agencies or paper MCSE's? I don't know what it's like elsewhere, but this seems needlessly difficult here in the UK.