Back in the 1980's, the FBI would raid Silicon Valley companies to free Chinese workers who brought over to the U.S. illegally, work long hours for little or no pay, and locked up each night inside the buildings.
The master resume that list all my jobs is ten pages long. The five-page resume is for the job search websites. I have a two-page resume for recruiters and hiring managers.
My employment contracts for the last 12 years has prohibited me from working over 40 hours per week. None of the Fortune 500 companies want to pay overtime anymore. The last time I worked overtime was when I was a lead video game tester, working 60 hours per week, taking two classes at the community college to learn computer programming, and teaching Sunday school at church.
Your problem in getting work in smaller companies is probably because they've got you pegged as a big-company bureaucrat and not up to doing anything outside a fixed domain.
My domain is cleaning up messes. I did a PC refresh project at a local hospital several years ago. Contract was for one-year, I got it done in nine months. Besides unboxing, reimaging and deploying 1,500 PCs and 3,000 monitors, I also cleaned up a storage room filled with so much old IT equipment that no one had seen the floor in eight years. It took me six weeks in between tickets to empty out the storage room and send everything off to the recycler. No one asked me to do this. This was a mess waiting for someone to clean it up. The IT manager waved about me when recruiters called to check out my references because I solved an unsolvable problem.
Also, I've _never_ heard of the term enterprise level applied to a qualification!
If you're working for a large company, check the system properties for Windows. It should Windows 7 Enterprise. Enterprise IT is a different ballgame than IT for medium- or small-sized companies.
It sounds like your manager was like those little Steve Jobs' that populate the tech industry and believe they can have world class design on third world budgets.
No, just a douche bag who got promoted into management and thought he was better than anyone else because he was in management.
I'm generally in the top three of any job with a 98% SLA (service level agreement) completion rate. I would be number one but the telephone guys have a surplus of five minute tickets. My manager tried restricting me to one ticket per day that requires four to five hours to fix. But we ran out of those. Hence, I got laid off for being too productive.
Why would it be my fault? Sometimes circumstances are beyond our control.
After the Great Recession was "officially" over, there were seven applicants for every job opening in 2009 and 2010. During those two years I was told by recruiters that I was "unemployable" for anything. I had 20 interviews during that time. The day after my bankruptcy got finalized in 2011, I had a full-time job as there were three applicants for every job opening.
I was informed by my manager that I was being laid off because of the government shutdown in 2013. During those eight months I was unemployed, I had 60 job interviews and had three job offers at the end before selecting my current job.
You just wrote that you do the work of 5 people, yet you can't hold a job. I see the problem.
Being the most productive worker doesn't make you immune from the vagaries of the job market when working for Fortune 500 companies. Especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession in 2009, when no was hiring help desk technicians, and the Government Shutdown in 2013, where the corporations were taking a wait-and-see attitude towards Republican obstruction.
I got laid off because I was too productive at one job. My manager had to decide between laying off five people or me. He found it easier to tell one person than five people that they were being laid off. Didn't do him any good. Six months later, he had laid off a third of the department (including the five people he didn't want to lay off) and he got laid off shortly after that.
when I go for an interview, many times I'm the only caucasion there; and everyone else is indian.
So what? California is minority-majority state, where minorities outnumbered white people. Get used to it.
does this fairly represent the locale? does this give fair chance to those born and raised here?
I live in the middle of Silicon Valley. At my apartment complex, I'm the only white person who lives there. Everyone else is Asian, Indians, and Latinos (i.e., the melting pot of America).
I've been out of work since march of this year.
You're two months into your six month vacation. Sheesh... I was out of work for two years (2009-10), underemployed for six months (working 20 hours per month), and filed for Chapter Seven bankruptcy in 2011. I was out of work for eight months in 2013-2014. It goes with the territory.
I'm really tired of this shit. work a job for a bit, then get laid off and be off for months if not longer. for now until I die, it will probably be like this.
Done that for 12+ years as an IT support contractor.
I've been working for Fortune 500 companies for the last 20+ years. Since I'm pegged as a "enterprise" tech, it's often difficult for me to find work in medium- or small-sized companies. Probably because I can easily replace five people by myself because I know how to juggle multiple tasks and priorities under pressure.
I had a manager who thought of himself as the next Jack Welch, implemented a bottom 10% firing policy, and drove out the top 10% out of the company. I was the third out of a dozen senior lead testers who responded to the manager's "his way or the highway" speech by submitting my resignation. He drove the company all the way into bankruptcy. Not surprisingly, he blamed other people for that disaster.
In other news from TFA, big companies are still adding workers while other companies are laying off workers:
The Bay Area's skyrocketing tech layoffs reflect a transformation in the sector, said Stephen Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.
"We are being increasingly driven by the growth of the large companies," Levy said. "What you did not see on the list is layoffs from Apple or Google or Facebook or LinkedIn... which are all expanding. This is the era of the large companies."
In short, it's not all doom-and-gloom in the Valley.
Slashdot Mirror
Back in the 1980's, the FBI would raid Silicon Valley companies to free Chinese workers who brought over to the U.S. illegally, work long hours for little or no pay, and locked up each night inside the buildings.
Well he does have a five page resume.
The master resume that list all my jobs is ten pages long. The five-page resume is for the job search websites. I have a two-page resume for recruiters and hiring managers.
So which "lucky" company hired him after that?
Customer support at a car rental company. Not everyone who burns down the company gets a promotion with the next job.
You make a good case to support your asshole nature.
Eli The Computer Guy on YouTube makes a good argument as to why IT techs should be assholes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_YaNGzplbE
I'm single and have no friends.
My employment contracts for the last 12 years has prohibited me from working over 40 hours per week. None of the Fortune 500 companies want to pay overtime anymore. The last time I worked overtime was when I was a lead video game tester, working 60 hours per week, taking two classes at the community college to learn computer programming, and teaching Sunday school at church.
The more you write, the more I understand why you're mostly employed.
FTFY
Seems to me /. Is the wrong place for you.
Slashdot exists to keep me amused at work while I wait for a script to finish.
With your skills and attitude, you'll be out of work in no time.
I'm trying very hard not to put humanity out of work. Utopia would be very boring without anything to do.
You know what they say, "You are an ass."
You're correct that I'm assuming that you're an ass.
Your problem in getting work in smaller companies is probably because they've got you pegged as a big-company bureaucrat and not up to doing anything outside a fixed domain.
My domain is cleaning up messes. I did a PC refresh project at a local hospital several years ago. Contract was for one-year, I got it done in nine months. Besides unboxing, reimaging and deploying 1,500 PCs and 3,000 monitors, I also cleaned up a storage room filled with so much old IT equipment that no one had seen the floor in eight years. It took me six weeks in between tickets to empty out the storage room and send everything off to the recycler. No one asked me to do this. This was a mess waiting for someone to clean it up. The IT manager waved about me when recruiters called to check out my references because I solved an unsolvable problem.
Just when the Swift programming language looked so promising it had to go rogue.
I can reassure that I have never worked with your mother.
Also, I've _never_ heard of the term enterprise level applied to a qualification!
If you're working for a large company, check the system properties for Windows. It should Windows 7 Enterprise. Enterprise IT is a different ballgame than IT for medium- or small-sized companies.
That would be the Dell Techs, the new Geek Squad. I've seen job listings for $11 to $17 per hour and $0.35 to $0.50 per mile reimbursement.
Uh, no. That would be the manager.
I have considered taking project management classes and certification for my next career change. ;)
It sounds like your manager was like those little Steve Jobs' that populate the tech industry and believe they can have world class design on third world budgets.
No, just a douche bag who got promoted into management and thought he was better than anyone else because he was in management.
No, I'm an asshole. I wouldn't be in IT if I wasn't. Douche bags are failed IT techs who got promoted into management.
I'm generally in the top three of any job with a 98% SLA (service level agreement) completion rate. I would be number one but the telephone guys have a surplus of five minute tickets. My manager tried restricting me to one ticket per day that requires four to five hours to fix. But we ran out of those. Hence, I got laid off for being too productive.
Why would it be my fault? Sometimes circumstances are beyond our control.
After the Great Recession was "officially" over, there were seven applicants for every job opening in 2009 and 2010. During those two years I was told by recruiters that I was "unemployable" for anything. I had 20 interviews during that time. The day after my bankruptcy got finalized in 2011, I had a full-time job as there were three applicants for every job opening.
I was informed by my manager that I was being laid off because of the government shutdown in 2013. During those eight months I was unemployed, I had 60 job interviews and had three job offers at the end before selecting my current job.
You just wrote that you do the work of 5 people, yet you can't hold a job. I see the problem.
Being the most productive worker doesn't make you immune from the vagaries of the job market when working for Fortune 500 companies. Especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession in 2009, when no was hiring help desk technicians, and the Government Shutdown in 2013, where the corporations were taking a wait-and-see attitude towards Republican obstruction.
I got laid off because I was too productive at one job. My manager had to decide between laying off five people or me. He found it easier to tell one person than five people that they were being laid off. Didn't do him any good. Six months later, he had laid off a third of the department (including the five people he didn't want to lay off) and he got laid off shortly after that.
when I go for an interview, many times I'm the only caucasion there; and everyone else is indian.
So what? California is minority-majority state, where minorities outnumbered white people. Get used to it.
does this fairly represent the locale? does this give fair chance to those born and raised here?
I live in the middle of Silicon Valley. At my apartment complex, I'm the only white person who lives there. Everyone else is Asian, Indians, and Latinos (i.e., the melting pot of America).
I've been out of work since march of this year.
You're two months into your six month vacation. Sheesh... I was out of work for two years (2009-10), underemployed for six months (working 20 hours per month), and filed for Chapter Seven bankruptcy in 2011. I was out of work for eight months in 2013-2014. It goes with the territory.
I'm really tired of this shit. work a job for a bit, then get laid off and be off for months if not longer. for now until I die, it will probably be like this.
Done that for 12+ years as an IT support contractor.
Sounds like gloom and doom to me.
I've been working for Fortune 500 companies for the last 20+ years. Since I'm pegged as a "enterprise" tech, it's often difficult for me to find work in medium- or small-sized companies. Probably because I can easily replace five people by myself because I know how to juggle multiple tasks and priorities under pressure.
I had a manager who thought of himself as the next Jack Welch, implemented a bottom 10% firing policy, and drove out the top 10% out of the company. I was the third out of a dozen senior lead testers who responded to the manager's "his way or the highway" speech by submitting my resignation. He drove the company all the way into bankruptcy. Not surprisingly, he blamed other people for that disaster.
The Bay Area's skyrocketing tech layoffs reflect a transformation in the sector, said Stephen Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.
"We are being increasingly driven by the growth of the large companies," Levy said. "What you did not see on the list is layoffs from Apple or Google or Facebook or LinkedIn ... which are all expanding. This is the era of the large companies."
In short, it's not all doom-and-gloom in the Valley.