Comments on: After a layoff, a family learns to cope

Balancing the checkbook is a tense chore for an unemployed IT consultant and his wife. Their story is becoming less unique.

[Penguinisto]

I feel bad for 'em - it sucks having to deal with being laid off...

...but I've got a request, if I may.

How about some positive news once in awhile? For instance, my employer is still growing like crazy and our sales outlook is very nice. Though we are hiring intelligently, we're still hiring - for instance, there's two help desk positions that are going through the interview stage right now. There are a lot of smaller companies as well that are doing the same thing.

Just because there's panic in some large companies, does not mean there's panic in all of them. Also, there is still no shortage of positions available if you're willing to trade comfort for contract, and are willing to move out of Silly Valley. For instance, my former employer Intel still has quite an impressive number of contract positions open up here in Oregon - programmers, IT, and suchlike. Proof? There were a couple of headhunter queries in my inbox that I had to politely refuse just this morning. Yes, it's anecdotal, but a quick trip through Monster or Dice can confirm what I'm saying.

Seriously - the Apocalypse is not upon us, Charles... how about some articles that reflect the life that is still in this industry, instead of the heavy doom-and-gloom?

/P

[charlie cooper]

yo penguisto...fair point, though i think we've also written a lot about the success stories that are out there. but we're also trying to understand how the recession is affecting people who work in this industry. that is, i'm sure you would acknowledge, a very big story

[test_tester3]

nice family

[Penguinisto]

There are a few good news items here and there - I agree with you on that much, but damn... They seem to get easily drowned in the flood of bad news.

[jlongino]

Oh no. With all the layoffs, the pool of qualified IT employees will shrink even more!

[myles taylor]

The thing is, there are still jobs out there. You just can't be picky.

[dbeikman]

You must not be out of a job... I too am in the same boat as the featured story - worked in IT at Thomson, earnings in the mid 50's, educated and a single mother of 15 year old triplets. I have applied for over 100 jobs - some that I would never have considered in the past and I have had ONE interview!!! I am frightened as hell! I am a student at IWU and I have NO idea what to do. I even have my kids asking their firends to ask their parents if they may have a job for me. With a degree in business it would seem that "there are jobs out there" but you my firend have no idea wht the competition is like in our current situation. God Bless.

[Penguinisto]

I don't know how else to say it, but I think I know why you're seeing a lot of troubles.

* A degree in Business doesn't go too far in the IT field. Now a degree in CompSci or Engineering OTOH would get a lot more attention. If you have IT experience and want to stay in IT, emphasize the experience instead of the degree.
* Simply shotgunning your resume to every opening you see on Monster won't get you far. You would do better to write up some resumes that are custom-tailored to different industries (e.g. one that emphasizes software skills, one that promotes hard IT skills, a generic one that emphasizes business skills (for managerial type positions), etc.
* Check in with local IT headhunters.
* Be willing to hit up contract positions and not just full-time (as a for instance). When I did contract, I had the luxury of choosing to apply for only permanent positions. When a contract began to wind down, I got not-so-choosy about what I would consider.
* If you're really hurting, don't refuse to check on positions offering less money. You can always negotiate for more after the acceptance (assuming it gets to that point), and anything beats unemployment.
* Do something that's actually productive and constructive while you're sitting around the house - there are sites (e.g. guru.com) where there are plenty of folks who are looking to get small projects done and are willing to pay for it. It keeps your skills sharp and at the same time you can make a bit of cash off-the-books.

myles taylor is right - there are jobs out there... you just have to know where and how to look.

[myles taylor]

@dbeikman

I was out of a job about two weeks ago. Now I'm employed again. I agree that I was lucky, but there are always jobs.

I don't quite understand. You are a student, have a degree in business, and are a single mom? If you have a degree, why are you a student?

Anyway, good luck and I hope you find something soon.

[globalist_agenda]

H-1Bs? H1B program should immediately be frozen. Congress should require that H1Bs be terminated before permanent staff. Gates and the other pukes always talk about labor shortages but you never hear a peep out of them during recessions.

[Penguinisto]

How are you so sure that all the layoffs are IT/tech-related?

The second part I can get on board with, though.

[flitcraft33]

This is about the worst thing that can happen to a person. I would personally rather be diagnosed with terminal cancer than be layed off. Especially in a down economy. Is there any organized way of helping these folks in the IT community?

My heart goes out to you guys even as I sit worrrying I may be next, especially since I am the oldest guy in the department. I agree with the comment about freezing H1-Bs. If nothing else, spend some of the $7 Trillion bailout retraining layed off people and subsidizing internships for them so they can do some work with their new skills.

Dan S.

[alb203]

The worse part will be after it takes you a year to finally find a new job, in 5 years when you want to get a different job employers will ask you to explain why you have a year gap in your resume. And trust me unless they were someone that was laid off at the same time as you their going to act like something must be wrong with you.

[mxrss1]

This is what i have to say, my dad was laid off in early 1998 he did not work in the IT industry but rather the manufacturing industries beaten at 55 he went into a depression but he got out of it and within a year landed another job. Unfortunatly he got laid off from that job about 2 years ago but found another job with in almost of an instant, i think people need to look for employment where ever it may be. And two people might want to see why they are not being interviewed perhaps you need to update skillset remember not everyone uses windows NT 4.1 (not saying that you do), I am employed for the moment but i do two things, i work really really hard ( no such thing as 9 to 5 ) and i contract outside the company and diligently keep my skills up-to-date.

In this economy you have to have an edge, that no one has. If the IT sector is dull (too many IT and Sys Admins to count) then learn another trade, take a pay cut and work from the ground floor. I knew years ago that with all the advances is computing you can rapidly and more effectively cut IT staff. Also you need to see why they are considering the H1B's over the non-H1b's if you can prove your worth your stock in paper willing to give yourself to the company because lets face it each employee is a stockholder in the company and shares the companies succcess and failures. And that also meaning to willing to take a paycut. I would gladly take a paycut where i work to save my job.

The last thing people should realize is that you should network with as many people as you can you never know when it may lead to your next job. It really is who you know and you never know when you may meet someone from a new prospective company that may want to employ you.

Also you may want to jazz up your resume a bit, something tells me that you have experience on it that does not qualify you in the eyes of HR managers. It may be necessary for you to share your resume with other people to help you out. Spelling mistakes, incorrect grammar or non-applicable experience on your resume could easily see your way to the bottom of the drawer. 1 out of 100 kind of tells me that because even in such times you should of gotten more then 1 out of 100 hits maybe 5-6 more.

I do wish you luck and hope you find your next job, I also wish you and your kids a merriest of christmas's.

- Mike

[eagle6666]

We are hiring System/Network Administrator.

pls check it out. www.narus.com

-john

[andyerickson]

it's Andy Erickson. Yep, the one in the story. You can find my personal response to being laid off and to this story http://makingadifference.andyerickson.org/2008/12/06/positively-coping-with-the-economy/ which is one of my personal blogs.

Also, I'm an optimist, which didn't come through very well in this story. You can find my professional profile on LinkedIn and hopefully you'll see some of the good: http://www.linkedin.com/in/andyerickson

[ritakish88]

so did u get the job

[ritakish88]

dbeikman that comment is for u sry to just put it out there