Weekend Open Thread > I am jobless...

I am jobless...

reply to keyboard5684
That is absolutely not a rant. I would echo the comments to "branch out" if you can. I know, may be easier said than done.

Don't sit on your a$$ and do nothing, although you may want to. May be start your own thing?

I work for company with branches within 2 hours of you--I will check on Monday if there are any IT openings at all at either place, and if so, I will send you a PM.
--
"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy." - George Carlin

[my ramblings]

reply to NY Tel
I have thought about other areas, and it is tough to jump into those at this time. Health care is certainly something I have looked at, and tried to get into. The training is the thing, I cannot afford to take on more loans to go back to school let alone the time. Other option has been engineering since half my career has involved engineering (real engineering, designing patented technologies, etc).

Also, I would be competing against a very large pool of people as far as health care positions, say radiology or something similar.

If I could, I would take the time out and go back to school and go for strictly medical training. I would like to pursue medical school, but I am 33 and limited in funds.

Schooling I have been given the advice that I would be no further ahead. Reason being that my resume/skills/experience outweigh a degree in many ways.

I LOVE what I do, I love doing network work, and I am an expert at Cisco, Avaya and similar technologies and all that is involved. I have built 2 ISPs from the ground up, one was bought out the other is about sell. I can do what few can, but the demand and expressing that is hard. I need the interview to get that point across. I do not want to leave the IT career, I went from law enforcement to network engineer and have stayed with it for over a decade. I was writing programs at 8 years old!

But again, jumping to something else needs training, but I am willing to do it.

I appreciate the ideas and encouragement.

I just sent you a PM with some open IT positions at my company.

Hey, you never know.

reply to keyboard5684
Ya know, I feel the same way in some respects.

I feel as though I have reason to bitch, but then again, I feel as though I don't.

I've had the same job for 11 years. I absolutely hate it. At least my Full Time Job. The PT job is tons of fun, and puts some extra cash on the table, so that's like a hobby that pays cash.

But my FT job is nothing short of a fucking grind. Difficult, adversarial, addicted, mentally ill people who want nothing but to be left alone, and I can't do that, as it's my job to play parent to adults who had no parents in the first place. Often enduring being spit upon by people with hepatitis and sometimes being shot at.

So, I'm happy to have a job, as so many are jobless. Even though when times were good they gave me (or no one around me) a raise. As a matter of fact, I've received not so much as a cost of living adjustment since 2003. OK, I can hack that, since I have a job.

I found out Tuesday they're cutting everyone's pay 10%. Like I said, we have jobs, but now I'm making the same amount of money I made 6 years and two hard fought promotions ago. Considering how long it's been since I've seen a raise in general sometimes I feel like I would be better off on unemployment.

And sometimes I feel like a damn ingrate.....

No matter how you slice it, it's some fucked up times we're living in.....
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Petty people are disproportionably corrupted by petty power…

reply to keyboard5684
No offense, but with your attitude you will never get a good job.

You talk "I can't" this, and "that wouldn't help" that. You want to get ahead stop looking at the barriers as insurmountable and start figuring out ways you can overcome them. A good start would be to cancel your stupid direct TV that you shouldn't have since you're living off the government dole and put that money to some other use that might actually get you somewhere, like a fund to pay for training.

You need to come to the realization that you probably aren't going to get another strictly IT job and start looking into broadening your skill set be it more education, or a job you really don't want to do for now. Life sucks sometimes and we don't always get to do what we want all the time, it's time to grow up. Even if you get a job at McDonalds it shows potential employers that you're willing to do what it takes to get the job done even if it means setting aside your pride and doing a job you probably consider below you.

--edet-- I bee maken aup werds twodey.
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Come let us reason together.

No offense taken.

I was really starting more of a generalized post, not really dishing out my life story. More of a poll in my mind. It is tough to make judgments, and I do not expect accurate ones, based on a post like mine. Life does suck, and people make do.

My last position was actually a combination of network engineer and development for an energy company. Basically designing equipment to automate oil and gas production facilities. The monitoring, analysis of data, and predictions of oil and gas productions based on particular modifications of control mechanisms. This required full knowledge of network, server, and other IT systems. However, it required the knowledge of how oil/gas are pushed from the ground. Basically chemistry, geology, and many other fields all rolled into one.

Government "doll" pays more than McDonalds. I am certainly willing to take lesser positions, and I have, which supplement my income (you can work and still get unemployment).

I can pay for training, question is do I want to and for what? Training, I feel, at this point will give me just a piece of paper that says I can do it. That is fine, but will it really be worth anymore than my experience? Will that piece of paper really help me get a job? No guarantees, ever. Will it hurt, no.

It has nothing to do with pride, it has to do with realistic outcomes. Is working at McDonalds, which would completely cut off my government "doll", worth it? Is that really going to show anyone that matters anything? I would not be able to make my mortgage payments, I would lose everything, and I would be working full time at McDonalds at lesser pay than my unemployment pays. Sucks, but the unemployment is there to ensure, or help ensure, that you are able to maintain a certain quality of life while you find another job.

I have kids, if it makes a difference, and they require that particular money. They have requirements. With a family it is no longer a selfish issue, it is a critical issue because you are under enormous pressure to provide for them.

Also, the government (tax payers) do not pay for unemployment, employers do. In this case the employer who tossed me is footing the bill and will continue to do so. It is not government money, it is company money. They pay into unemployment insurance for this reason.

reply to N3OGH
That seems to be another problem, many people are being cut pay. This is basically the same as being put on unemployment except you are going to work everyday.

I feel bad for you because I think that would be worse than just being unemployed. You are basically "forced" to make less to do the same thing. You do not have the "free time" to hit the pavement and look for a new job.

You see the news, and they paint this picture, but the picture is coming from statistics and pic and choose articles. I really do not think it captures it all.

My neighbors, all of them that I have talked to, are layed off. It is odd because we got this nice day here so I take the kids out in the yard, and noticed everyone else doing the same thing (older kids in school, some people just out doing yard work or whatever). Well, this was a weekday, when everyone is working, but nobody was. So I started talking and asking and they all where just layed off? More neighbors overheard and gathered around and it was amazing to hear the stories.

Unemployment, pay cuts, all of this just makes people feel like shit. Moral is horrible, but what can people do?

College students are scared to death to leave college because they have nothing to look forward to.

Retired people are loosing there investments, there retirements? They are scared to death as well.

reply to keyboard5684

reply to Jeffrey
Thank you.

I do agree on the branching out. I did not post my resume, maybe should! But I have a diverse few companies that I worked for and that did give me specific training in different areas. I say IT, I guess it would be more accurate to say in the technology areas.

I am not going to sit on my ass. I have found that 1 week, and then it is so much harder the next week to get up and going. You HAVE to keep at it, keep hitting the pavement and keep working at it.

I never looked, but there should be an unemployed forum. More for networking (in the sense of people) to really try and get a diverse set of people looking for jobs. I know places hiring for certain things, I need those hiring for others?

I did start my own thing upon layoff. However, I was trying to start a WISP and consulting company. I was sued into oblivion by people that did not want me to succeed. I won, but that does not mean they pay me back in my legal fees. Longer story short, I am still doing the consulting which is here and there, certainly not full time but I hope it grows.

reply to Combat Chuck
Yes, I started a consulting company upon layoff. I do consulting for many different small companies.

I have also done some contract work. Different banks and other large companies.

reply to keyboard5684
I in the same boat but unemployed Technician and did not lose my job because of my economy, I have no hard feelings for the company I left, it was a business decision and as running a side business I been in the same where I was over my had and had to cut my losses.
IT always been a vulnerable field, forget outsourcing as the problem, For most business IT is an expense and not a way to ad value for example I do not care how much you save IT doesn’t make money for an auto parts store. I also felt IT oversold itself as the cure for everything and frankly living in it own technical buzz word charged world.
I would keep working at it, in addition consider expanding your search and relocate.

reply to Combat Chuck
Nice. Turn off that TV you don't deserve and go work at McDonalds. FFS. I hope to God nobody works for you. You're obviously sitting high and pretty, eh?
--
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

reply to Combat Chuck
BS. "McDonald's" means "We can exploit this guy."

How about you go work at McDonalds, and see what that does to your next job prospect.
--
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

reply to keyboard5684
Don't forget to keep an eye on your Local Government.

Even right now, my city needs some IT pros.

Also, the Casinos around here have been expanding, and also hiring IT.

Also... I'm seeing some IT jobs where it's all Telecommute. Literally--- work from anywhere.

reply to keyboard5684
Have you considered relocating?
Granted "Fast Eddie" Rendell has promised alternative energy industry jobs in your neck of the woods, not much going in where you live. I have lived just above you in the Southern Tier on NY in the 90's and business was going down even then. (Sorry Karl) If I was looking for a a new career path health care is the way to go and might work W/O relocation. It's the only growth industry now.
Well good luck to you and your family. It's nice to see that that the benefits we pay really help people keep their head above water VS. people who abuse the system as a career.

reply to keyboard5684
They are consulting jobs in IT online. Contract work but there. If you're not posting a resume on the free ones, I would question your desire for a job. Get out of the pity party. If your resume doesn't have all the stuff you did in the past, they did a lousy job.

In between DirecTV and cellphones, you can Google for them.

reply to keyboard5684
»hotjobs.yahoo.com/job-search?act···auXXQl4i

here, yer welcome. start searching and get off the dole, fer chrissakes.

i moved away from the "jobs black hole" known as PA in the late 80's and haven't looked back. sure, i visit-but only for vacations and holidays. do yourself a favor and get the hell out while you still can-unless one of the jobs listed above pans out