I'm out of work, first time in 20 years. Its been 3 weeks now. I've been working from home as a new product development manager (I make new stuff people are supposed to want to buy) for a company up north, while I work in SC. Was a pretty sweet gig, lots of time to do research, build prototypes, interface with consumers, etc. I was pretty good at it, added project worth 10+million in estimated revenue in the first 9 months. I made my months trip to the headquarters for my update with the team, and Monday morning, POW, "we don't need your services anymore". No real reason given, can only assume they wanted someone onsite. No severance, no package, just leave your laptop and phone at your desk.
Usually I've seen things coming and could prepare, reorganizations, budget cuts, politics. But being offsite, I was out of the loop.
So I find myself here in front of the PC, updating resumes, pouring over job boards, taking the occasional call from recruiters, usually with jobs I'm over qualified for. Networking, emailing, texting....and waiting. Could be a long time. My type of position usually hires from within.
Wrench in the works, I've worked in some risky positions the last few years, if they had worked would have paid off well, but they didn't and I ended up with some short stays on my history. All had legit reasons, (I've had 3 companies outsource engineering in my last 4 spots) leaving me with no option other than to find another spot. Actually had a recruiter rip me a new one yesterday because of it (awful nice of you, thanks)
Trying to make the best of the time off, catching up on home and car projects. Paint a few rooms, finally getting paint on my targa project in the garage. But also doing some design projects to add to my portfolio, should I decide to go consulting.
Anyone need a innovation guy, look me up.
www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelgesen
I'll be here, working on the next big idea.