Out of work, first time in 20 years
 

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.

Is there no retribution for being fired on the spot ? Couldn't you demand a reason for being let go from HR, in order to tell your next potential employer the situation ?

At any point will unemployment payments kick in to help you through this patch?

Unemployment is approved, wasn't and issue. Case worker said consider it a layoff.

Sorry for the upset in your career. Some advice I have would be to pay for a few months of Linkedin premium so you can search and connect with hiring managers you are targeting.

Are you willing to work as 1099 basis? That might open you up to some foot-in-the-door work.

That recruiter grilling you was probably a test to see how you answer the question "Why so many short term jobs"? If you can't answer him under pressure, you will have a hard time answering that question with his client hiring managers. Get your story polished and deliver it with confidence. Business moves quickly now and short term positions are not the Scarlet Letter they once were.

At least this happened during record low unemployment.

Good luck! Chin up and don't mind f**k yourself too much.

No severance?

___

Yeah, that was tough to do the last few weeks. Nothing some serious garage time hasn't fixed. Thanks for the support!

Many years ago I lost a job I had had for 21 years. While I searched for employment, I had a short bout of depression as I didn't feel that there were any jobs in my area that were comparable and I worried constantly. However, I did everntually find a job in a completely different field.

Long story short, losing my job was the best thing that ever happened to me. I learned a new skill and was much happier in my new job. I made a little less money but it turned out not to matter. I discovered that I learned my new skill much faster as I was able to utilize my past experience.

Hang in there, it will get better.

Good time to take a vacation somewhere. Collect unemployment. I always say the best opportunities are those where you draw on your expertise and back ground so that's the only advice I have.

Things always have a way of working out.

Keep smiling, John! ;)

I would have ripped him right back!

I would have said " I guess that I should be looking for a better recruiter who knows his job well. Everyone knows that you do not want a stagnant innovation guy."

In my line of work being stagnant is a detriment. :)

(spin everything in your favor, and yes, there are lots of unqualified recruiters workmen form outdated models)

^^^^ This....and it's not by accident either :). Sucks to go through it though...best to ya!

good luck J.

Keep your chin up and get this one stuck in your head.


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This is the face of America today...you can not count on anything anymore.

You said you have had 3 eng gigs in the past few get outsourced...that is a sign of the times..American workers are expendable... It can not be held against you as that is the way it is..

Everybody here should get used to that displacement. Meanwhile your incomes are in decline and that is reflected eventually in your lifestyle. Your best bet is work for yourself in some capacity even if it is not a traditional route.

American workers are becoming Walmart Greeters, only that career option is closing to...

American companies do it because American workers are overpaid vs the help in the developing world. It makes perfect sense for them to dump American workers.

Only now with the new Tax Bill some companies are giving bonus's to their employees..WHY would they be so magnanimous..

THEY REALIZE THAT WITHOUT INCOME THEIR EMPLOYEES CAN NOT BUY THE PRODUCTS THAT THEY SELL

Lets get with the program here people and live in the real world and not the fake and phony world they are trying to sell you on TV.

INDEED.COM is a great place to look

My experience with recruiters has been awful... Oh, if they have a job they need to fill, they will call you alright, even if your resumé has barely one word that matches the needs, and possibly lie about you to the hiring company (I tore them a new one during a totally irrelevant interview, they rewrote my CV!!!)

In IT it's now an Indian *Mafia*, most of the time I could not understand a damn word spoken on the phone... They make appointments and don't honor them, you're raw meat...

I ended up picking up a contract job that turned permanent... at the end of the day I got better results with Indeed.com and personal contacts than those $%#$%$#%... I have an extremely low opinion of recruiters now and I would not let them get you down about your CV... Feel free to be creative with that and frame it in the best possible light, slight embellishments of a CV isn't a perjury offense (don't lie, but frame it right). Get to the interviews... whatever it takes...

Shut up tabs



Good luck on the job search John

From a left field observer, why did they do that?

They literally took the time to re-craft your resume?

That shows some bit of care, however shiety the new one was.

You live on planet DENIAL.

Tabs - you're spot on since the economic collapse post 2007. Also doubly bad if your 50+ years old. It's why I went into the public sector working for 1 of the wealthiest county governments in the US.

John,
I have been through exactly your situation. It was 14 years ago to this day that I started my new career. I am very good at pep talks. I have a system I stole that is great for rebooting a career. I will reach out and link-in with you.

Some great news? Unemployment is the lowest it has been in DECADES.

More great news? Employers realize that recruiting the right person is the single most mission-critical thing that the need to do.

Summary: It is a shoppers market and you are a shopper.

Sorry that they ditched you in such a crummy way. The good news? You will recover from this. Most likely in a graceful and beneficial manner.

If 3 out of 4 gigs went offshore that is a pattern that you can expect to be repeated. What that tells you is that you have to live with that uncertainty and know when you walk in your days are numbered so ya had better be lookin out fer yourself.

Your best bet is to be lookin for sumthin you can do on your own to make a buck to get by when you have to. Now if you are armed with that expectation you can better roll with the situation. It is called having the heads up.

Now is that so pessimistic or is that realistic...

The only steady MC jobs left in the country is govt work. We have 23M of em working for the govt. Somebody has to be Consumers who support this economy.. Meanwhile the debt climbs to keep the wheels turning...

That is how fked up it really is.

Just had a quick look. Great site that I didn't know about. Thanks

Man, I cannot believe some of the gloom and doomers here...

The market has never been better, in my lifetime, for engineering talent in the this country, especially in the auto industry. Not sure what industry you are in, but if want something in auto it could not be better. Period. From OEMs to suppliers, there is a REAL SHORTAGE of engineers, and it's not getting better any time soon. Start reaching out to recruiters, suppliers, OEMs, etc. and look at their web sites. Nearly ALL are actively recruiting, at all different levels. If you have a little flexibility regarding location, you can score VERY QUICKLY. This is a great opportunity for you.

Recruiters ****ing suck. Most are just entry level children telemarketers, or Hindus.

I don't answer the phone if it's from some east coast place (NY, NJ) and hang up if I hear a shiny little kid on the phone. Only recruiters I take seriously sound like old folks.

rjp

This... Today things are better than ever before. Looking forward things may get worse but we always recover and come back stronger.

Just an opinion but:

I think some people hope things will go **** so their **** life looks better than it is.

There's no secret to any of this. Just get on with it.

recruiters are people who for the most part can't do a real job, like the jobs they are recruiting for. They lack the skills and compensate with arrogance.
They'll tell you over the phone that punctuality is crucial.. And arrive half an hour late at the meeting for the job interview. They are truly scum.

Happens to the best! Hopefully you are financially secure with some funds to hold you over. If you have that, unemployment can be a great time to relax and catch up with some stuff!

Looking at your LinkedIn profile, I agree that you have to have a good explanation for the 4 jobs in 5 years. Work on that - run it past people - try out a few different versions (the truth can be told many ways). It is unfortunate, but any hiring manager will wonder if they are looking at a job hopper here. Also, they may wonder about your stability, as your tenures seem to get shorter and shorter over the years, and that with a better and better economy.

I would get a professional business portrait picture taken. If you are short on funds, some job fairs will provide them for free or a small fee. Definitely take down the picture you have now, in front of a door with some coat hanging behind you. ;)

Good Luck and keep us posted!

G

"A better and better economy". Then explain why the debt has doubled in the past ten years?Where has that money the govt has borrowed and spent gone? What effect does all of that Federal stimulus have upon the economy?

Digging down into the employment data what kind of jobs have been created and their pay scales? What is the Labour percentage rate?

Until you can present answers and a clearly defined rational for why you think the economy is getting better and better your assessment is anecdotal.

I think you will find that govt spending and monetary policy is making a moribund economy appear healthier than it really is. It creates a disconnect between apperance and reality. The American people have bought into MAGA because they want it to be like it once was instead of realizing it is a new paradigm at work. It is a tough reality to swallow and no politician wants to touch it. So it is more of the same old same old

Now is that doom and gloom or is it a realistic assessment? Now because it is a unpleasant reality to have to swallow you might feel it is depressing to have to come to grips with. Nobody ever promised you reality would be easy and pleasant to have to deal with. The reality on the Titanic was that the ship was going to sink and there weren't enough life boats to save everybody. That was an unpleasant reality people on the ship had to deal with and no amount of denial or wishful thinking was going to fix or change that reality.

Tabs - we are talking about ability to find / retain a job. It has gotten steadily easier to find and keep a job over the last 5 years. Likewise it also has gotten a LOT harder to find good talent over the last 5 years. Have you hired or been in the job market in the last 5 years?

I don't think big picture economy opinions are going to do John much good in this thread - even though he may have time to read that all now. :D

G

To MAGA you need a broad section of American Labour to have MC wage scale jobs. Technology and offshoring has displaced most of those low skill and education jobs.you have 12m mfg jobs and 23m govt jobs. This isn't going to cut it.

There are going to be pockets of employment where people are at the right time and place to be relative haves in a vast sea of have nots. The dynamic that produced the great broad based American MC after ww2 no longer exists. That era is fading where a return to the historic mean is taking place. That is the unpleasant reality Americans have to come to grips with. People much prefer to want to believe in MAGA and look for scape goats as to why it ain't happening.

You havn't given me your analysis of the effect of govt deficit spending upon the economy. That is the ball and chain reality that I can not get around. It makes everything else sound suspicious.

Thanks for the feed back. New pic is in the works.

Any thoughts on posting an explanation on the short tenures? “Position outsourced” or something to that fact?

ignore the unmotivational speakers in this thread.

when my wife got laid off, she felt out of the game..she actually hired a lady to doll up her resume, and they did mock interviews together. i dont remember what it cost, but my wife thought it was a huge success. the sessions reminded her of what she had forgotten about getting a job. that skill diminishes somewhat while you're working away.

what did surprise me. my wife actually got depressed. and she is the most bubbly upbeat person usually. when we got together with friends...my wife would visibly grimace when the question came up somewhere in the room, "so, how's work going?" she rallied..you will to bud.

Post recession, I had employment, mostly sketchy gigs but lost my real career. What I did, suddenly, had very little value as there were too many people looking for too few decent positions. All the things I had learned seemed out of date and irrelevant.

So much so - I did exactly as above. I hired a guy who's specialty was small business turn arounds. The money I paid him and time spent letting go was ........priceless. As hard as it all was over those years - it's what motivated me to then be blessed with my current career.

If I can offer any advice, you should look into hiring a consultant, as I did, to give you an unbiased view of where you are and how to move forward.

I wouldn't. Too much "sour grapes".

What may work is emphasizing that you are a consultant, helping turn around product lines and companies and not pointing out these were FTE positions. Don't lie but steer the reader in that direction? It may help with that first hump of people thinking "job hopper".

I do agree a career coach may be a good idea here!

G

Consulting is what keeps going through my brain.

In the last 5 years i have created 100M in product revenue directly from my product designs. My last position I was hired just for that, figure out what the public needs and tell the engineers how to make it. Handed them a 10M product line.

Who doesn’t want great products that make money?

"Innovation was all innovated." On to the next opportunity

Don't let them turn it into a negative. (Ask why is that an issue? You would have stayed longer if the employer required it).

(As a consultant I spend most of my life unemployed. Its the norm for the type of strategic work that I do, and it is expected that I gain broad experience in many industries and environments. Its what makes me valuable, and as a result I make my months income over a smaller number of days than exist in the month).

Similarly, imagine looking a the resume of someone who works on a hollywood film crew. They are always working but seldom on the same project, and each new project is often a new company.