Things are ramping up
A lot has transpired in the last few weeks. At times, my life has been moving faster than a car driven by a Bostonian on an empty highway!
Ever since I was notified of a layoff on September 9 and made my resume live on several sites later that day, I've been besieged with phone calls and e-mails, about 95 percent from recruiters, about job possibilities. Two led to on-site interviews, with neither leading to a job offer - but both at least opening doors and being good experiences. Although I'm a little bit on the "back to the drawing board" side, there are some unexplored possibilities that I didn't fully look at yet and I haven't quite begun to get as aggressive as I could be. More on this in a moment.
Then things are busy on the hoops front, with a few fall events that include prep school visits. It's also time to step up the preview material as well, so the times ahead will be pretty non-stop. The last few days are an example: prep workout Thursday, another event last night, big prep workout tomorrow.
And I'm still at the office, with things going well there, at least as well as can be expected. I'm moving forward, and we're finally going to get salary raises soon, which won't mean too much for me in the immediate since I'm only there through December at the most, but if I'm still there through the end, my bonus and severance will be based on the new salary. Every little bit helps.
Over the last few days, I've been considering going a bit underground with the job hunt. I won't stop looking, but now I may start looking more with an eye toward finishing the time at the current employer and starting a new job after it.
Although the economy doesn't look good, especially after what's transpired in the last couple of weeks, the engineering job market looks very good. That much I've been able to detect in the 3+ weeks since I made my resume searchable again on sites like Monster and Dice. I've started off by letting this come to me and had two interviews and other promising leads. Additionally, I've used LinkedIn some and plan to check out local meetings of a networking group I used to be part of, which will only help - especially since my manager won't mind that I do that.
A couple of things have been decided and helped drive me to consider this.
For one, I won't take a contract job before December 15, the very last day I am to be at my current employer. It simply doesn't make sense to pass up a significant retention bonus and severance for something that will leave me job-hunting again in 3-6 months. If I get that money, then a contract job is fine - I'll have a nice cushion in the meantime as a result.
Also, if I don't have a new job by November 1, I'm definitely staying until December 15. Think about the progression if something starts then: I get a call/e-mail on November (the first business day of the month), have a phone interview two days later, then perhaps an on-site interview as early as the end of the week - November 7. If I get an offer and accept, that probably all gets done by, say, November 13. Then I'll give two weeks' notice at my current employer, and I plan to take a week between the end of this and the start of the next job anyway. That brings us into the first week of December, maybe the second, by which time it's so close to the December 15 date where the bonus comes in. IT wouldn't make sense to pass on it by less than two weeks.
To that end, I've thought long and hard about pulling my resume off searchable mode for now and laying low, relatively speaking, so as to stay until December 15 regardless. I have two excellent networking events coming up in addition to the group I mentioned, as the Embedded Systems Conference and SD Best Practices are in town late this month. While I won't be attending either one as a full attendee as I have in the past, a trip through the exhibits floor for each can't hurt at all. I haven't made that move yet, but Im thinking long and hard about it and admit that I'm leaning towards doing it. Plus, I've had enough unsolicited calls and e-mails from recruiters already - I'd like to start getting in touch with people at the prospective companies.
A lot can change with this job market in 2 months, but everything I see and hear tells me that it should be fine come December. So we'll see what happens.
Ever since I was notified of a layoff on September 9 and made my resume live on several sites later that day, I've been besieged with phone calls and e-mails, about 95 percent from recruiters, about job possibilities. Two led to on-site interviews, with neither leading to a job offer - but both at least opening doors and being good experiences. Although I'm a little bit on the "back to the drawing board" side, there are some unexplored possibilities that I didn't fully look at yet and I haven't quite begun to get as aggressive as I could be. More on this in a moment.
Then things are busy on the hoops front, with a few fall events that include prep school visits. It's also time to step up the preview material as well, so the times ahead will be pretty non-stop. The last few days are an example: prep workout Thursday, another event last night, big prep workout tomorrow.
And I'm still at the office, with things going well there, at least as well as can be expected. I'm moving forward, and we're finally going to get salary raises soon, which won't mean too much for me in the immediate since I'm only there through December at the most, but if I'm still there through the end, my bonus and severance will be based on the new salary. Every little bit helps.
Over the last few days, I've been considering going a bit underground with the job hunt. I won't stop looking, but now I may start looking more with an eye toward finishing the time at the current employer and starting a new job after it.
Although the economy doesn't look good, especially after what's transpired in the last couple of weeks, the engineering job market looks very good. That much I've been able to detect in the 3+ weeks since I made my resume searchable again on sites like Monster and Dice. I've started off by letting this come to me and had two interviews and other promising leads. Additionally, I've used LinkedIn some and plan to check out local meetings of a networking group I used to be part of, which will only help - especially since my manager won't mind that I do that.
A couple of things have been decided and helped drive me to consider this.
For one, I won't take a contract job before December 15, the very last day I am to be at my current employer. It simply doesn't make sense to pass up a significant retention bonus and severance for something that will leave me job-hunting again in 3-6 months. If I get that money, then a contract job is fine - I'll have a nice cushion in the meantime as a result.
Also, if I don't have a new job by November 1, I'm definitely staying until December 15. Think about the progression if something starts then: I get a call/e-mail on November (the first business day of the month), have a phone interview two days later, then perhaps an on-site interview as early as the end of the week - November 7. If I get an offer and accept, that probably all gets done by, say, November 13. Then I'll give two weeks' notice at my current employer, and I plan to take a week between the end of this and the start of the next job anyway. That brings us into the first week of December, maybe the second, by which time it's so close to the December 15 date where the bonus comes in. IT wouldn't make sense to pass on it by less than two weeks.
To that end, I've thought long and hard about pulling my resume off searchable mode for now and laying low, relatively speaking, so as to stay until December 15 regardless. I have two excellent networking events coming up in addition to the group I mentioned, as the Embedded Systems Conference and SD Best Practices are in town late this month. While I won't be attending either one as a full attendee as I have in the past, a trip through the exhibits floor for each can't hurt at all. I haven't made that move yet, but Im thinking long and hard about it and admit that I'm leaning towards doing it. Plus, I've had enough unsolicited calls and e-mails from recruiters already - I'd like to start getting in touch with people at the prospective companies.
A lot can change with this job market in 2 months, but everything I see and hear tells me that it should be fine come December. So we'll see what happens.