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I was just laid off.
EmperorSeth
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Yup. Gathered things, escorted to door, whole nine yards. I doubt I'm alone on the subject lately.
So, what do I do? I need modern job sites, the details on collecting unemployment, and most importantly very soon, cheap health care. To give more details, I live in Illinois (west suburbs of Chicago,) I'm a computer science major, I worked as a software engineer up until right now, but honestly I haven't been keeping up on my programming. I'd love to work in the video game industry, honestly, but I'm just happy getting something with health care at this point. So what do I do?
Alternately, should I just say "fuck it" and go back to school? If so, what do you recommend in my area?
So, what do I do? I need modern job sites, the details on collecting unemployment, and most importantly very soon, cheap health care. To give more details, I live in Illinois (west suburbs of Chicago,) I'm a computer science major, I worked as a software engineer up until right now, but honestly I haven't been keeping up on my programming. I'd love to work in the video game industry, honestly, but I'm just happy getting something with health care at this point. So what do I do?
Alternately, should I just say "fuck it" and go back to school? If so, what do you recommend in my area?
You know what? Nanowrimo's cancelled on account of the world is stupid.
EmperorSeth on
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If that's the case, quickly prepping yourself on new languages and features would be a great way to increase your "employability" (if that's even a word). Right now .NET developers seem to be in high demand, especially ones that are experienced with the newer facets of the framework.
As you're already in Illinois, I'd suggest looking up Wolfram Research. They gave me the run-around, but maybe you'll have better luck.
-Terry Pratchett
What I've decided to do is go on unemployment for now. Try to find a job over the summer and then, hopefully, get back to school in the Fall. Right now is a bad time to be looking for a job but it is a great time to be in school.
If you're 100% job-focused however my best advise is to simply keep plugging away. Apply for anything that is even remotely feasable and something will stick eventually. Don't get discouraged. Treat looking for a job like actually having a job. Get up early, shower right away and then hit the computer or beat feet out on the pavement. Do this all day.
As to finding jobs, use the usual places, monster, dice, and the newspaper. Craigslist also sometimes has jobs or recruiters looking for people. Most of the jobs you actually see listed on these sites you're not going to get, they've already got people interviewing for them or have even been filled, but it gets you in contact with a recruiter.
Don't solely rely on recruiters. Don't work with too many recruiters. Many recruiters are shady fuckers and just as big of low lifes as the stereotypical used car salesman. Try to filter these assholes out. I have found that, in most cases, the smaller recruiting companies are better to work with in terms of friendly, knowledgeable recruiters who try to place you in something you will be good at and enjoy rather than just sticking you in the first job they can get you in. For large IT recruiting/contracting firms, look into Tek Systems and Apex systems. I have worked with both. I have worked with shitty recruiters and good recruiters from both. The advantage of these two, at least in the Richmond area, is they have contacts in almost every company and so tend to have a wider range of jobs available than many of the smaller firms.
I know I talk a lot about dealing with recruiters even though I say to not solely deal with them. In the Richmond area a huge percentage of the jobs are contract or contract to hire. Very few companies do direct hire around here. That may be different in your area, though.
my last job i got laid off, i got an awesome severence package and collected unemployment which paid me more than i was making by actually working.
i looked for other jobs but ultimately ended up going back to school.
unfortunately you likely missed the cut off for applications for this upcoming year in terms of graduate programs
However, even if you didn't, you could consider taking out student loans potentially... but it'll be a lot less comfortable than if you got a cushy package.
True as well, but I'm guessing the reason why it ended happily for you was likely because the severance package helped to keep you afloat while you started it off. OP, do you have a severance package? Knowing that will help greatly to determine if the course of action you took could work for him or not. If there was no package in his getting laid off, he's probably dealing with a much more immediate problem unfortunately. =(
If you don't, file for unemployment NOW. Like TODAY NOW. Don't hesitate to do this. Sometimes people let pride get in the way of applying for unemployment: but you and your employer have been paying into it for your entire career in the event something like this happens. That is YOUR money, along with a partial subsidy to make sure that you don't go homeless/become ruined from situations like these (which, in the end, would cost the government much more than if they help you get back on your feet via unemployment). Take it, and know that if it helps you to survive until you find a new job then it's done IT'S job.
1. Fill out individual (or family) applications now for every health care insurer in your area now. Be truthful on the applications. See what quotes and plans they come back with and pick whichever you prefer. If you are likely to move out of the area/state any time soon for a job prospect or just to save money, you might want to pick one of the larger companies or one that has coverage in your current and future locations.
2. Even though it's expensive, if you can afford it, use COBRA to keep your health care coverage from your previous employer active until you get on another plan. Uninterrupted health care coverage will help you get on with another company.
3. While you still have coverage, visit your physician, explain the situation and see what they recommend/can do for you. This can be anywhere from discussing price discrimination (this is where they might charge you less than the insurance company if they have control over that), making sure you're stocked up on any prescription medications, or letting you know about programs in your area that they're aware of for inexpensive health care.
4. If you do have expensive prescriptions that you can't afford to pay for out of pocket, research the patience assistance programs available for your medications. These can be offered by the drug companies themselves, although you will most likely need to go through some application process to make sure you need the financial aid.
5. Do some research on the clinics and medical offices/hospitals near you. Call them, find out what aid they have available and what their prices are for uninsured care. You want to know and potentially negotiate (with what little negotiating power you have) prices before you receive care.
6. While this probably won't apply to you, check out your state's Medicaid program and see if you qualify (if things are really bad, you might).
I would recommend looking at defense contractors. Even with Obama coming in, the industry is still doing pretty well in the recession. And they are SCREAMING for software engineers. I'll expand on this related to your area in PMs but I'm not willing to go too far just out on the board.
PSN: TheScrublet
As for Volition, JNighthawk, you guys really ought to get to work on a new Freespace.
Basically, what I did was I just relaxed and cooled my head for 2-3 days, got the frustration out of my system, hung out with my friends, etc.. then immediately started improving my resume and posting it on a couple job websites (dice, hotjobs, etc), and made the resume viewable to the public.
Now, almost immediately after that I started getting contacted by a bunch of recruiters, now at first I thought that was a good sign, but you gotta realize that like 90% of these guys are really shady. I'd say make sure you really get to know who you're working with. You don't have to exclusively use one recruiter, but you shouldn't apply to the same position twice from two different recruiters, as that also looks bad for you.
In the end, I managed to land a job at an awesome company, with an even shorter commute, and a higher salary than before, and it only took me a little less than 1.5 months. Compare that with my coworkers who got "lucky" and stayed behind, and they got a 0% raise, and <50% of last year's bonus.
The key for me was to find a recruiter I really clicked with. The guy I ended up going with, I actually went to his office to meet him in person, and he really gave me a good feeling, and good personal service without seeming desperate and/or pathetic like all the other recruiters. If you go the recruiter route, you gotta get someone who's really on your team, or even better if you can find a recruiter that someone else you know recommends, then that saves a lot of hassle.
The most important advice I could give is to make sure you never get discouraged. Think of this as an opportunity, because man, you are gonna be better off in the long run. In the immediate short term it's shitty as hell, I had lost almost all my confidence in the beginning thinking that no one wanted me, but you just gotta remember that you're good at what you do, and you'll find something that suits you better.
Oh yeah, make sure you study your shit up, all that stuff you learned in college about polymorphism and design patterns, you gotta be able to talk about it like you wrote the book on it when you go to interviews. You have a lot of free time now, so don't waste it playing your Xbox all day. Sure, you can sleep in a little bit now that you don't have a time commitment, but if you're like me at all, you're going to need to brush up on the terminology and what's new in the software world. You probably already know most of it if you've been working as a software engineer for a few years--in fact, you'd be surprised at how much you probably picked up through osmosis, you just need to be able to talk about it coherently if you want to stand out, so study online or buy a book or something. Also, since you're not going to be coding every day now, it's very easy to get rusty, so try to keep up.
MSDN has a bunch of tutorials as well. If possible, try to start a toy project or find an existing open source one you might like. But the main thing is, get to using new stuff to add to your resume and be prepared for interviews.
It's basically there to cover you between jobs, between school/jobs, or between school. Kind of an unknown thing for a lot of people, but it's perfect for people who plan to have health insurance through an employer/school but are in-between plans. There's lots of plans out there, so do some searching now that you have time.
Unfortunately, when I say I haven't really been caught up on the latest technology, I mean it. My job included some very minimal web design, and otherwise mostly programming with C. It wasn't a big place, and I had a supervisor who did a lot of the more complex work. Honestly, if I could, I would use this opportunity to get out of the programming business entirely. I only got into computer science because I thought it was the only way into making video games; remember that I graduated from high school in 1997, where the options for video game design were Digipen or nothing.
Now, what about those cheap health care options Eggy mentioned? Cobra's deal is over $500 a year, not counting life and dental. I might need some cheaper packages at first. Otherwise, the job hunt is mostly for tomorrow on, and today I have to figure out unemployment. Does anyone know Illinois' rules off the top of their head?
Anywhere near $500 a year for Cobra would be dirt cheap compared to other insurance options. I think my Cobra the one time it was necessary back in 2002 was around $115 a month. Forget life and dental. Srsly.
Also, my top 2 recs for job sites would be CareerBuilder and HotJobs. It really depends on what positions you end up looking for though. For example, less skilled work like waiting tables or customer service your best bet would be Craigslist or maybe the Reader. For software engineering I'd stick to the first 2. Local stuff like Pioneer Press will be a waste of time for something computing related.