Might be losing my job soon.

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bernerbrau

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2008
Messages
8,502
Reaction score
38
Location
Nashville, TN
Long story short, my company's primary client recently decided to switch vendors. At first we had considered the possibility that they wouldn't like the new vendor and switch back, since they've done this a couple times before.

Then, last week, we brought a digital voice recorder online, and for some reason it got loaded with old code, causing 600 jobs to arrive without metadata. Without metadata, it's impossible to tell which client the job is destined for. We have a reliably good method of guessing, probably 99% accurate, but if even a single job goes to the wrong client, it's a violation of HIPAA. In other words, we either force 600 doctors to re-dictate, or we have to provide a disclosure to all clients, and risk getting caught in a lawsuit.

This failure comes after a series of unfortunate hiccups in the past year, none of which were near as catastrophic but all of which delayed several jobs for a few hours and took some of our services briefly offline, and an extended development period on our new product while the client is unsatisfied with the old product has made them grow extremely impatient.

I should also mention, briefly, that I'm not the guy responsible for the systems that are failing ;)

This may well be the straw that breaks the camel's back here, making it highly likely our client will choose to discontinue their relationship with us completely, and even accelerate that process in light of recent events. If that happens, the company will not be able to sustain its operations and we will all be out of work. My boss even recommended that I update my resume.

So, the reason I'm posting....

If you live in Nashville, TN and know of any programmer openings where you work, could you let me know? It would help me out tremendously.

Also, if you don't, feel free to commiserate about your own layoff experience.
 
Sorry to hear about the potential job loss. I wish you the best in finding new employment if indeed the time comes in which you must search for it.

Godspeed :mug:
 
Well, with any luck I'll be able to find a new place and transition without any missed paychecks. It's just that I've been here almost 2 years, really enjoyed working here, and the most likely outcome at this point is that we're all going to be out of work soon.

I've worked at some really bad places. I don't want to end up in another bad job situation.

The other problem is there don't seem to be a whole lot of Ruby on Rails jobs in the Nashville area. I have a couple connections in the area that I plan on contacting soon, but it seems like it's all Adobe Flex here (and when did I miss that one?? seems like you blink your eyes and your skillset goes obsolete...)
 
Also, if you don't, feel free to commiserate about your own layoff experience.

I worked tech support for a homebuilder here in Georgia add got laid off about 5 months ago. Took about 2 months to find work. The first couple weeks was nice, finally got a break. But you can only clean your garage so much. In any case I did find work, it just took a while. Also from personal experience don't wait til you get desperate to file for unemployment, like me you've been paying into it for years and its time to get some of it back. Good luck and don't get down. Based on your post computerjobs.com would be a good place to start.
 
My job goes away in September. The company I work for is moving/combining our data center with their base in Arkansas. Hopefully the job market will improve a bit before then.
 
Checked out ComputerJobs.com... Unfortunately there's 13 IT jobs in my area. None of which correspond to my skillset.

No new stuff on Dice, except Flex and .net, neither of which I'm qualified to use unless I drop down to entry level.

No leads from one of my two contacts, and his feelers run deep...
 
Checked out ComputerJobs.com... Unfortunately there's 13 IT jobs in my area. None of which correspond to my skillset.

No new stuff on Dice, except Flex and .net, neither of which I'm qualified to use unless I drop down to entry level.

No leads from one of my two contacts, and his feelers run deep...

You might would look into staffing agencies. My wife works as a contractor java programmer and she's used different staffing firms for years.
 
Yeah I've signed up with Sapphire and MasterStaff, working on a third, but for some reason Robert Half's registration form isn't working properly.
 
The days of being a technical professional in a long-term job where you live close to your work are going away fast. You best bet is to find a national recruiter like TEKsystems (my company) and indicate you are willing to travel for work. Be sure to tell them you want to work remotely if at all possible but if you have to travel you only travel 5 days a week. Ask that they cover travel and hotel (otherwise don't take it).

Accept that you may need to take short-term (3-6 week) assignments but explain to them that because the assignments are so short you expect serious compensation.

BTW - it's a great way to see the country.
 
Ugh... lack of a dependable income and lots of travel would probably end my marriage.

This sucks. I love to code... if what you're saying is the truth I may have to consider an alternate career. And $1000 a month in Cornell student loans for all the foreseeable future with an entry-level position in a new career would mean I'd probably have to sell one car, the Civic since the Chrysler's upside down, file bankruptcy and downgrade my apartment to something barely livable.

Dude, I'd probably kill myself. There BETTER be a long-term job available.
 
My wife is actually a contractor for Teksystems now. I IM'd her just a minute ago and "their rates are a little on the low end of average, and their hr department is crappy, but if you don't need the insurance, i would definitely recommend them" Keep in mind this is the branch office here in Atlanta. She's had very little downtime with them though and she has worked where she's at for almost a year.
 
Ugh... lack of a dependable income and lots of travel would probably end my marriage.

This sucks. I love to code... if what you're saying is the truth I may have to consider an alternate career. And $1000 a month in Cornell student loans for all the foreseeable future with an entry-level position in a new career would mean I'd probably have to sell one car, the Civic since the Chrysler's upside down, file bankruptcy and downgrade my apartment to something barely livable.

Dude, I'd probably kill myself. There BETTER be a long-term job available.

I am sure that there will always be some tech jobs around but the fraction of permanent to contract positions is definitely changing. Companies no longer want to take on large IT organizations if they can help it.

Tools and technologies change so fast that if a company wants to roll out a product or service using new technologies it is better to do so with tech workers that already have the know-how rather than spending the time and money training the ones you currently have. You can always train some FTE's to do maintain the basics of the code but for big projects you need to find some expertise quickly.

I admit traveling all the time blows. I travel about 9 months of the year and at times it does add a lot of stress to our marriage. However, it also gives us financial stability which in of itself prevents even MORE stress.
 
My wife is actually a contractor for Teksystems now. I IM'd her just a minute ago and "their rates are a little on the low end of average, and their hr department is crappy, but if you don't need the insurance, i would definitely recommend them" Keep in mind this is the branch office here in Atlanta. She's had very little downtime with them though and she has worked where she's at for almost a year.

They do have the habit of low-balling new contractors but if you stick around for a number of years building up skills in a specific area you get first selection at higher paying contracts when they come up - you just have to let the recruiter know you are interested in finding a better paying contract.
 
They do have the habit of low-balling new contractors

Really, really depressing news.

If there had been any indication that the degree I'd spent a fortune on would eventually become volatile and unreliable, I'd have chosen a different career path.
 
Really, really depressing news.

If there had been any indication that the degree I'd spent a fortune on would eventually become volatile and unreliable, I'd have chosen a different career path.

You are not alone - that is for sure. How are your business skills? If you can translate techie to business and back again you are in a great position.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your situation. As a computer engineer, these posts scare the hell out of me on multiple accounts.

No one seems to care about quality anymore. They just want it cheap and done quickly.

There was a time when people cherished innovative and creative solutions and products. It was after all the scientist, engineers, artists, and so forth that made this country great.

I'm hoping that the tide will change. Don't be discouraged. You are going to be fine. Something will come through.

You might have to do some stuff you don't want to do. It might not be comfortable, but you'll get through it.
 
You are not alone - that is for sure. How are your business skills? If you can translate techie to business and back again you are in a great position.

+1. Those business guys do not understand the nitty gritty details that a technical guy does.
 
How are your business skills?

Nonexistent. Might be worth going for an MBA but how would I support it?

In any case I tried the contractorship thing for a little under a year. Had a partnership going with another guy for a while. Just about destroyed my relationship with my wife due to the unreliable workload and unpredictable paychecks, plus I find the office environment more conducive to work. I really, really don't want to have to do it again.

My wife is also somewhat insecure and constant travel and never seeing her would probably put her right out of her mind. It's honestly not an option unless I just serve her the papers right now.

I mean it's great that your wife can handle your lifestyle and all, stress or no, but going back to contract work and throwing in constant travel, no, there's no way I can have that type of lifestyle and keep my marriage intact.
 
e-lance and rentacoder.com for some part time, on the side opportunities. Worth looking into
 
damn man i hate to hear the bad news esp me myself being a nashville (franklin) area computer guy as well (System admin, .net dev.)

Wish i could help you out but i dont know of anything right now either.
 
Well, it's more or less for sure my job is going away now. Boss doesn't even know if he can pay me for February. But I can't collect unemployment until I'm officially laid off. And bankruptcy and unemployment are long, tedious processes.

I have one tentative lead right now but I'm not getting anywhere near the volume of calls I did a couple years ago.

Ugh. Last time anything was this uncertain was 6 years ago. Couldn't find a job for 18 months. Ruined my credit because of all the student loans and credit cards I racked up in college. I still have a load of debt that can ruin me all over again if I don't have a solid income.
 
OK, good news is I have a job at least until May, so I have some more time to find a job than I thought.

Coworker is now advocating fast-tracking our software project in order to get a few sales and salvage the company. My worry with that is if we accelerate the pace of the project we may end up making careless mistakes and making things worse.

I'm also now very much in favor of redeveloping the DVR system, especially after the past two weeks' failures, but I know I'm going to run into a lot of opposition.
 
Congrats on holding on a little longer. We just went through 18% local, 35% global layoff today. I was lucky enough to hang in for the 3rd layoff in the past 6 months.
Unfortunately for the rest of us 401K has been frozen and a 15% paycut across the board. But I still have a job so i can't complain too much eh!
 
Well at least you got a couple more months. And who cares if it causes problems down the line if you wont be there.
 
Congrats on holding on a little longer. We just went through 18% local, 35% global layoff today. I was lucky enough to hang in for the 3rd layoff in the past 6 months.
Unfortunately for the rest of us 401K has been frozen and a 15% paycut across the board. But I still have a job so i can't complain too much eh!

Holly crap, thats a paycut! I would look to start a business
 
Well at least you got a couple more months. And who cares if it causes problems down the line if you wont be there.

True enough. If I finish out the coding and the front-end web client as planned, then just assist with test writing until I can find something better, it's not my problem anymore once I'm gone...
 
Hey so, for those of you not following my other DOWNER thread, it looks like I may have secured a 6-month contract position close to where I work writing front- and back-end point-of-sale systems, with the possibility of hire at the end and a significant pay increase.

So it may have been that this change was for the best after all :D And also, proof that I don't just whine all the time.
 
Hey, hey! That's terrific!

Congrats and I'll raise one in honor of silver linings on your behalf!!
 
The contract is a sure thing now. I have it in hand, I just have to hear back from my lawyer and get some of the more restrictive language toned down a bit. I had a tour of the place today and I start Monday.

Also looks like I'm gonna be putting in long weeks because I'm being hired to replace an Indian dude who didn't know what he was doing, they're supposed to be halfway through phase 1 of the project, and they want a deployable system in THREE MONTHS.

The upshot of that is, more hours, more money because I'm a CONTRACTOR, BITCHES.
 
Congrats! You sure must know your stuff to get a job so quickly in this economy.

Really I lucked out on the skillset. Apparently someone who knows how to write C++ and has prior experience on Point-of-Sale systems is a tough combo to find.
 
Back
Top