Laid off at 25...

[temple240]

Just one year and eight months after graduating with my BSME, I'll officially be laid off on Friday. It's a complicated situation that's due to circumstance and not anything that I or my employer did but it really sucks.

I'm excited to find a new position with a new company but I'm also scared as hell about prospects in todays economy. My bosses gave me a heads up about the layoff a few weeks ago but all of my job applications have gone unanswered so far.

Here's to having more time to brew.

 

[badgerbrew14]

Good luck on the job hunt - hope you find a good position quickly. Enjoy the brew time!

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

Best of luck.

I was in a similar situation years ago and haven't fully recovered yet but I'm well on my way to getting back.

 

[freelunch]

No worries dude - you will totally overcome this setback.

I hit a similar bump in 2009 and learned plenty of lessons from it. Stay positive (I bought a motorcycle and played more golf), and establish strategies so you can see what is working or what is not.

 

[Beernik]

Good Luck.

I got laid off 2 years after getting my Civil degree. Found another job. Worked it for 5 years and got laid off again.

It sucks.

 

[neo71665]

Got laid off 2 weeks after I completed the 4 year working/school to get my electrical license. Three of us passed our tests and that was our congratulations. When I started electricians in this area were rare, now you can't throw a rock without hitting a dozen.

Oh well I walked out of there and opened my general construction business I ran before. Had 2 jobs before I left his parking lot. Oh and the bad taste left in my mouth is passed to anybody looking for suggestions for electrician work.

 

[TxBrew]

What do you do?

 

[Rockn_M]

I have been laid off 4 times in my career. It sux but hopefully you can find something better. The last time I was laid off was at the end of 2012. I received a few weeks notice that this was coming down the pipeline and was able to start my job hunt. I was out of work during the holidays and my wife was pregnant with our first baby. At the time it was terrible but I treated finding a job like a job and was able to get a job offer Christmas eve and started the first week of January.

Good Luck!

 

[technicoloraudio]

I have been laid off 4 times in my career. It sux but hopefully you can find something better. The last time I was laid off was at the end of 2012. I received a few weeks notice that this was coming down the pipeline and was able to start my job hunt. I was out of work during the holidays and my wife was pregnant with our first baby. At the time it was terrible but I treated finding a job like a job and was able to get a job offer Christmas eve and started the first week of January.

Good Luck!

Treating finding a job like its a job is pinnacle. Are you tied down to your location? Kids? Mortgage?
Relocation can be stressful, but it can also be a blessing in disguise.

 

[temple240]

What do you do?

I'm a mechanical engineer (like everyone else here). My job was in the construction industry but I'm using this opportunity to try to get into product design and manufacturing.

Treating finding a job like its a job is pinnacle. Are you tied down to your location? Kids? Mortgage?
Relocation can be stressful, but it can also be a blessing in disguise.

I'll definitely be treating it like a job from day one so I don't develop bad/lazy habits. I'm tied down to my location in the sense that I'm about to propose to my girlfriend who has an excellent job in the city. Relocation isn't really an option. I have no kids or mortgage just stacks of student loans.

Overall, I'm not in such a bad position and I'm fortunate to have a safety net when a lot of people don't. It's the idea of having nowhere to go Monday morning that freaks me out.

 

[Beernik]

^^^^ What Rockn_M said.

My first layoff, 1998, wasn't that bad. The economy was still good and I had decided to start looking for other employment 2 weeks before the layoff came down. What sucked about it was that the reason our office lost work wasn't my fault. It was another guy's fault and he was retained on staff. But, as we say in Utah, "He belonged to the right Ward and I belonged to the wrong Ward."

My second layoff (2002), took me by surprise. I knew the economy was down and the office was hurting for work. But I all the contractors I knew were getting busy again. And in this market civil engineering lags construction by 6 to 12 months. So I knew if corporate would just let us ride it out another 6 months, we'd be back to profitability. Instead they closed the office and had to buy back into the market 2 years later.

That layoff hit me hard. In 12 months I had got my master's degree, professional license, married, bought a house, and then laid off. Thankfully they gave me 5 weeks severance.

Every morning I wanted to get up and start drinking. Instead 3 days a week I forced myself to spend all day calling people I knew, job searching the Internet, and scanning want ads. The rest of the week I'd exercise and then spent the rest of the day doing odd jobs around the house. After 4 weeks I found a temp-to-hire engineering job that I never would have looked at if I wasn't unemployed. Kept looking for work. It took me another 13 months to find a job I wanted to stay working at.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

Look on the bright side, at least you are an engineer. People will hire engineers for unrelated positions because they know you can learn how to do what they need. Try that with a degree in English Literature.
I'm an ME and continually get requests from people to consider jumping ship. Keep your attitude up and your reputation will generate interest through word of mouth. Good Luck.

 

[Homercidal]

Hang in there and keep looking. I know something will pop up. In the meantime consider doing volunteer work in your spare time. I'm sure there are people out there would could use the help and it looks really good on a resume too. Plus, it will keep you busy.

 

[mikescooling]

I get fired all the time, you guys are such *****s (small young cats). Keep the faith.
mike

 

[TxBrew]

There are a lot of engineer brewers. I'm a professional jogger.

 

[kh54s10]

It is a good thing that you have a skilled degree. A lot of people with stable jobs and narrow or limited skills and then get laid off are now looking at wages barely half of previous. That is if they can find a full time job at all.

Be glad you don't live in Rhode Island - 48th out of 50 states and District of Columbia. And 8.9% Pennsylvania is 33rd with 7.5%

Good luck.

 

[grathan]

Been laid off / fired too many times to count. Each time the next job was even better.

 

[N7KMS]

I'm 26 and just got laid off on July 1st. I knew it was coming since November so I've been searching for work but I'm coming up dry. I was totally and completely jobless for 2 weeks and received one unemployment pay check then I landed a part time job as an escort for a private boarding school near where I live (where my wife just so happens to work, its good to know people). I went from doing network engineering and systems administration at $25 with OT and full benefits to driving rich kids to appointments for $12 an hour and not to exceed 20 hours a week and zero benefits. I'm cool with it though because I really hated doing tech support.

 

[Yellowirenut]

i would rather be laid off at 25 than at 55.
You are young, keep your head up and keep moving forward.
Look at jobs that may not be in your field. I did 13 yrs ago and absolutely love my current carrier.

Do not put yourself in a box and do not play the poor pita-full me.
two things an employer hates is an employee who is not flexible in what they will do and one who is a sad sack.

 

[daksin]

Also 26 and I've been laid off 3 times since I graduated in 2007. It sucks, but others are right that you have a real skill and marketable degree. You'll be back to work in no time- enjoy the freedom now and hopefully you'll find something even cooler than what you had before. Hey, maybe even squeeze in a few extra brew days.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Each new job has been better for me. Hope it is for you!

 

[rpe290]

I'm a mechanical engineer (like everyone else here). My job was in the construction industry but I'm using this opportunity to try to get into product design and manufacturing.



I'll definitely be treating it like a job from day one so I don't develop bad/lazy habits. I'm tied down to my location in the sense that I'm about to propose to my girlfriend who has an excellent job in the city. Relocation isn't really an option. I have no kids or mortgage just stacks of student loans.

Overall, I'm not in such a bad position and I'm fortunate to have a safety net when a lot of people don't. It's the idea of having nowhere to go Monday morning that freaks me out.

Well, you have some experience, so you should be able to get "a" job local since you are near a large populations center, but to get the "really good" job relocation might be needed.

You should never have a problem with having a job with a BSME if you are willing to relocate, ever. (provided there isn't something else wrong with you).

Good Luck!

 

[beaksnbeer]

I'm a mechanical engineer (like everyone else here). My job was in the construction industry but I'm using this opportunity to try to get into product design and manufacturing.



I'll definitely be treating it like a job from day one so I don't develop bad/lazy habits. I'm tied down to my location in the sense that I'm about to propose to my girlfriend who has an excellent job in the city. Relocation isn't really an option. I have no kids or mortgage just stacks of student loans.

Overall, I'm not in such a bad position and I'm fortunate to have a safety net when a lot of people don't. It's the idea of having nowhere to go Monday morning that freaks me out.

Brew tour, LHBS, fishing. Will give you somewhere to go. Sorry about your luck, I just rolled a year where I 'm at so not so far from what your feeling.

 

[njs170]

My company is hiring. I work in Marcus Hook PA. Let me know if that is close to you.

 

[drainbamage]

Best of luck, man. I got laid off (also at 25) in 2009 when the housing market tanked. I was working for a civil design firm and designing plans for a monster subdivision, until the developer decided it wasn't prudent to proceed with construction (even now they're only just grading), and they didn't feel like paying us for the hundreds of hours of work we'd already put in. I pretty much called in every contact I had made at other firms, government agencies, and so on looking for work. As it turned out, the president of the company I used to work for tipped me off to another place that was hiring and gave me a strong recommendation to them. I guess my best advice is to not burn any bridges if you can help it.

It's a helpless feeling, but as others have said, an engineering degree can look good for a lot of other fields. As a ME, you also have the benefit that most jobs won't require a PE.

 

[N7KMS]

You might think about doing some freelancing, just take two or three small temporary jobs to help start your portfolio. Once you've got that start doing bigger jobs freelance or continue your job search and show potential employers that you have been practicing your trade even though you were unemployed. That will show initiative and a desire to work.

 

[temple240]

I'm glad to hear that lay offs have worked out well for a lot of you guys. I expect to find a better position it's just about the when.

You might think about doing some freelancing, just take two or three small temporary jobs to help start your portfolio. Once you've got that start doing bigger jobs freelance or continue your job search and show potential employers that you have been practicing your trade even though you were unemployed. That will show initiative and a desire to work.

I've been thinking a lot about doing some freelance work. I wouldn't mind taking some time to work on some projects of my own either.

 

[temple240]

There are a lot of engineer brewers. I'm a professional jogger.

Professional jogging, that sounds like a career that I could really get into. My current jogging is amateur at best.

 

[Yellowirenut]

Its the first thing that comes to my mind when someone says JOG.

 

[Ryush806]

Sorry to hear about your setback. I don't know how the market for MEs is at the moment but for ChE (like myself) it's definitely picking up steam quickly. My wife (also ChE) and I just got new jobs this summer and we're constantly getting pestered by recruiters trying to get us to look at their jobs. If you're willing to relocate and are flexible about the type of ME job you want, I don't think you'll have a hard time finding a new job at all.

If you haven't done so already, I would suggest setting up a LinkedIn profile and make it very detailed. Use lots of buzz words from your past work experience. Recruiters often search LinkedIn profiles by keywords. My first job was in the paper industry so I used all of the unit op names and general buzz words about the paper industry in my profile. I get at least one call or message a week from a recruiter about a job opportunity. I just switched to oil/gas design a month ago and no sooner had I added that to LinkedIn when I got a call about another oil/gas job.

Good luck!