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December 01, 2005
What a month
Well, November was quite a ride.
As previously noted, on October 26 my company announced that it was laying off 14 people in order to make its quarterly budget, and I was one of them. It wasn't a huge surprise, since the company has been constantly laying off people since 2001. I'd been carrying over vacation time for years and keeping my resume up to date.
As soon as I got the news I started the job search. As usual, there were lots of calls from headhunters promising the world and delivering nothing. I did my own job searching, sent in a resume for a C/SQL/Unix programming job in Lansing (about 75 miles away), and got an interview on November 11. It didn't look too promising, though, since they really wanted 3 years of C programming experience: I have been doing C since 1987, but only had about a year on the job. Otherwise the job market has been pretty slim. I hand-delivered a resume for a Unix admin job at a local healthcare company but didn't hear anything.
November 15 was my last day at work. I spent the rest of that week trying to catch up on errands, homework, etc. There were no job calls, no prospects at all. On the 21st I was on my way out the door when I had a call from the consulting company handling the Lansing job: the managers wanted a second interview, a technical interview on the phone, and it was scheduled for the next day.
On November 22, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I spoke with a really nice recruiting manager at 11 am and by noon I had a job offer. On the downside, the job is 75 miles each way. On the upside, it's a 25% pay raise over my job at BT, and I'll finally be working as a C programmer, a job I've wanted since 1988. Needless to say, we had a nice Thanksgiving this year.
The rest of the month has been busy. The end of the semester is coming at Grand Valley and in both classes we have major group projects due. We worked about 30 hours on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to deliver the first project on Tuesday evening. Now we're rushing to finish up the second project, which is due next Wednesday. After that it's one week until final exams, and on December 15 I start my new job.
I'm looking forward to the job. The commute won't be pleasant, especially during a Michigan winter, but overall the new job will be a good thing. We're quickly looking into selling the house and moving, but I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon.
As I've said, what a month!
Permalink | Posted by Joe at December 1, 2005 09:22 PM