Laid Off Recovery Cycle
Okay, five days later since the day of bad news and here are the phases I’ve been through thus far:
- The “HOLY CRUD WHAT THE HECK I’M I GOING TO DO NOW!!!”
- “I’m pissed off!!!”
- “I’m not worthy!”
- “Why me?”
- “What did I do or didn’t do to deserve this?”
- “What could I have done to have been ‘passed over,’ lamb’s blood?”
- A few sleepless nights.
- Migraines from the lack of sleep and stress.
- “Whatever, I’m just a foreigner in this life anyway.”
- “God, I hate disappointing my wife and kids.”
- “God, I’m at your mercy — please forgive me and have grace for me.”
- “Time to get-r-done!”
So now that I’ve gone through that (which I hope is normal and healthy) I’ve finally put my nose to the “grind stone.” I’ve schedule my orientation with the free career counseling company provided by my previous employer, filed for unemployment, updated my resume, created a cover letter, updated my facebook profile, my linkedin profile, sent out a few emails to friends and network connection and started to hunt for jobs.
First place: Previous colleagues’ recommend I check out the Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group (rmiug) group on yahoo. Nothing but Java Developers and DBA positions — doesn’t fit my skill set.
Second place: Craigslist. Not bad, found a couple leads, but I might have to take a reduction in pay OF ABOUT 20,000 to 30,000, OUCH!!! Oh wait, this one looks promising…blab, blab, yeah good, blab, great ,blab, OH WHAT, WHAT?!?, “Must be proficient in MYSQL, PHP, Java, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, HTML and CSS. 30K per year plus bonus.”
Okay, I don’t know ANY designer who can programming in PHP or Java NOR do I know any programmer/developer that can be awesome in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Hey bonehead, I know you’re on a tight budget like the rest of the start-ups but you’re going to get what you pay for. My suggestion, hire someone who’s either a good designer who can make your site look good (which might help you to get VC funds) or hire a good programmer who can make your site do awesome stuff (and earn some money to hire a great designer). In other words, your mix of required skills is like a tuna-fish and peanut-butter sandwich, YUCK! A designer uses their right brain and a programmer uses their left — just like a brain they are two separate hemispheres that work together as a pair. Sure there might be some cross-over but they are complete opposites.
Phew, got that off my chest.
Panic! Is this another phase? Because these jobs look like entry jobs or they might be start-up companies and the pay is very little. Looks like I’m going to have to wait tables, stock grocery isles, delivery pizzas, clean offices or something after I get a full-time job just to make ends meet. That will be healthy!
Maybe I can sell my skin and have advertisers tattoo their ads on me.
