dude wheres my house Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 So finally got the chop this week from my place of employment. The job hunt starts today. Only been out of uni for a couple of years so freaking out a bit about my lack of experience. I work(ed) in IT so am going to have to look at the market and possibly even think about moving into another industry. Any suggestions folks??? Since it happened i have been speaking to alot of people and catching up with friends that i havent seen in a while, it is really scary how many other folk have been made redundant or are struggling to get enough work to keep their business ticking over. I think this year is going to be an absolute stinker, and i also believe we will break all unemployment records by the middle of the year. On a house price crash note, i wouldnt even be thinking about buying anything just now for any price because it is going to go down hard in the next year or 2 Quote
sbn Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Sorry to hear that Dude Chin up - its not you thats at fault. Quote
Bear Goggles Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 So finally got the chop this week from my place of employment. The job hunt starts today.Only been out of uni for a couple of years so freaking out a bit about my lack of experience. I work(ed) in IT so am going to have to look at the market and possibly even think about moving into another industry. Any suggestions folks??? Since it happened i have been speaking to alot of people and catching up with friends that i havent seen in a while, it is really scary how many other folk have been made redundant or are struggling to get enough work to keep their business ticking over. I think this year is going to be an absolute stinker, and i also believe we will break all unemployment records by the middle of the year. On a house price crash note, i wouldnt even be thinking about buying anything just now for any price because it is going to go down hard in the next year or 2 Sorry to hear that. Which part of the country? What area of IT? Quote
yellerkat Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Sorry Dude. We really need a sticky for job/career ideas/suggestions - and no, I don't have any. Quote
PopGun Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 I feel for you dude I'm two weeks into my ninty days notice. Not nice the job market at the moment, my only hope is to undercut the better applicants. I wish you luck. Quote
dude wheres my house Posted January 22, 2009 Author Posted January 22, 2009 Sorry to hear that. Which part of the country? What area of IT? Development, bunch of techs but mainly Java, Scotland Quote
General Melchett Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 List your transferable skills, spread your net wide with those skills in mind, try to get another job ASAP, even if it just seems like a stop-gap, be prepared to take a pay cut, try REALLY HARD to avoid working for an absolute tosser or with absolute tossers. And thank your lucky stars you are young, (thus cheaper) skilled and mobile, and that you lost your job before the soup-kitchen-level unemployment starts Quote
Country solicitor Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Sorry to hear your news. We are having more cut backs here at the moment as business really is grim. Redundancy for some, reduced hours for others. I am likely to be posting more from home in the very near future. I went through this last time round when I was newly qualified so at about your age-it really is very depressing. Like you I can't see it getting better any time soon. Best of luck. Quote
markinspain Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 So finally got the chop this week from my place of employment. The job hunt starts today.Only been out of uni for a couple of years so freaking out a bit about my lack of experience. I work(ed) in IT so am going to have to look at the market and possibly even think about moving into another industry. Any suggestions folks??? Since it happened i have been speaking to alot of people and catching up with friends that i havent seen in a while, it is really scary how many other folk have been made redundant or are struggling to get enough work to keep their business ticking over. I think this year is going to be an absolute stinker, and i also believe we will break all unemployment records by the middle of the year. On a house price crash note, i wouldnt even be thinking about buying anything just now for any price because it is going to go down hard in the next year or 2 Sorry to hear that. The only advice I would give you, is to take any work that comes along. It is always easier to find other work when you have work (Sod's law I'm afraid). Also, employers don't like seeing large gaps on CVs and there is only so much Alan Sugaresque massaging you can do! Quote
Brave New World Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 I take it you have a lovely Blairite 10-13k debt as well? I love seeing £90 a month fly out of my wages - £50 of which services interest and then getting any bonus I have earned at the end by cut by nearly half by student loan and tax payments. Please add Universities to the list of UK facets of life that NuLabia have fooked over. 375,000 graduates flooding into the market this Summer – stick your education for all rubbish. I would say IT is still needed, I wouldn’t imagine that it will fair any worse than other industries – I work at a retail marketing agency whoop, whoop. Work has gone really quite since the turn of the year, even big and I am talking multi national US mega brand is taking close stock of their marketing spend for this year. It must be crap but do you ultimately work to live or vice versa, learn an instrument, read books…..try and look at the positives. Quote
Ron Forthehills Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Yeah, there's a lot of us 'working from home' at the moment. The joys of being self (un)-employed. Quote
abaxas Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Development, bunch of techs but mainly Java, Scotland Welcome to the real world. Ask youself the question, am I worth more than 5 indians/chinese/etc with better qualifications and skills? The answer is NO. Your mission is to make sure that next time you are. That will take time, but good luck in your job hunting. Just dont expect the pay you had before. Quote
me me me Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 You should have no trouble finding work with your skills, move countries if necessary, In any case, enjoy the time off, I am sure the human animal isn't supposed to work like an auton anyway. What is going to make it so hard is people just about felt safe and were happy with their predIcament in this country to a large degree and it is all being torn away. You can thank the BoE and Yvette by shorting sterling, we will suffer right up until the G7 meeting on V Day. Best of luck dude. The Big Lebowski is on your side Quote
ken_ichikawa Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Meh I took a bullet last Friday..... Quote
Privateer Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Meh I took a bullet last Friday..... I nearly did, once. Left a hole in my shirt sleeve and took the top layer of skin off. Quote
General Melchett Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Hmm, yes, do find some positive things in your life to hang on to. Invent some if needs be (hobbies, friends), as other posters have said. And if you are in a shit place, give yourself reason to believe it is only temporary/one part of your day. I got laid off with a whole bunch of close friends/colleagues some years back, and many of us went through a hell of a time stretching over several years and a couple of crappy 'rebound' jobs. Not sinking into hopelessness is key to survival. Quote
rw42 Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Welcome to the real world. Ask youself the question, am I worth more than 5 indians/chinese/etc with better qualifications and skills? That attitude is whats screwed up a lot of IT projects i've worked on. Communications is the key to the success of anything IT related IMO, and the one way to guarantee screwups is to put the business sponsors and the people responsible for implementing their requirements in different continents, with different timezones, relying on email more than they should and putting up with sh!tty phone conferences. I've worked with outsourced development before, and while individually i've found them all to be clever and capable, institutionally there are culture differences that cause problems (some people are more likely than others to just nod when you ask the 'do you understand what i have asked you to do' question), then you have to integrate your project management with theirs, decide whether you're going to test it yourself or trust them to do it and so on.. I'd say the cost of the programmers is hardly the biggest factor. Quote
the end is a bit nigher Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Loads of IT work out there at the moment if you are prepared to look for it and be flexible about salary / rate and location. In the 4 weeks over xmas I applied for 140+ jobs (contract) from which I got a short term piece of work and 3 interviews. I had to decline one interview and the other 2 are coming up in the next couple of weeks. There are lots of people out there so write a cover letter for each application. Be prepared to take a salary / rate drop and be prepared to have to travel. Should there ever be an upturn, the people getting the best work will be those with the fullest CVs. If you can show that you worked through the downturn then you must be ok. Good luck. Quote
HumanAction Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 I am looking at the bullet as well, biggest customer in administration owes about a year of operating costs and our company account cant cover this months wages. I'm currently looking for a new job and probably wont even get the redundancy deal that I'm due..... I do have plenty of experience but my skills are a little out of date. Quote
Miss Madam Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 I've worked with outsourced development before, and while individually i've found them all to be clever and capable, institutionally there are culture differences that cause problems (some people are more likely than others to just nod when you ask the 'do you understand what i have asked you to do' question), Ah the infamous south asian head waggle - which can mean 'yes', 'no', 'how are you', 'haven't the foggiest' as wonderfully described in Shantaram, and as picked up by me on my travels in India... Dude really sorry to hear about your job - go to the library and grab a copy of Tom Hodgkinson's 'How to be free' and 'How to be idle' and do a bit of navel gazing.... Quote
Tummybanana Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 So finally got the chop this week from my place of employment. The job hunt starts today.Only been out of uni for a couple of years so freaking out a bit about my lack of experience. I work(ed) in IT so am going to have to look at the market and possibly even think about moving into another industry. Any suggestions folks??? Since it happened i have been speaking to alot of people and catching up with friends that i havent seen in a while, it is really scary how many other folk have been made redundant or are struggling to get enough work to keep their business ticking over. I think this year is going to be an absolute stinker, and i also believe we will break all unemployment records by the middle of the year. On a house price crash note, i wouldnt even be thinking about buying anything just now for any price because it is going to go down hard in the next year or 2 There goes your right to vote. . . http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...p;#entry1607572 Quote
tomandlu Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 That attitude is whats screwed up a lot of IT projects i've worked on. Communications is the key to the success of anything IT related IMO, and the one way to guarantee screwups is to put the business sponsors and the people responsible for implementing their requirements in different continents, with different timezones, relying on email more than they should and putting up with sh!tty phone conferences. 100% correct - looks good on the balance sheet, but the reality, for all but the most simple jobs, is a train wreck. Quote
the end is a bit nigher Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 100% correct - looks good on the balance sheet, but the reality, for all but the most simple jobs, is a train wreck. +1 Quote
MrLizard Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 (edited) I'm in the early days of a 90 day redundancy 'consultation' - 10% expected to go (Civil / Structural etc.), hoping not to be one. Meanwhile, maybe link up with as many of your contacts on LinkedIn P.S. Best of luck Dude. Edited January 22, 2009 by MrLizard Quote
ralphmalph Posted January 22, 2009 Posted January 22, 2009 Also do not rely on recruitment consultants, they are not your friend. The only thing we get from them is a CV with the name taken off and a this person is fantastic will you hire him, complete waste of time in the current environment. So make sure that as well as using agencies you develop a list of companies that you would like to work for and in what role and apply direct to the Head of IT not the HR department (they do not make the decision to hire they box tick). Also as stated use a cover letter and tailor it to each application stated why you want to work for them, respect for the products they make,reputation in the community, friend works there etc. Also clearly state what you have done. If you say you have Java then so do thousands of other people, State clearly what you have done and achieved using Java , depth of knowledge, experience. Finally, use your time off to do something that you have always wanted to do but because of work have never had the time. This will mean that you will not view your redundancy as a complete negative. Good luck. Quote
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