Lost my job...

V

Valnar

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Apr 3, 2001
Messages
4,298
After a good solid 14 years at the same company (on & off), I was finally let go because new management bought the place and cleaned house. No notice, no knowledge transfer (that'll bite them in the ass). It's the first time I've been unemployed in 20 years.

Feeling really bummed. 'Seems to be some IT jobs out there in hospitals and banks, but I hate really large corporations. You get pigeonholed into doing a few things - I'd prefer a whole top-down view of the entire network like you get with medium (500-2000 users) sized companies.

If anyone has a lead on a Sr Networking position in the Cleveland, OH area, I'm all ears. 15+ years of Cisco experience, as well as Sonicwall, Fortinet, Watchguard, Linux/Win, Telecom circuits, etc. IOS routing & switching, VPN, ASA's, Wireless, etc.
 
Damn, that sucks! Sounds like you got the experience and obviously you don't jump jobs, I'm sure you'll find something.
 
Valnar said:
After a good solid 14 years at the same company (on & off), I was finally let go because new management bought the place and cleaned house. No notice, no knowledge transfer (that'll bite them in the ass). It's the first time I've been unemployed in 20 years.

Feeling really bummed. 'Seems to be some IT jobs out there in hospitals and banks, but I hate really large corporations. You get pigeonholed into doing a few things - I'd prefer a whole top-down view of the entire network like you get with medium (500-2000 users) sized companies.

If anyone has a lead on a Sr Networking position in the Cleveland, OH area, I'm all ears. 15+ years of Cisco experience, as well as Sonicwall, Fortinet, Watchguard, Linux/Win, Telecom circuits, etc. IOS routing & switching, VPN, ASA's, Wireless, etc.
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Valnar,

I'm sorry to hear about that. Sometimes these things happen and it sucks :(.

I recently resigned due to a takeover at my office as well (but, it wasn't a corporate-takeover, more of an idiot-takeover). Being unemployment is a drag but I've started working freelance until something more stable pops up.

I'm always scouring for (remote) jobs. If I come across anything in your area, I'll send you a PM.
 
-Jess- said:
Valnar,

I'm sorry to hear about that. Sometimes these things happen and it sucks :(.

I recently resigned due to a takeover at my office as well (but, it wasn't a corporate-takeover, more of an idiot-takeover). Being unemployment is a drag but I've started working freelance until something more stable pops up.

I'm always scouring for (remote) jobs. If I come across anything in your area, I'll send you a PM.
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I did get to work from home on this last one, so I fully admit I was spoiled. I don't even know how to look for (mostly) remote positions, but that would be ideal. :cool:
 
Valnar said:
After a good solid 14 years at the same company (on & off), I was finally let go because new management bought the place and cleaned house. No notice, no knowledge transfer (that'll bite them in the ass). It's the first time I've been unemployed in 20 years.
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Well, that's a crock of shit. You're right, the lack of knowledge dump will bite them, but if they're big enough to big your old company and lay-off willy nilly, then their egos won't let them care.
 
Nate7311 said:
Well, that's a crock of shit. You're right, the lack of knowledge dump will bite them, but if they're big enough to big your old company and lay-off willy nilly, then their egos won't let them care.
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It was the best place I ever worked and turned into the worst in a matter of 2 years. Everybody is now keeping their heads down, no one cares or has a sense of ownership in what they do, and the IT people left behind are just as concerned. I literally was the only person who knew all the ins & outs of my job. There are 6509's, 4506's, ISR routers, ASA firewalls, Fortinets and a variety of smaller switches just running on auto-pilot right now. I shudder to think what happens at the first major outage.

Maybe it was a blessing I got out when I did. It just sucks.
 
It might be just that. I voluntarily was laid off from 16 year post. Knew it was coming, saved up for it. Took a year off. Took me 4 months to find another good job +pay bump once I really started looking. Big advantage, not jumping around. Need to get that resume in front of the right pair of eyes and you'll be in.
 
Taxi drivers make more these days than computer workers and programmers. Good luck competing with Indians with $10/hr wages.
 
Print up some business cards and approach some small businesses in your area.

You may be surprised at the number of them who hate their current IT guy/company
and would switch in a second but they don't know who to call.

I've been on my own since Oct. 1st and it's going pretty well. I did get a bit of an easy
start since the owner of the small IT company I worked for retired and let me take over
the customer list. I service all of the same customers I did before except now they send
me the checks. :)

It was scary at first being on my own, but it's really not so bad. The bad part will be getting
my taxes figured out in April, not looking forward to that part.

Best of luck whatever you decide to do OP.
 
Gomar said:
Taxi drivers make more these days than computer workers and programmers. Good luck competing with Indians with $10/hr wages.
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gangolfus said:
Bullshit.
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At one point I would've called bull as well, but Gomar is about half right :eek:. There's a flood of workers from all over the world, particularly parts of Europe and India that makes the general market super competitive.

Since they're typically willing to do a ton of work for a lot less. the overall size of the potential client/employer pool willing to pay more for equal or better work is diminished. The only thing one can do (and relevant to the OP) is to always creatively differentiate themselves and justify their prices usually through a solid portfolio of previous projects, work experience, et cetera.
 
-Jess- said:
At one point I would've called bull as well, but Gomar is about half right :eek:. There's a flood of workers from all over the world, particularly parts of Europe and India that makes the general market super competitive.
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And like every other "more for less" scenario, you typically get what you pay for. It's been my experience, that the majority of the low-cost coding outsourcing needs EVERYTHING completely spelled out for them, leaving no decisions up in the air. Depending on the size/scope of the project, that's not always feasible.
 
Nate7311 said:
And like every other "more for less" scenario, you typically get what you pay for. It's been my experience, that the majority of the low-cost coding outsourcing needs EVERYTHING completely spelled out for them, leaving no decisions up in the air. Depending on the size/scope of the project, that's not always feasible.
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Fortunately my skills are not coding or web development, so some hands-on requirements may keep me employed for a while until the the world goes full retard Cloud crazy.

'Had several Recruiter interviews these last few days, so the spiders have been released. Hopefully something comes of it soon.
 
w00t! Good luck! You've been a knowledgeable asset to this community for as long as I've been around, so I can't imagine that it'll take long.
 
Valnar said:
It was the best place I ever worked and turned into the worst in a matter of 2 years. Everybody is now keeping their heads down, no one cares or has a sense of ownership in what they do, and the IT people left behind are just as concerned. I literally was the only person who knew all the ins & outs of my job. There are 6509's, 4506's, ISR routers, ASA firewalls, Fortinets and a variety of smaller switches just running on auto-pilot right now. I shudder to think what happens at the first major outage.

Maybe it was a blessing I got out when I did. It just sucks.
Click to expand...

Look at it this way, why give a fuck what happens, that's their problem now. As long as you did your job well, your conscious should be clean. In fact if it does crash you just might have a short term contract job to go with a new job soon enough.

I hear that high demand contracts call for equally high compensation, just saying. ;)
 
/usr/sbin said:
Look at it this way, why give a fuck what happens, that's their problem now. As long as you did your job well, your conscious should be clean. In fact if it does crash you just might have a short term contract job to go with a new job soon enough.

I hear that high demand contracts call for equally high compensation, just saying. ;)
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Yep. Let it cost them some money. One of my companies clients just got bought out. The new guys knew everything and didn't want anyones help. It isn't a big company(150 users in two states and under 10 locations). They used a citrix provider, mpls network, phone system, etc. No internal IT although they did have a report writer that worked on their aix system and routed stuff to us. They planned on cutting everything over in one weekend and never bothered to sit down with us before hand. No everytime I've been involved in a take over of an account or company and I can get a meeting with the old guys to learn all that I can I take it. A few things that cost them:

We had just signed contracts on new fiber lines for most of the branches. One branch was closed as they bought another company in the same city and used that building. Because of the lack of planning 30 grand in install costs was done. This company uses time warner for everything and would only use them. We don't have them in our state so time warner subleased verizon t1's and I think fiber in one location. Now one of the locations we know this will not work at(they had t1's and the cable in the ground is bad). The rest it just doesn't make sense. Why run like 4 to 6 t1's instead of a fiber line? This was done because they wanted to use a single vendor.

Now here is the kicker. They were going to have to pay something like 200k plus to cancel all of the contracts on the fiber runs that were signed. Personally I would have used them for the lenght of the contract and moved to the single vendor(time warner) when the contracts came up if they could offer the same. Since everything in the know where people leaving no one mentioned this before they signed the new contracts.

Since they knew everything and didn't check with the controller who they didn't hire or us they got stuck in another year of the citrix provider as well(over 16 grand a month).

The AIX system had software that the licenses would not legally transfer that they thought they could just use. I think the vendor said they could use it but had to get new support contracts. Everyone that knew how to really use it is gone though. The report writer tried to get a job saying she would be willing to do pretty much anything and they didn't hire her. Last time they called us asking for help on it I told them to call her. :D They had spent at least a day one something I could have fixed in 30 minutes and she could have fixed in 10.

They dicked us around some when we were trying to figure out if they wanted us to do any work for them(in the cutover or after). In that time we heard for others that we shouldn't deal with them. So even if they had questions we were not ready to help. As far as our backgrounds this company does commercial equipment. Their techs use laptops to interface with it and the software sucks. I had over 10 years of experience and could fix many things that would require multiple day requests with the vendors engineers. Hell I've had a few of my fixes passed out by their engineers nation wide(I'd get the bulletin email of a known bug with my workaround instructions). My coworker had like 6 years of experience and the upper level techs at the vendor knew him. They were shocked when he said we were leaving and didn't understand how they would let our experience go away without a fight.
 
With 14 years at the same company, you definitely have a card to play.

Like Spartacus said, print out some business cards (they are shockingly cheap) and go beat down some doors.

I'll be shocked if a man of your experience level isn't "at ease" by March.

Best of luck sir, we've all been there.
 
Lots of jobs out there, but not all of them pay what I want. I'm getting closer...but apparently need to get into management to get it. I refuse to do a pure management position. There needs to be hands-on as well.

The problem with the really big companies is they don't always pay well. Lots of positions at hospitals and such, but it's a LOT more work for less pay. Still working it!....had several phone interviews today and a face-to-face tomorrow and Tuesday next week...
 
Ever think about going into IT consulting business yourself? Or think about working at an MSP/IT consulting firm. Even if they don't have the 500-2000 seat environments, they probably have a lot of different sized environments that may meet up to that total size. And someone with your skills in lots of different aspects of IT would be awesome.
 
Might be a good time to retire and start a business of your own or invest. I retired a couple years ago and have enjoyed every minute.
 
Landed something. Accepted yesterday. Start February 15.

Actually had 3 job offers.

:D:D:D
 
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