A Year Without A Paycheck

One year ago today, my job unofficially ended.  We were taken aside, one by one, told we were getting severance, and then got walked out of the building.  Officially, we were still employed till the 15th of November.  I can't say it wasn't a terribly big surprise.  And to be fair, we'd been essentially sitting on our asses and getting paid for the last couple of months prior.  Still working, but not nearly as much as we had been.

Funny how time slips away, isn't it?

A year later, I'm still out of work.  The job hunt has been a bigger challenge than at any other time I can think of, even worse than when I moved back to Phoenix ten years ago.  The economy is in the toilet.  The tech sector which I've had a career in has become a hell of a lot more picky about hiring.  In fact, every sector has gotten picky.  Even temp work is hard to get these days.  Over the last 365 days, I've had precisely one temp job lasting six hours, which was a couple weeks ago.  I've sent out more resumes and applications than I can easily count.  I've gotten dozens of form emails essentially telling me I didn't get the job.  I've been ignored by dozens more.  I've had headhunters tell me they can get me work, and I've heard a recruiter tell me I'm screwed.  There have been folks out of work longer than me who aren't getting work and there are folks out of work for less time than I have getting snapped right up.  Part of me would like to get out of the tech sector.  Part of me knows I have to get back into the tech sector before I can move out of the tech sector.

It hasn't all been doom and gloom, though it sometimes feels like it.  I met a wonderful woman, the Otaku Girl, who prodded me to put up this blog.  I've met a lot of very interesting people at events I probably wouldn't have met them at previously.  I got to see a lot of things that when I was working regularly I never could have seen.  In some ways, I've been living more in the last year than I did while I was working for a living.

Still, I'd much rather have a job.  Something that lets me have a good work-life balance.  I'll take the paycheck, but I want to be able to enjoy it as well.

The hunt goes on.