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TattooedBaboon

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Has anyone elese here lost a good paying job or even a lousy job due to this recession? Being unemployed has a devestating effect one one's personal worth.
 

D_Juan Tootree

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Hopefully there is a silver lining in the cloud. Hopefully by being laid off, it gives some people the incentive to actually follow their dreams or ambitions and work to find a more fulfilling job, not just settling in a comfortable job.
 

canuck_pa

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I was laid off before this recession when the company I was working for was not doing well. That was more than 4 years ago. Since then I had short term contracts but nothing permanent. Thankfully I had good savings but if I don't get more work soon I'll have to sell my condo
 

Notaguru2

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I was laid off (along with 4 other Directors) from a publicly traded IT consultancy this past summer. This was back when the economy was "strong" and Bush was denying any evidence of recession. Of course we now know that we've been in recession since Dec 2007; funny how the truth ALWAYS comes out.

Anyway, I was out of work for about 5 months. It was tough on the family, but we pulled through. I'm back at work for a great company that actually is fat on cash right now... so the future looks bright. We're growing, not shrinking.

Locally, another company laid off 250 employees. For Knoxville, thats a lot of people. Foreclosures are everywhere and jobs are tough to come by. I don't know what is going to happen, but I definitely subscribe to the thought that we haven't seen the bottom yet.

Prepare yourself...
 

TattooedBaboon

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Yeah, I don't think that we've hit rock-bottom yet either. I am proud of those workers at the sit-in at thier factory.

For me, I am somewhat lucky in that my partner still has a good paying job. Having said that, after having a sucessful career, cleaning the house and tending to the pets just doesn't offer as much excitement as being needed in the office setting.

I've applied for even low wage jobs and have been told that there are so many out of work, over-qualified people all applying for the same low-wage positions.

I did see signs of this coming ages ago. This is what happens when one deregulates. There were reasons why Roosevelt put those policies into place. Greed is what is the real cause of this recession.
 

Principessa

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Hopefully there is a silver lining in the cloud. Hopefully by being laid off, it gives some people the incentive to actually follow their dreams or ambitions and work to find a more fulfilling job, not just settling in a comfortable job.

Why is there no smiley giving a raspberry when I need one? :confused:
I can't speak for the OP or others who have been laid off; but I can tell just by observation that if you don't have a job and you need one, that now is not the time to cavalierly follow your bliss. Especially if you have a family and a mortgage. The bottomline is people need a J-O-B.
 

B_VinylBoy

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I haven't been laid off from my current day job (thank goodness!), but I did get laid off from a good paying job during the start of the dot com collapse in 2001. It's been a struggle to get back up to that financial level again. But between the day job and the freelance projects on the side, I'm sure I'll eventually get back to that level.
 

OCDreamer69

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Lost my job in Sept of this year due to the position being transferred to MN from So California after a company merger. Had spent the last year traveling 85% of my time to consolidate the payrolls of 3 companies and even though the position could have been done here in So California, they wanted to "keep a finger" on it by having it in Plymouth, MN.

Was promised two other positions with the company at the So Cal location but when I was available, both positions suddenly weren't there due to "restructionering" of the company.

So now I am looking for a job...........
 

goodwood

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Hey Baboon -

Sorry to hear about the difficulty of readjusting to life out of the office.
I suppose its a bit soon to ask if there are prospects.
After three days of intensive applying and interviewing I am pissed off that I haven't landed something. Ridiculous - i realize. But i am ready to hit the ground running and am pissed off when less qualified people with lesser educations, qualifications and experience somehow have jobs that I could be doing!
Good luck to everybody here. Too bad there isn't a professional networking forum here.
 

transformer_99

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I haven't been laid off from my current day job (thank goodness!), but I did get laid off from a good paying job during the start of the dot com collapse in 2001. It's been a struggle to get back up to that financial level again. But between the day job and the freelance projects on the side, I'm sure I'll eventually get back to that level.

I was in that category too when Bush took office, I think periodically they like to start some of us over to keep wages and salaries lower. It worked out well for the wealthiest. Whatever savings you had, you liquidated to live off of, then when you finally got work, inflation had been surging all thru that time, but incomes hadn't paced the inflation. I gained new work skills, retooling thru self-funded education. Still holding back waiting for the right salary before using any/much of it. I used to think if you were better it translated to more money, it has a little, but not adjusted for inflation that we had over the last 8 years.
 

TattooedBaboon

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I agree with you. As of yet, no prospects. I've even been applying for low wage unskilled jobs but w/o success.

Re: professional networking group ... we can always start one under "group." Any interest?
 

D_Pubert Stabbingpain

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Yeah, I don't think that we've hit rock-bottom yet either. I am proud of those workers at the sit-in at thier factory.

I've applied for even low wage jobs and have been told that there are so many out of work, over-qualified people all applying for the same low-wage positions.

I hear that! 6 months here and starting at day 1 I knew I was headed for trouble when I ran into clueless HR people (maybe working on some type of minimum # of interviews?) who scheduled me and when the guys, 1/3 my age walked in the door and said "my experience seems more technical" that I was doomed for getting those entry level jobs.

Still, others have purposely "downgraded" their resumes in order to get into jobs where they take a 25-50% cut in pay.

What makes me happy is that instead of my company's execs taking pay and bonus cuts to keep the actual workers employed, they fired us and still keep hiring more VP's (all friends and drinking buddies no doubt) and they are getting what they deserve as their stock has been trading down 85-93%! :biggrin1: Bitter, party of one? Nope, there are many of us who think they did us a favor before they completely drove the company into the ground forcing us to lose any severance.

I will hang in there as long as I can in order to avoid denying my skills and experience in order to sit in a minimalist cube completely surrounded by idiots screaming into my ears all day because they spend all their time surfing the net and don't know how to do their own research. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind helping people but only after they have tried to help themselves!

I can't believe these companies think that by shoving hundreds of people into a room that they will save money when these places have a HUGE turnover. I recently took a 1 hour online test (that I passed) that concentrated so heavily on getting along with stupid co-workers and irate customers, the *only* thing they did NOT ask was how I would react to a co-worker bringing a gun to work! Seriously! It sounded like a horrible environment. Who needs that kind of stress only to end up quitting or getting laid off again and going back to square one?

What really grabs my ass is the outsourcing firm my company hired to help us, has had me change my resume so many times it is basically un-recognizable to me! :mad:

I can understand people saying that now is not the time to soul search for something more personally rewarding and I find it hard to believe that anyone would take on more debt in order to get more education at this time but I am evaluating all options at this point (except more education, I've had enough!).
 

TattooedBaboon

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I agree 15shooter! I have also come to the realization that education has become an industry in and of itself. We no longer educate people we simply credetialize them,. They are encouraging people to take on more debt, get more credetials ... moreover - without any promise of getting a job after this credetialization.
 

TattooedBaboon

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For everyone following this thread - I just created (under Groups) the Professional Networking Group. For those who are looking to meet others that might help in finding a career, for support for those of us who are out of work and also for general camaraderie.
 

B_VinylBoy

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Still, others have purposely "downgraded" their resumes in order to get into jobs where they take a 25-50% cut in pay.

It's sad that this has to happen, but I know people who did it just to get a job. Employers try to use the term "overqualified". But I'll never understand why an employer who would actually turn down a worthy candidate who has the knowledge sense all because they were too knowledgeable on the subject.