Well, I didn't get laid off yet

[Philosophy]

Our company lost our major client at the start of this week, so business is not looking good. Everyone in the office got a choice yesterday of taking a 12% pay cut or leaving. I took the pay cut. Two of the 15 people in my office opted to leave (officially they were "furloughed").

The programming project I am working on now I can probably finish within two weeks, and we don't have anything lined up after that that I am aware of. If we don't pick up some new contracts within the next two months at the latest, the company will probably go out of business. At least I'll make the 20 weeks minimum necessary to be eligible for unemployment now. Of course I am applying for other jobs like crazy already, but considering it took me almost three years of fruitless searching to land this job, I'm not very optimistic.

[Systematic Chaos]

1. Damn, that sucks....

All I can do is wish you the best of luck. If you know anything about building and repairing computers, spread your name around as much as you can and try to get work on the side, preferably for cash.

Isn't it amazing how just 5 years ago, you couldn't get through a half-hour program on most networks without seeing an add for ITT tech or some local computer training school? Now, such ads are few and far between. It's sickening to think that so many people took training in those fields thinking that there'd never be a shortage of skilled work in IT. I can say that I was thinking about making just such a move myself as recently as a year ago. Of course, nobody was thinking that those jobs would all be moved half a world away, were they?

[leftofthedial]

2. Since the 2000 Coup

I've been laid off more times than I've been laid.

It sucks! Good luck.

[Interrobang]

3. Hey, that's sort of what happened to me in October.

The company I used to work for is, AFAIK, out of business now. (What does one do with one's resume when the company at which one had one's longest continual stint of employment no longer exists? It plays hell with the references, that's for sure.) They laid me off in mid-October, and I heard that as of roughly New Years', the company had died, more or less.

Of course, the government bastards have messed up my unemployment payments, so my rent cheque bounced. (My landlord will never trust me again, and it took me over a year to build that relationship -- thanks Human Resources Development Canada, I knew I could count on you!)

Apply like crazy and don't give up. Things are developing for me (finally) after a long slow period from October to January.

As to the outsourcing issue, as a former "nearshored" worker (playing on the exchange rate), I can't say I begrudge people anywhere their jobs, but employers ought to have to pay nearshores, offshores, and outsources what they pay their domestic workers. Then we'd see how many of those jobs really would go elsewhere

[A McCoy]

4. I just got a job after 8 months of unemployment

I was laid off by a software manufacturer in the Bay Area last May. I was a project manager that saw my IT job go to India. After attending EMT school, and then Truck Driving School, I finally got a job as a trucker. EMT's don't make squat, and trucking can pay the bills as long as I keep my lifestyle down to next to nothing.

I hope you don't end up in my shoes, but if you do - be open to anything.