Octopus Overlords

it just happened - my last day is tomorrow, December 7. the other two times i've been laid off, it's always been December. why is this? they need to get you out of there before employee reviews/bonuses?

Really sorry to hear that. Here's hoping you find something even better quickly.

Damn, sorry man.

I'm sorry that happened to you. The only reason I can think of is reducing tax liability but I'm not sure that companies actually use a calendar year to pay taxes. They may use a fiscal year, which generally starts in October.

Hope you're financially positioned to enjoy a long holiday break. I'd guess they do it before the end of the calendar year, since most companies' fiscal year syncs with that.

At least there's never been a better time to be in the job market. If you're under 50, that is.

I told my sister that I hoped she gets laid off for Christmas. She said it was the nicest thing anyone ever said to her. She's survived two decades of layoffs going from an entire campus of buildings down to just one, but now that she's had cancer she's ready to retire. She actually asked to be on the "list" if when they have another.

That stinks. I'm sorry, man.

Ouch. Good luck.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Thu Dec 06, 2018 7:26 pm it just happened - my last day is tomorrow, December 7. the other two times i've been laid off, it's always been December. why is this? they need to get you out of there before employee reviews/bonuses?

Could be you're right about the review/bonus thing? In any case - sorry to hear it.

What's a bonus?

Layoffs suck any time of the year but this time of year there is already enough stress and that magnifies the suckiness of job loss. I hope you don't live next to Drazzil because the rest of the country is still hiring. May your layoff be short!

Brutal. Sorry to hear the news. The HDD industry (as you likely know) traditionally held rounds of its major layoffs in mid-January. Wouldn't want to ruin peoples' holidays (just their ability to pay for them).

I assume March/June/September/December lay-offs are to clear the books at the end of a fiscal quarter.

Geez, that sucks huge ones. Sorry man.

Hopefully you'll bounce back quickly.

They're going to drop the bomb on Pearl Harbor day...........nice.

That sucks.
Hopefully they give you some kind of severance package. I've never been that lucky myself but I imagine it makes it less bad.

Archinerd wrote: ↑Fri Dec 07, 2018 1:13 pm That sucks.
Hopefully they give you some kind of severance package. I've never been that lucky myself but I imagine it makes it less bad.

When I got laid off by the hospital, I think I got 8 weeks, which was nice. But it comes in lump sum, which gets taxed to nothing. The following year resulted in a huge refund, which financed my second trip to the Philippines.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Fri Dec 07, 2018 1:24 pm

Archinerd wrote: ↑Fri Dec 07, 2018 1:13 pm That sucks.
Hopefully they give you some kind of severance package. I've never been that lucky myself but I imagine it makes it less bad.

When I got laid off by the hospital, I think I got 8 weeks, which was nice. But it comes in lump sum, which gets taxed to nothing. The following year resulted in a huge refund, which financed my second trip to the Philippines.

Last time I got laid off my pay was docked for vacation time I had used but not earned, taken a month earlier when my daughter was born. Taxed income is better than negative money.

eight weeks of severance (paid in a lump sum, so it's gonna be taxified) and one month of resume review from a professional firm. health insurance cuts out at the end of the month

Software Test Engineer seems to be a job title in demand here in Seattle, so I'm not overly worried about finding work... but the work environment (up to this week) was great and the coworkers are fantastic. that's gonna be sad, to miss out on that. and of course, i will greatly miss the dogs here.

my gitlab credentials on my project were just revoked, so i guess i'm not doin anything for the rest of the day. i run the office book club here (which i started) and i am officially handing the administration of that off to a coworker at noon. then my team is taking me to lunch afterthat. i think i'm going out with people after work.

oh coworker brought me a going away gift...

...

This sucks. I'm sorry to hear it - but I hope you bounce back quick and get something as good or better in the end.

Bummer, dude! Here's hoping you get into an even better situation after some time off for the holidays.

one position i am applying for is requiring me to do a pre-recorded prescreen interview online and i've been trying to do it for a few days now. this is very likely the most terrifying thing i've ever been asked to do (going back some number of years) and i can't seem to start the actual process (not to mention it's all more than a bit creepy). i freeze up during the practice questions and my mind seems to be furiously revolting against this process the whole while, needing to escape. just ask me to show up in person and talk, do this over phone, video call - whatever, this is not going well.

Well, at least they let you exit out after the practice so you can come back and practice some more then do the real thing later. Maybe you could try to guess what the questions are going to be, and then write down a few key phrases that you think you might be able to inject into your answers. Maybe have a few categories with appropriate phrases to inject laid out under each category depending on what category the question falls under.

Maybe have a look at telemarketer scripts, and how they work.

From reading that Business Insider page on Hire Vue once you get started it looks like you get unlimited chances to record over your answers if you don't like how they come out?

Hirevue tips on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... revue+tips

the amount of retries you get is determined by the company, and i was told by the recruiter for this one i get one shot at each question, no do-overs.

i did watch that video a few days ago, but it really didn't help with my skeeved-out-ed-ness. i really kinda hate to do this at all, but two friends i talked to gave me a possible solution - i'll get a friend in the same room, and i'll be giving the answer to them, rather than to the computer. one of them volunteered, so i'll do this tomorrow.

just did the video thing. it displayed an error after i hit 'finish' on every single answer i gave, so i got two chances for each question anyways, haha. i think i must have under-answered the final one since it seemed too obvious and easy, but whatever, i did it.

two meetings with recruiters tomorrow. talked with one recruiter today and i passed that initial screen, so i have a technical interview over the phone scheduled tentatively for early next week.

turned down a position with [monolithic tech company game studios]. the pay wasn't what i was looking for, and the commute was onerous. had an interview with a place today where the pay is good, but again, the commute is dire. there also doesn't appear to be any culture at this place that i can detect - the office is downright depressing, in fact, and since it's a non-profit, no perks anywhere in sight. i have another interview on Friday for [monolithic web services company] that i will also probably turn down due to the commute. unlike Drazzil, i have been keeping my job search going and have been landing some job offers that a normal person would be totally happy to accept.

i have my sights set on a particular company, but they aren't hiring until next month. (i did pass the first two interviews nicely).

verbally accepted the offer with the place i thought was depressing last night, as they came back with a pay bump and an assurance i could quit at any time without repercussion. on a lark, i went through with the interview today, and did far better than i thought i would. they won't come back with an answer in a week or two, tho. i am in a bit of a bind now....

formally accepted the offer - i start Monday. going to look into upgrading my increasingly janky desktop PC now.

Congrats! Welcome back to the grind.

i have to say the three-month 'vacation' was pretty great. it's going to be a struggle to re-acclimate to 9 hour days at the office and 1 hour commutes. google transit shows four buses(!) and 75 minutes(!) to get to work, but i can get it down to one 25 minute bus ride and 35 minutes of biking...