As I’m sure a fair number of you already know I was told my position had been eliminated. They are going a new direction. I am no longer needed. And in fact it wasn’t just me, it was a large group of IT folks including the majority of the DBA teams. If my understanding is correct they are outsourcing our positions. And that’s fine. Personally I think they are making a mistake but it’s not my mistake to make so more power to them. Now, I should point out that between the amount of notice I’m being given, and a nice severance package I’m being given something like 9 months to find a new position. I consider that incredibly generous. A few unfortunate pieces of timing include the fact that I’ll be missing my 15th anniversary by 17 days and that we had just bought a new house and the movers were taking stuff out of the house around me as I was being told the news..
Oh well, things happen and it’s time to move on. I’ve talked about what I think is involved in finding a new job before and I thought it might make for a couple of fun blog posts over the next few months to talk about what I’ll be doing to find my next new position.
I recently heard the quote “The best time to order a pizza is thirty minutes ago.” So first things first, what have I been doing to get myself ready in case something like this happens.
- Develop an online resume (for example a blog).
- This is blog post 901 over the last 10 years!
- Network with people from the same profession.
- When I mentioned that I’d been let go on Twitter I almost couldn’t keep up with all of the well wishes and offers of help. The SQL Server community is just incredible.
- Keep up with the latest technologies.
- I’ll be honest and say while I did a little bit I didn’t do nearly as much as I could have.
- Interview periodically to keep your interview skills sharp.
- Nope. Not once. And it’s been 15 years. Oops.
I’ve talked about this before but this blog was actually started with the intention of making it easier for me to find a new job the next time I was let go. Supporting the blog dragged me into the community even deeper than I already was, and here we are. So what are my next steps?
- Get together my resume.
- Yes, I have 9 months. I’ve got a meeting with HR this week and depending on what they say I may be waiting a bit to actually start searching. That said, I’m still getting ready ASAP.
- Update linked in.
- See above.
- Go over some standard interview questions and make sure I have answers.
- I’ve started with this but I need to do more. Both technical and non technical questions. “What is your biggest fault?” for example.
- Get back to blogging on a regular basis.
- This is a start but time is not on my side. (See the fact that we just moved into a new house.)
- This is hopefully also going to include getting some articles written for various forums.
- Dig into some training opportunities I’ve got.
- There are a fair number of resources I know of that are free, some I get from being an MVP (fingers crossed for the up coming renewal date, July 1st), and some I have from my current job.
- Connect with all of the amazing people that have already contacted me about various jobs and places I can apply.
- I’m going to have to make a list and pray I don’t miss anyone.
So that’s my plan for the next little bit. I’ll keep you up to date as things progress.