Things I wish had known earlier in my career

I wish I had been less than 30 years into my career when I realized that:

1. Nobody pays you enough to make a miserable job worthwhile.

2. Nobody pays you enough to yell at you.

3. Sometimes it's better to quit and take your chances than to stay miserable.

4. There's no such thing as "job security".

5. Your employer doesn't care.

 

End of the Seven Years of Famine: I Got a Job!

After getting laid off seven years ago (exactly seven years ago!), I have worked as an engineering consultant, I have taught school, I have been involved in several abortive startups, and I have taken several temporary jobs. As the economy slowly recovers, I have been chasing a full-time job with a large semiconductor manufacturer. The chase has come to an end, but not in the way I expected. This is the full story.

WARNING! THIS WILL BE VERY BORING TO SOME OF YOU. But it may be useful to some others.

Okay, you have been warned.

In late 2008, I worked for 3 months at a small company in Fort Collins, called RLE Technologies. It was a great place to work: great people, a great management team, and a solid product line and business plan. I was working a temporary contract as a technical writer, but we had several discussions about my ambition to move into to a permanent engineering position.

Then the economy fell apart, and their sales projections for 2009 didn't justify adding another engineer. So I gave them good work until my contract ended, and we parted on good terms. I stayed in touch with the management team.

A year later, around Thanksgiving 2009, I got another temporary contract, this time with Micron Technology in Longmont -- formerly Displaytech, a small, successful company that had recently been acquired by Micron. I was working as a firmware engineer. I came home every evening full of excitement -- I told my family that I didn't know whether it was because "I'm working!" or because the work I was doing was that much fun.

As a large corporation, Micron is a great company to work for. Consciously or not, they are an "excellent company" in the model of Peters and Waterman's 1982 study. They treat their employees well. They seek to excel in every market they enter. They have entered several new markets -- CMOS image sensors, microdisplays, LED illumination and personal computers, among others -- without straying far from the things they do best: memory chips.

As a division, the Longmont office is a great place to work. Displaytech became very successful at making high-resolution, full-color computer displays smaller than a postage stamp. Their next success will be in picoprojectors: high-resolution, battery-powered, full-color projectors that fit inside an iPod or cellphone and project video anywhere. (At a recent conference, Micron used a flour tortilla as a projection screen.)

This division is composed of a group of people who are intelligent, excited about what they are doing, hard-working, easy to get along with, and, umm, well, really smart. Everybody shows up in the morning quietly enthusiastic and ready to go, and they work hard until it's time to go home -- sometimes later. It's not competition, just excitement.

I loved being a part of that. I completed my project ahead of time, and my co-workers were delighted with my work. I had made it clear that I'd like to stay there longer. Management added several extensions to my contract and found me other projects to work on. We were all trying to find a way to keep me there permanently.

They connected me with a manager in Boise who might have a couple of firmware openings. We met briefly one Friday when he was in Longmont, and then traded a few short emails before ... well, let's jump ahead to Thursday, February 18.

At 9 a.m., I had a phone meeting with the manager in Boise. He asked me to email him my resume, and two hours later, I was in a job interview with one of his people who just happened to be in Longmont. The interview went well, things were looking hopeful, and my friends at Micron shared my excitement.

That afternoon, I drove to Fort Collins. The recruiter who had gotten me into Micron also represented RLE Technologies, and RLE had asked him to arrange a meeting with me. The recruiter gave me the impression that it was a job interview. Wow, two interviews in two days.

The "interview" turned out to be a meeting with the management team, but not really an interview. RLE had survived 2009, and as 2010 began, they had found that several of their departments had more work than one person could do, but not enough work for two people. They had decided that they needed someone who was versatile and flexible, an engineer who could wear many hats. They contacted my recruiter, who gave them my name, and ... well, they were offering me a position at RLE Technologies. After an hour of talking with them, I accepted their offer.

Honestly, I could be happy at either place. Both are small, successful entities with good people and bright futures, where I can make a difference. That I ended up at RLE rather than Micron was just a matter of timing. I am content.

My contract with Micron ends on Wednesday, February 24, and I start with RLE Technologies on Monday, March 1.

Lessons I've learned while being unemployed:

• First: Pick a few good recruiters, and stay in regular touch with them. Phone them weekly, just to say hi. This will keep you on the top of their list. I got this advice from Bob Zoller, a friend and former member of NoCoNet. I tip my hat to Rose Marie Studer ("Studer the Recruiter"), Jackie Avitia and Ray Brown (Volt), Angie Joynt and Chris Palm (Aerotek), and all the rest of them.
• Actively involve yourself in multiple networks and professional societies. Be the "rainmaker" who passes job leads back and forth between your networks. Networking isn't a sterile exercise, and it isn't formulaic or algorithmic: it's being a friend and helping your friends to get jobs. Good things happen to you when you do this.
• Follow up!
• Never, EVER burn your bridges.
• Keep in touch with old bosses and co-workers.
• Sitting at home in front of a computer will not get you a job. Get on the telephone. And get out of the house.
• You HAVE TO tap into the hidden job market.
• Don't give up. This won't last forever. Find your anchor and hold on to it tightly, whether it be family, friends, or faith. You WILL make it through.
  

Links that some people may find useful:
"For the Record" - my previous posting about the job hunt
NoCoNet - Northern Colorado's premier network for job-seeking professionals
Micron Technology and Micron's Microdisplay Division
RLE Technologies
One of my startups
Rose Marie Studer - one of the best recruiters in the business
Volt Technical - an excellent recruiting firm for temporary and permanent positions
Aerotek - another excellent recruiting firm for temporary and permanent positions
SOS Staffing - another recruiting firm. They have a rather tough client in the Weld County, so I can't say whether or not they're "excellent." But my sister works for them in another state, so for that reason alone I'd say they're pretty darned good.
Larimer County Workforce Center - a government agency that actually does something useful! (Maybe I should write about them another time.)

Bonuses

I sent this letter to my senators, my representative, and the prez. My Canadian friends can translate that into Canoobian, right? Right.

I'm well aware of the fact that the prez will never see my words, but at least my opinion will be tabulated and added to the statistics that get reported to him daily. As for the others, chances are pretty good that they'll actually read my words, or an excerpt therefrom.

You can help by reprinting my words. Make sure you include my name.

Dear [insert title and name here]:

I'm writing to you today about the bonuses that have been making the news. I'm adamantly opposed to the bonuses, and I want to convince you to oppose them and to do whatever you can to discontinue them.

I understand the principle behind these annual bonuses.

On reason for the bonuses is that when a company is doing well, those executives who are responsible for its success are rewarded more than the rank and file, supposedly because they are more responsible than the rank and file for the company's success. That's a bunch of bull, but I won't get into that in this letter.

The other reason for the bonuses is to "retain" top talent so that they're not wooed away by their competitors. The NFL, NBA, and MLB do the same thing. We know how it works. This isn't rocket science.

But when a company has a disastrous financial year, its stock price falls through the floor, it has to lay off thousands of its employees to rescue its bottom line, and THEN it has to call on the federal government for financial help, ITS EXECUTIVES DO NOT DESERVE A BONUS, NOR ARE THEY WORTH RETAINING.

And they especially don't deserve a bonus if ONE CENT OF IT comes from my taxes. I'm out of work right now. I can't get a job. I've been trying since December. I know people who have been trying for longer than that. Don't go giving my money to someone who was in some small part responsible for the mess we're in right now.

I'd be glad to speak with you in person about this.

Regards
Ray Depew
[address and phone deleted]

It's Been a While

It's been a while since I wrote on this blog. I expected to be more prolific. I guess that in the eternal scheme of things, there were tasks more important than keeping up with this blog.

No apologies. No excuses. Well, okay, excuses. I have spent nearly every waking hour for the past 2-3 months job hunting. Thanks to Van and others, I have used the telephone more than the Internet lately, and it's been beneficial -- but I still don't have a job. I'm working on a couple of hot leads this week, but I have nothing to report at this time.

Watch for Adsense ads to start appearing on my blog. I'll be honest: they're there to make me money. I'll take whatever I can get. If you see a seriously inappropriate ad (not just one you don't like, come on), let me know.

In the meantime, I'll follow this short entry with a couple of letters that I recently wrote to my elected national officials.

For the Record

Okay, let me get the objections and arguments out of the way first, because some of my readers will want to make these points as they read.

1. I'm not whining or complaining. If you read this with a whiny tone, please go back and reread it with a dispassionate tone. I'm still rather upbeat and optimistic. I don't have time to whine.
2. I'm not sitting around, waiting for someone to offer me a job or a pile o' cash. I'm working hard, spending 60 hours a week on the job search.
3. I've heard all the advice. More advice won't fix the situation. Thanks anyway.

Now, for today's posting.

This economic downturn has created a job market different from all the job markets I've ever seen. In the past, when I've been out looking for a job, I have gotten lots of rejection letters, and a few rejection phone calls, that said: "Your qualifications are impressive, but we had lots of applicants for the position you applied for, and we chose one of them instead. Good luck looking elsewhere."

This time around, it's different. This time, what I'm getting in person and over the phone, is "We'd love to hire you. We need someone just like you. Unfortunately, we just got hit with a hiring freeze." Or "... our budget for that position has just been cut." Or "... our sales have dropped to near-zero and we may be closing our doors." Or, in the case of Avago, "... we just finished laying off 240 people instead of hiring anybody."

And nobody's lying about it. I've been able to verify most of their stories by independent means. Things really are tough all over.

The only people making money right now, I think, are the people writing books and articles and giving seminars and speeches with titles like, "How to Set Yourself Apart from Everybody Else and Get a Job in These Tough Times." I'm always wary of the people who write these things: what's their day job, and how did they get it? Did they follow their own advice?

One of the ironies of the current situation is that there are a lot of job openings out there. But those employers all require 3 to 5 years of experience in the specialized area that the job requires, and they're not willing to give a new hire 3 to 6 months -- or even one month -- to retrain and to learn the ropes. Employers used to be willing to take that chance, but not any more. Many of these job openings have been out there for months, some for a couple of years, and employers are still waiting for their Prince Charming to come along. It seems rather stupid to me: an employer could hire a versatile-but-obsolete professional and retrain them in less time than they've been waiting for Prince Charming.

The Northern Colorado Networking Group, http://www.noconet.org/, is a network of professionals who are either unemployed or seeking other employment. They meet every Monday morning in space donated by Faith Evangelical Free Church, in Fort Collins, Colorado. Normally their meetings are attended by about 80 people, and they normally get 3 to 5 new members each week. They consider themselves successful if they have a high turnover rate. For the last 4 to 6 weeks, however, their meetings have been standing-room-only, with between 100 and 200 people, and 20 new members each week. Like I said, things are tough out there.

It would be easy to give in to the discouragement, to fall into depression, and to sit at home all day in my grubby clothes, drinking (root) beer and watching the tube. To combat that tendency, I start each day by giving service to a group of high school students for an hour, running a couple of miles, eating a healthy breakfast, reading from the scriptures, and praying. I shave, I dress in business attire, and I spend the day doing all the things I can do to land a job.

(My wife keeps reminding me of what M. Scott Peck said in The Road Less Traveled, about insanity. He may have been quoting someone else, but it's something like this: insanity is when you keep doing the same thing, over and over, expecting to get a different outcome each time. I think there's a fine line between insanity and persistence, and I intend to stay on the persistence side of the line.)

I set aside some time in the evenings to work on a couple of entrepreneurial projects I'm involved in. But the payoff from those entrepreneurial projects is several months off, and I need a job today. So the job hunt takes priority.