Q1: How are you doing? I am doing just fine. I have the luxury of being married and my partner has a solid job and makes more than I did as an engineer. We are being careful with spending to ensure we don't get in trouble. We have kids, and I have missed seeing them-- because being a parent in the workforce (mom) I did everything possible to keep up with my male non-parent colleagues.
Q2 part 1: How did you feel then vs now? I was burnt out at work. Layoffs started almost a year ago and so we were working leaner and leaner. Weekend work expectations were just standard, expectations to pick up work from disappeared colleagues was expected. So by the time I was laid off it felt like finally the death march would end!
Q2: part 2: Are you doing alright? (this is redundant to your Q1). I am doing fine. I am taking this time to level up and am just throwing as many applications out as possible. You cant catch a fish if your line isn't in the water. And it helps to have multiple lines out at one time! I apply, make a note of what and when I applied in a doc, then move on and forget about it unless I get the recruiter call. Focusing on how many jobs I have applied for wont' help me towards actually getting one.
Q3: Are you looking for/have you found work? I got to final rounds with 2 companies. One experience was me sitting in a room with all men while my would be manager made a joke about how if you sit 9 women in a room that doesn't mean they would get pregnant. The culture beyond dumb unprofessional analogies was fortran meets office space-- so I kinda just wanted to get out of the building asap before they started destroying their fax machines with bats. The second round I had two system design questions where I needed to design and implement -- and I just wasn't able to complete implementation. So I am still looking and I am OK with that. Life isn't just about my job and I am kept aloft with enjoying my family, friends and volunteer work while I study during the workday for the next interview.
Q4: How have your feelings about the industry changed? No, my feelings haven't changed. Look, we are fungible, always were. We are there until the company no longer needs us. As Steve Martin said in the Jerk "Its a profit deal!". The one thing I am glad I did was keep the health of my life outside of work as much as possible. I kept my marriage healthy, my kids healthy , and I followed up with friends. So the company no longer needed me (no I never had a bad review, kept getting praise and got handed increasingly larger leadership opportunities), and I am glad I didn't kill myself on Saturday night to get the PR in a day early. I got it in on Monday 9am and it didn't impact our users one bit.
Q2 part 1: How did you feel then vs now? I was burnt out at work. Layoffs started almost a year ago and so we were working leaner and leaner. Weekend work expectations were just standard, expectations to pick up work from disappeared colleagues was expected. So by the time I was laid off it felt like finally the death march would end!
Q2: part 2: Are you doing alright? (this is redundant to your Q1). I am doing fine. I am taking this time to level up and am just throwing as many applications out as possible. You cant catch a fish if your line isn't in the water. And it helps to have multiple lines out at one time! I apply, make a note of what and when I applied in a doc, then move on and forget about it unless I get the recruiter call. Focusing on how many jobs I have applied for wont' help me towards actually getting one.
Q3: Are you looking for/have you found work? I got to final rounds with 2 companies. One experience was me sitting in a room with all men while my would be manager made a joke about how if you sit 9 women in a room that doesn't mean they would get pregnant. The culture beyond dumb unprofessional analogies was fortran meets office space-- so I kinda just wanted to get out of the building asap before they started destroying their fax machines with bats. The second round I had two system design questions where I needed to design and implement -- and I just wasn't able to complete implementation. So I am still looking and I am OK with that. Life isn't just about my job and I am kept aloft with enjoying my family, friends and volunteer work while I study during the workday for the next interview.
Q4: How have your feelings about the industry changed? No, my feelings haven't changed. Look, we are fungible, always were. We are there until the company no longer needs us. As Steve Martin said in the Jerk "Its a profit deal!". The one thing I am glad I did was keep the health of my life outside of work as much as possible. I kept my marriage healthy, my kids healthy , and I followed up with friends. So the company no longer needed me (no I never had a bad review, kept getting praise and got handed increasingly larger leadership opportunities), and I am glad I didn't kill myself on Saturday night to get the PR in a day early. I got it in on Monday 9am and it didn't impact our users one bit.