Eleven months at a FAANG company and had an out-of-the-blue unscheduled call with my manager that I was being let go due to performance. My manager never spoke to me about any issues regarding my performance until the day I was "involuntary terminated".
I'm doing OK. Applying to 10-15 jobs per week. I'm in my mid-50s and having a FAANG company on my resume I think is a real show stopper. Recruiters/Employers see that and immediately think I want the same salary. My resume shows the past 15 years of direct hands-on experience to many of the positions I've applied to. Out of 40+ resumes I've had one recruiter call me then ghosted, 4 companies sent the "thanks but no thanks" email, the rest crickets. When I was a hiring manager, I responded to all applicants. I see those days are gone.
I spent a couple of weeks loosing my sh1t then realized how much better I felt. It was a routine 55+ hrs/week and on-call 24/7. Without even trying I lost 10 pounds. I'm over the shock of a bi-weekly paycheck. I live frugally and saved 18 months of living expenses. I started my own company working with non-technical small business owners that have exceeded what GoDaddy can provide. I realized stuff like holiday/vacation pay isn't that big of a deal. I can schedule my day as I wish, provided all my client's work is on target. Pay out-of-pocket for health care isn't all that bad either, it's a tax deduction anyway. I still work full time, if I'm not billing clients, I'm working on improving my skills and writing blog posts.
The bottom line is that all these companies that are laying off IT employees just don't understand that the amount of work that needs to be done is still the same and it's going to bite them hard down the road. All these companies are doing is pleasing their board of directors & VCs to get stock prices up, etc. All of this is done on the backs of people that have families, mortgages, and other bills just to keep their four walls up.
I'm doing OK. Applying to 10-15 jobs per week. I'm in my mid-50s and having a FAANG company on my resume I think is a real show stopper. Recruiters/Employers see that and immediately think I want the same salary. My resume shows the past 15 years of direct hands-on experience to many of the positions I've applied to. Out of 40+ resumes I've had one recruiter call me then ghosted, 4 companies sent the "thanks but no thanks" email, the rest crickets. When I was a hiring manager, I responded to all applicants. I see those days are gone.
I spent a couple of weeks loosing my sh1t then realized how much better I felt. It was a routine 55+ hrs/week and on-call 24/7. Without even trying I lost 10 pounds. I'm over the shock of a bi-weekly paycheck. I live frugally and saved 18 months of living expenses. I started my own company working with non-technical small business owners that have exceeded what GoDaddy can provide. I realized stuff like holiday/vacation pay isn't that big of a deal. I can schedule my day as I wish, provided all my client's work is on target. Pay out-of-pocket for health care isn't all that bad either, it's a tax deduction anyway. I still work full time, if I'm not billing clients, I'm working on improving my skills and writing blog posts.
The bottom line is that all these companies that are laying off IT employees just don't understand that the amount of work that needs to be done is still the same and it's going to bite them hard down the road. All these companies are doing is pleasing their board of directors & VCs to get stock prices up, etc. All of this is done on the backs of people that have families, mortgages, and other bills just to keep their four walls up.