That Big Thing
Oct. 18th, 2007 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwexYesterday (Wednesday) I was informed that my company is eliminating the Human Factors/Usability position, which means I'm on the hunt for a new job. The terms were quite generous. The decision was made at the top level of the company and both my boss and grand-boss disagreed with it.
I've updated my resume and will send a copy if you leave me an email - I can also share it as a Google doc. I'm working on my portfolio site, which is woefully out of date, and will reactivate a formal search after that.
The rest, as they say, is details.
The environment created by, and my relationship with, my immediate boss were two of the major factors causing me to stay at CRD. He has used words like "excellent" and "outstanding" to describe my recent work. There's nothing in this decision that's related to what I did or did not do. On the one hand that makes me feel better; it's good when people like what I do. On the other hand I feel worse because if I do excellent work and still am let go... what the heck!? I have a rampant mix of anger, frustration, and confusion running through my head. And of course I'm pretty upset.
Formally I'm now on a 4-week paid finish-up-work period. I'm allowed to job hunt and take reasonable time for that. They've asked me to schedule things for beginning and end of day, of course. If I still have not found something in that time I'm eligible for three weeks' severance pay once I clean out my desk.
I've also been officially encouraged to try to find another position within CRD. Realistically there's nothing else in development for me, but Product Management has a lot of overlap with what I do, and has the major bonus of regular contact with customers and users. This has been my major complaint here all year. On the one hand it'd be nice not to have to do a full-blown job change. On the other hand, do I really want to continue working for a company that thinks it doesn't need usability in its product?
It would also produce an odd blip in my resume if I continued in such a position for a long time. A year or two wouldn't be bad and it makes a good story in certain ways.
Even with the full period over which CRD is covering me it likely means being out in the cold for holidays and having to restrict spending. I expect it'll take me 3 months or so to find something really good. The job market is active but my skill set is pretty specialized. I've found it hard to get hired between Thanksgiving and New Years but I'm told that's changing as companies are now trying to line up people for early-January starts due to having fiscal and benefits calendars more aligned with the conventional calendar. We'll see.
As always, leads and pointers appreciated. I am not considering uprooting the family at this point, so I'm looking for local or commutable things.
I've updated my resume and will send a copy if you leave me an email - I can also share it as a Google doc. I'm working on my portfolio site, which is woefully out of date, and will reactivate a formal search after that.
The rest, as they say, is details.
The environment created by, and my relationship with, my immediate boss were two of the major factors causing me to stay at CRD. He has used words like "excellent" and "outstanding" to describe my recent work. There's nothing in this decision that's related to what I did or did not do. On the one hand that makes me feel better; it's good when people like what I do. On the other hand I feel worse because if I do excellent work and still am let go... what the heck!? I have a rampant mix of anger, frustration, and confusion running through my head. And of course I'm pretty upset.
Formally I'm now on a 4-week paid finish-up-work period. I'm allowed to job hunt and take reasonable time for that. They've asked me to schedule things for beginning and end of day, of course. If I still have not found something in that time I'm eligible for three weeks' severance pay once I clean out my desk.
I've also been officially encouraged to try to find another position within CRD. Realistically there's nothing else in development for me, but Product Management has a lot of overlap with what I do, and has the major bonus of regular contact with customers and users. This has been my major complaint here all year. On the one hand it'd be nice not to have to do a full-blown job change. On the other hand, do I really want to continue working for a company that thinks it doesn't need usability in its product?
It would also produce an odd blip in my resume if I continued in such a position for a long time. A year or two wouldn't be bad and it makes a good story in certain ways.
Even with the full period over which CRD is covering me it likely means being out in the cold for holidays and having to restrict spending. I expect it'll take me 3 months or so to find something really good. The job market is active but my skill set is pretty specialized. I've found it hard to get hired between Thanksgiving and New Years but I'm told that's changing as companies are now trying to line up people for early-January starts due to having fiscal and benefits calendars more aligned with the conventional calendar. We'll see.
As always, leads and pointers appreciated. I am not considering uprooting the family at this point, so I'm looking for local or commutable things.
