🚀 go-pugleaf

On Apr 28, 11:41 am, "R.K" <rbrt.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I’ve been a computer programmer for 21 years. For some reason, and
> contrary to the so called “common wisdom”, it’s been increasingly
> difficult for me to land new contracts. My last unemployment streak is
> celebrating its 6 months anniversary next week.

"Welcome" to the 21st century "humans-as-disposable-kleenex" labor-
management functionality. This includes moving from "regular"
employment to " temporary" (less pay, less benefits, short employment
intervals, no job security) jobs.

If you have been in programming for 21 years, then possibly you are
over 40 and that is where age discrimination begins (that is the way
the law is written and you can google on that for lots of hits).
Being that a lot of programming work has been offshored and there are
tons of laid-off, not-renewed, contract finished guys out there, then
they are all in a "spiral-to-the-bottom" competition for what is
left.

more below

> I’ve been frantically “networking”, calling old coworkers and
> recruiters, polishing, posting, mailing, emailing, faxing and handing
> my resume. So far with no results. However I’m not giving up and will
> continue doing so.
>
>  However, my numerous financial obligations, force me to pose the
> highly unpleasant and dreaded question: What if this streak goes on
> for many more months or even years?

I am now retired so thankfully I don't have to worry about this but my
heart bleeds for you and eveyone else in the same boat. I've known
quite a few people in recent years who got screwed by "the system" and
end up in Walmarts, coffee shops, car sales, etc.

Here is music I heard in my ears: I actually (no lie) talked with two
teachers at two local community colleges who taught truck driving in
1-2 month courses.. They told me that virtually every one of the
students got job offers before they finished the course. Its not a
great job and the first year is hell, but its got a better future.
Someone has to drive the trucks that bring all the farm crops to Food
Lion, etc., and all that Chinese electronics from California to your
local stores and all you have to do is compete with Mexicans, legal or
illegal and they are not in the trucks as much as the chicken
processing plants.

more below

 What if I just couldn’t get out of
> it? The answer – obviously enough – is that in order to stay afloat
> I’ll just have to get another job, ANY other job, and soon too.
>
> Unfortunately, I’m suffering from a mild strain of Anemia, so that
> rules out physically strenuous jobs – So while I can work in front of
> a monitor for 14 hours straight, I still can’t, say, work in a
> warehouse where I’d be loading/unloading trucks for hours. Even a
> worse handicap, is that I’m – despite my sincere efforts – not good at
> all with people, so I’m certainly inadequate for jobs that require
> special people skills, like sales, etc. Moreover, to cover my
> obligations, I’ll need to do at least a little better than minimum
> wage.

I do not have any magic answers for you but I sympathise with
everyone's plight: we have to pay the rent and buy food.

> What I’m really seeking advice on, is what optimal alternative jobs
> options do I really have? Naturally I know a lot about computers and
> programming, and I’m quite good at Math, Physics, Electronics and also
> know a lot about Financial and Securities markets. So how can I take
> advantage of any of that?  I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a
> technical instructor/trainer job – but I don’t know the prospects of
> finding such a job without having prior teaching experience. Any
> ideas?

Look into two year programs if you want to retrain and change careers,
but make sure you talk to their placement office and see if they have
any statistics on placement rates. Best I've heard: besides truck
driving, the other fields are as high as 90% and go down from there.
You don't want to train for something and then have a 10-20% chance of
getting a job in that subject.

> Other jobs I’ve been considering are night security guard, and gas
> forklift operator – because its easy to get the needed licenses, they
> pay (barely) more than minimum wage – but they don’t take advantage of
> my experience.

If you have bills to pay, then you'd better get something, anything,
because it looks bad on your resume to have big gaps of unemployment.

> Any suggestions or recommendations on picking the right alternative
> job? I’m looking forward to your insights and advice, especially those
> based on actual experience – and thank you.

For a bunch of computer programmers and IT guys I've known, when they
shipped a million jobs to India as over the last 4-5 years, most of
these guys spent years getting no more job offers, few to zero
interviews, and they were all sending out a thousand resumes per
year.

I'd say you'd be best off concentrating real hard on getting something
new and concentrate on things that you can get easily and practice
very hard to suck up and kiss ass if necessary.

Good luck.