Good evening guys and gals. I need your thoughts and prayers this week, as you're so inclined. I'm kind of a private guy so don't as for help all that often, but I need all the good vibes, faith and prayers, etc. coming my way.
(Sorry this turned out to be long)
I've mentioned before that I got laid off back at the end of February. I'm still without work, though I did go through several complete interview processes including their multi interview "company culture" final interviews. And did not get tapped. I also got several other interview starts but got dropped out somewhere in the middle. For everyone, but especially in tech and software, it's really a strange and "brutal" job market right now. Between economic uncertainty, looming changes due to so-called AI, and companies that just can't make up their minds and want the mythical 150% of checkboxes ticked candidate, it's hard. 3 other guys were laid off at the same time from our group, split between N America (US/Canada) and India got moved pretty much to India. None of them are working yet at new full time jobs. And on LinkedIn there are people in all sorts of fields, but especially in software, who've been looking for months without any a callback.
Anyway, I just mentioned the market conditions as background. I had severance for 4.5 months plus some COBRA money that we didn't need for COBRA so it went into the pot as general funds -- about 1/3 month. Because of how tax withholding works. severance is withheld at higher rates than normal salary (its like a bonus) so we didn't quite have the same cash flow as when I was working though the gross was the same but we were able to make it work and get our house interest payment made. We were, with the banks blessing, always a month late but always paid before their systems calculated it as late so we were never reported. And they considered us up to date as long as we made it before the end of the month that the due date was in. However, with the severance we were able to make that payment each month. But with severance running out mid July we were not able to make it this month. The payment due July 17, which was supposed to be made by Aug 17 to not be late, and because of the way there system works, we really had until the end of the month, which was today. So we'll be calculated as late and probably reported as such. Its not a death knell if I can quickly get work and repair the problem by catching up since when we go to refinance the current construction loan we're on to the long term, the bank will understand 1 late payment related to this very house and the circumstances, as long as it's not ongoing. And the current bank, as long as we they see a path forward won't file delinquency with the county to start the (approx 4 month) road to foreclosure -- which we would try and forestall by trying to sell it since it's worth a lot more than we owe. I have been collecting a decent unemployment payment from the state unemployment office for the last several weeks but it just goes to meet minimum payments for things with the wife's wages as well.
(The reason we're still on the construction loan is because we got a temporary occupancy and I got laid off two weeks later and we didn't have a chance to convert to permanent occupancy which the long term bank needs to see).
But we're not to that point yet and with all that explanation, the purpose of this posting. I've been applying for jobs all summer, but especially a lot the last month. It's a lot of work to find appropriate ones, modify the resume to match the job, write cover letter, research it for those purposes, etc. Even with ChatGPT help. This week, I had two recruiters contact me for initial recruiter screening calls to start their interview process. If I pass the recruiter screening, then I get to talk to their technical folks etc and start their long and overly arduous process that most companies have today. Neither job is particularly compelling or great paying, but they'd do for now. The first one is a EHR company (electronic health records -- the apps the doctors use now to record things about you instead of doing it on paper when your in their office, hospital, etc). Their stated salary range if I had the top, plus their annual bonus they do, would get me back where I was at the old job. I had that interview today, and the recruiter was forthright and said the company is cheap and ever pays the upper range, but usually just the midpoint or upper of the bottom half. He said he's been trying to get higher management to understand but that's how it is. I don't know how I did in the interview but he said he would contact me in teh next couple days to let me know if I was advancing to the next step or not. It seemed to go well but I don't really know. He had to go at the end of the 30 minutes because he was scheduled for someone else. The other one who contacted me is involved in insurance risk management or something and is at an office somewhat local to me instead of remote and they do hybrid. They did not list a salary range in their job description posted but did list one in their invitation to the recruiter screening interview. It's lower at the top end than the one I did today. Not that interested but if it's the only one to work out I can do it for a while until something better happens. But I don't think its big enough to save the house.
BUT, what I need your good vibes thoughts, and prayers for, besides that the best thing happens and the right thing happens, is the third one that came up. I won't mention names right now but one of the major tech companies that we all have heard of contacted me yesterday (Thursday) on LinkedIn. The lady (recruiter) said she had a job that they needed to fill and would I be interested. I said sure and sent her the requested resume. She got back a few hours later saying the hiring manager wanted to talk to me, and gave me a link to her calendar to schedule myself today for a recruiting screening call. SO I had that one as well. The interview went very well. This job is a good step up and could be worth good money. Enough to scratch all my itches right now. And they seem keen on moving me along. Her tag line in her email was some sort of internal recruiting manager and she said that she was going to pass me along to the internal recruiter who works with this group and so would handle prepping me, introducing me, and getting me through their process in detail. That's where I am at now. I sent them this afternoon my availability for the next technical step over the next 5 business days, but since it was Friday and later in the day I have not heard back on when I will be talking in detail to that recruiter to get started or when I'll have the first tech interview with their hiring manager.
Interestingly I had applied for this job blind as a "walk in" from the LinkedIn job board, not as a recruiter contact, back several months ago and had not heard anything. So they wanted me to fill out the application, and mark some categories of being a recruiter contact so it wouldn't get lost in the general blind applications. But their system wouldn't let me apply as it said I had already applied (and it was not listed as an active application so at some point someone, probably an automated system had marked it as not interesting). So I had to create a new account in their job system under one of my other emails accounts and re-apply, marking all the correct boxes so that they know it is a recruiter contact. But then I had to tell the recruiters the story and what email it was under and I hope that it doesn't end up being a problem.
So my request is your good vibes and thoughts, and/or prayers for those inclined, that the best thing happens and that I find away through our current circumstances, but especially that if possible, I can get through this last company's process and maybe end up there. It's the most interesting job in terms of the details of the job itself -- career wise far superior and challenging as well. And financially so far better than the other options.
So that's the situation and especially the request.
Sorry, no vid. You'll have to trust me until the replay gets posted.
