Thanks for all the love
Over the past few days, there were a few more things I thought about that I should have included. This is actually a reasonably complex problem.
Networking - Obviously the best time to do this is when you have a job. But, even if you don't have a job, spend time making as many connections as you can. What's really valuable is making quality connections. Helping somebody else out at work who you will not necessarily gain any direct benefit from helping. Or seeking the advice of some senior person at work even if you don't necessarily need it. I'm not saying treat work like it's the mafia and you have to pay tribute to the folks who have been there longer but, if you get them involved in the process and they think you're a good/useful person, it could help you out down the road someday.
I just had a situation on Friday where I found out that one of my former colleagues is about to get laid off if he doesn't find a job by the following week. I didn't know that was going on until Friday. I had been approached by somebody else who was looking to hire somebody with his kind of experience about 2 months ago. So, once I found out about my friend's job need, I introduced him to this other guy who needs somebody. I don't know if it will work out but at least, I was able to introduce person A to person C who never would have met otherwise. If you talk to people periodically and maintain relationships, it can frequently pay off when you need it the most.
Family - This is a double edged sword. Frankly, family can either help you or hurt you. I have been very fortunate that I have not had any family who I have had to directly take care of with long-term medical issues or anything like that. This has allowed me to be flexible with the ability to move between jobs and between cities/states/countries.
You need to sit down with your affected family members and prioritize about what is important. Maybe it is that you don't want to move your kid during his/her Senior Year of High School. Maybe it is that you want to take a job with less travel so you can spend more time with the kids. Maybe the kids are reasonably self-suffiicient and you can travel more often.
Also, if you do move away and can no longer make it to church with mom and dad every Sunday or now live too far away to come over for supper every Sunday, don't break your own bank trying to keep living life for the sake of pleasing your parents (and/or friends too). When I lived in California, I remember going back to Texas every other month for some family event or another. I did maintain relationships but, it really cost me a lot of money and frankly that wasn't really acknowledge or appreciated by any of my family members. Even though I was flying in from out of state, we still had to work events around the child custody timings of my redneck cousin.
Definitely the hardest thing with family is overcoming the naysayers who just want you to stay put.
Health/Exercise - When I lost my job in Colorado, I had been on the road for 4 months straight which included 8 consecutive weeks in Chicago. I love food and I love food in Chicago. I had ballooned to 290 lbs when I lost my job. During the next 2 months while I looked for work, I made it a point to:
a. eat less because I couldn't afford much food anyway
b. exercise more because it helped relieve tension
What I found was that taking my Siberian Husky for a 3 mile walk everyday was good for him and good for me. You can only spend so much time during a day making phone calls, cruising job websites, sending out resumes, etc. Taking a solid exercise break made a lot of things better. After 2 months being out of work, I dropped from 290 lbs down to 257 lbs. I felt great and looked much better. Over time I gained the weight back and then lost it again and then gained it back again. But, at least knowing you can do it is well worthwhile.
Mental Attitude - This is just basic advice on WINNING that you would hear from any of your successful professional athletes. Don't doubt yourself and your abilities. Have a positive mental attitude and know why you're going to win. The answer is - because you've worked at it, practiced, rehearsed, etc. And because you believe in yourself.
This is also key to what I call my "Leave no stone unturned" policy. If I'm looking for a job, have I discovered every possible opportunity or did I just type in one keyword and give up when the search returned zero results? Here's a quick example. In my career, my title has usually been "Systems Engineer" or something like that. The word "Analyst" is a word that is typically used to describe someone who is very junior and very inexperienced. Not the type of job I would be pursuing. However, when I got the job at the House of Mouse, Analyst was what they called their senior technical IT staff. So, I could have searched for "Systems Engineer" all day long and been disappointed. But, when a recruiter approached me about an "Analyst" job, I took the time to listen.
I took the time to listen because, I knew that doing someting out of the ordinary might be what was required to "win". I never doubted myself or my abilities, I just kept charging ahead for 2 months until something hit.
Look for Something New - A couple of folks have mentioned that they're in IT but are struggling and aren't sure how to go forward.
Here's something I've observed over the past 19 years of being in IT. There are always waves, trends, new technologies. Some of them grow legs and begin to walk.
When these technologies are new, many times, NOBODY has any experience with them. And often times when they're new, the most knowledge is kept in enthusiast communities online somewhere. My advice is to find one of these new technologies that looks like it will be worthwhile and jump into it with one of the communities working on it.
Current examples might be - "Data Lakes" or Hadoop or OpenStack. You don't have to be a super expert but if you can become knowledgeable about some of these systems, you'll be miles ahead of your peers who might also be applying for one of these emerging jobs. Now the question is - 5 years from now, will anybody be using Hadoop or will anybody have ever heard of OpenStack or "Data Lakes"? The answer is, I don't know but, they will probably catch hold in some niche and the experience you gain from self-education about them will pay off and can help you move into some better role than the one you have now.
A funny story with a similar scenario is my little brother who graduated from Baylor in 2005 and has done nothing except work minimum wage jobs ever since. My brother asked me what were the hot topics in IT if he was intereseted in starting his own business or something like that. In 2005, I told him that he should look into Server Virtualization and go pick up a certification in VMware. Of course he didn't do this but, I ocassionally think about how much different his life could have been if he now had 10 years of VMware experience under his belt.
That's all the motivation I need to keep going.
