Howdy,

My mother was just laid off from her employer of 24 years… due to budget constraints. She was a senior administrative assistant for a large hospital in Fort Worth.

I am devastated for her, as she is the toughest and most hardworking woman I know.

If anyone out there has any leads in the Fort Worth area, or a remote opportunity please let me know.

Thank y'all

She should look into being a Virtual Assistant.

It's tough but tell her to really try and not let it get her down. She should be able to collect unemployment correct? She has paid into it all these years she should not feel guilty about using it. It saved our savings account we had built up over many years when my husband was let go suddenly. He was able to work part time and earn some money at the same time (this was during covid so not sure if that works the same now) Best thing is for her to stay busy and just network to find something new. Sitting around and just applying online to jobs will be a beat down especially when she doesnt hear anything back. Tell her to enjoy it a bit and take a break and just have fun for a week or 2. Then get on the job search.

jmatous said:

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Howdy,

My mother was just laid off from her employer of 24 years… due to budget constraints. She was a senior administrative assistant for a large hospital in Fort Worth.

I am devastated for her, as she is the toughest and most hardworking woman I know.

If anyone out there has any leads in the Fort Worth area, or a remote opportunity please let me know.

Thank y'all

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This one was just posted a few days ago and it's in Fort Worth. Office is in the 777 Main building downtown. Good luck!

https://recruiting.ultipro.com/WIL1017/JobBoard/d4920925-42b0-bd97-5b81-2e7882ee0937/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=5cbdd596-0bd2-4c50-b8d4-c7e67a7a994f

12thMan9 said:

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infinity ag said:

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Layoffs are hard. I am currently laid off and the response has not been good. Holiday season and tech market sluggish.

It's not my first rodeo either, I seem to have made a habit of it. Company might get sold so they are restructuring. Fact of life.

As someone said, take her out, give her a good time to get her mind off it and then let her ease into a job search.

Just yesterday I made the decision to be open to moving. I have been in the midwest for 25 years - all my post A&M years. Sick of the weather, and bad economy. I am now open to moving to the Bay Area where the jobs are. However, that place has been decimated with layoffs, but will bounce back soon

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You would consider moving TO California?

Try Austin, it's Bay Area east.

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Thanks for the suggestion, I know Austin is good for tech jobs too. I historically have a hard time with change, so this change of mindset took a good amount of effort, so I will try the Bay for some time and if that doesn't work I will open up to Austin also.

jmatous said:

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Howdy,

My mother was just laid off from her employer of 24 years… due to budget constraints. She was a senior administrative assistant for a large hospital in Fort Worth.

I am devastated for her, as she is the toughest and most hardworking woman I know.

If anyone out there has any leads in the Fort Worth area, or a remote opportunity please let me know.

Thank y'all

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Why don't you post your mom's profile/skillset? Maybe one of the Ags here has something they can help with.

Thank you I sent to her'

Would you be willing to say whether or not it was Cooks? I have a connection there that would be a good resource if that's not where she is being laid off from.

It was not cooks. She is currently applying for positions there as I type this. Any connections to there would be great.

Shoot me an email/resume (if available) if you don't mind, I'll pass along.

Okay, I will send to her. Thank you!

Quote:

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I am now open to moving to the Bay Area where the jobs are. However, that place has been decimated with layoffs, but will bounce back soon

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The Bay Area ain't coming back. Probably ever.

During the scamdemic, most of the people who could leave, left. Many went to Sacramento or Reno and some went to their second property up in the mountains.

With all the remote work these days, there's really no reason for workers to physically occupy offices in the Bay.

My company is trying to get people back into the office based on how much real estate we signed up to before the scamdemic (I think we're locked into some long term leases). They're now touting the fact that there are so many desks available, you can sit anywhere you want and never have to worry about being crowded.

HollywoodBQ said:

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Quote:

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I am now open to moving to the Bay Area where the jobs are. However, that place has been decimated with layoffs, but will bounce back soon

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The Bay Area ain't coming back. Probably ever.

During the scamdemic, most of the people who could leave, left. Many went to Sacramento or Reno and some went to their second property up in the mountains.

With all the remote work these days, there's really no reason for workers to physically occupy offices in the Bay.

My company is trying to get people back into the office based on how much real estate we signed up to before the scamdemic (I think we're locked into some long term leases). They're now touting the fact that there are so many desks available, you can sit anywhere you want and never have to worry about being crowded.

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Sorry, I don't agree. In the tech world, most innovation happens there. And it is easier to get hired if one is local. I am having a harder time because of this. I am in the damned midwest where there are no tech firms.

With employers getting more of an upper hand, they want more people doing hybrid.

I've made 64 business trips to the Bay Area between 1998-2020.

I've made Zero business trips to the Bay Area since February 2020.

My employer for the past 6 years is based in downtown San Jose.

I was going to corporate HQ every 4 months during 2018-Feb 2020. Zero requests to go to HQ since then.

When I post a job opening, I'm flooded with Bay Area H-1B applicants trying to stay in the USA.

And I haven't even gotten to cost of living. The Bay Area peaked in 1999 (and it was a blast back then) but it's all been downhill since then.

I do recommend Los Angeles if you're desperate. People will hire you if you're willing to live there.

What do you mean by "downhill"? Can you give examples?

infinity ag said:

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What do you mean by "downhill"? Can you give examples?

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Sure. Restaurants - gone.
Fun activities - gone.
Workplace perks - gone.
Traffic on the 101 - gone.
Exotic cars in the parking lot - gone.
Any cars in the parking lot - gone.
People in the office - gone.

My employer was begging, now they're threatening people to encourage them to come back to the HQ office in San Jose.

Meetings, conferences in the Bay Area - gone. They're still happening in Vegas and Orlando though.

HollywoodBQ said:

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infinity ag said:

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What do you mean by "downhill"? Can you give examples?

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Sure. Restaurants - gone.
Fun activities - gone.
Workplace perks - gone.
Traffic on the 101 - gone.
Exotic cars in the parking lot - gone.
Any cars in the parking lot - gone.
People in the office - gone.

My employer was begging, now they're threatening people to encourage them to come back to the HQ office in San Jose.

Meetings, conferences in the Bay Area - gone. They're still happening in Vegas and Orlando though.

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All I care about is career advancement. The rest in the list are low priority for me. I know I sound a bit desperate but that is because I am. 25 years in the effin Midwest has been traumatic career-wise. So all the good stuff you are talking about, I can do without. All I want is a reasonable stable job where I can advance based on my work. I am not able to get that here, and my own bad luck seems to be a multiplier.
I see everyone growing in the Bay Area, my friends who went there in 98-99, and the ones who went there over the years.

I need to be smart too and go where the jobs are. Right now there's a recession going on but things will get back on track.

PS: I don't dispute your POV. But I think my opinion comes from my situation.

As somebody who grew up in Puerto Rico, Alaska and Saudi Arabia, one thing I learned from my dad is - You gotta go where the work is. I agree with you there.

Honestly, if you can do the basics like - show up to work and do work, you can do very well in Los Angeles. People are bailing out of there as fast as they can and companies are scrambling to find people to fill those vacant roles because - it's super expensive to live there and very over-populated.

In Information Technology, working for any of the big companies is inherently an unstable career. I've been in IT for almost 28 years and worked for some major names in the industry but I can tell you that of that 28 years, there have only been about 9 years where I felt like - I'm critical to the operation and there is zero chance that I'm going to lose my job.

The other 2/3rds of the time, I've had to be ready to start looking for another job. I've been laid off 2x, ridden two companies into the ground (no longer going concerns), been through 2 mergers/acquisitions, countless reorgs, demoted 2x. reprimanded once and received 1 bad performance review.

If you want stability, get a job in the government sector.

If you want to grow your career, go find the technology and the company where you plan to work 60+ hours/week for 3-5 years to get your Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours. But do note that it has to be a double combination of the technology and the company. Simply picking one of those correctly will help but to really get ahead, you've got to get both of those factors right.

I encourage you to apply for open roles but it ain't 1998 in the Bay Area, much less 1967.
https://www.realsanfranciscotours.com/haight-ashbury-summer-of-love-1967/

HollywoodBQ said:

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As somebody who grew up in Puerto Rico, Alaska and Saudi Arabia, one thing I learned from my dad is - You gotta go where the work is. I agree with you there.

Honestly, if you can do the basics like - show up to work and do work, you can do very well in Los Angeles. People are bailing out of there as fast as they can and companies are scrambling to find people to fill those vacant roles because - it's super expensive to live there and very over-populated.

In Information Technology, working for any of the big companies is inherently an unstable career. I've been in IT for almost 28 years and worked for some major names in the industry but I can tell you that of that 28 years, there have only been about 9 years where I felt like - I'm critical to the operation and there is zero chance that I'm going to lose my job.

The other 2/3rds of the time, I've had to be ready to start looking for another job. I've been laid off 2x, ridden two companies into the ground (no longer going concerns), been through 2 mergers/acquisitions, countless reorgs, demoted 2x. reprimanded once and received 1 bad performance review.

If you want stability, get a job in the government sector.

If you want to grow your career, go find the technology and the company where you plan to work 60+ hours/week for 3-5 years to get your Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours. But do note that it has to be a double combination of the technology and the company. Simply picking one of those correctly will help but to really get ahead, you've got to get both of those factors right.

I encourage you to apply for open roles but it ain't 1998 in the Bay Area, much less 1967.
https://www.realsanfranciscotours.com/haight-ashbury-summer-of-love-1967/

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Thanks for your perspective, it was educative to read your posts.

You seem to be a few years older than I am. I wish I had followed the jobs. Back in 1998 when I was out of A&M, I was looking and wanted to move to the Bay but I did not get anything. I had even interviewed at Netscape a few months or so before they crashed and burned. I ended up in the Midwest and and am here for 25 years. I am also in Info Tech and started off as a software engineer and then moved into Product Management.

This place sucks for Product Management. I have gotten laid off 5 times in the last 6 companies and am currently looking after one. In all cases it was because the company got sold and they were "cleaning" the place and had to do mass layoffs. I seem to attract layoffs, even my previous company started laying off a year after I joined for the first time and it had been around for a decade.

One of my friends got "placed" at Apple in 1997 when Steve Jobs came back, called me in 1998 saying he hated the place and asked if my place was hiring. I was new so I said I don't know I will check. My friend did amazingly well and even worked with Jobs on some stuff. Right place at right time. He is a smart guy too.

So while I missed the boat of the 00s, I don't see any upside where I am. Zero. I have given it enough tries. A change in scenery would be nice. I don't want to retire without working at least once in the Bay. Yes, maybe it is not 1998 again but my expectations are not that either. I also have a lot of my undergrad classmates in the Bay. And a cousin too.

When we become empty nesters in a few years, we should be more free to go to other places too.

It happens to the best of us and I wish you luck on finding something that you will enjoy. Control what you can control and try not to stress about those things that you cannot. Job opportunities are everywhere and anywhere, so stay the course and use this time to do those things that you didn't have time to do when you were working.

Job searching is stressful enough so take a break every now and then. Either way, keep your chin up and let us know how it's going so we can try to help the best way we can.

GrayMatter said:

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It happens to the best of us and I wish you luck on finding something that you will enjoy. Control what you can control and try not to stress about those things that you cannot. Job opportunities are everywhere and anywhere, so stay the course and use this time to do those things that you didn't have time to do when you were working.

Job searching is stressful enough so take a break every now and then. Either way, keep your chin up and let us know how it's going so we can try to help the best way we can.

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Thanks a lot for your kind words!

Keep your chin up. Rejection hurts, and is never fun. Like other posters have said control what you can control (attitude & effort) and try not to stress or worry about things out of your hands.

The right opportunity is going to come up for you.

TJaggie14 said:

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Keep your chin up. Rejection hurts, and is never fun. Like other posters have said control what you can control (attitude & effort) and try not to stress or worry about things out of your hands.

The right opportunity is going to come up for you.

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Thank you!
It's been 4 months and the last time I spent 4 months not working was in 1998 in College Station before I got my first job. Never been back since (I need to pay a visit).

I see many people announcing new job starts and they had gaps of 6-7 months so maybe this is the new normal.

What I am annoyed these days is I apply to a position, and in a few days I get a reject without even a phone screen. And in a day I get an email asking me to fill out some sheety questionnaire about how the experience was and how they can improve. Well, go to hell. Some do it after a round or two. Who has the time and why should anyone bother?

infinity ag said:

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What I am annoyed these days is I apply to a position, and in a few days I get a reject without even a phone screen. And in a day I get an email asking me to fill out some sheety questionnaire about how the experience was and how they can improve. Well, go to hell. Some do it after a round or two. Who has the time and why should anyone bother?

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WAZUPAGS has the time, apparently!