The Unhappy Me thread

[xilman]

Originally Posted by ET_

I just received an email saying that May 31st will be my last day of work.

My boss sold the firm to a Dubai company, and they have no interest in maintaining people in Italy.

I'm angry.
I'm sad.
And I'm 52, so no one will hire me again because I'm too old and to skilled.

Said after having sent my 1000th Curriculum Vitae with no answer whatsoever.

(somewhat rhetorical) question: should I accept temporary jobs to earn 1/3 of my ex-actual salary and do pointless jobs directed by clueless people, feeling horrible, or keep on searching for something more fit to what I know, as long as my finances get drowned and restart from point 1?

Or search for an employer in Massachussets, or Florida, or California, or even Australia, and move abroad, leaving my old mother here in Italy?

Boys, I'm really torn in pieces...

Been there, done that, so I know how you feel.

I can suggest some things which worked (sort of) in my case but we should probably take that to email and/or Skype.

Every thing below is my personal opinion; it might not be applicable to you.

Be flexible. Apply what you know to areas where you have little or no prior experience. Smart general purpose people are far more useful than those who who know a hell of a lot about very little. Not much point in being the world's best expert in a field which employs six people.

Accepting temporary jobs is, at worst, acceptable and generally advisable. It shows you are still keen to work; it stops you hanging around at home doing nothing; it gives you human interactions and it gives you some income worth having (unless Italy has relatively generous unemployment support and a low minimum wage).

If you really can't find even low-paid employment (the too old and overqualified description can bite hard), consider voluntary work as an alternative than hang around at home. I did a few months work as an unpaid post-doc for a research group at University College London mostly by email.

Consider becoming a self-employed consultant. (I describe myself as a self-unemployed consultant at the moment but that's another story.)

Register with relevant agencies and approach any contacts elsewhere you may have. I know you're already on LinkedIn so you may well already be getting vacancy notifications.

If you move elsewhere, give preference to an EU country. Much, much less bureaucratic because of the freedom of movement provisions. I had no trouble at all, other than the obvious physical ones, when commuting to the Czech Republic for one week a month. Your CV suggests that moving to the Cambridge area is a distinct possibility; connections to the rest of Europe are pretty good from here.


Good luck!

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by xilman

Consider becoming a self-employed consultant. (I describe myself as a self-unemployed consultant at the moment but that's another story.)

+1 on that. Seriously, one can make a great deal of money by knowing how to get a job done. Government's in particular love bringing in experienced, highly paid consultants to do their jobs for them.

[ET_]

@ Klander: you made me smile, and in this moment it is the worthiest thing for me

@ Paul: Thank you for your words, and for sharing some ideas with us. I won't hang at home: in the worst case I will choose a self-employed tutor job, or a computer technician, and will use my free time to study for either a new certification or an online University degree.

@ Chris: Your hint is just half-valid here: if you want to do business being self-employed in Italy, you should earn at least $45,000: with less, our bureaucratic world and taxes wouldn't make you earn enough for a living: here professionals and employers actually pay (or SHOULD pay) more than 67% of their capital (not just the earnings) for taxes.

As for Government consultancy, mind that our government (written with a non capitalized g) pay its contracts after 2 years (if you are lucky and get paid), but requires that you pay your taxes on the same contract as the fiscal year ends.

Luigi

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by ET_

As for Government consultancy, mind that our government (written with a non capitalized g) pay its contracts after 2 years

Did I say just /your/ government?

Developing nations truly need, and often appreciate, /real/ help.

Travel is good. And, personally, I found never having to dig my car out of snow (or even having to wear shoes except for meetings) was a welcome upside....

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Developing nations truly need, and often appreciate, /real/ help.

I was going to suggest that you leverage on the EPA agreements. But then I drilled down a little further, and came across this.

Bloody hell!

And to think that programmers have difficulty with machines which (usually) do exactly what they tell them to do.

Imagine dealing with humans....

[ewmayer]

Mod. note: New thread merged into "DespicableUnhappy Me".

[TheMawn]

Sadly, I will be retiring my laptop from GIMPS, so no more P-1 until either it becomes important enough to dedicate one of my desktop cores or until I look into some new hardware. If I get another CPU running, I'll definitely get some P-1 going. Gotta keep my head above #100

A year of 100% CPU load has taken its toll on my laptop and I wish to continue using it for other things. The cooler has been beaten up badly enough that the CPU idles at 50C and I have to clean more rigorously and more often. Battery life is under an hour just browsing (without Prime95 running).

I am going to finish the 5-day queue and after that, Lappy will be signing off.

[snme2pm1]

Originally Posted by TheMawn

A year of 100% CPU load has taken its toll on my laptop and I wish to continue using it for other things. The cooler has been beaten up badly enough that the CPU idles at 50C and I have to clean more rigorously and more often. Battery life is under an hour just browsing (without Prime95 running).

I'm puzzled.
I can understand that a battery might be beyond its useful time.
Is this a case of the battery not being subject to cycles of discharge and recharge so as to void it's capacity?
I imagine that said equipment would have been on constant mains power in the past, so if that regime were maintained then it might be capable of doing whatever it was doing previously?
Yet I observe that you indicated re-purpose is sought.
I am aware that some noteboook equipment has in past times been afflicted with the nasty behaviour of generating sufficient unremoved heat that chips become de-soldered from the mainboard.
I certainly hope that such nasty circumstances do not befall a notebook that I have currently engaged with GIMPS work; I do attempt to throttle effort to avoid such.
I also have the impression that Pollard PM-1 work would exercise memory much more than Lucas-Lehmer work, i.e. hotter, such that I have chosen to not do Pollard work on the notebook at hand.

[tServo]

Originally Posted by ET_

I just received an email saying that May 31st will be my last day of work.


Or search for an employer in Massachussets, or Florida, or California, or even Australia, and move abroad, leaving my old mother here in Italy?

Boys, I'm really torn in pieces...

Luigi,
I'm bummed about your predicament.
Also having been in your situation a while back and having several friends in this situation recent;y here is my opinion, FWIW.

(1) Consultancy takes time to get going, especially getting paid.

(2) Your best shot is your network of contacts. Even if they don't know anything, ask them if they know someone who might have something.

(3) Accepting part time work is a good idea as it keeps the wolves at bay and might make some new contacts. Also, some companies use these positions as an audition and hire these workers permanently.

(4) You're right about age discrimination. Google for articles on how to "disguise" your resume and make it "Age ambiguous". Your goal is to get at least a phone interview and then a F2F one.

(5) Companies scan resumes, OCR them, then run them thru scoring programs looking for keywords and phrases. Look around for articles on how to write your resume to help your chances here.

Good Luck!
Marv

[TheMawn]

Originally Posted by snme2pm1

I'm puzzled.
I can understand that a battery might be beyond its useful time.
Is this a case of the battery not being subject to cycles of discharge and recharge so as to void it's capacity?
I imagine that said equipment would have been on constant mains power in the past, so if that regime were maintained then it might be capable of doing whatever it was doing previously?
Yet I observe that you indicated re-purpose is sought.
I am aware that some noteboook equipment has in past times been afflicted with the nasty behaviour of generating sufficient unremoved heat that chips become de-soldered from the mainboard.
I certainly hope that such nasty circumstances do not befall a notebook that I have currently engaged with GIMPS work; I do attempt to throttle effort to avoid such.
I also have the impression that Pollard PM-1 work would exercise memory much more than Lucas-Lehmer work, i.e. hotter, such that I have chosen to not do Pollard work on the notebook at hand.

No this laptop has been through a lot. I think heat has been the main culprit though nothing like de-soldering. I think the battery just gets worn down from the heat, mostly.

I used it in school. I've left it "asleep" instead of "hibernating" enough times, and I have purposely drained the battery to recalibrate it, so it has gone through enough cycles to get worn down that way.

If your laptop does GIMPS work for extended periods, I would recommend taking the battery out of the laptop while you do that. It keeps it cooler and this is better for it.

[ET_]

Originally Posted by tServo

Luigi,
I'm bummed about your predicament.
Also having been in your situation a while back and having several friends in this situation recent;y here is my opinion, FWIW.

(1) Consultancy takes time to get going, especially getting paid.

(2) Your best shot is your network of contacts. Even if they don't know anything, ask them if they know someone who might have something.

(3) Accepting part time work is a good idea as it keeps the wolves at bay and might make some new contacts. Also, some companies use these positions as an audition and hire these workers permanently.

(4) You're right about age discrimination. Google for articles on how to "disguise" your resume and make it "Age ambiguous". Your goal is to get at least a phone interview and then a F2F one.

(5) Companies scan resumes, OCR them, then run them thru scoring programs looking for keywords and phrases. Look around for articles on how to write your resume to help your chances here.

Good Luck!
Marv

Thank you for your hints, Marvin!

Luigi