What might be making you a tad prosperous, but might not, as it's too soon to tell
 

I may have alluded to a friend of mine who recently returned from the west coast and is starting up a new company to make specialized testing instruments. I might have mis-explained this as him having a CNC machine as that was my understanding when I first spoke with him.

Turns out it's really a different kettle of fish.

I will explain more after I pick up the kids from school.

Preach the prosperity gospel, brother! Tell us what you got!

OK, so he's on the design and/or IT end, rather than the hardware/production end. That's cool, couldn't build a decent boat with it anyway.

So we design testing equipment, as an example, a certain kind of circuit board that sells for around a grand. That's the small stuff, it goes up to million dollar machines,

I'm coming in at the ground floor, along with the two founders . I'm doing the graphic design, interfacing with subcontractors/ fabricators, and technical writing. I'm also getting a crash course in electronics and how to use some of the crazy software that we use.

Would involve travel to exotic locations and CA.

Right now the pay is tiny but equitably distributed, legal docs are in the works for me to join the company. We have work to tide us over while they hunt for investors. Our product is ground breaking.

If things go more or less according to plans, this could be lucrative, if not, I'm only out some hopes and time.

Cool!

Foot, that sounds exciting!

yayyayyay! good luck!

Oh great, then you'll be rich and famous looking down on we peons like we're obstacles to your paradise. Well just remember, we knew you when you would eat pussy for a cup of coffee. http://cellar.org/2012/bwekk.gif

I think you've got the chops for that kind of job. Smart, innovative, skilled in what can be done cheap and easy but won't work or be reliable, which will keep you partners out of trouble. Also when the design is getting overcomplicated, which will keep them profitable. You probably have trepidations going into this but believe me, you're what they need to keep their feet on the ground. Anything you don't understand, don't fake it. Make them explain until you understand and they have to explain it in terms simple enough they can see the flaws in their thinking.

Seeing how you're going to be a rich & famous business magnate, fuck you, I ain't paying for the pipe... I mean incense burner. ;)

Sounds exciting!

I love coffee!!

Also,

Well done footfootfoot!

Prosperous is good, I'm stoked!!!!

Yay! Couldn't happen to a nicer Feetz!

Sent by thought transference

Yay! Good for you.

Excellent news!

Thanks everyone! I'm keeping my fingers crossed and feet on the ground, shoulder to the wheel and nose to the grindstone, etc.

These guys are great, they love to share information and knowledge and have the no question is a dumb question philosophy. Knowing both parents of one of them, I know where this kid gets his smarts, both of his parents (my friends) are very, very intelligent as well as out of the box thinkers. Great folks.

The other day I got a tutorial in diodes, resistors, rectifiers, and tubes - it was in the middle of learning some circuit designing software. We're all a bit ADD so no one minds when topics and discussions jump all over the place, In the end we circle back and stay on task.

I'm now reading a US Navy training manual in basic electricity, a great 'Let's take it from the top' refresher. I love the way the book is written, I have to say, some of the clearest and best technical writing I've ever read. It makes learning a breeze.

And even when I'm rich and famous I won't see you peons as obstacles to my paradise, I'll see you as stepping stones that I can walk all over on my way to paradise. Is that better?

And Bruce, you've paid for your incense burner many times over.

This sounds awesome Feet. Happy for you, man.

Consider it a tax refund from the gumint. ;)

A good reason to get out of bed in the morning is a plus

Exactly. As it is I have to rely on needing to pee.

I never make it to morning for that, but that means I'm available for stepping stone duty more often. :lol2:

Phone interview for a new job today; if I got it, would require a move to Delaware and maybe a weird shift, but... a 33% raise.

Career will kinda be all the way back, if it happens.

Does the 33% raise account for cost of living? My impression is Delaware is an expensive place, but I could be wrong.

In this case DE is just a little cheaper - rent is about the same (pretty high imo, it counts as the phila region) but gas is cheaper, and there's no sales tax.

Property and school taxes are about 1/3 of PA in DE.

Good luck Toad!!!

Phone interview over.

I have no way of knowing whether I did great or terrible.

I have no way of knowing whether the company is worth being great for.

I love phone interviews but hate the technical quiz time portion. Real world knowledge doesn't match the book lernin' style of quiz questions they ask in these situations. I feel bad for them, because there are so few ways to figure out if someone knows what they're doing, before you actually ask them to do it. All I know is this doesn't show me off at my best. I seemed to get enough of them to seem worthwhile. You never know.

And as I typed that I had a feeling of deja vu, like I said the exact same thing 2 or 4 years ago. I bet I did.

Let's hope for the raise...

Delaware has a 2.2% to 6.6% income tax instead of a sales tax.

:fingerx::fingerx::fingerx:

Geez the waiting. They were supposed to get right back with the recruiter and the recruiter would have gotten right back to me...

Yeah. They don't even consider the applicant at all when they just don't get around to it. Don't read anything into it. They just got distracted. Look, something shiny.

They never do what they say they will, in terms of time frame. Then they suddenly call up with the next step. Hoping you hear soon, UT.

I was arbitrarily ruled out. back to the drawing board

Sorry! Is it better for it to be arbitrary, or worse?

Better, because then you can say, "What the hell, their process is fucked up if they don't think I have enough experience in MySQL after one single question about it! The company is probably doomed anyway! And I didn't want to commute that far south!"

and then when you discard your little dreams about it, it is not so bad

Sorry, man.

bummage

Sorry.

Bummage indeed.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The process of job hunting, said "What Color is your Parachute" back in the day, always goes:

no no no no no no no no no no yes

I await the next no or yes from an interview on Friday. They said they would get back to me "early next week" and it is now no longer that time period. This is the heartbreaking part. I hit Refresh on my Inbox every five minutes. The longer it goes, I feel, the less likely it is to be a thing. They were so into me, too. WTF.

I say, the process of job hunting is the same as online dating or, in my case, the musicians wanted section. Whenever you are trying to be a person that gets with other people. Waiting for the call back that may never come is really annoying!

I know the feeling.

I once phone interviewed for a remote analyst position, and when the guy asked me a specific technical question, I replied, "You know, I've worked on projects that involved [that thing], but it's been about 6 months and I really didn't retain [that thing] because I haven't used it. But if I was working on it, I'd remember it because I'd be using it" and he agreed and didn't make an issue of it.

I was hired, and I hated the job, because they actually didn't care what my technical knowledge was. The job turned out to be mostly project management and bureaucratic paperwork. The team I was on didn't have a clear specific function, and in fact was dismantled--we were all laid off--because of low utilization (there was nothing for us to do).

it's a no

Some days I feel like it's crazy that people don't want to hire me. It's me. It's fuckin' me. My mama always told me I was special, and I had the audacity to believe her and can't they see it?

Other days I feel like, well, obviously they don't want to hire me. It's me. My career went into the shitter and my resume reflects that. I never stay anywhere longer than two years. I don't have a lot of marketable skills. I'm old for IT. I'm a miserable contrarian.

Now it's like I thought I aced the interview, but now I see, I was probably able to ace this interview because they already had somebody better and so it was low pressure; we talked to X, and we like X a lot, but let's just talk to this old guy to see if he's super-special. No? Moving on.

Or the interviewer is thinking, holy shit, I can't hire this guy, he'll have my job in a year.

When you turned 50, you became old for everything. After Obamacare went into effect, mandating that health insurance cover preexisting conditions, employer recourse was in not hiring older people to minimize the possibility of insurance claims that would significantly raise their corporate insurance premiums.

Insurance that enables those with preexisting conditions to survive is a great thing; but, it comes at a price for those over 50 who aren't making enough (where you're making six figures) for businesses to offset the risk of increased insurance expenses that would trickle down to all their employees as higher premiums; or, lesser coverage.

Look for jobs at large corporations which are in a better position to accept that risk and absorb an increase in insurance costs. They're more flexible with hiring age. Look for jobs at other places that don't include benefits where you can negotiate wages that will make buying your own insurance affordable. Go to all interviews looking healthy with vitality; otherwise, at your age you might as well show up with a lit cigarette in hand.

Best wishes on finding a good full time benefited position. In the meantime, if I come across any young rich bitches looking for a father figure, I'll drop your name.

Ahem...Sexobon, old friend...:rolleyes:

Not sure if I buy all that. I can get contract positions any time I want. I don't think I'd have a problem getting a new permanent job either but after I negotiated my current position I'm pretty much in the "dangerously close to overpaid" category to any permanent employer that isn't a consulting company or vendor. I've had my fill of that environment previously and chose to seek a secure position.

Because of the considerable perks I get, I'm unlikely to move on at this point anyway. In addition to being a very ethical company, I get all their products at cost and this includes premium pet food that goes to local no-kill shelters. I've probably donated at least 4 tons of premium food and likely more since I've been employed there. There's a decent work vs. life balance for a DBA/administrator and my family likes the area.

Since the company I'm employed at *mostly* hires internally for technical positions via promotion from lower ranks, the people they do get aren't very good initially and don't have the seasoning an experienced consultant has. So there's a fair amount of security in terms of my being the last person they'd get rid of. This isn't an IBM-type environment that's shipping jobs overseas and terminating careers of good people to make quarterly earnings.

But large companies are more likely to hire a F/T worker over 50. People will hire experience when you can demonstrate business value. In my case I spent 20 months as a consultant before they hired me full time. At the time, I had planned to turn it down but a medical crisis in my family pretty much forced my hand.

Good luck in your job hunt, Tony. One piece of advice and you probably don't need it: tailor your resume to the position. For contracting and consulting positions, I have a far more technical one that's meant for IT management. For others where fscking HR steps in first, a resume keyed to business benefits seems to work better. Mind you, HR is the kiss of death in contracting, they're only there to say no but it's usually unavoidable for permanent positions.

Some of your points reminded me of an article I just read on how to make one's job more secure during the next (impending) recession.

Here's Why These 3 Types of Workers Will Lose Their Jobs in the Next Recession