Going back to full-time work!!!

["Sue Ahrenhold" <sueahrenhold -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

Not that I expect all of you to be as pleased as I am about this, because
most of you don't know me, but even if in these parlous times an aged writer
can find someone willing to pay her well for an interesting job, there is
indeed life after layoffs.

What I learned from this experience --
1.  I know more about what I want than the people who do all that employment
counseling. I hardly applied for the first month. I had a job I loved to
grieve. And then we took a long family vacation (to San Diego, I think we've
found where we're retiring), and then I started interviewing. My first few
interviews didn't go well -- I still wasn't ready to move on.
2. The greatest luxury in the universe is money in the bank, so always make
sure you have a savings cushion.  I know couples where both were laid off in
the same week, so overspending can be dangerous no matter what.
3. If you can afford it, keep your COBRA. My husband needed surgery shortly
after I left my job. I could actually take care of him.
4. Networking is useful, so is answering jobs in the paper, so is answering
job postings on the web. I got interviews from all three sources.
5. The best way of answering resumes is the T-letter Tom described in last
month's Whirler. I had come up with a very similar solution in response to
some information from a friend at a large institution who indicated that ALL
resumes there are processed by entering into a large computer system
(PEOPLESOFT), which chops the resumes up and then searches by the keywords
in the job posting. So, if your letter contains all the posting keywords, it
gets spit out and viewed by the hiring manager. But I got responses from
other places, too.
6. If you're not sure what to do, and you want to stretch out the old
vacation, get some contracting jobs. Stay in touch with people at your old
job. You'd be amazed at how many programmers know somebody who's writing a
program at home, and could use a help file, or an article for a web site
they're involved with. Stay in touch with former employers -- knowing their
product gives you an inside track on short-term work that comes up. Stick it
to them on rates.
7. Even with an employment rate of over 5%, most educated people have jobs,
and will get other jobs in the future.
8. Self-pity is a bad internal strategy. Limit it whenever possible.
9. If you don't want to be a tech writer any more, don't. There are other
people out there who still have the fire, and there are things out there
that you can do that would be wonderful.


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