The Lion's Den

Back to the land of the unemployed

On Tuesday 8/2 I was laid off my job at Xerox. The layoff caught me partially by surprise, I knew they were planning on cutting 2,600 jobs, I even knew there was going to be a re-org on Tuesday morning, I just did not know mine was one of the heads up for the axe. I spent Tuesday morning in a bit of disbelief (mixed with some disgust at how they handled the affair) and the rest of the day in quiet repose and reflection. By Thursday morning the feeling of unease had turned to one of contentment and ease. At first I thought I was in some state of denial, but the more time went by and the more I think about it, the more I realize this could actually be a very good thing. Let’s take stock:

The bad:
• No job = no paycheck = no toys, eating out, traveling, house/car repairs etc…
• No money for the mortgage… this is probably my biggest worry.
• No training. I like training and Xerox offered a lot of it
• Sudden and unexpected turn in career
• Uncertainty
The good:
• Sudden and needed turn in career. I was not terribly happy working in a cube-farm with crap vacation time and little respect. I have known for a while I needed to look for the next thing and this is the kick in the butt that may get me moving.
• Severance package of 5 weeks means 5 weeks of paid job searching
• I have a strong resume and good experience. Xerox was sometimes giving me good intelligent work up to my skill set and other times giving me monkey work. When Leopoldo gets monkey work Leopoldo gets bored and bored Leopoldos are dangerous. I not only should be able to find another job pretty quickly but one at a senior BSA level that will keep me challenged.
• By laying me off Xerox has just nullified my remaining Tuition Reimbursement, or as I like to call it: My indentured servitude. The $6,000 or so I still owed them was a deterrent to career change.
• If I curb my spending (i.e. no more eating out or at least not as much and not to the fancy places) I can pay mortgage and expenses for a good few months. My savings are not as big as they usually are due to the trip to France but with unemployment aid I should still have enough to last me a while.
• I was getting burned out. The last few days of rest alone have done great thins for my attitude.
• Friends. My friends are awesome and have answered my query for job leads with gusto.
The question, at least for me, is: What now. Well Xerox bought us laid off people a couple month services with the folks at DBM who so far have been quite awesome. I have attended one orientation and one workshop and liked them both, so I will keep working with them on refining my resume. I have a bunch of job leads out, some more promising than others but all encouraging. I am looking for Senior BSA/Program Manager work in either Portland or Seattle and this time I want to hold on to the requirement that the company be in some way creative (education, marketing, advertising, PR, film production, TV production, media technologies). I have learned that culture counts for a lot and the corporate culture at big-X was less than inspiring (don't get me wrong, I still have a lot of respect for the company and am very glad for my time there, it was an awesome education but I often felt myself more an outsider than belonging.) One problem does concern me though: I think I am much more likely to find a great job in Seattle and I want to be near my mother however now more than ever I am appreciating the friends and comrades I have in Portland. What to do?... Job hunt and see what happens is my current response.