What do you do?

Had my interview today for a job in the Valley. Last time I finished up thinking I had blown it. This time went much better. The interviewer was stronger, for one thing. Established a good rapport very quickly, and I let him talk as much as possible. If I don't get a second round, I at least feel like I put my best foot forward and left a positive impression.

And now for a beer. Nerves are kinda shot. It's weird, because I don't even need this job. The offer might not come back worth moving. I just want to know that if I want one, I can land a Valley job.

WOOT. Got a plane ticket waiting to head out and do an in person interview.

There you go. Sounds like you're excited for it, I know you were on the fence before.

I still am, but I'm an approval junkie. I want to know this isn't beyond my ability. I also think it might open doors beyond what I can find in ed-tech.

If we're ever going to move out west, it needs to be before kids are a part of the equation. It's the only way that makes it affordable.

Deathwing said:

I know YTY raises and bonuses typically don't amount to much. But the sloppiness of execution has me worried. Maybe someone with some finance/management background can reassure me. Is there paperwork hell with deciding who gets paid what? Because, at this point, I'm expecting new new date to come and we end up being sold to someone instead.

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What you quoted is what I saw in my company..

"Guys, profits are down quite a bit.. we're not handing out bonuses just yet because this is the time of year we usually lose people" ???? Apparently they were holding the bonuses over people to keep them employed. Sounded weird how they worded it.

Just more recently "Don't worry, bonuses are still being considered" - this one made me laugh.. went from a sure thing to 'considered'

To me, that's a 'writing on the wall' type of situation.

Yeah. Layoffs are coming. If they're playing fast and loose with bonuses, then something is happening financially behind the scenes that the execs aren't talking about yet.

Don't mean to be a doomsayer, but it's a huge warning sign that you should brace for impact. Check your stock price if you're publicly traded and see what people are saying.

Also our CEO kept saying how he wasn't taking a bonus!!! wow!!

HIS SALARY IS $7.6M A YEAR

Wow. Such humble.

I don't work at EMC anymore... Joe Tucci's salary was a combined $13M though

Plenty of companies use deferred bonuses for retention. Golden handcuffs and all that. Some are even set up through life insurance policies and only pay out every 3 or 5 years if the employee sticks around. However if they're changing how that's structured without being up front about it, then that's not cool.

Actually I take back what I said.. I guess he's one of those dudes that has a $1 salary and the rest is bonus.

He still owns $220M stock in the company.

He founded the company too so I can't really give him shit

Companies rarely stop hiring during downturns. By the time a restructure takes place, the execs have probably spent 6 months or a year with a consultant reviewing what and where to cut. They can't just stop business during that time, and part of that means continuing to hire.

I took my current job a year ago. Within a month, I was hearing rumblings of a reorganization because we had missed significant third quarter earnings goals. By January layoffs were happening. I was shocked when, as a new hire, I didn't get swept up in them.

Fwiw, we didn't pay bonuses last year at all. No one in the company got one, and it royally pissed off the sales force who have as much as third of their annual income tied up in bonuses. I wasn't eligible last year because of my hire date, but this year I'm supposed to get 10%. We'll see if it actually happens.

Heylel said:

Companies rarely stop hiring during downturns. By the time a restructure takes place, the execs have probably spent 6 months or a year with a consultant reviewing what and where to cut. They can't just stop business during that time, and part of that means continuing to hire.

I took my current job a year ago. Within a month, I was hearing rumblings of a reorganization because we had missed significant third quarter earnings goals. By January layoffs were happening. I was shocked when, as a new hire, I didn't get swept up in them.

Fwiw, we didn't pay bonuses last year at all. No one in the company got one, and it royally pissed off the sales force who have as much as third of their annual income tied up in bonuses. I wasn't eligible last year because of my hire date, but this year I'm supposed to get 10%. We'll see if it actually happens.

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From my experience new hires are fairly safe when layoff sweeps happen. The idea is that you do the same job for less money than someone more tenured than you.

So I've posted about the re-organization that's happening at my company for the group that handles their Enterprise network. Currently the network techs, including myself, are contracted 3 levels down. Company A contracts company B for all of their IT work, then company B contracts with staffing agencies to get network techs.

Well, Company A and B re-negotiated, and part of that was consolidating to 1 staffing agency.

Was supposed to know on the 1st the fate, and whether I still had a job, or whether I had 30 days to find something different. The new staffing agency officially takes over the end of this month. Well, no one has heard anything, but a co-worker emailed someone to try and find a status, and heard they are raping the entire department that I work in, and cutting down to 2 techs each shift. We have 24/7 coverage, so that's 12 techs down to 6. They think they can handle the whole thing with 2 techs per shift instead of 4.... it's all gonna come crashing down. Also heard a little about who was being kept and wasn't, and I haven't heard anything about me, but the few that they are keeping look good on paper, but are absolutely terrible.

Unemployment line here I come probably. I don't look so great on paper, as I haven't finished my BS yet, and just have a CCNA cert. Guess just wait and see. One of the best techs we have hard un-officially he wasn't selected to be "retained". Sigh...