What do you do?

Do you gloat when you are proven to be right at a later time? I know I shouldn't. I know it's petty. I known it's "small".

But I can't help myself. I am quick to say "you were right and I was wrong" on the flip side.

Had a long drawn out with a company I worked for about needing to give some other contractors some work from time to time to have a backup plan. Well they called this morning a few years down the road and said they were up a creek without a paddle now after having the only company that did their shop drawings tell them to take a hike.

I said "Seems like I brought that up before" and the guy I was talking to got offended and ended the conversation. Just let it pass in that instance and offer a suggestion? Nothing I could do anyway but curious what others do.

Sounds like the other dude is just a pansy. I think I'm worse about those situations.

Well he's president of the company and he's really up shit creek without a paddle now. It was the focus of my attention while there to find some suitable backups. You never know when a company just will say "no thanks". They know it too so that may be what they are doing. I always try to spread some minor work around so that they will at least be open to the idea of an influx at some point.

Your right, but rubbing it in his face helps no one, not even you.

He called this morning and apologized said he was under a lot of stress. They're going under, well no shit sherlock. Word will be spread faster than wildfire, all accounts will be on a cash only basis. Materials paid in cash on delivery and engineering work will have to be paid in cash now on delivery or in advance such as shop drawings as well instead of the normal 30 days. Seen it happen many times. Death spiral.

Even if he found someone with open time to do the work they will want paid up front more than likely. They're really on an island as far as location. Most people in the office there if they don't want a shift career wise are looking at a pretty big relocation.

They put all their eggs in one basket and were so fucking giddy about it. I was hired to fix that issue several years ago. But they were saving 2% or whatever it was. Now that basket said umm no we got better shit to do. With quick turn around work you can't really get in line behind everyone else now and keep the doors open. You would have to pay exponentially to get to the front, and without it they can't produce or bill.

I don't know how many times I said "Look at the big picture" over and over. They would bitch to no end and do 4 hours of emailing/phone calls back and forth over having to send $20 worth of extra bolts on a job (at completition when it was 99.999 done and signed off on) during erection on a multio million dollar job. I took out a $20 out of my billfold once and said I would pay for it if they would get on to something else that actually made money.

When I worked there they were debt free with all equipment paid for. Apparently they just bought a ton of new equipment. I'm sure in a few weeks I'll get an auction notice. I used to keep them all on a bookshelf and when people would say buy all new equipment I would pick the stack up and it was 2 feet thick. New for just being new is not great.

Guessing someone got the bosses ear or something or owners family and went all out too fast.

But he called this morning again to ask if I knew anyone that could do the work quickly. I said yes, but they'll charge you more than normal cause they have to tell their main client someone is cutting in line and they give weekly or daily timelines on Someone is gonna notice. LOL he said "you're not fucking help".

I guess while on a roll and ranting. It's amazing how many people I've run into in the last 20+ years in the "quick" turnaround business can't get out of the habit of trying to pinch a penny. Never will a customer ask how much when you go out to a plant when there are 500 people standing around and a process shut down. It's only "how quick". For whatever reason people get into a rut of "I saved 0.5%)" which is great if you were not getting paid by how quick. When I owned my business I'm pretty sure I was the most expensive steel shop on the entire gulf coast per pound of steel by a pretty big margin. How much can I save on shipping this and such. I once flew in some alloy I had never heard of from Michigan same day. The supplier was gonna take off Friday afternoons and the guy who was temp helping me said we'll try again on Monday. Umm no. I paid a shop in Michigan to drive out and pick it up and haul it to the airport. I know it sounds wierd but you tell people "don't worry about the price" over and over and they still do. Talking to my dad tonight about it, he still does some drawing on a part time basis to keep his mind sharp I guess. He gave someone a price of $1,000 for literally minutes of work on probably $20k job. They came back and said "Can you come down $30". Dad was like sure, but we're done doing business if $30 is gonna break you. Word will get around quickly as well.

Rant off.

Got offered a part time job at a nearby tech college. One day a week to "teach" the class on drawing reading. They are tied in with the local fabrication shop and do welding and structural fabrication learning and such. They need someone to instruct on print reading and such. Very small town with about 90% minority. I can't believe the lady I talked to asked if I would be ok teaching a class of mostly "minority" in the shop. I'm not even sure how to answer that, especially to someone I had talked to for about 5 minutes.

She should stick to paper work. Anyway I won't be doing any fitting instruction, just helping potential fitters learn how to read the prints so they can fit and layout. It's a pretty good paying job if you are decent at it. Top of the shop other than the foreman for the entire shop. Lot of them move into detailing (drafting) and other office duties.

Has anyone here ever had the experience where they got hired into a position because of X skill, or Y Cert, or Z degree, but then realized once in the job that you are not using any of the skills you were hired for? I feel like I'm in that now.

It concerns me, because then the longer I stay, the less I remember or know about, in my case, Y Certification. So then I either stay at my current company and just roll with it, and try and move up or laterally around, or what's the other option? Quit now, and try and find a job that's going to maintain or improve my skills? I suppose there's the third option of staying with my current job, and maintaining Y Cert knowledge on my own, because I want too, and not because the job requires it.

I was hired onto my last job because I was SMRT in building security products and vulnerability management. When I got there, the whole thing was in chaos, turns out they wanted me to do accreditation paperwork stuff, which... yeah, no. I ended up using that time to finish a cert and roll out to a job I actually wanted, with plenty of time to shop around. IMO, never do anything without a plan.

I just landed a gig with a hot pre-IPO tech company. I get 2,000 shares which will be nice if they go public - which is expected in ~18 months but you never know. I had been at my previous company for seven years so this is a huge move for me. Doing similar work as a Sales Engineer/Solutions Consultant. Basically sales but handling all the technical expertise side of the deals concerning integration partners, product expertise, and solution architecting. I'm almost two weeks in and the product is overwhelmingly powerful. There's some overlap industry-wise with my previous position but there is a ton of new stuff to learn. They don't even expect me to be fully ramped up and ready to take on my own opportunities until Q3 (July).

One thing I didn't expect to be as big of a perk as it's been - my commute. It's a 20 minute walk. Holy shit the quality of life knowing that you take only 40 minutes out of your day for the commute. It's drastic compared to my previous one hour one way commute that involved trains and buses and shit. I've never worked for a young fast growing company like this before so the other perks of being VC funded are nice as well. Catered breakfast on Monday. Lunch on Thursday. Weekly office happy hour with a fridge stocked with adult beverages of our choice. Oh - and a damn near 50% raise. I might actually be able to afford a house in San Francisco.

Short, easy commutes are amazing. A few years ago I went from a 2-hour commute each way (combined driving, metro, walking) to a 3-minute drive. Life changing.

Where I'm at now it is a 10 minute walk. It is heavenly. I might not make as much as others but holy shit not having to be stuck in a car 1+ hours a day is a huge quality of life bonus for me.

Alex do you mind me asking what city your new job is located in?

I might be moving hour percentages from IT towards finances and the boss tells me it's going to be a "substantial raise" for "permanently" taking over assistant financial director stuff (big words for a really small business but still).

Given their history, I won't hold my breath just yet. Got the offer two months ago and so far nothing has happened, no talking about what will change, new responsibilities, nothing.

I am a landlord/self employed. Used to do factory work, got lucky with a few good investments, bought land, put foundations and trailers down on the land, rent them out. Three full time, two summer/hunting season.

OneofOne said:

Alex do you mind me asking what city your new job is located in?

Click to expand...

San Francisco

I wish they would hurry up and find out what is wrong with me medically.

Got offered a dream job today. Friend called and said email came by him looking for a project manager/project coordinator and he thought of me right off so he called me. They want someone with at least exposure to the forest industry and forest products. I have a MS in forest management and worked with Temple Inland on their mill modernation (before they sold out to Weyerhaeuser). He sent my resume and they called me about half an hour later. They had several people on the phone call and the CEO announced who he was and didn't say anything. Finally a VP asked me what their biggest issues might be. I told him only so many ways to put beams, columns, and braces structually together so I'm guessing your issue is on the forest side. I said your biggest concern is probably making money and feeding the mill. When I said feeding the mill the CEO interrupted and said "You're hired" lol and then apparently walked out of the room. One guy said he went out to the mill, my kind of guy. Apparently they've had some issues with past hires who didn't get the point of the business.

Damn dream job!!! Fits in my two backgrounds, in an area I would like to work, the southeast. Assuming I don't die first