If you were layed off last week, do you have a game plan? I survived, but actually had a interview scheduled as a back up plan. I backed out, but did provide the head hunter with a couple of replacements who were not so fortunate.
If you know of a job that may not be right for you, please post the information here so that it may help someone else.
If you know of a job that may not be right for you, please post the information here so that it may help someone else.
Comments
I had found a job at the NASA Ames facility through a personal contact. They had to work through some paper hurdles to hire me, so that took a while. If I had been more cynical and prepared for the eventuality of eligibility, I would have started looking earlier in the year, and been ready to take the buyout.
It took about 3 months from initial interview to offer. Fortunately, my pre-LLNL skills (OK, and some LLNL-developed skills) are a good fit for that organization, while they seem to be a poor fit for LLNL going forward. I will spend the notice period vacationing and reading up on my college textbooks before starting up the new job. The timing worked out for me, but it took an early start.
As for job leads, if there are structural FEA analysts that were laid off and would consider the commute, that is a skill they want help with. They specifically said that LLNL had some talented people in this field that could really help them. I mentioned this to a couple of analysts that I knew were eligible, and I haven't been able to confirm whether or not any of those had been RIFed.
In aerospace, there are some job openings in the missile defense arena, with Boeing and LockMart on the contractor side and the Missile Defense Agency on the federal side. The political aspects of that program were too much of a hot potato for me to be comfortable with... At least somebody other than GWB feels that nukes are necessary, not so sure about GMD.
Northrop Grumman has a bunch of postings, but most in SoCal. Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale seemed to have some interesting positions for reentry systems, but I did not pursue that direction.
I was initially looking for a soft landing "just in case" because I was eligible for the layoff. Ultimately I accepted the position even before I was in fact laid off because it was a step forward in my career.
This allowed me to sleep easy for the weeks leading up to the actual layoff. Hell, let's be honest: I was rooting to be laid off. I wish my blindsided coworkers had been as fortunate.
I suggested that she contact HR. She was told by HR that there was a job fair being held but that they were over subscribed with companies. This was great to hear, but I don't know how true HR's claim is.
LLNL has demonstrated that there is no more job security at LLNL than at your average Silicon Valley company. I suspect that one thing that LLNL HR is worried about is that if our laid off colleagues have great success finding better jobs at higher pay that it will increase the exodus of the 200 series staff.
I know that Mentor Graphics is also looking for engineerings with EDA experience. Yahoo is looking for people as well. If you're a laid off supercomputing person, you might consider Yahoo.