DDTM takes a hiatus...

That's a real tough break, and the timing is a bitter irony.

My family's thoughts will be with you. I hope this will turn out to be an opportunity for you in disguise.

... will definitely be in my prayers. And like eeun says, something like this could be an opportunity in disguise. That doesn't make it any easier to deal with, but I hope it might give some little bit of encouragement.

Keep us posted.

I hope everything works out. Stop in soon!

Thanks for letting us know. I'd say best wishes, but I'm sure you'll land safe without them.

I have now been without work for just over a month. I have been applying to several IT positions around Atlanta and no luck so far. I am also open to the idea of working entry level in something a little outside my skillset. I keep hoping and praying that things will work out soon. My biggest personal goal was to be in a position where my wife is not required to work, but no she is the sole bread-winner and most work 12-hour over-night shifts as a L&D RN to do so. Yes, I could go and get "any job", but I need to be making almost as much as she is by herself in order for us to get by, ideally, I need to make twice her salary for us to get back to my target place. (My job I just lost was paying just over three times her current pay, so the loss is quite significant).

I am still stuck with the house in Florida (which has been on the market almost three months now), so I have two mortgages on my back in addition to everything else. My agent says the market looks like it is starting to start back up, so hopefully I can get rid of it soon before it breaks me completely.

It is scary true how most Americans are only a paycheck or two from bankruptcy, for me I had sunk what little of an emergency fund I had into the new house in Atlanta (bigger house, much smaller price tag) counting on the one in Florida to sell quick and the job to be around; both assumptions were critically wrong.

I have been keeping my spirits up and have only gotten good and drunk once.

I have been focusing mostly on IT, but have been also lookin at drug company sales rep jobs, pimping cheverolets, pimping insurance, and even breaking down and going back to the restaurant world (this time as management), but cannot find the right fit. It is not that 'it does not suite me' it is more like I need a critical skill for the job that I do not already posess. Other career options I have considered include using my Physics degree as a high school teacher, but I cannot locate my GRE scores and it is well past the timewhen ETS would have purged those records. I am planning on taking the Praxis this June. The little bit of luck I have leaves me qualified for the state of Georgia's fast track to teacherdom since they are desperate for teachers in the sciences.

Anyways, I just thought I would give a quick update lest anyone think I paid a visit to the late and missed word03. I am still here and fighting, just trying to keep my head above water.

Thanks to all who have kept me in their thoughts and otherwise offered words of encouragement.

During the two months and change that I have been without a job of any kind, I have had a few financial windfalls and also racked up a good amount of debt at the same time. The matter has been frustrated by the fact that the four or five head-hunting agencies I have been going through have not been able to successfully place me and the eight job sites I frequent have proved fruitless as well (in that what I qualify for and apply to gets declined each time) and the personal networks are now fully exhausted, I have finally had the very first person call me back about my resume.

You see, all this time and all the resumes I have sent out (average of two a day since March 2nd), no one has called me to even talk about an interview. I just get the automated response "thanks for the resume, it will be kept on file and we will call if we want you...". But now, someone actually wants to talk. I am so jazzed about it I went out and started laying pavers around the side of my house for the path I have been meaning to lay down from the driveway to the back yard, in the rain, at 10PM, and I have just called it a night at 1AM. I feel some semblence of my previous invincibility coming back, I just hope it works out okay. The job is portentially a lot of travel, but I will take the bad with the good (meaning I need a friggin' paycheck).

I have fought off the urge to go and work at Wal Mart or for some construction company or manufacturing plant because I figured that for every hour and I half to two hours I worked a job like that I could afford one hour of child care for the two rugrats not in school yet (third one already in school) or I would have to work from 10PM to 6AM. Since this sad fact totally blows, I have had to focus on the jobs with a bit more competition (and I have not been choosy on those either), thus playing Mr. Mom for the time being.

I am going to go shower and go to bed. With luck, when they call me (and they are going to), the call will go well and I can start to rebuild my professional life back up. I have a bottle of Moscatto D'Asti in the fridge just dying to be opened in celebration.

Thanks to all who have kept me in their thoughts/prayers!

I wish I vould say that I know how you feel but I can't All I can tell you is to not give up. You will find a job and the house in Florida will sell. Good luck, and i'll definitly keep you and your family in my prayers.

...for those following the saga, I am giving up on the Atlanta area and going back to Florida to the house that never sold and trying to rebuild things there. If I am going to fail completely, at least I will do it nearer to family rather than in the wilds of Georgia all alone. I have some promising leads back in Florida and the wife already has stuff lined up. With luck, something will pan out and I will land on my feet running.

Some would say I was wrong to give up stability and take a chance on a contracting job so far away. But a risk not taken is a gain not earned. The money and the experience were reason enough. Moving the family up was in the plans. What no one could forsee was that an act of sabotage from one and want of a fat botton line from another left me in ruins. The IT market here was tougher than I estimated from the onset. They saw wisdom is the difference between knowledge and experience, and the chance I took made me wiser in more ways than I can explain here.

There is a one in ten possibility I can get everything I had in Florida back with only a few battle scars to my credit score and my debt to income ratio, not bad considering that some in my position have had to loose everything and start all over from nil.

Advice to the younger crowd: Save your money for a rainy day; Invest in your IRA/401k. Get a good Mutual Fund. Do not let you credit card(s) get out of control. In addition to the good office job your parents want you to have with that college degree that your really should earn, learn a trade in case you end up out of work in Atlanta with IT skills not in hot demand and no real other options to fall back on. Having saved some money is the only thing that has gotten me this far.

RE: Learning a skill.

I agree. If you are bright enough to work on/build computers, you are probably bright enough to build houses or some other trade. Smart people are quite in demand, as the lesser minded tend to slow a job down, or just get in the way all the time. I speak from experience. Except for the number of hands available, one very bright person can easily replace 3 not-so-bright people on a job site. Smarts really are worth more money in construction. And the pay can be pretty good too.

One industry we work in grosses about $120-150 per lineal foot. Most jobs are 10-30 feet, and are done in a day, or a half day. A 20' job would be about $2400 for two people, then less parts and other materials. It still works out pretty well. Of course we don't do those everyday, but one a week or a couple a month is good money. Otherwise it's your regular salary sitting in the office all day, if you even have that job. (as DDTMs point was making)

I am a fan of the show "Dirty Jobs" and I am not too humble to clean toilets to make ends meet, but had I gotten some practical experience in a trade such as welding, it would have been easier to find an interim job that pays more than Wal Mart greeter. All of the'dirty jobs' I found to bring in some money (any money) while waiting for the office job required skills that I knew I could do if I had a day or three to figure them out, but never having touched a torch, I would never get hired for the money I needed.

The whole point here is akin to those football greats who make millions and then can no longer play due to some horrible injury and have no other skills to provide for themselves (unless they majored in something substantial). College is great for a mind-job, but just realize that a physical-job is a great fall back. The guy picking up my trash every Thursday morning may envy my house and the money I (used to) make, but his job will never be outsourced to India and he does not have to worry about not having skills that are not in hot demand for his trade. Yes, he looks at me and I look right back as we both mutter 'lucky (Removed. Little bit too readable for this forum. ~BDub)'.

For anyone debating the impact of professional movers v. something like PODS, I have to say that for an interstate move of about 2900 sqft, it is comparable to a professional mover. Moving in cost a round 3 large, plus the norm of tipping the movers for not breaking stuff, moving out cost 2 large for PODS (two 16 footers). The thing to consider is that you MUST have help moving stuff. I have loaded all of these on my own in the heat of the Atlanta sun and I am dying. Not knowing anyone up here left me little choice but to go it solo, but at least I had the PODS for a few days. I should have gotten a third, as tight as I packed them, I still had stuff left over. In my 5 months up here, I have not added to what I have (except a new fridge), I just needed a few more cubic feet.

So off to U-Haul I went to get a hitch on the van and hire a trailer. If you have ever thought about this and you own a van, check to see if the chasis is easily accessible and not obstructed by tubing to your rear AC (should you have that feature). After two hours of waiting for my turn, the installer came in and said that they do not stock a hitch to accomodate the AC tubing and one cannot be found anywhere (translation: go to the dealer). He did cut me a sweet deal on a 14' truck and a tow dolly to pull the van with some extra mileage gratis. Now I have to finsh my packing in this.

It would not all be so bad if I were not sick on top of it all.

To recap my ranting:

• PODS is cheaper than a professional company IF you have the time to do it and someone to help you load/unload them
  
• U-haul does not stock tow hitches for vans with rear AC (especially if they are Chevys)
  
• Atlanta really is Hot-lanta (and not in the good way)
  
• The new Maytag refrigerators are heavier than they look
  
• Being sick really sucks
  
• I am not fond of Georgia and eager to get it off my mind
  

I will be off-list for a while, so if you really need to get a hold of me, contact astro-rob, he has my contact info.