How to get a job in 40 days

So I'm temporarily back from the dead. Last month I promised a new post that would shortly follow the bit of chainmailitis I channeled for Missie explaining my prolonged absence. I made the mistake of promising this post "shortly" - I suppose today's post sets a duration that could qualify as "shortly" when compared against, say, a decade but I admit that I am in the wrong for falling off the update train. I do have a good excuse, though. Well, it's an excuse - I wouldn't quite call it good.

Ominous portents and the death of a dream

Our story begins way back on January 12th. I get to work, having been pounding my head against the same problem for two weeks at that point. I sit down at my PC at 9 AM and lo and behold, I'm actually making progress! The task I was working on was programatically integrating custom numbers into a car shader (so that a player could set their own number for their car if they so chose). About 10 or so, my boss' boss (the VP of the company) asks myself and a coworker to come chat with him and Eugene (owner of the company). So to make a long story short, they tell us that we're both being laid off (along with about 5 other people). In an hour I go from being gainfully employed, performing work I both enjoy and do well at, to being unemployed with a financial clock ticking on the demise of my lifestyle. Talk about a bit of a shock.

The reason we were given for being laid off was that the company hadn't sold any games in a couple months, so they needed to circle the wagons and scale back some of their efforts. A couple months without a sale may not sound like a big deal, but when what you sell is a large arcade cabinet at $6,000 a pop you can get an idea of what kind of income streams we're talking about. I can understand that mindset and, given the economy, I guess I can see the reasoning. I'm not entirely sure I believe this line though - there were some rumblings at the company that I could go into massive detail on, but I don't think I could do so without burning any bridges. Suffice to say that if someone tries to tell you that a gouraud-shaded, single-textured game looks better than a bump-mapped, HDR-lit engine with per-pixel lighting they're either blind or they're trying to give themselves justification for something they want to do but can't do based on the evidence they have.

Damage control

Anyway, yeah - stuck by personal tragedy. I spoke with my boss and secured references from pretty much everyone at the company - did I mention I was good at my job? - wrapped up my stuff, and went home to plan. I firmly believe that the measure of a man (or woman) is in how they deal with tragedy and unexpected curves, and I've always tried to live with that in mind. I don't always succeed, but I do my damndest and this was no exception. By 5 PM that day I had applied for 5 positions and had leads on two others. I applied to 11 positions the next day, and 10 the day after that. Suffice to say I immediately got on the ball and did my best to rectify the situation. I kept up this pace for about a week, in the end applying to something like 47 positions total. Within a week of being laid off I had my first interview, then a phone screen with another company. Time passed, and at some places I was more successful than others. All told I ended up with 7 in-person interviews, and 3 job offers. I accepted one of the offers last week, and start work on Friday. In total I spent about 50 days on unemployment, and my new job will pay much better than my old. It won't be in game development, but seeing as I live in Chicago that was kind of a long shot anyway - especially considering Midway going bankrupt and releasing reams of experienced game developers into the Chicago market.

Lessons learned

Throughout this experience I learned a lot. In my opinion, there are two things that every person should do the moment they become unexpectedly redundant:

1. Update your resume as quickly as possible
2. Calculate how long your finances will last
   

Both of these should be obvious steps, and are important for different reasons:

Updating your resume immediately is especially important when the firing comes out of nowhere, like mine did. You wouldn't believe how quickly things fade when you aren't thinking about them anymore, and you want to write down your accomplishments while they are still fresh. This document is basically how any company you apply to is going to see you - it's the first line of defense for an HR department with thousands of applications to sort through. Update it, make it pretty, and most importantly TELL THE TRUTH. Lies on your resume may get you to the interview stage, but what's the point of getting to that point if the interviewer will just make you feel like an ass while disproving every lie on your resume? Not to mention that even if it goes unnoticed, you'll be fired if the fabrications are ever discovered in the future.

Calculating your finances and estimating how long you can continue to pay bills helps both in keeping you motivated and, strangely, in keeping the stress of being unemployed at bay. I use Quicken to keep track of our finances, and I use some tricks to determine where we stand at any point in time. You should know all of your monthly expenses (a post on this will be forthcoming at a later time), and have a budget for those non-stable bills (such as groceries, gas, and so on). See if any of your debt obligations allow for deferment due to economic hardship - I was able to defer about half of my student loans, which helped reduce my monthly outlay (I should have been able to defer the whole thing, but Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corp is staffed by complete and utter morons who can't figure out which form goes where). You'll also need to prioritize your bills, and know the repercussions of missing a payment. In an ideal world all bills should be paid to their fullest, but when income is restricted so must options be. Housing should always take priority, then groceries, then utilities (gas, electric), and so on. Figure out the minimum amount you need to survive each month, then divide that into your total available cash, and you know exactly how long you can go without having to worry. For about the first week I was incredibly stressed about not having a job, but once I did the math and figured out how long we could last on only my wife's salary and unemployment income I was able to take that weight off my shoulders. What was worrying about the unknown became controlling spending to prevent splurging and impulse buys.

Aside from those two most important lessons, I found the following very helpful in my search:

• Don't rely on former employers who said "feel free to contact us if your situation changes" or something along those lines. Their situation may have changed, and what was an open invitation may not be so open anymore.
• Keep track of every position you applied to - company name, position, date, source, and status. I had a spreadsheet I used to track my progress that proved invaluable towards the end of the search. This is especially important when working with headhunters, as oftentimes they cannot legally submit you to a position for which you have already applied.
• Customize your resume and cover letter as necessary for each position. Many HR droids can spot a form letter a mile away. Also, make sure that if you use a form letter of sorts that you ensure that you change the letter completely for each position. It doesn't do you any good to be applying to Abbott Labs with a cover letter that shows your excitement for the various opportunities available with Motorola.
• Experience requests on a job posting are often a guide to keep off the underqualified. That said, they can't be thoroughly ignored. Take a close look at each posting and truly think about whether or not you are a fit for the position. The shotgun approach to job hunting doesn't always work.
• You will experience a lot of frustration in your search. There will be a lot of unrealistic requirements in job postings that make you want to hunt down every recruiter for a given company and smack them with a bit of common sense. Don't act on this frustration - just be thankful that the unrealistic expectations of the company in question will ultimately prevent them from recruiting a quality individual.
• Remember always that you have a lot to offer a company. People have hired you in the past, they will hire you again. Everything you're doing you've done before, and you were successful then. Don't get discouraged!
  

Why did it work so well for you?

I realize exactly how lucky I've been in my search. In some of the most dismal economic conditions of the modern era I not only had a short stint of unemployment, I received multiple offers, the majority of which represented a significant increase over my prior salary. I don't want to fool anyone into thinking a job hunt is easy, and in the interest of full disclosure (and to maybe mediate any unrealistic expectations some of you may have) I will freely admit I had the following advantages going for me:

• I have a master's degree in a computer science-aligned field
• I work in technology, one of the few professional areas projected to experience an increase in demand (despite economic conditions)
• I live near a major city with several commuting methods available nearby, so not only are the job opportunities more plentiful than they might be elsewhere I am able to search within a larger radius for positions

Additionally, I have a very strong support network. Throughout my search I received a lot of valuable aid from friends and family. In fact, the position I ended up accepting was brought to my attention as a result of a friend who used to work for the company. I am eternally grateful to my network of friends and family for their support during this time, and their assistance when they were able to render it.

Onward and upward

Probably the most crucial bit of advice anyone can receive when they are laid off is "Don't Panic." The hallowed words of Douglass Adams are more than just a comedic prop for a fictitious galactic wikipedia - those two words are some of the most sage advice people can receive. Once you lose your cool you start to make mistakes, and making mistakes is not an option for someone who's in a dire situation. Also, you need to keep a handle on your own emotions. Losing a job, especially if it was a job you loved, hurts. It hurts more than you think, and this hurt can often catch you completely unprepared. It leads to stress, which strains familial interactions, and the last thing you need to do is drive away the very people who care the most about you at times like this. Just keep a positive mindset. Things will improve. Persistence is rewarded. Opportunities will arise. Be prepared, approach the situation with a goal in mind and a plan of action, and you can't go wrong.