JOBSEARCH: Revising my SFYG advice

Monday, December 1, 2025

Here’s Why Smart Parents Are Skipping College and Choosing This Instead – The Burning Platform

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: “Nothing is 100% risk free”

Sunday, October 12, 2025

<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2025-10-08>>

FROM 1440 https://join1440.com/

*** begin quote ***

Back Pay Uncertainty

President Donald Trump signaled yesterday that furloughed federal workers may not be guaranteed retroactive compensation when the government reopens, a potential shift from previous policy that covered roughly 750,000 employees.

*** end quote ***

https://reinkefaceslife.com/2025/02/13/jobsearch-federal-governemnt-employees-are-learning-that-nothing-is-100-risk-free-the-hard-way/

*** begin quote ***

I remember that Gooferment employees would tell me that they’re 100% secure in their Gooferment GS13 position.  Wonder how they would evaluate that now with DOGE chainsawing whole departments and agencies.  I used have heated discussions with those poor confused souls that “Nothing is 100% risk free”.  I pointed to my and my mother’s experiences at AT&T.  We both had “gold watch” syndrome (i.e., the good corporation would care for its valued people from cradle to grave).  I took the buyout and she didn’t.  And she never realized that the “rules” had changed.

*** end quote ***

Seems like a past prediction is coming back to haunt Gooferment bureaucrats.  

No matter what you want to believe, reality intrudes.

Sad to say, “told you so”, but as a recovering “gold watch” syndrome victim myself, you can’t trust your future to anyone but yourself.

— 30 —

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: The alternative to being “Quietly Fired” is “Quietly Quitting”

Thursday, September 4, 2025

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/quiet-firing-how-to-know-if-you-are-being-quietly-fired/495918?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=685d887928f3f06ff608ec8b

‘The Hope Is That You Will Eventually Quit’: Experts Reveal the Signs That You Are Being Quietly Fired Are you a target of this passive-aggressive management tactic? Here are the signs.
By David James Aug 14, 2025

*** begin quote ***

  •     Quiet firing involves employers intentionally treating an employee so badly that they leave.
  •     A recent HR study of 1,000 managers found that 53% engaged in it.
  •     Some of the signs of quiet firing include the removal of resources and responsibilities.

A passive-aggressive form of management is making headlines: quiet firing, the practice where bosses make working conditions so unpleasant for an unwanted employee that the person leaves on their own accord.

*** and ***

3. Being left out of meetings. Being cut out of communications and planning for upcoming initiatives is the biggest red flag that you are being quietly fired, the experts told USA Today.

*** and ***

… …  keep a record of everything — save emails and request feedback in writing, and keep all of this documentation on a personal computer. As the experts point out, quiet firing isn’t necessarily illegal, but it is if it is tied to discrimination or workplace retaliation.

*** end quote ***

<< Maybe I should begin a thread on “Job Employment Self-Defense”?>>

With all the emphasis on AI and “replacement by H1B’s”, the average “salaryman” (to steal a Japanese concept) should be on alert and taking steps to secure their continued employment (i.e., a steady paycheck).

My old advice still has value:

Success for your generation is: (1) ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt; (2) a life long interest in learning — education — a degree — they can’t take it away from you; (3) a NON-OFFSHORABLE white collar job in order to save big bux; (4) a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber; (5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open; (6) a free time hobby that generates income; and (7) a large will-maintained network of people who can “help” you.

BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), now there is a new survival imperative.

(8) creating value both inside your current job and outside of it as well.

INSIDE, might take the form of careful observation of the bureaucracy around you and what could be eliminated, condensed, transformed, or enlarged. Don’t be afraid that you will be eliminated.  If you find it out, then someone else will too.  Be motivated.

OUTSIDE, it could be taking your dikw (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) to another employer or competitor.  You should have all YOUR stuff duplicated off-site lest you get surprised and walked out.

<<When I was on Wall Street brokers used to keep a “shadow book” at home.  Often then they were fired and walked out, they were contacting old clients before the Firm had even a replacement in place.  One fellow’s wife was his at home admin assistant and started before he was even out of the building.  That’s being prepared.>>

In summary, remember that the alternative to being “Quietly Fired” is “Quietly Quitting” aka being prepared and executing your pre-departure actvities.

Forewarned is forearmed.  (Or is it FOUR armed?)

— 30 —

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: You should have an active “networking program”

Monday, April 7, 2025

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” — Ralph Kramden aka Jackie Gleason in the “The Honeymooners”

# – # – # – # – # 

Wish I’d have paid more attention to the lessons on TV.  It wasn’t until later in life that I realized the value of a personal connections network.  It was when a sales guy I was nice too even though I could not buy his product, became a hiring manager in  Wall Street firm and extends due a job offer that I took.  

Now never let it be said that I was the dimmest bulb on the block.  I immediately began “collecting contacts”.  I’d read about a “Farley File” in Heinlein’s book “Double Star” so I too began my own Farley File.  I didn’t discard it until I retired sometime later. (We can debate the stupidity of doing that.)

With cloud computing, it’s so much easier than using paper like in the “Job Changing at 100K+” workbook.

When I was in my own consulting business, I had my “Sunday Morning Imaginary Board of Directors” meeting with: myself the CEO, myself the CFO, myself the CMO, myself as the CTO, myself as the Sasles Manager, myself as the Product Manager, and myself as theThe Product itself.  You might say I was full of myself.  I should have had a Chief Relationship Manager too.

Anyway, now I am a fat old white guy retired injineer who’s a poor old senior citizen on a fixed income. I have lots of time to Monday Marning Quarterback all the Shoulda, Coulda, and Woulda things that I’d do differently.  

“Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.” — Seneca, Letters From a Stoic

—30—

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: Federal government employees are learning that “Nothing is 100% risk free” the hard way

Thursday, February 13, 2025

FROM 1440 https://join1440.com/

*** begin quote ***

Cruise to slash workforce by nearly 50%, or roughly 1,000 employees, after owner General Motors ended funding to robotaxi unit (More) | Estee Lauder to trim up to 7,000 jobs, or around 11% of workforce; shares drop 16% on the news (More) 

*** end quote ***

# – # – # – # – # 

Given the wholesale downsizing of Gooferment employees, every one of the “wage slaves” in the USA should reassessing their unemployment risk profile.

*** begin quote ***

JOBSEARCH: Your reputation as a master networker has qualified you

Get started. When the axe does fall, as it always does, you’ll have bought yourself time, help, goodwill, and possibly some wisdom. I’ll probably have landed in my final spot before I hear from you. But be advised, I’ll be rooting for you from upstairs or down, where ever I’m sent.

*** end quote ***

And …

*** begin quote ***

JOBSEARCH: The risk inherent in the status quo of employment

I counsel job seekers and potential job seekers that they must rigorously and honestly evaluate just how much is at risk in their current state. One tool is my “how much money do I need to have to get another job”. Age, level of education, hotness of field, hotness of your geography, level of position you’d accept, what’s your burn rate, how do you look, and unfortunately sex all combine in strange complex calculus to determine the risk of the status quo. In more than one instance, 

*** end quote ***

As you can see, once I woke up to the  “status quo is not risk free” after my first “promotion outside”, I preached to anyone who would listen that “wage slaves” were at great risk of “downsizing”, “rightsizing”, or just a plain old corporate bankruptcy,

I remember that Gooferment employees would tell me that they’re 100% secure in their Gooferment GS13 position.  Wonder how they would evaluate that now with DOGE chainsawing whole departments and agencies.  I used have heated discussions with those poor confused souls that “Nothing is 100% risk free”.  I pointed to my and my mother’s experiences at AT&T.  We both had “gold watch” syndrome (i.e., the good corporation would care for its valued people from cradle to grave).  I took the buyout and she didn’t.  And she never realized that the “rules” had changed.

One piece of advice that often preached:

“Success for your generation is: (1) ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt; (2) a life long interest in learning — education — a degree — they can’t take it away from you; (3) a NON-OFFSHORABLE white collar job in order to save big bux; (4) a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber; (5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open; (6) a free time hobby that generates income; and (7) a large will-maintained network of people who can “help” you.

has held up very well over the decades.

Hope this helps and is not seen as “dancing on graves”.

As always, YMMV.

—30—

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: Never share the hard-file, rather an access controlled version of the document

Sunday, November 24, 2024

https://www.boredpanda.com/home-assignment-recruiter-disabled-access/

Work & Money
Nov 14, 2024
Recruitment Scam Doesn’t Go As Planned After Guy Protects His Files
Jonas Grinevičius and Mindaugas Balčiauskas

*** begin quote ***

Job interviews are stressful enough as they are. Not only is your entire professional life being judged, but you also have to make sure to leave a positive impression, all the while you go through the many (many, many!) application stages. It’s exhausting.

And even though rejection is hardly ever a nice thing, there are better and worse ways to go about it. The least you can do is tell applicants that they didn’t pass, instead of ghosting them after multiple rounds of interviews. Redditor u/thegr8_alexander recently went viral on the Recruiter Hell subreddit after sharing how they pushed back at a company they were applying to after getting “radio silence.†All it took was disabling access to their take-home assignment.

*** and ***

The good thing that I did was not to share the hard-file, rather an access controlled version of the document that also disabled people from printing/downloading it.

And guess what? The recruiter called next day on the pretext of having another round of discussion because they want to go ahead with me. S/he let it slip in the conversation that evaluators are having difficulty in accessing my document and if I can share it as a file rather than sharing a link ;)

Well well, the moment I have been looking for. I told her about the malpractices that a lot of recruiters do and that’s why, in principle, I do not share any hard-files. I assured her that I’ll myself walk-through the panel on everything once again, when we connected. S/he wasn’t satisfied, but disconnected the call.

Got a ping that evening to talk something in person. We connected. S/he mentioned that I have landed him/her in a soup by disabling the access. S/he was expected to collate all the projects and share internally and there were only 3 presentations which they had shortlisted. Me not allowing access to my files will put the HR in trouble. S/he also mentioned that hiring is always professional but I’m taking it to a personal level by putting him.her in soup.

I gently replied, “Hiring is not personal. I would have accepted a rejection. But by giving me false hopes when you never intended to hire was personal. It wasn’t me who started it!”

There was a silence of a few seconds. I then proceeded to cut the call. 

*** end quote ***

I don’t think that ever happened to me.  Been a long time since I ever did any job search.  But I like this person’s approach.  Trust no one.  I’ve been “ghosted” more times than I could count.  Even went so far as to keep a “Dead To Me List” (DTML)  of recruiters and companies.  Had occasions to use it and folks were flabbergasted that (1) I would not submit “blind” (i.e., not able to id the company); (2) refused to even take calls from some recruiters or talk about certain companies; and (3) share my DTML with anyone who asked.  

I kept good records and even was able to “explain” why I didn’t want to talk to them or consider a company.  That was fun!  I didn’t care if Sam or Samantha was no longer there.  Like I’d believe anything a salesperson would say without proof. 

Argh!  Just tapping this out has raised my BP and my ire.

—30—

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: Always remeber your roots are as deep as your paycheck

Friday, October 4, 2024

https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/04/159-employees-are-leaving-automattic-as-ceos-fight-with-wp-engine-escalates/

159 employees are leaving Automattic as CEO’s fight with WP Engine escalates | TechCrunch

Ivan Mehta

<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2024-10-04>>

*** begin quote ***

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said on Thursday that 159 employees (roughly 8.4% of staff) accepted a severance package that the company had offered to those who disagreed with his direction of WordPress and his handling of the tussle with web hosting provider WP Engine.

In a blog post, Mullenweg said the package offered $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher, but the employees who took it would not be eligible to be re-hired by Automattic.

Nearly 80% of people who took the offer worked in the company’s Ecosystem / WordPress division, and the rest were in Automattic’s Cosmos businesses, consisting of apps like Pocket Casts, Day One, Tumblr and Cloudup.

*** end quote ***

Once again, wage slaves must always be looking for their next job or gig.  Unless they have their FU money in a safe store like an annuity, they must be ready when their CEO, organization, or a regulatory agency loses their mind and commits suicide or murder.

When this happens it is NOT the time to begin to think about your resume.  Back when I was first fired  —  and I was 4½ times  — I was only surprised the FIRST time.  Thanks to that employers’ outplacement, I learned a valuable lesson.  I am the Captain of My Own Ship, the CEO, CFO, CTO, Marketing Manager, Sales Manager, Sales Person, and Product De Jour.  I even had a “VP of Product Development” reporting to the CFO!  From that day forward, until the day I retired, I had a monthly “meeting” on the First Sunday of every month early in the morning.  First thing, without fail, although I did serve coffee, I would put on each of my metaphorical hats and review my work in that role.  Was I always happy as I reviewed my “subordinate personality’s” accomplishments?  No, but I was never “surprised” again.  

When presented with a “surprise”, I immediately shifted gears seamlessly into “active job search” from “passive job search”.  Was I stressed by the “surprise”?  Yes, but my first action after filing for unemployment (Have to “steal” back as much as possible from what the various Gooferments “stole” from me!), was to take a week of vacation.  Calms the soul and refreshes the spirit.

YMMV but be ever vigilant. 

“You, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know when the master of the household will return—in the evening, at midnight, before dawn, or at daybreak.”  — Mark 13:35

—30—

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: You should aleways be looking for your next job — even if you have tenure

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

https://mcquad.org/2024/01/24/tenured-professors-fired-in-sweeping-layoffs/

Tenured Professors Fired in Sweeping Layoffs
By Kyla Guilfoil, Senior Writer

*** begin quote ***

According to faculty sources, the administration told departments roughly what they could expect would be cut from their departments. Therefore, it became clear to several departments that certain professors would be fired based on the “Last In, First Out” metric. For example, faculty member sources described that a department would be told they would need to lose two faculty members and it was then clear to those two employees most recently hired that they would likely be let go.

Because of this, several employees decided to take the voluntary separation agreements, on the basis that they believed they would likely be fired anyways in the coming semester, faculty sources told The Quadrangle. 

On the other hand, more senior employees, including many tenured professors, believed they were safe in their jobs and would not be on the chopping block during the current academic year. Faculty sources told The Quadrangle that this made the tenured terminations, given mid-year, even more shocking. 

*** end quote ***

I guess that this should be inscribed on great monuments to complacency: “they believed they were safe”.

Guess they never read that parable about the  lion and the gazelle?

“Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” This African proverb was reproduced in Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat.

I always preached that anyone in a “corporate job” had one objective  — find their next job.  

Whenever I started a new job, the first thing I would do was update my resume and send it to all my friends and headhunters.  Loyalty?  Like the old canard says: “Don’t Kill Yourself For A Job That Would Replace You Within 2 Weeks If You Dropped Dead”  — Anthony ‘AJ’ Joiner

Loyalty is for spouses, family, and friends; not corporations.

A College is nothing more than corporation that takes money and produces “entertainment”.  

Sad to say, but that’s how I see it.

Argh!

—30—

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: Corporate mergers ALWAYS result in LAYOFFS

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

https://www.androidauthority.com/t-mobile-layoffs-2023-3357846/?utm_campaign=dailyauthority&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=Daily%20Authority 

📞 T-Mobile keeps doing the thing it said it wouldn’t do

When T-Mobile acquired Sprint, it promised to keep employee count higher than pre-merger. Yet, here we are with more T-Mobile layoffs. 

# – # – # – # – # 

Corporate mergers ALWAYS result in LAYOFFS. (Regardless of what “they” say!)

While NOT ALWAYS true, it’s usually the ACQUIRED company that gets laid off.  

Occasionally when the ACQUIRER wants a particular aspect of the ACQUIRED company, that “team” will be spared.

Typically layoffs occur in the duplicate functions like HR, Finance & Accounting, mid-level management.

Be always prepared for it.  You should always be in “job search” mode.

REMEMBER:

Success for your generation is: (1) ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt; (2) a life long interest in learning — education — a degree — they can’t take it away from you; (3) a NON-OFFSHORABLE white collar job in order to save big bux; (4) a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber; (5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open; (6) a free time hobby that generates income; and (7) a large will-maintained network of people who can “help” you.

If you’re “surprised”, then you have failed at your most important job!

—30—

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: QR Card — Your business card on the smartphone lock screen

Thursday, July 16, 2020

“ Hi hunters! I made this application because I was tired of paper business cards. An ordinary card can simply be thrown out or lost. Contact in a smartphone is a completely different matter. QR Card makes contact exchange as quick and convenient as possible.

Source: QR Card — Your business card on the smartphone lock screen

# – # – # – # – #

Seems like a GREAT idea.

—30—

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

« Previous Entries