Question Time

Last weekend, I went to my internet Scrabble site to play some games after a hard snow shoveling session outside. I usually do pretty well at Scrabble. This day, however, I lost game after game. As I watched my rating plummet, I posed a question to one of the site moderators. “Where is the bottom?”

This and other questions have been on my mind lately. I have been unemployed for almost two and a half months now. Every week, I search the internet job sites; apply for any jobs that look promising; read technical books; practice my software skills; and check in with the contracting companies looking for positions for me. This has yielded two interviews (one good, another with an absolute jerk) and a couple of follow-up inquiries. However, it has not given me confidence that I will have a job anytime soon.

Why? Jobs are scarcer in Michigan than other parts of the country. The contracting company reps tell me that they’ve never seen a time like this. Clients are so afraid of the potential domino effect of one or more auto company collapses that they’re freezing all but essential hiring.

Because jobs are scarce, employers can be very picky. I’ve seen jobs advertised with requirements so specific that they never could have yielded an adequate pool of respondents in the past. Now, though, the company will probably find 10 people who fit the bill precisely.

That leaves me in a strange place. I have experience with a variety of different technologies and roles (developer, analyst, leader, manager). I have done them all well (often simultaneously). I used to consider this an asset. However, it scares away companies who want specialists. Companies who want managers think that I’m too technical. Those who want technicians think that I’ll be happy only as a manager. Some people even tell me that that my 22 years of experience in some technologies puts me at a disadvantage for positions requiring only 5 years experience. As George Fields (Sydney Pollack), the agent, told Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman), his actor client, in the movie Tootsie, “no one will hire you.”

So, I wonder where the bottom is and other things. How long will it take to get a job? If I do get a job, will it be doing something likely to keep me employed or make me an easy target for the next layoff? What’s the least amount of money I can afford to take?
If I don’t get a job, how long can we make it? How long do I wait before I retrain for something completely different? Will we ultimately have to file for bankruptcy, walk away from home and family and go somewhere else?

The worry associated with these questions is probably responsible for my increase in vivid, scary dreams. I hope to have the answers soon. Unlike Michael Dorsey, though, I think that dressing as a woman is out – for now.