bianchi10

Just got laid off today from work. Sucks that I didn't have something lined up, but I hated the job I took 5 months ago, which was supposed to be a change for the better and turned out to be a nightmare. I've never been fired/laid off before so it was quite the sting to my ego. I left on good terms, am glad to be done with that hell whole, but am a little bit scared since I have 2 kids, wife, dog, car payments, mortgage and other bills. Luckily, my wife works and I am able to collect unemployment after February. I will still get paid through the end of the month, so that should give me time to look. I have heard that looking for a job when you NEED one is a full time job in itself. I will be focusing a majority of my attention on looking for a new job, BUT I will be planning on riding as much as I/my wife will possibly let me!!! The last 5 months I was riding on average twice a month, sometimes not even that. I went 2 months without riding at all.

Here is to making up for lost time!!!!

Aunt Roady

Everyone works differently, but my suggestion is to try and build a job-seeking process that allows for plenty of riding. Riding is a good thing to do after making a daily round of follow-up calls, for example. Or go for a ride after forcing yourself to create 10 custom resumes. Whatever the goal/incentive, use your desire to ride as a way to spur yourself to action. Good luck out there!

alexaschwanden

What job did you have?

seymour1910

I didn't know you started a thread, I just sent you a PM because I saw a comment you made in the Cannondale thread. I went through this in 2012 and it did suck. I hated taking unemployment but was forced to do so after I couldn't find work as quick as I thought I would. It does take effort and time but if you plan properly you can job hunt, ride and still be there for your family. Best wishes to you man.

gc3

sorry to hear, but that happened to me November 2012 and I was off 10 months. Best riding year of my life! But then, I'm an old man...

RollCNY

Good Luck to you. The plus of cycling is you can use it as a stress reliever. It's free therapy.

freedomrider1

Sorry about your job loss,however sounds like you started to figure things out,help the wife all you can.Get plenty of rides in.Any bike shops need help in the area?As i remember you do alot of your own work.

ahsposo 

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/488559-Hints-for-the-newly-or-soon-to-be-laid-off

Go to this^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ahsposo 

And there is a difference between being "laid off" and losing a job for "other reasons".

I lost a job due to a lot of various reasons. But it was never coming back within 6 months. In ******* that is the definition of "laid off".

Condor637

Sorry to hear that but have you ever thought of being sponsored to be a Broker and take the Series 7 test. It's easy and pays well (Scottrade, Ameritrade).

https://www.sec.gov/answers/series7.htm

https://careers.scottrade.com/workin...rtunities.html

https://careers.tdameritrade.com/students/

celticfrost

Good luck, man. Let the riding clear and focus your mind.

R1lee

Sorry to hear, it's difficult to hear about this stuff in a tough economy. Good luck with the job hunt.

rpenmanparker 

I am also very sorry to hear of your misfortune. Best wishes for a quick resolution to your situation.

qcpmsame 

Best of luck with the job search, hopefully it will not be a long one for you. What field are you skilled in?

Bill

Gatorfreak

I'm a little jealous. Hope you find a better job soon. But not too soon.

nastystang

At least you have unemployment. Maybe getting a job you really like is in the cards. If you can holdout for th e right job that's great but finances always seem to dictate this to some degree. I have never been unemployed other than right after getting out of the Marines and it was not much time at all. Good luck with the job hunt and enjoy the time to ride because it's never going to be enough.

robbyville

Always difficult when it's not on your own terms, but since you were not enjoying the job maybe for the best. Take your time to regroup and consider what your financial and emotional needs are, circle the wagons and build a search around those.

I have been in the hospitality/resort business most of my work life, I've dealt with downsizing, restructuring and everything that goes along with it. If you have the skills and the mindset you will find your best opportunity. I remember at one point you were with red bull? A more difficult and competitive marketing environment would be hard to find, so focus on what successes you had and use them to build your portfolio. Ride to relieve stress and be a wonderful husband and dad!

enjoy the time you have with your family too!

bianchi10

Thank you all for the kind thoughts and links to help. I will be checking those out and making the most of what i can at this time.

So here is a small write up to maybe answer some of the questions. I was a salesman and then District manager of Red Bull for 10 years. I was involved with the Energy Drink itself, not the cool stuff like promoting the Red Bull Athletes (And no I didn't drive one of those stupid mini coopers with the 10ft red bull can lol). I got tired of getting dicked around for several years and getting passed up on job promotions from upper management hiring their buddies with no experience, but got the job simply based on their relationship. What made it worse is I was always expected to train them! Was looking for new opportunities and a friend of mine introduced me to his friend who was a Director of a Staffing company. With my sales/manager experience she saw potential in my abilities. She offered me an account manager position for IT. My job was to call into companies like Intel, HP, Nike...etc and build relationships with hiring managers who had IT needs. In my interview I was sold into this position on a silver platter. "We invest in your success by giving you training and more training so you will be able to utilize the tools we give you to be gain business." I was told I would have 1 month of solid training followed by another month of shadowing before I ever made a phone call.

Day 1: Sit at your desk and watch this pre-recorded video on how to deal with this situation.
Day 2: Sit at your desk and watch this pre-recorded video on how to deal with this situation.
Day 3: Sit at your desk and watch this pre-recorded video on how to deal with this situation.
etc...etc...
Day 5:Sit at your desk and watch this pre-recorded video on how to deal with this situation. (End of work first work week)

Day 1 of second week: Here is your headset and a contact list. start making calls and getting some meetings.

From that point on, I never had any other kind of official training. I reached out to other co-workers and management for help, but just got minor suggestions.

I remember 1 time about 2 months ago, I had to present in front of our team. My main account was Conway logistics and was to give an idea on what I was focusing on and hurdles I had to overcome. There was a specific order of questions that all of the account managers had to answer in the presentation. I didn't understand 2 of the questions or how I should best answer it so everyone could understand. (Keep in mind that my manager would always say.."If you have questions, be sure to ask. I dont know when your struggling unless you pipe up) So I brought these questions up to her and she said, "Just go back to your desk and you'll figure it out." Note, that I honestly had NO idea how to answer this. This is how it was the entire time i was employed there. "Ask me questions when you have them" and then I would never get clarification. In my 1 on 1's I was always asked, "what do you need from me." I would ask for a contact list, or to set aside a half hour or hour of training on this or that. she would write it down and say, sure thing! But I never got anything out of it. It was good to know that SEVERAL others had the same experiences as mine and it wasn't just me. In the last 4 months 5 people walked out and quit because they couldn't take it anymore.

For those of you who dont know how the staffing industry works, there is a recruiter and an account manager. The recruiter reaches out to people who put their resume's on indeed.com, monster.com, careerbuilders.com ....etc. They build a pipeline of people. Account managers are on the other end and build the relationship with the accounts. When a hiring manager has a need, they can reach out to a staffing agency and say, "I need a Project manager with This type of background and experience." Account manager takes that info to the recruiters and they sort through their pipeline and say, I have 3 people that match that. Account manager takes those 3 people and try to sell them to the hiring manager. All while 5 or 6 other companies are doing the same thing.
NOW, that being said, keep in mind that while I'm trying to build this relationship and try to market my candidates, HR of that company is saying....WHOA WHOA WHOA....Why are you trying to do my job!?!? What I learned from this job was that most companies have a staffing coordinator or even a staffing team to do just what I do/did. Since all job orders would have to go through HR, there was no way to get around HR. Once you cross HR, your chances of getting jobs filled went from 30% to 0%! NOT TO MENTION, If I was the owner of a company and had a staff of 4 people I was paying to staff my company when I had positions to be filled, WHY IN THE HELL WOULD I PAY AN AGENCY 20-25%!?!?

The last 4 months, I went to work literally sick to my stomach. I knew it was going to be another 8 hours of making 60-70 phone calls a day and getting no where. Last week i made 358 phone calls and I only spoke/connected with 9 people! Thats a lot of wasted time!!!! I was put on last chance last month so its not like I was surprised this was coming, I just wish i was able to have lined something up before this happened.

I had lunch with my LBS owner to see what opportunities he knew of. He introduced me to the manager of Modus Sports group in portland, OR. They are the Shimano/Schwable Vendor in the North west. I made it through 2 interviews and made the final 2 but they chose a guy who had 10+ years of bike shop experience. I was told from the VP that on papar, i look better, in person I interviewed and come across better, but when it comes to industry knowledge, he beat me out. It was tough because I REALLY wanted that job! Though i'm not sure I would have been the best fit for the position anyway with all the traveling I would have had to do. I have my feelers out there and am hoping to come across something soon.

EDIT:
Everyone has their own religious beliefs but I had a situation this evening that is Godly or just plain silly timing. Just after posting this, I got a random call. It was the Northwest VP of Rockstar Energy. He knew I was looking about 6 months ago but they didn't have anything available at the time. He said, "I dont know if you are looking for anything right now, but we have an open position in Portland and I was wondering if you would be interested in sitting down and discussing some opportunities. I laughed out loud and said, please forgive my laughter, but its a bit ironic to get this call tonight. I explained my situation and we further discussed the job description. I'm really not sure if I want to get back into the beverage industry or not, but I have an interview next Tuesday at 9:30 to go over more details.

Carbon Unit

When I first read your post, I didn't notice the word "off" in the title. I was going to congratulate you but then noticed it was your employment you were discussing.

I was unemployed for more than a year until I moved out of California. Cycling was the one thing that helped me keep my sanity. I was on the bike every day after I stopped calling. If it wasn't for the biking, I might have taken up drinking.

bianchi10

lol! I'm hoping I at least get laid tonight. It would help ease the sting of today. But, the wife might be all...lets talk...lets just talk...lets talk about what you have planned...BLAH!

Dunbar

Wow, that staffing job sounds like a glorified telemarketer. A good friend of mine did that sort of thing for a big telecom after college and he absolutely hated it. He would call business accounts asking how everything was and turn the conversation from there into a pitch for more/better services.

bianchi10

YUPPPPP! Thats EXACTLY how I felt. I felt like a telemarketer.

Big Lebowski

I've learned that jobs, spouses and bikes come and go, but somehow replacements take their place. It will all work out.

seymour1910

I've been on the other end of that. When I left active duty (still a reservist) I got into government contracting. I didn't know much at all about it because for the past decade I was in the military. I had recruiters calling me day and night, when they were not calling they were emailing. It worked out because I did get a good job from it but it was really crazy.

Best wishes on your interview, you may not want to get back in the beverage business, but this is a different company, give them a chance. Every day you're working is another day closer to that EVO

TexMac

Biachi,
Sorry to hear that.
I see you live in Oregon. I have worked with NIKE over there and they are one of my clients. Let me know if you want to pm me and you can send me your resume, see if they have anything that matches your skills.