John of All Trades

Well, it’s official: I’m laid off.

All of the responses I’ve gotten from friends and family so far have been of the “I’m so sorry”, “You’ll find another job, don’t worry”, “Do you need any money?” genre. I appreciate the sympathy from everyone, and no, I don’t need any money (yet). Thanks for your warm thoughts, everyone.

On the other hand, I feel like the clock has been ticking down on this one ever since I took my first job at a start-up. An absolutely shocking number of start-ups die with a whimper, compared to the one or two that make it to daylight, and I’ve never had any illusions about what that would mean for me as an employee. Funding runs out, boards of directors become unhappy with business models, etc. etc. When I first left my relatively stable job (where I’d just survived a round of lay-offs) for one in a start-up, I started socking away money for this very day. Also, as a side effect of our emerging eco-consciousness, we’ve been trying like crazy to live a less cash-intensive life in preparation for a day when we might try something different and less, well, profitable employment-wise.

Now all that preparation will start to pay its dividends.

I’m still getting my head around this whole thing, and trying to make a plan that I can follow to land the best job possible with the best net result for the family, under the circumstances. I plan to log my thoughts here as I slog through unemployment, job applications, resume writing, and so on. Maybe it’ll make for an interesting read someday when I’m able to look back and laugh about this.