You want fries with that?

Monday morning; on the train to Chicago one last time. No user support required today, my part of that is done and Ted will be handling from now on (Ted’ll probably be gone after Wednesday). I just have to package as many PCs for shipping that I can today. All the old or replacement hardware has to be sent back to Ohio for re-use. They came to us one at a time so we’re sending them back one at a time. Tomorrow I’ll swing down to HQ in Downers Grove to drop off my laptop & phone and pick up some paperwork; then it’s home until I get another job.

Saw a sign at the Wal-Mart nearby that they’re doing a big store renovation and they’re looking for full-time help. Not sure why the renovation needs more people, although I was at another store doing renovations on Saturday and it looked like the staff was keeping pretty busy moving displays from one location to another, keeping just ahead of the remod work. So maybe that’s it. At least full-time there I’d get medical and a discount on purchases. Apple just announced the new iPhone 3G that’s lots cheaper than the first iPhone with more features so I could get that there for MLM. This looks like the perfect phone for her since it’s all touch panel and programmable and you move stuff around with your fingers and it uses voice-recognition etc. MLM really has a hard time using her regular cell these days – the small buttons and scrolling for numbers and trying to program it are almost impossible for her. I just hope I can get a job soon enough to get her that for her birthday the end of July. *sigh*

So I will check that out and the movie theater gig too, since there’s so little demand for IT these days. I got one call on my Dice update but it was in Des Moines! Just gotta keep working it I guess! ;-)

We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Hackers!

Yesterday was a total drag. The night migration guy got laid off. Was told his part of Phase 1 was finished so he’s gone. I got a call from the supervisor requesting I collect his badges and PC. Apparently they’re doing some re-thinking about the scheduling and Phase 2 won’t start for another couple of months (it was supposed to pick up right after Phase 1, but that’s two-week-old news). So Michael dropped by the Chicago office where we worked the last two weeks to pick up his stuff and get his misc. off his hard drive. Wished him luck out there and we commiserated with each other for a while. We’re all old guys there – Ted, the other day tech, is about my age too – so we recognize that we’re a new Band of Brothers; IT guys who qualify for AARP. I really need to say IT persons to avoid being sexist as there are plenty of women in the same boat. My manager at Sara Lee three years ago got laid off when I was and she was out of work for over a year-and-a-half, and she had just received her master’s degree in telecommunications! So, need a gender-neutral term for this: Band of Geezers? Band of Geeks? Band of Hackers? I think I like the last one. Also includes reference to an old hack; hack-writer; and so forth. ;-)

Of course, the scary part here is that my position may be reaching the end of its useful life! I have been told that my last day in Chicago will be today, and I will be back at HQ in Downers Grove next week. But what if they don’t plan on me coming back to HQ? I’m told they are no longer doing migrations there, but that we are supporting the next-day effort for all the small remote office sites, and that should keep us busy. But I don’t know how many of us are really needed for that. So, I may be in the same boat as Michael by the end of the day. Soon as I heard about this yesterday I jumped on the job boards and updated my info – doing that makes your listing float to the top for a few days so hopefully something will come from that.

The age thing makes it doubly tough when looking for work. IT is still looked at as a youthful field even after all these years. Management may be 50 or 60 but they think they need young guys to do the work. There are two reasons for this: one – the conventional wisdom is that the young turks will be skilled in all the latest technologies, and two – younger employees will qualify for and accept less pay than their more experienced senpai. Reason one is a crock – we had a gaggle of 20-somethings on this project and I spent as much time coaching them as anything else. I know the main reason is the second one – in fact, in this economy the employers are taking advantage of all the IT people out of work by cutting the pay overall. This job is paying me half what I was making two years ago. And the ads I apply for reflect about 30% cut in pay from two years ago for the same job. I think it’s time to change fields again. I will have to see what the SQL certification gets me. Failing that, a friend in the church just got promoted to general manager at the movie theater he’s been working at for years, and he said he’d be glad to get me on as a part-timer. Maybe I should look at full-time instead! ;-)

Anyway, wish me luck today. I’ll report on what, if anything, happens.