There is hope!
There is hope!
(OP)
So I was laid off back in November. I just heard today that I got an offer! They are matching what I was making previously. It looks like the economy is getting better. I thought I will be unemployed for a while. Anyway, you will see me active on this forum again. I will be designing a lot of precast briges (more like box culverts). Glad to be back in action! For those of you who are unemployed, dont give up!
Never, but never question engineer's judgement





RE: There is hope!
Great news.
What island do you live on??????? Read the papers, every day thousands are becoming unemployed.
RE: There is hope!
Never, but never question engineer's judgement
RE: There is hope!
However, if you are in connstruction probably things will get better, I guess every government is going to dump money on infrastructure as fast as they can.
Good luck by the way. I am happy for you
RE: There is hope!
I do hope your optimism is justified.
I live in a state that's supposed to be doing better than the rest of the nation. A lot of good that did me.
Oh well. I'll try to remain optimistic. I really have no other choice. Wallowing in self pity will not get you a job.
In the meanwhile, however, I'm enjoying some strong beverages. Seems like the appropriate thing to do when one has been laid off. My liver is going to take a beating over the next several days :)
RE: There is hope!
" It looks like the economy is getting better." 28 jan 2009
OK, we'll see how good your judgement is.
Cheers
Greg Locock
SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: There is hope!
However, not for the Housing, Multifamily, Retail or Commercial markets that affect the majority of structural engineers. There are too many vacant buildings in the housing and retail markets with more vacancies every day. With all these vacancies, any recovery, actual or imaginary, will take a long, long time, regardless of any moonetary input.
Most important of all, any confidence the consumer has in the system has been greatly eroded. Restoring this, the main driver, is going to be the real chore.
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
RE: There is hope!
When the economy picks up, civil engineers are the first ones to get hired (most of teh time, the first ones to be laid off).
Here in the mid-Atlantic, people run adds for Mechanical and electrical engineers and get zero resumes, that's right, zero.
Engineers are in bigger demand than most people think.
RE: There is hope!
RE: There is hope!
Judgement is an acceptable spelling. I believe this is another color vs colour issue.
RE: There is hope!
COEngineeer,
Congrat's! I wish you well.
Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion
RE: There is hope!
http://di
TTFN
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RE: There is hope!
Never, but never question engineer's judgement
RE: There is hope!
"Officer, just charge me with the usual."
~Bob Probert
RE: There is hope!
RE: There is hope!
How exactly is the economy getting better?
There have been over 125,000 job losses in the UK in January and that does not count those that are on short time or reduced pay, only today Honda announced it is putting 4,200 workers on a four month "holiday" add to that the level of debt and the still far from stable banks and I am at a complete loss to understand how things are getting better.
RE: There is hope!
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: There is hope!
"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the - the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice." - George Bush, Washington DC, 27 October, 2003
RE: There is hope!
Ahhhhhhhhh...now I see, this statement reminds me of those interesting monster.com commercials where chimpanzees run the company and they are celebrating while a human coworker is trying to explain to them how profits are going down using a chart.
Well, the head of the company (head chimp) simply turns the chart upside down to show how profits are increasing instead of decreasing, and all go back to celebrating. A very funny commercial.
RE: There is hope!
RE: There is hope!
"Economy shrinks at 3.8 percent pace in fourth quarter, worst showing in quarter-century "
"The new figure, released Friday by the Commerce Department, showed the economy sinking at a much faster clip in the October-December period than the 0.5 percent decline logged in prior quarter."
ht
More discouragement - "NEC quarterly loss widens amid global downturn, plans to cut 20,000 workers" http://
"Boeing to lay off 10,000 this year
Company to cut 5,500 more; loses order for 15 787s"
h
These are just a couple examples of what is becoming typical, and those numbers are starting to add up!
What happens after those three months of unemployment checks dry up? Hope for an extension?
"Labor Department says number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits at all-time record" http:
With the economy heading as it is, people just aren't going to keep buying all of those manufactured goods, except for the short-sighted who will use up what's left of their credit. Personal savings is actually going up. If no one is going to spend, then what?
The Port of Los Angeles reports (for December) inbound cargo down 12.83%, outbound down 25.94%. That seems like an awful lot to me.
http://www.portoflosangeles.org/maritime/stats.asp
I applaud your new job, and do so hope that you are right in your optimism COEngineer, but the data so far doesn't support it.
(end of rant)
Of course, those were headlines from last week. I'm sure that more have appeared since then.
"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the - the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice." - George Bush, Washington DC, 27 October, 2003
RE: There is hope!
No idea how accurate he is, but I think it is pretty clear that the media in general is for larger government, and being in a continual "crisis" gives opportunities for government to grow.
So to relate this to the OP, I think there will be spots of positive growth (good for you COE) because the underlying economy is trying to recover, but if Stossel is correct then both the media and the government will try to keep real growth down to allow people to panic and ask for more government regulation of whatever they think needs regulating.
Again, get that salt shaker. I am way out of my depth here.
RE: There is hope!
While there's certainly some level of hype, Ford losing $8.7B in a quarter is not hype, it's actual dollars being vaporized. Toyota posting its first annual loss in a 67-yr reporting history is also not hype.
TTFN
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RE: There is hope!
So, I will agree with you that they made a bad situation worse, much worse. Thus, I reverted to my country music station and pay no heed ot the news anymore (I was getting depressed in my ride home, my girls didn't deserve it)
However, going as far as thinking this to be some sort of government plot.... Not so sure.
What I know is, the economy is bad, not as bad as the media makes it sound, but it is bad. Greed is being rewarded (again htt
As much as I feel happy for COEng and would like to think he's right, I have my doubts (but I can see where he's coming from).
<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying " Damn that was fun!" - Unknown>>
RE: There is hope!
I really don't understand why my thread is being flamed. I have not been on this forum for 3 months because I was unemployed. I was excited to be back in action and this is what I get. Very classy guys!
Never, but never question engineer's judgement
RE: There is hope!
Well, statements like
"I think most people are still unemployed because they chose to do that!" might not be helping.
Seriously, congratulations on getting a position and I hope it works out for you but there are many of us still facing (at least potential) consequences of the economic slow down.
My Dad was hit hard by the early 90's recession and took years to find a position, trust me it wasn't because he chose to be unemployed. I remember people giving him that kind of $hit at the time and I didn't appreciate it then and don't now.
Sure there are people that play the system, but I'm not sure it's fair to say most.
KENAT,
Have you reminded yourself of FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies recently, or taken a look at posting policies: http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: There is hope!
RE: There is hope!
Never, but never question engineer's judgement
RE: There is hope!
<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying " Damn that was fun!" - Unknown>>
RE: There is hope!
KENAT,
Have you reminded yourself of FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies recently, or taken a look at posting policies: http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: There is hope!
Cheers
Greg Locock
SIG:Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: There is hope!
THAT. WAS. AWESOME.
V
RE: There is hope!
Never, but never question engineer's judgement
RE: There is hope!
Admittedly combined with some of your other comments I can see why Greg might have thought you were serious.
Anyway, well done for finding a job, hope it goes well and good luck to everyone else looking.
KENAT,
Have you reminded yourself of FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies recently, or taken a look at posting policies: http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: There is hope!
RE: There is hope!
metengr, recessions are caused by expectations more than actual causes. Peopel are put off on the same expectations, good news is not as interesting as bad. I would not take everything you read in the newspaper as proof positive.
RE: There is hope!
My synopsis of economic conditions are based on what I know of colleagues in various industries whom I see at Codes and Standards meetings.
Guess what, this is one of the most unusual downturns because of the number of layoffs that have touched many professional people. So, I don't have to read papers and listen to news reports, to observe these conditions are REAL!
RE: There is hope!
TTFN
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: There is hope!
Of course, they found, to their chagrin, that the commercial world was equally unstable, in the recession of the early 80s.
TTFN
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: There is hope!
However and you said the market would be over 9000 by now.I guess that's why we're engineers, brokerage might not be our forte.
Cheers!
<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying " Damn that was fun!" - Unknown>>
RE: There is hope!
Good look to you.
Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion
RE: There is hope!
BTW coengineer, I said it with tongue on chick, no offense intended (who knows, you might be hiring!!)
<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying " Damn that was fun!" - Unknown>>
RE: There is hope!
Brush up on the maths before going to the interviews! 30th January plus three months = 30th March. COEngineer has just under three weeks to perform his economic miracle!
Best of luck with the job search.
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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
RE: There is hope!
On his defense, hope is never lost, as he posted (not that I have any hope in the stock market, just in life)
<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying " Damn that was fun!" - Unknown>>
RE: There is hope!
Actually 30th January + three months = 30th April
RE: There is hope!
RE: There is hope!
I find this amusing, mainly because I can come up with various meanings. The way it's written doesn't mean much of anything to me.
RE: There is hope!
I would like to claim it was a deliberate mistake... but I'll blame posting in the early hours instead! Well spotted, hope the gaffer isn't reading this or he'll be putting me on 'that' list...
----------------------------------
If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
RE: There is hope!
Fe
RE: There is hope!
RE: There is hope!
RE: There is hope!
COEngineer -
What happens if two engineers disagree - does the universe explode?
Check out the demotivator jpg.
(Maybe this is where all of that money went!)
Rerig
RE: There is hope!
Demotivator
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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
RE: There is hope!
RE: There is hope!
I'm not getting my hopes up though, I'm fairly confident some of the stuff my management is talking of doing could still torpedo it even if the economy as a whole wasn't so week.
KENAT,
Have you reminded yourself of FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies recently, or taken a look at posting policies: http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: There is hope!
I was told to take it easy at the beginning... I can't. I need something to do and just web surfing is not cutting it!
Man, I thought I had a lot of patience until now.
So I hope you guys are right and things will start shaping up.
I am considering flipping burgers even though that is less money than the unemployment insurance!!
<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying " Damn that was fun!" - Unknown>>
RE: There is hope!
As with retirement, and regular life, you need to have a purpose and reason for getting out of bed every morning. You might consider putting together some sort of business, taking a class, or some other endeavor near and dear to your heart. Good Luck!!
TTFN
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RE: There is hope!
I've gotten interest from some out of town firms and one in town firm of which I'll post about here on another thread.
I think if you are willing to move, anywhere it is alot easier. In may case I was tipped off about the layoff because i was looking to buy a house here in my hometown.
I hate to leave my hometown as my parents are getting older. One of the potential jobs is in a town 5 hours away that is fun and I"ve visited alot. It's still a weekend drive or very quick flight home.
RE: There is hope!
I wish more bosses would give hints to such things. But more often than not they probably know little more than we do until the day of.
RE: There is hope!
Then again, if you were talking earlier with "tongue on chick", perhaps you're enjoying your unemployment already!
(just kidding!)
Best of luck to you! Keep your spirits up!
RE: There is hope!
One thing is for sure. If it wasn't for the lack of money, unemployment could be a blast!!! Since my body still kicks me out of bed at 5:00am I'm hitting the mountains in the mornings for trail running. Bit chilly, but really nice when there are no other humans around.
I am finishing my resume and have a pro sprucing it up, I will start getting it out there next week.
To think that I purposely devoted myself to Capital Project Management because it was the fastest growing and most interesting thing at the time. First thing to go out the door as soon as the economy turned south. (sigh)
Well, my only consolation is that my manager was not very keen on letting me go, but the orders came from way, way up.
<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying " Damn that was fun!" - Unknown>>