Keep smilin’, keep shinin’
Knowing you can always count on me for sure
That’s what friends are for That’s What Friends Are For, as sung by Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder.
About 21 months ago, I realized things weren’t going well and I knew that things weren’t going to end well for me at the company I was at. Being a responsible father of two and devoted husband, I did the responsible thing and started looking for other opportunities. One does not want to be caught with one’s pants down.
And still, someone yanked my shorts. It’s not that I didn’t see it coming, I just couldn’t get out of the way soon enough.
I’ll regale you with my woes of finding a new way to fill my days And it’s a lot harder than you think. Nearly 100 carefully chosen and crafted applications. Twenty-four rejections without so much as a question. Three interviews. The rest were all dead ends.
To say that puts a damper on one’s hopes for a steady income, never mind eventual retirement, is putting it mildly. The words “moderately terrified” come to mind. This is not a world, let alone an economy, where one can coast along without some form of financial reliability.
I’ve had my LinkedIn profile set to letting people know I’m open for work since December 2024. I’ve had the #opentowork badge on my photo for three months. I’ve read more job profiles than I care to think about, almost to the point where I might actually have PTSD from seeing emails from LinkedIn, never mind all the other places I’ve been looking. (LinkedIn just seems to have a better/worse email platform, depending on how you view it.)
Not ten minutes ago, I finally turned it all off. All thanks to a friend.
In my opinion, the days of the resume application for any position above entry level are dead. Thanks to Applicant Tracking Systems and the idiocy of AI, it’s become garbage-in, garbage-out and any actual signal is lost in the noise. Add on age and you pretty much end up in a situation where you’ll be ignored over the age of 40. No-one wants some old guy who hasn’t kept pace with the times.
And this is where I got lucky. LUCKY, I tell you! Because at the time I got let go, a friend was in need – a project needed support, he needed someone who could be an Engineering Whisperer, and someone he could trust. That was my proverbial foot in the door (it also didn’t hurt that my friend also spoke highly of me to others).
There was no interview. Not like the days of old. There was only proof of what I can do and who I am. And I can breathe a bit easier tonight, knowing that I’ve got a place to be stable, to do some fun work, and support my family. Because sometimes, that’s all we can really hope for.