It's been awhile...

I guess it's been awhile since I've posted out here. Things are certainly different lately.

I finally found employment in October of 2010. I work for a small communications company in Lake Mary, Florida. On the strength of this job, I was able to purchase a house in Orlando. Life seems to be looking up.

Unfortunately, our company is running low on money. More and more, it looks as though it will go out of business. Paychecks are late every single payday. They recently cut our vacation time down to one week per year (EVIL). Stress levels are high, and no one is really that happy anymore.

I'm starting to dig around for other employment. Apparently, the economy in Florida has improved quite a bit since I was last unemployed. I need to maintain solid employment and start getting some of our debts paid down. While I was unemployed, money came from anywhere and everywhere (read: credit cards). We have a lot of debt right now.

Hopefully things will start to look up again soon. Wouldn't it be nice if a job would come along that didn't suck and we could start just enjoying where we're at?

More job hunting...

I think I went to the wrong school. I was one of those people that couldn't afford an education. When I graduated High School, I started at the local community college, but lost interest after 2 quarters, and dropped out. After a couple years of not making anything resembling money, I went back to school, and basically got straight A's until graduation with my Associates. I was able to secure a job at Hewlett-Packard, and I thought I was done.

After several years at HP, I found that I really needed my Bachelor's degree to get along further in my career. I went to Regis University because they allowed people to go once a week for 8 weeks to finish a class. There was a ton of homework, but for people who work, the accelerated program really worked well. The problem was, there were no internships since you were supposed to be in a career already.

Well, 3 classes shy of my degree, I was laid off. Boom, no more job. I was able to get a Software Quality Assurance job and finish school, but since I didn't have an internship I had no way of breaking into a programming job. With no experience comes no position, even with schooling. The viscous cycle continues.

I've been trying to break into a junior level development job for 6 years now, and I'm starting to lose hope. I moved to Florida in hopes of starting anew with new companies, thinking my 13 years at HP would make a difference. It doesn't.

Life has really been a downer.

Interviewing and waiting

I've had two interviews this week. Hopefully one will turn into employment. The bummer about interviewing is then it's a waiting game while they decide about you. It makes me feel pretty defeated after awhile. I've had several interviews in central Florida, but no takers. Hopefully that changes soon.

We also just had our dog neutered. They used staples to hold it all together, so we have to keep an eye on him so he doesn't tear anything up. That means no theme park time for us for awhile. I'm starting to get shaky while waiting!

More job woes

Ok, eventually one of these people calling from a temp agency will see that just because I haven't done exactly the exact thing they're looking for doesn't mean I can't. Doesn't anyone believe that people have brains anymore? I mean really, people, I'm pretty sure I can figure out how to do simple SQL commands while doing some QA testing. Grrr!

Also, June marks when Florida becomes HOT. As in Africa hot. Geez, it's hot out there. 91 degrees with a billion percent humidity. Bleh!

Maybe I'll be working soon?

Memorial Day weekend

It's funny, when you're looking for work, weekends become a nuisance. Since you're hoping that someone calls you, weekdays become vital. On weekends everyone is off having fun while you're still waiting for a phone call. It becomes a frustrating circle when you're unemployed.

That means that when you hit a 3 day weekend, it adds to the 'fun'. Also, lots of people take the majority of the 4 day workweek off, so you're left with almost a week and a half of nothing. I do have some interviews coming up, so hopefully one of them bites. It'd be nice to actually start making money!

So lately to pass the time, the wife and I have been heading over to Disney's Hollywood Studios to enjoy Star Wars weekends. So far we've seen our fair share of people involved with the making of the Star Wars saga and the cartoon 'The Clone Wars'. We've Seen Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Daniel Logan (Young Boba Fett in Episode II), Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett), plus Matthew Wood (Sound Designer and voice of General Greivous) and Tom Kane (Voice of Yoda in Clone Wars). We also saw Dee Bradley Baker (voice of the clones in clone wars) and Lorne Peterson (chief Modelmaker at Lucasfilm). Seeing Lorne Peterson was a treat. This is the guy that built the Millenium Falcon! Neat stuff!

It's nice that Disney and Universal are only a few minutes from the house. It makes things a lot nicer when we have the time to go. At least we have something to do!

Just another day

Well, I've been out of work for nine months. Nine months of shoving resumes out the door. Nine months of rejection. Nine months of trying to make ends meet. I'm pretty much going out of my mind.

It's amazing how you try to do everything right, and nothing winds up working out. I went to school. I got a degree in Computer Science. I wanted to go into computers. I work hard. I even worked at a large corporation for 13 years in various capacities. I have pretty decent experience. And yet, even after doing everything right, no one wants to give me a chance.

We moved from Colorado to Florida in order to start somewhere completely different. We wanted to have completely different surroundings, completely different people, and completely different activities. Colorado didn't offer anything we liked anymore. Florida is really a fun place to live. But the unemployment here is too high. I'm not sure what we're going to do anymore.

Ahh, well, back to the mindless sending out of more resumes. Yay.