welp

[SuperAfroBoy]

rough day for me today guys. was called into the HR office and told by the IT director and GM that the IT Helpdesk department is being transitioned to the company's manila geography. So myself and the other two IT techs I trained will be laid off after the nine week transition, during which I'll have to train our manila replacments.

Small (very small) silver lining is that they offered to promote me to desktop support technician in our dartmouth site, but that would mean moving to a different province and that is going to be a real hard sell to my wife and kids. not looking forward to that conversation when i get home today.

sigh.

 

[Logan]

Sorry man, hate to see it. Know you've busted ass at that job. Nothing worse than getting laid off/forced into your situation when you gave it your all.

 

[Tarvis]

Yeah, we've been there. On the bright side it was nice not having to wake up everyday for work for a change - money worries aside.

I'm not sure how unemployment works in Canada, but surely it's better than in the USA. Plus with that many years of technical experience, it shouldn't be too difficult to find another job - probably a better paying one too. At the very least, at least they didn't lay you off that same day, so you have plenty of time to start looking at your options.

Let us know if we can help you in anyway.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

Well, my wife took the news better than I expected and is up for moving if the salary is right. Haven't mentioned anything to the kids yet. The GM IT couldn't give me ballpark salary numbers, but instead asked me what salary I would need to consider the move. So there are some numbers I need to work out, specifically how much salary I would need to survive comfortably in a larger city and how much salary I should reasonably ask for. And I have no idea what those numbers should be.

If we end up moving, we will have to sell our house and man it needs some work before that can happen. Lots to consider but I'm trying to see this as a positive thing, promotions are good right?

 

[Tarvis]

I would just look up average salary for the position in that general area. That should at least give you an idea.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

I may talk to a few of the other desktop techs in the company first, but I think i'm going to ask for 45k, would be a bump up from my current 31k and from what I've found the average salary for the position is 42k.

 

[Joe]

Plus I think you can reasonably ask for relocation expenses

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

oh, yeah they have relocation packages and there will be tons of support for the move. and i talked to the IT director today and told him I was looking for 45k salary, and he said that was around what they expected and will get back to me after talking to finance and see what it lands.

 

[Logan]

hope it all works out for ya!

 

[Arcaith]

Best of luck with this, hope the dice fall in your favour.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

So I'm STILL waiting to hear back on what the salary will be, they hope to be able to tell me early this week. In the mean time I've put together a resume to send out and see if I can find anything local that will pay in the same area. What you guys think of this resume? been a while since I had to write one.

 

[Tarvis]

Looks good man, very professional.

 

[Joe]

I work in recruitment, so - looks pretty good overall, but honestly, don't write "I'm hard working", etc - any employer will expect you to be those things without needing to be told about it, and people can put any adjectives about themselves on a resume without having to prove it. Better to come up with some specific accomplishments to list, in addition to your responsibilities.

For example, put something along the lines of "customer service pro - improved this metric by 25%", or whatever.

 

[Joe]

Also, don't put "references available upon request", just take that whole bit out. They're going to want references, and they're going to request them, so it's pointless to put that phrase on a resume.

 

[Tarvis]

I used to list my references, but I read that you were supposed to put the references available upon request line instead. I don't remember why though.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

In this case, I'll have to reach out to a few people before I use them as references.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

Well, they finally came back and said they best they can do is 41k, which I am almost definitely going to accept. Realistically I would never make that kind of money here in PEI and I honestly never imagined myself making that kind of wage. So I guess this means the SAB family is going to be moving to the big city this summer!

And now I feel like puking.

 

[Joe]

Cool beans!

Also, you were raising a family on 31k Canadian? Don't know what the cost of living is like where you are but damn, dude.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

Well, it was 31k plus my wife's 26k.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

Cool beans!

Also, you were raising a family on 31k Canadian? Don't know what the cost of living is like where you are but damn, dude.