September 12th, 2011 
Category: 
In 2008, our 250 employee company was bought out by a fortune 500 company for close to $300 million or 10 times revenue. Just a few weeks ago, that same company dumped us for less than $25 million or the equivalent of 1x our declining revenue. Following this transaction, my position got downgraded last week as a result of losing an important amount of customers; while the upside is I am well paid now for what I am assigned to do, the downside is my career just got an unexpected hit and that hurts.
How did it happen? Well, our product is becoming obsolete as our company failed to evolve its products to the changing landscape in mobile platforms. The salvation plans put in place by our acquirer, a nobody company with about 150 employees at most, are not very convincing. I no longer believe in the future of this company and it’s time to jump ship.
If you were wondering why I missed out on posting all of last week it’s because I was gearing up to searching for a new job. The little free time I usually have went into working on an exciting new report for the oil and gas investment bulletin, setting up profiles on job sites and updating my CV in both English and French. I also started re-activating my network of connections in order to get my CV into as many companies as I can. While it’s been only a week since I started my search with no results so far, I give myself an A for the effort and an F for waiting too long until I got hit with the obvious outcome seeing where the company was heading since the beginning of the year.
Of course, this is not as bad as losing my job and I still get to keep my salary except that right now I really hate the things I will be working on. On the plus side, this is good as the discomfort will boost my initiative to search for a new job. Next up, even though I graduated back in 2003, I plan to reach out to my university to see if they can help in any way.
So forgive me for leaving you stranded last week, I will recalibrate my time to keep a minimum number of posts going as there’s always interesting subjects to catch up on. It’s also about time I make the round of my juniors to see where they’re at and get the latest impressions from management.
Have you gone through this situation before? Any more tips you can provide me that would help my search?
My DIY stock portfolio is overweight in Canadian oil producers for a reason. I believe Oil consumption is on the path of growth for the next decade and I intend to take every advantage possible of it:
Sorry to hear about your job situation Mich. Could’ve been worse, but the fact you still have a job gives you time to think and plan your next steps without the pressure.
Maybe this is for a even better opportunity? Good luck!
I sure am praying for that better opportunity to come by, hopefully it won’t take long.
Long time ago, I help sell a company and literally put myself out of work! The good news was I knew it going into it and prepared for it. When I left I aha job and walked away with 6 weeks severance.
That is a nice move on your part. One reason I stayed with the fortune 500 company is because we were expecting a generous severance packaged. Some offices in the US got it but instead decided to dump us in Canada. The gamble didn’t work
Good to find you back Mich
Have some questions I can’t ask openly because of my job.
It has to do with a stock we both have Skw.
You can reach me at my e address lena23@telus.net
Check your email MFL.
i have lots of skw as well looking for some insite im in too deep maybe
tb, market hates juniors right now. we all have to bear the pain until we get through the turbulence. In the meantime, SKW is working on increasing production and cutting costs, they’ll get credit for it when the time is right. Will be talking with the company soon.
No worries Mich, don’t apologize to your readers, the dedicated folks won’t leave your site! I just assumed you got busy, like we all do.
I’m sorry to hear about your company troubles.
It sounds like you’re doing the right things: setup your
job profiles online, refresh your network of connections, have your CV ready to send on demand. The only other thing I could suggest at this time, contact a few headhunters or befriend some talent agencies and get your name in their contact list. You’re just a quick email or phone call away from them.
Other than that, keep your eyes and ears open all the time, but you’ve likely always done that
Hang in there, things will work out for you. You still have your job and that’s a much better situation than it could be.
Take good care, and keep us posted,
Mark
Thank you very much for your feedback Mark. I have only contacted 1 placement agency and you reminded me that there’s more to do on this front.
Will keep you posted,
Sorry to hear about your situation. It can certainly be scary looking for work in the current economy. As you said, at least you have employment for now while you conduct your search.
That’s the only positive side to my situation
Good luck to find the new job. I am in similar situation only that I am not eager to find new job but try to find a way to run a business instead.
Thanks and Good luck with starting a business. It’s not easy but well worth it.
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I had this happen to me twice, with the first two career jobs I had. These two companies made dot-matrix printers and moving bin copier sorters, which are both obsolete. They tried to diversify their product lines, but they weren’t very sucessful.
It was very hard for me to leave both of these companies, because I had a lot of friends and I loved working there. But, I put my family first and got out ahead of the crash. It was a good move because it was much easier to find a new job while I was still employed.
I recommend contacting your former co-workers who have landed at a new company. This is one of the most effective introductions for someone looking for a job. HR Managers love to find talented candidates in your position, who are recommended by one of their own employees. It’s way less risky then hiring someone who is unemployed and unknown.
Must have been an experience to go through that twice. I am glad you shared your experience Bret, reminds me that it’s not the end of the world.
I started the process of contacting my ex-colleagues in order to distribute my CV in their companies. Hopefully, it will pay soon.
Hi Mich – sorry to hear about your present situation, but your’re doing the right things. Some clear-headed forward thinking in starting your job search *now* before the inevitable happens.
I highly recommend being active on LinkedIn, we’ve found a couple of prospects in our field from lists they were actively posting to.
Good suggestion with Linked in. Even though I have a profile, I have not exploited it yet and you never know what opportunities one can find!
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