We LRed were dumped, discarded into waste bins. The matter get worse for majority of us are senior engineers, at our 50s with college kids, mortgage and house wife watching soap opera.
Any suggestion to survive ?
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@5kjq+1rrcX28S
Thanks for sharing that story.
We never know what others in similar positions as ours are really feeling and have going on at home.
How big is your house that a senior engineer 50+ hasn’t paid it off?
I’m a serious, did you make financial mistakes?
It's not always your call to make. I'm 50+ and I don't have a home that is paid off. I was LR'd by a company, not Cisco, back in the late '90's when I bought a home. I managed to find a new job after 8 mo, but by that time, my savings were gone. When I was again LR'd by a new company that went out of business, I couldn't find work in that location and had to move out of state. This was the "dot com" bubble bust of the early 2000's. Delta had just dropped D/FW as a hub and cut 200 flights a day in/out of DFW airport, the telecoms were laying thousands of people off, and Dallas/Ft Worth had no tech jobs available and more people were leaving than moving in, so the housing market crashed. I had to take a check TO closing to sell my home.
Then, after buying a home in the late 2000's in RTP, I managed to sell for a (small) profit in 2019, but not enough to "buy" a home with. We had to move because my wife became disabled to the point where she could no longer get up the stairs to the master bedroom. We couldn't "sell" our home "contingent" on buying a home because the market was a buyer's market, so we had to sell ours first and move into an apartment because there are so few homes with downstairs master bedrooms in RTP and none were in our price range. While we were in the apt, the pandemic hit and housing prices, and now interest, have gone through the roof making a new house purchase almost unaffordable. What profit I made after living in a home for 10 yrs won't even touch what the housing prices have gone up by, so I'm still essentially having to buy a home at basically 20-30% down instead of owning.
So, no, it's not a matter of just making financial mistakes. Life fu--ing happens. Sometimes you have to move when it's not a good time to buy & sell. And don't try to tell me I was in the bottom 10% and deserved to be laid off. In both cases, the companies were bought out, new owners decided to relocate and/or sell off parts of the company they didn't want or the new owners just ran the company out of business, and everyone was impacted, not just me.
“ senior engineers, at our 50s with college kids, mortgage”
How big is your house that a senior engineer 50+ hasn’t paid it off?
I’m a serious, did you make financial mistakes?
Kick the wife out. Get a 25 year old one. And live your last years having fun.
get your soap opera watching housewife to drive for UBER
I am sorry for you OP. I am too as soon as I passed 50 then I was LRed last February. Just like Cisco who missed out on Cloud now I am too lacking that area of expertise. Wish all of us luck!
Start from applying short term contract jobs (i.e. 6 month term). Usually, businesses have less concern on your age but focus on what you can deliver. Once you can demonstrate your value during the contract period, they could then offer you an open contract.
Alternatively, if you have connections, apply a government job regardless pay or position. It is better to be an assistant to deal people's unemployment benefit applications then yourself unemployed.
@OP+1rrcX28S if you plan to stay in the Bay Area, hopefully you have an adequate emergency fund to cover expenses, tuition, etc because it may take some time. If you are open to relocation, then the odds of finding a comparable role increase. This is based on my own experience and that of several former colleagues all ousted after 55
This was the first link that came up in my Google search. I'm not sure about the 85% number, but professional networking is extremely important at every age, and more so as you get older:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-survey-reveals-85-all-jobs-filled-via-networking-lou-adler
The word "engineer" is highly generic. The complexity of chips and boards on the hardware side can be extreme enough that you have skills that other companies would have to pay a fortune to train someone else to acquire which makes you valuable. If you've been doing bug fixing for years you likely aren't competitive with an Engineer 1 at a good company.
If you are a software engineer the good news is there are even more ancient legacy companies maintaining large disastrous code bases that no one with a clue would want to work on, and I know some old people from Cisco that were hired fairly quickly. Whether they are where you live is a different matter.
Try HPE networking in Sacramento. Many old engineers.
A friend is mid 60's and just got a job in SV; $250K - $300K total comp.
Use your contacts. Every networking Co. has plenty of former Cisco.
Cause you see I'm a diiiiinnooosaaauuurr, should've died a long time before.
Have you joined the Facebook Cisco Alumni page? People are really working to help each other. Worth the effort.
So tell the wife to get off her a$$ and get a job.
Difficult to find senior or manager roles due to massive outsourcing of jobs in the Bay Area. Bottom has been decimated or laid off in many companies due to cost.
Referral is the only way to get a job interview or if you have a very niche talent, difficult to find, in the Bay Area.
Go through recruiters, they will forward your resume directly to the hiring managers.
That is me to a tee. LR'd 2017.
My vote tech is dead to someone at 55-plus, if LR'd.
You will send hundreds of resumes, to never hear back mostly anything.
That was my experience.
The only way I got another tech job was through a prior co-worker.
That fell apart recently also, so I am starting to annuitize my 401k, and go work Amazon Delivery for spare change.
Luckily, I felt this was inevitable, and maxed 401k and Roth (to the point it was no lunches at work), while at Cisco.
Saving was one of the few smart things I have done in life.
Sorry bud. Instead of being loyal to a company you should've switched jobs when you were young and had less responsibilities.