Time Enough, At Last!

Every day I hear about how sour the economy is, and I do feel very lucky to be working when so many are desperate for a paycheck.  But things haven't been this way for long.  I thought that I would share my story of the Great Recession, with an implied warning that it's not over yet!

Back in January of 2007 I started working for a company that did the structural design and layout of pre-engineered roof and floor truss systems for residential homes, multi-family buildings (apartment buildings, hotels, and the like) as well as commercial buildings.  It as a job that required a lot of creativity and ingenuity...to find a structural solution that would allow what the architect had put onto the paper, the visual elements of the building, to work in the real world.  Every day presented a new challenge, and a fresh chance to learn something new.  Ah, those were the days.

Fast forward to mid-2009.  By this time the construction industry had been in the grip of a crushing recession for months, and it was only getting worse.  Most of my colleagues had already been laid off, simply due to a lack of work.  I was hanging on because I was in charge of the most accounts of various national homebuilders who were operating in the Atlanta area.  I was actually laid off in March of 2009, but I was rehired two weeks later when they discovered that I possessed very specific knowledge of how these builders liked to have their projects designed.  Each one was different, and all were very picky about it.

But, as they say, all good things must come to an end.  I was laid off for a second time a few months later.  However, fate was still smiling upon me (albeit very dimly), because two short weeks after the second layoff, I was hired by another company, based in Oakwood, GA., that was in the same business.  Apart from learning a few different processes at the company, I was back in the saddle again...for a while.  But, as they continue to say, damn them, all good things will come to an end.  I was laid off from the second company in late 2009.  Hmph.  That made three layoffs in the same year.  Saying that the economy was bad, was the understatement of a very gloomy year.

The "New Hard Times."  They really were for me.  They still are for a lot of people.

And so began my journey through unemployment, scouring ever help-wanted ad, every job website that I could find.  Applying to at least two hundred jobs.  Nothing.  No one was looking for experience, they were looking for dumb and cheap, it seemed.  On the positive side, there was time enough for anything that I wanted to do, as long as it didn't cost much!  It turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise, even though when I look back on it myself, it's still hard to see it that way.  I was able to get a few priorities straight, made a few new friends with my abundance of [anxious] leisure time

Then came February of 2010, about a full year after getting laid off for the third time, and a full year of being on unemployment, hardly being able to make ends meet, although I did...miraculously.  One afternoon I received an email from a temp. service offering me an interview to a position as an Electronics Technician, which is what my college degree is actually in.  I snapped it up, of course, and later the same day as the interview, a Thursday, they called back and said that I had the job.  Report to work at 7:30am on Monday morning!  I've been at it ever since, working a couple of overnighters to get product out the door on time, working 10, 11, 12 and 13-hour days continuously to stay caught up with demand.  All-in-all a good job, although sometimes very exhausting and quite frustrating.  But I suppose that goes along with every job...

So, chin up everyone.  It could be worse, and things WILL get better.  I have a good feeling about tomorrow.  I think better things are right around the corner, as long as we work hard to make sure that it happens!