I was laid off on May 24th as well. How funny. Apparently Memorial Day weekend 2019 will be about the memories of unemployment for us.
Congrats on landing a new job so quickly. That's impressive. I haven't had as much luck. I'm about to start my third week of unemployment tomorrow. I have a couple leads on jobs but man... Interviewing has been ridiculous and recruiters are ridiculous. I've been learning a lot about how companies hiring processes work. I dislike how long some companies hiring processes take. I was talking with a company, where my hire seemed imminent for nearly three months, then I was told that they 'cancelled' the position and won't be hiring...
I was lucky enough to receive six months of severance pay. I imagined this time off would be more relaxing but truly I'm a bit stressed out. I really dislike not being productive. I hope I land a job soon so that I can 'stache a majority of the severance cash.
Bummer, but 6 months severance sounds sweet. My checking account is looking fat right now. I had 2 months notice before I was actually laid off, so it took me over 2 months to actually secure a new one. The place I ended up had a ridiculous hiring process. Basically wanted to hire me on the spot, but waited until the following business day to give me an offer. Still waiting to hear back from a couple of places though...
I guess it's awesome they wanted to hire you right away. No waiting around wondering what is going on. However is that a red flag? Is the company not well staffed? Are they bad at planning for future needs? I hope this company works out well for you and leads you to sweet sweet financial freedom.
It was a nice feeling to see the severance hit the checking account. However I'm worried I'll need it to cover expenses for the next six months. I wish I could use it to buy a new bike, max out the Roth and save up for an investment property.
I think the spot I filled was not staffed. Guy quit very abruptly. They have some environmental reports due by the end of June, so they basically had a month to find and hire his replacement, and get these environmental reports done.
Also this is not a large company with well defined roles and job descriptions. It's more like a small company that has grown to be medium sized. As far as I can tell they don't have officially policies on a lot of stuff. I guess it seems to work for them...until someone quits and you gotta figure out wtf that guy was doing and everything he had a hand in. On the one hand I'm regretting the decision because I don't think I'm ever going to get a clearly defined job description with my responsibilities laid out. On the other hand that gives me some flexibility to just do whatever I want, and being a smart, motivated, and highly competent person (IMO) I will likely thrive as long as I can keep pace with the regulations and not let something big slip through the cracks. However there might be some things that slip through the cracks just because I'm not completely aware of everything that needs to be done. Hopefully I'll have a much better idea after being here for a few months rather than just 4 days. Also hopefully something doesn't happen outside of my control that gets the finger pointed at me. Like if our wastewater sampling results come back above permit limits I may get the finger pointed at me even though it's entirely out of my control. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
I also haven't see my boss yet other than the first day. He just showed me where my office was, and that was that. No direction, no instructions. So I'm just trying to figure stuff out on my own, and trying to comb through my predecessors old emails and files and piece things together. Also browsing MMM and reddit when I get sick of that, because no one seems to be watching over anything I do.
I'm still leery about how this is going to work out, so I beefed up my savings account. I may get fired, or may have to quit, or this place might get shut down, I have no idea. Ideally it will be profitable and I will have a stable job with steady income until retirement, but anything can happen and I definitely didn't enjoy going through this whole process. Even though it worked out fantastically for me, it was super stressful and I was worried about money and how me and my family were going to come out of it (I knew we weren't going to starve, but the thought of depleting my savings, and then selling my taxable account, and eventually dipping into retirement savings in the 401k/IRAs was a scary thought). I now have $23k in my savings account, which should be at least 8 months of spending at our current level, and probably more in the even of a layoff/firing where we tighten our belt. Having a bigger cushion in the savings account makes me sleep a little better, but I also feel like I'm approaching the point of being too conservative and I should be investing that money instead of parking it in a savings account. Maybe I'll feel more comfortable about it 6 or 12 months down the road.
For now I've put $23k in my savings account, maxed me and my wife's tIRA for the year, and dropped the rest into my taxable vanguard account (sitting around $60k right now).