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Unemployed!

bradm

By bradm
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bradm Newbie

bradm

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For the first time in my adult life, I'm unemployed. My employer* decided to close the Ottawa site of the part of the company I was in, and since the company offered me a year's salary (incl. most benefits) as severance, I figured the time was right to get the heck out. The decision came down a while (as in a couple of months) ago, so it wasn't a shock or surprise; I'm actually pretty cool with it.

I have no plans, other than enjoying not having plans (and maybe enjoying the odd weekday lunch downtown).

Aloha,

Brad

* With whom I had 17 years' seniority; the company has only been around less than two years, but I had been with companies that were bought and merged with, so the seniority carried over.

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mattm Newbie

mattm

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So if I go in early and leave early I won't be bumping into you anymore.

man, a year's pay would be pretty sweet right now. I could get a new job and use the money to pay off my student loan amongst other things.

Enjoy the time off, lunches downtown and the job hunt (whenever you decide to do it)

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bouche Apprentice

bouche

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I can't believe someone with that amount of service can be out of a job that quickly. Nortel had some pretty heavy news over the last couple of days for shitloads of people, and I'm sorry that you're one of them.

Start looking into the gov't jobs ASAP. There are so many retiring ENG guys that are sleeping their way to retirement, it is ridiculous....so I hear.

maybe it's time you let loose exactly what it is that you do day-to-day.

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bradm Newbie

bradm

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maybe it's time you let loose exactly what it is that you do day-to-day.

My employer was Alcatel-Lucent. I started working for Newbridge Networks in mid-1991, and Alcatel bought Newbridge in mid-2000, then merged with Lucent at the tail end of 2006.

From about 2004 onwards, I was in a research group*; after Alcatel and Lucent merged, they combined Alcatel's and Lucent's research divisions under the banner of what was Lucent's research group: Bell Labs**.

For at least the last year or so, I was working on a system that was intended to analyze network applications and network attacks (e.g., "My network looks like this, I want to do these things with it, and I think the bad guys are going to try to muck it up these ways. Who wins?"); the project was funded about 50% through the Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC) program, part of the Canadian Department of National Defence.

Most of the work I did was really ground-breaking: we not only didn't know how to do what we were trying to do, we didn't even know if we could do it. It was also cool to see how the assumptions we made at the start of the project were proven wrong; I had a couple of key "flashes of insight" that broke severe logjams that had arisen. In a lot of ways, it was a seriously cool job: hard-core design and coding, without all the cruft (documentation, testing, development processes and standards, customers, bug-fixing, etc.) that usually goes along with programming (esp. product development) jobs.

I considered looking for a job within Alcatel-Lucent, but realized that all I'd really be able to go for was hard-core product development. I've done that, and it's hard: long hours, heavy deadlines, serious pressure. I have no problem doing that, provided there's a big enough payoff, as there was through the 1990s, and which doesn't exist (at least at A-L) now. Given that I was going to leave A-L anyway at some point, I figured it was time to get out while the gettin' was good. (And thus, yet again, I follow in my father's footsteps: he was also a programmer, also had his company move his job, and he also took early retirement.) I also figured that if I was to take a year (or a few years) off and have some fun, I'd rather do it now than, say, in 10 or 15 years.

Does anyone know a Canadian band that'd be willing to have a taper come along for a tour? ;)

Aloha,

Brad

* Note that in most companies, "research and development" is, in fact, purely product development, with very little actual research getting done. Our group was pure research, without being tied to any product line.

** Both the transistor and the UNIX operating system came out of Bell Labs.

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Hartamophone Explorer

Hartamophone

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Brad, I'm not sure whether to give you a "Hell yeah" or a "bummer, man", so please choose whichever is appropriate. I know you'll make the most of the freedom you'll be enjoying for the next little while - I anticipate tapes out the wazoo:

bradm - The Severance Sessions

Taped at bradm's house, Thursday morning

Disc 1, Set 1

1. Ambient alarm clock

2. Rushing Water->

3. Flushing

4. Bed Reprise*

5. Waking up for Lunch

*Last weekday "Bed Reprise" 11/14/97, The Tonsilitis Sessions

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AD Newbie

AD

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I know this is a bit twisted' date=' but getting a severence package is a lifetime dream of mine (one I'm confident I will never see realized). Again, congrats.[/quote']

Todd, I've been with the same company for 8 years now. You're thoughts are not twisted at all.

Same - 7 years for me. Almost had that severance dream realized in June only to have HR kill my dream.

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dancingbear Newbie

dancingbear

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Brad, I'm not sure whether to give you a "Hell yeah" or a "bummer, man", so please choose whichever is appropriate. I know you'll make the most of the freedom you'll be enjoying for the next little while - I anticipate tapes out the wazoo:

bradm - The Severance Sessions

Taped at bradm's house, Thursday morning

Disc 1, Set 1

1. Ambient alarm clock

2. Rushing Water->

3. Flushing

4. Bed Reprise*

5. Waking up for Lunch

*Last weekday "Bed Reprise" 11/14/97, The Tonsilitis Sessions

^^^same as above, hell ya, or sorry. Good luck either way.

as for the post above,...awesome! love the bed-reprise. hilarious. :o;) :grin: :D:P :thumbup: :P

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