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Thread: The day I lost my job....

  1. #21
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    That one is too small. The good one is this one.
    http://fast1.onesite.com/capcom-unit...56.jpg?v=90000

  2. #22
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    Wow.

  3. #23
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    Wow! That's truly a nice picture there, me likes it! Thanks guys, that spurs me to kill even more of those evil wyverns, dragons and their minions.

  4. #24

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    Well just heard that I got the outreach job! Woo!

    How's the self employment going?

  5. #25
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    Congrats on getting your desired job!

    The self employment is great, I love it! I have left most of the government paperwork behind me now and until this day all of my customers have paid their bills. I've had a good friend of mine, who is working in the marketing industry, design and develop a brand new logo for my company. Today I finally got my first 500 newly designed business cards and my new office stationery. If you like and if I'm allowed to I could post a scan of one of my business cards here.

  6. #26
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    Go for it man - I'd be interested to see it.

    I've had a whirlwind few days in terms of my career - I'll post an update when the dust has settled.

  7. #27
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    Very cool Tom that things are working out for you. I am happy to hear that. I wanna see those buisness cards too. Rob, I am looking forward to read your story too.

    Greetz Mad-Ice

  8. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by xEik View Post
    That one is too small. The good one is this one.
    http://fast1.onesite.com/capcom-unit...56.jpg?v=90000
    Awesome pic, thanks for that

  9. #29
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    Sorry it took me so long, but I had more pressing matters to do during these last 6 weeks. Here is the (kinda poor) scan of one of my business cards as promised:
    Attached Images Attached Images

  10. #30
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    That sounds very good! Enough work for you then, Probably all thanks to your business card. Looking nice and clean.

    Good luck mate, greetz Mad-Ice

  11. #31
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    Look good, shame I forgot all the German I learned back in high school

  12. #32
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    Financial planning seems certain, and insurance as Americans call it, underwriting. I have a friend in the financial planning business. Never could use his services though because I didn't have any finances. Wouldn't you just know. One of life's common little ironies.

    'Tom', I hope your business is going well.

  13. #33
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    Tom, that looks great.

    I had typed up a big reply to this explaining my own situation, but then accidentally got my fingers in a knot and hit the back button. Damn netbook keyboard. Another time.

  14. #34
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    @infox - I find that for me the words remain in the message box no matter if I go back and then forward again. This is Firefox though so maybe your browser is different?

  15. #35
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    It was Firefox, but I was using the quick reply box and the javascript automatically resets it.

    Not to worry, I think I was being a bit long-winded anyway.

  16. #36
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    Long-winded or not, I'd really like to hear about the twists and turns your career has taken during these last months Rob. You've got to post about it, pleeease...

    Thanks for your appreciation regarding my business card guys. Right now I've got 2 bigger contracts going on which are pretty time consuming. I'm spending a lot of hours working in front of my computer, I guess that's why I've been posting some more during these last few days because everytime my head starts to burn from all the work I'll just relax a bit by visting our forums here.

  17. #37
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    Thomas, nice business card you have! and you are keeping to yourself busy and long may it continue!!!!

    If you want my help? just pay my flights and I will do it for your house!

    stevie

  18. #38
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    My own tale goes a little something like this;

    I left Sony in early 2008 for a job in Glasgow that would bring me back to my home town and closer to my family. However, it became apparent right away that I'd made a bad decision. The job was just a really bad fit for me, but I tried my hardest over the year that followed.

    The situation really got me down and earlier this year I was diagnosed with depression by my doctor. A lot of other stuff happened at the same time, and after taking the advice of my doctor and my lawyer I decided to resign from the job in order to break free, and take on some freelance work I'd been offered.

    So I did the freelance stuff during July, and it was quite a good size web project that did not have a lot of budget considering the work involved. This meant I had to get the work done quickly and couldn't afford to mess up the requirements, which were designing and building e-learning application for an Independant Financial Advisor.

    At first I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew, as I hadn't done a lot of code for a couple of years at this point and my confidence was kind of low. But as the days wore by I really started enjoying doing that kind of work again, and even working as a freelancer was cool. I could only do maybe 3.5 days a week due to family commitments, but it was enough to get the project done in just over a month.

    I got paid, the bills got paid, but by late July I knew I needed to find another job. I had an interview with an agency and the guys there thought they could find me something, and then an independant guy who ran his own agency called and asked if I'd be interested in applying for a job with a company called Curious Group.

    Now, when I was down in Liverpool and looking to move back to Scotland I'd looked at Curious Group and been really impressed, but from their jobs page it did not look like my skills were what they wanted. With that in mind I said I'd be interested in interviewing but I knew they were looking for a hardcore programmer and I wasn't strong enough. The recruitment guy said he would make that clear to them and a day or so later I had a phone interview with one of the senior tech guys.

    The phone interview went well, and I was completely honest about my lack of Object Oriented Programming experience. That did seem to be a stumbling block, though, so I didn't expect to hear anything else. However, a couple of days later I was offered a trial day at Curious Group.

    I was nervous and excited, and totally unprepared because it was just a day after I got back from attending The Great British Beer Festival in London. What can I say, my cousin had paid for my flight down so I wasn't going to cancel on him!

    The trial day was tough - I had an hour long written test that I didn't think I did too well on, and then I had to take a look at the codebase and attempt to refactor a certain section of it. I was royally out of my depth - none of the studying I'd done could really have prepared me for this kind of thing. By the end of the day I had a stonking migraine and I left the building thinking "I'll never hear from those guys again!"

    The following weekend as I prepared to go out and visit family I received a phone call from the agent who had got me the interview. He asked how I thought it had gone and what I made of the place. I said I thought it looked like a great place to work and the people were all really nice. I also said I thought I could learn a lot from the technical director and the other technical guys, but it was clear to me that I was well short of the skills required and I thanked him for the opportunity to go in there, even if it didn't amount to anything.

    Which is when he told me they had offered me the job and asked if I could start on Monday morning.

    I was shocked. A company that I'd wanted to work for for a long time was offering me a job when I thought I'd sucked at my trial day. Awesome!

    So I started at Curious Group in mid-August. The first couple of weeks were tough - studying, learning the codebase, and getting used to being back at work 5 days a week.

    I was just getting into the swing of things again when I received a phonecall on a Saturday night at 8:30pm. I was asked to attend an emergency company meeting the following afternoon in Glasgow. My experience from the games industry told me that this not good - an off site meeting and at a weekend. This means that bad things have developed very quickly and they don't want you in the building!

    The next day, surrounded by almost all of the folk from my department, the news was confirmed. Curious Group was going under financially and we were unlikely to get paid for September because the company would be in liquidation and as individual employees we were very far down the food chain. My heart sank - I finally get back to a job I love doing and it lasts three weeks!

    This was when our director of our department (not a company director of Curious Group) revealed to us that he had seen this coming for some time and had set up a new company. If we committed to the new company he would guarantee our salaries for September and the hope was that the new agency could stand on its own, being free of the financial collapse of Curious Group. But we had to quit in order to be free to join the new venture.

    I was kind of stunned at this point. I was being asked to resign from a company I'd long wanted to work for to make a leap of faith. I'm an athiest - I'm not too big on faith! However, there appeared to be enough hard evidence and sensible people making that same choice to convince me that it was worth taking the plunge, as opposed to scurrying back to the job market.

    That was nearly three months ago. Our new agency, Bourne, is going from strength to strength, my Object Oriented Programming skills are getting better every day, and I'm working for a company I believe in and doing a job I'm really enjoying for the first time in years.

    For me, it's the light at the end of the tunnel. That's my story. Told you it'd be long-winded.

  19. #39
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    Sweet Jesus, that's quite a story there!

    It definitely makes me curious as to how a talented web developer such as yourself gets into the software development side of things. Have you shifted into ASP.Net or something? I've definitely seen a big demand for that the past couple years, and it's very much a crossover area where both OOP and HTML go to play.

    I'm pretty strictly an Object Oriented Design & Development kind of guy, with about 10 years on C# now. If you're looking for any tips/pointers in that area, let me know.

    Getting back onto the original topic, I've been "running my own business" for a couple years now, just like Tom has been doing. Mine is a lot less serious though, I pretty much just have a business number so that I can bill GST when I invoice my clients. I'd rather not have to do this "running a business" garbage (I find it extremely annoying, so it's good to hear that you're enjoying it Tom!) at all, but it's been a long time since someone offered me a full-time position and there's bills to pay.


  20. #40
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    "Told you it'd be long-winded."

    And yet I'm glad to hear it. Congratulations, Rob; I hope it continues to go well.

    -----

    Things are going well, for me; thank the Universe that I'm not working and can spend my time for me instead of for someone else. Yes, I am a selfish git.

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