My post count here has dropped considerably lately because I got laid off two months ago. I kinda saw the writing own the wall because I was told all sorts of things 5 years ago so I would take the job and almost none of them came true. Since they didn't hire anybody else and did not expand my role I figured when the time came for cost cutting I would be the first to go.
Which I was
I got called to the conference room and I was already picking some stuff up because I know what happens in the conference room when a meeting you are involved in doesn't come with an invitation through Outlook before hand. So I go in HR and my manager are there "blah blah blah" I got 4 week severance which was nice, we had emergency savings and my wife works plus I have been on her benefits for health care for a while now.
I went through the "omg we are going to starve" panic but my wife said "whatever, lets go over our budget for the past year (we use You Need a Budget) and we saw we could last quite a while on emergency funds, my severance and her income)
I am so glad I got my CISA when I did, last year I decided I had to move up or move out before I get kicked out so I figured when you look for a new job while employed you are more confident.
Problem was I was out of shape and lacked confidence. So two interviews I got (while working at the then current job) pretty easy I was so out of it, I didn't feel comfortable in my suit, my shirt felt like it was choking me. I didn't get the jobs.
Anyways so I get laid off soon after, after the first couple of days of panic and depression I decided to do something positive during this time off. I started with Pokémon Go, yup walking to catch Pokémon and hatch eggs and I was doing 2-3 miles per day every day. I also started doing low impact Aerobics through apps on my Apple TV, I alternate TRX resistance workouts every other day, did the walks every day and aerobics on the TRX off days.
Two months later I dropped 26 pounds. I moved down a pants size, my watch band I moved up a hole because it got too loose and my endurance increased greatly for doing stuff like yard work.
I also created a daily workflow, last time I got laid off I sat around like a blob this time I created a daily study routine with milestones. I decided now is not the time to try and study something new, now was the time to become better at what I already can do. Nobody is going to hire me for something I have little experience with, calls were going to come from what I already know.
So I read and wrote a TON, I got all the material I had collected over the years, all my notes and I worked on making sure I knew what the heck I was talking about. With weight loss comes confidence and my confidence was pretty high. Not cocky but confident in words I used and things I spoke about.
So a couple of weeks ago I got two interviews. One was for a company that was expanding that had no security department. Security was spread out among the IT department, they were growing and hiring but wanted somebody to come in and review the company, make recommendations, implement a security plan and lead the creation and expansion of a security department.
I wanted this position so badly lol. So I whipped out my iPad, I had created a Power Point presentation just for this position and I sold the crap out of myself and what I could do for the company. The hiring manager and president of the company was impressed and said there was one other candidate and I would hear something very soon.
Two days later I had an interview with a major health care provider. I wanted a way into health care pretty badly but I lacked health care experience. Every job description said HIPPA and PCI experience required. So I studied up on HIPPA, got some PDF files I found online for PCI and took a lot of notes. I mapped similarities between what I can do with what they wanted and practiced saying it.
Well it paid off with the second interview. I interviewed in front of the Security and Audit Director. She brought up HIPPA and PCI and I went into sales presentation mode. I opened up my iPad and showed her the books I read, notes I had taken and how my experience relates to what she was looking for. I showed her my Evernote note organization and how I track my projects over the years in it. She said she was impressed, I said my technical background allows me to move among IT and HR and be a more effective security and audit analyst. She said she agreed and that was exactly what they were looking for.
So the interview lasted about 90 minutes and she introduced me to her team (which is a good thing from my experience) we talked for a while, she said afterwards she was testing my personality skills when meeting new people. I was like "crap which I didn't point out I was going to see Doctor Strange that weekend" but somebody probably liked that I did because they remembered that.
So afterwards I go home feeling good but trying not to be over confident because so much of the decision is out of my control.
A few days later I got a call from both asking to contact my references. I sent out a text to let them know and I told the company's HR person they could go ahead and call. The same day I got text messages from my references saying they got calls from both companies within the same couple of hours. Wow I thought, maybe things are looking good.
Next day, I get a call from the first company with a verbal offer. Later that day I got a call from the health care provider with a verbal offer as well. I told both of them I wanted to look over their benefits package.
I had decided I wanted to get into health care but both were very good offers. The health care provider won out though because it wasn't just money I wanted I was thinking about the future and what had more potential and health care for me was it.
I got 10 percent more than my last job (which I no longer had), health care benefits which were cheaper so I can get off my wife's benefits which means we come out over 200 dollars ahead each month with me getting my own health care. Annual performance bonuses, work from home one day per week and a bunch of other stuff. This all moved so quickly I was doubting stuff but I start next week so it must be real
