BG Life Suggestions: What do I do? (Getting laid off)

[wop]

Or just start a chinese takeaway.....

[Dolmen]

I can collect unemployment up to 13 months (from what it looks like) get a job off the books (know a couple places that would hire me) and just save everything while attending school full time.

How has no one commented on this? Don't be a leech. While the possibility of you being laid off is certain grounds for you collecting unemployment, don't be one of the guys abusing the system. There are certain stipulations that allow you to work PT while collecting unemployment, look into that.

In regard to the topic at hand, however. A few years back I was in the same situation as you. I had been in the IT field for 8 years, and positively hated it because of how flooded it had become. When people that know how to talk are getting jobs over people that actually know what they're doing, something's wrong. Math will come back to you, but refresh your knowledge before jumping into Calc. There are tons of study guides online you can use, so look into them. I don't know your background, so I can't say if Comp Sci and/or Networking would be a good fit. There are a ton of people out there with degrees in Comp Sci that don't get it, so make sure you're not one of them.

Overall, I would highly recommend finding some type of IT job while going back to school, or make full use of internship opportunities. If you can graduate with a degree in Comp Sci, and some work experience already under your belt things will be easier for you. My sister interned one summer and the company hired her part-time at $25/hour to code while she was going to school.

[Olo401]

Collecting unemployment is NOT leeching. It's INSURANCE - you paid into it and your employer(s) paid into it for the specific reason that you have a temporary cushion when you get laid off rather than going straight to eating catfood and ramen in a gutter on the side of the highway.

And yes, you can collect partial unemployment if you get a part-time job. You only get the same amount of time collecting though (your checks will be less than the maximum benefit, and once you hit the 13 month wall they stop even if you have money left in your fund).

Edit: my bad I misread the above post.. yes it's there for you to use it if needed, but srsly kids don't abuse the system it gives Republicans ammo to kill the idea completely.

[aurik]

Well hooray looking forward to another terrible comp sci graduate who has no concept how to program well. If you can't wrap your head around really simple math like calculus 1 how do you expect to excel at advanced topics like graph theory, numerical instability, algorithm design & analysis, etc? Any monkey can learn to code, but to code well really takes understanding.

Also there is no way you'll be graduating to an 80k/y job without some serious skills. People who come out of a really good university with a good CS program with good grades get those kind of jobs, sometimes. When I graduated I started @ 65k in Silicon Valley working for a very good blue-chip company that I had previously interned at, and I was very well ranked in my class at one of the top CS programs in the world.

[aurik]

I think above poster was taking issue at the guy for wanting to get full UI while working PT under the table. Which is leeching.

[aurik]

It's unemployment insurance, not shitty employment insurance.

[aurik]

If you want shitty employment insurance rather than unemployment insurance, get ready to pay a lot more for it.

[wyrmtung]

I thought you couldn't collect UI if you attended school full time? At least that is the way it is in California.

To the OP, definitely go to school full time if you can afford to do so (i.e. you don't need to worry about rent/food/bills.) Going to school part-time is very difficult. I started and stopped a couple of times before I finally buckled down and finished. For me, the most difficult thing was to go from a rush-rush environment at the office to sitting down for 2-4 hours listening a lecture. I could not shift gears like that.

Don't worry about your starting salary either. Unless you are a getting recruited right out of college (the lucky few) then you're going to have to pound the pavement looking for a job (more realistic.) And then you're going to have to get underpaid for a few years to build up your resume to qualify for the job you really want to get. In the end, all that sacrifice will pay off.

Or you can go the no school route and hope to get lucky by finding a job that pays well enough but has a glass ceiling because you don't have that degree. And you will always wonder if your lack of formal training is why you are getting raises and promotions as much as your peers.

[shiarua]

Go to school. Economy is only gonna get worse. No education basically means you're fucked.

Comp Sci is a pretty good degree to get. I just graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science. It is not all that difficult, and Calc 1 is easy. Calc 2 is a bitch, but its doable (buy yourself a TI-89 Titanium and thank me later - http://www.ti89.com/index_cme.htm)

[Byrd]

Haha. I didn't say it makes my brain melt. The thought of it does however. I'm sure applying myself I can handle it. Besides, isn't that what BG general is for?

I thought calculus made my brain melt at 18, too. Turns out it was largely a motivational and maturity issue, and when I went back to school at 26 it wasn't much of a challenge. It probably won't be nearly as difficult as you envision if you went back now.

[MisterBob]

Is this for real? Entry-level comp sci job in this economy making 80k/yr? (well, maybe the economy will be way different in 4-5 years) That's crazy.

It is, and you can get even higher. However, this requires very good grades from a top tier school, which is something the OP might not be able to do at this point.

And Aurik wasn't being a prick, Comp Sci isn't the "Futz with computers while playing WoW" major. It's very math intensive, Calc 1/2 are introductory freshman courses for this type of major (assuming you're taking it for real and not going to ITT tech or something). You'll be learning discrete math, linear algebra, multivariable calculus, and differential equations on your sophomore year. It goes up from there and gets more involved.

[Acturus]

If you can file for unemployment, do so, but don't do so as an alternative to looking for another source of income.

As for school, recognize that in times of economic downturn, lots of people go back to school or stay in school in an effort to avoid the shitty job market. If you go back to school, it better be with the intent of doing an internship or work study at the same time to build more than just book knowledge.

More education will not promise a better chance at any job right now, and I'd expect that to be the same even 12-24 months from now.

[Melena]

You can still manage it. One of my friends is collecting partial while working pt and going to school ft.

[Mertron]

Hi, I am in the same boat you are in at basically the same age, though I started the school process last year and am still waiting for my seemingly inevitable "axing."

Go to school. At your age, you will qualify for grants because of independent status, as long as you go to school in state. In NJ, my tuition is fully paid for between the Tuition Aid Grant and Pell Grant for going full time, with money left over I actually get to pocket. I have heard there are grants similar to the Tuition Aid Grant offered in all other states as well though it will probably be called something different. Simply filling out your FAFSA with your school of choice will get you a statement about which grants you qualify for and a fairly accurate estimate of their worth.

Collect unemployment. I paid into the system for ten years, I feel no shame about collecting at all (although I will not be taking an off the books job, just because I would rather focus on school) Pretty much the same boat as you: government job, they decided our department was not worth the funding we got, although our job status is in the air through January. Should the axe finally fall, which has been threatened for about 2 years now with various reductions in pay taking place here and there, I am prepared (hence why I restarted school last year.) I have been told I would even qualify for food stamps, which I will not accept because I personally do not want to feel like a mega leech.

Anyway, best of luck to you. I wont get into your field of study of choice, as I have no experience with any of that.

[Odesseiron]

OP here. LOL at the leeching comment. I could bite so hard at it, but why bother? I want to quote so much, but everything has already been said. Why beat a dead horse. I am not afraid to collect unemployment if I have to. If I can get an off the books job while collecting for a few months, so what? I have been working full time since I turned 18. Does that make it any better? I guess not, but I've never collected unemployment or for that matter any other kind of welfare, so I hardly consider myself to be a leech. I'll look for legit work eventually, but collecting some extra money at first doesn't bother me. If it bothers you... oh well.

Anyway @ Aurik, thanks for being such an internet dick. Pretty cool of you. You don't know if I can't grasp it, hell I don't know if I can grasp it. The truth of the matter is I was always pretty smart, I just never applied myself to anything in school. Now that I'm ready to tackle school, I want to see what I can accomplish, and challenge myself. I'm pretty sure I can get it if I take it full on. What, because I never did anything more than high school math that automatically puts me on your idiot list? Well whatever man, continue to be negative like that. Let me know how it works out for you. If I ended up flunking all my math, I'll come back to this in 1+ years and say HEY AURIK YOU WERE RIGHT I'M DUMB!

To everyone else, thanks for the input. Very much appreciated. I've got some questions to ask my cousin this weekend who is actively going to school and gets grants and stuff.

[Caiyuo]

And Aurik wasn't being a prick, Comp Sci isn't the "Futz with computers while playing WoW" major. It's very math intensive, Calc 1/2 are introductory freshman courses for this type of major (assuming you're taking it for real and not going to ITT tech or something). You'll be learning discrete math, linear algebra, multivariable calculus, and differential equations on your sophomore year. It goes up from there and gets more involved.

^ I think he's just being realistic given those are sometimes pre-requisite classes to take before you even get into the core of CS that, unless you cleared College Algebra ahead of time, are possibly classes you'll need pre-prerequisites to take. The point would be to make you aware of what you're getting into in order to consider all your options before you jump headlong into a commitment that could be a bigger challenge than you're prepared for. Something like a CIS degree is, I believe a little less math-oriented and I can attest that 100% of the CIS graduates I know drive Nissan Altimas.

[Odesseiron]

I'm fully aware what I might be possibly be getting myself into. I intend to look up some kind of refresher course or online thing first. My dad is also brilliant when it comes to math and a great tutor, so if I get in a bind, he has a great way of explaining things. He just came off so negatively like it was a personal attack on him that I deicided what classes I was gonna take.

[Caiyuo]

Fine, you want to drive the Maxima without the steering wheel controls, you do you, I got mine.

[Nephlite]

The one issue with the computer field to keep in mind is that it's absolutely fucking flooded. I'm very lucky to have gotten in where I did, out of about 200+ people who took the written test for my position, the sheriff's office only hired two. If you have friends who are in the field, I would seriously talk to them to see what they say and recommend. It's a dog eat dog profession, and you will want to make sure you set yourself apart from the pack when it's time to enter in your new career.

Public safety sector as a whole is saturated now to the point where you couldn't even become a 911 dispatcher without having 5-10 years of experience. Hell, the cybercrime division of my department was folded in to the fraud division and most of those guys have 15 years + experience. We have maybe one new tech guy and he's 34 years old. The rest are in their 50's and I dare to say they know less about computers than I do and I can't even work a digital clock radio. It's that bad.

Join the military. You'll find computer careers are far more rewarding and the experience will get you any job in the field without a second glance.

[Corrderio]

I was in the same situation from about 1998 until 2007 (yes, I got a perm job just before shit went nuts.. how crazy is that!). What always worked for me were employment agencies, even if it only gave me a job for a week at a time. It keeps you going and motivated, helps you build a diverse network of business connections, and usually pays VERY well. Plus if you find something that you REALLY like, and you have the potential to become a permanent employee, you already have a foot in the door and references sitting next to you in the next cube or office.

The downsides are of course the work stagger, but you can collect unemployment between work assignments. Also you don't get benefits unless you get a long-term assignment (and even then they're crappy benefits).

I need to ask, what kind of agency did you go to for those small time jobs? Since the employment offices I went to always have a catch to them.