After over 6 months of looking for a good job I have almost found one :p
I'll be going back to work for the same company, Agilent Technologies, on May 15th. It is pretty close by, the pay is great and the hours are pretty flexable
I say I "almost" found a good job because no one around here is actually hiring people in my industry anymore. So even tho I have a 4 year BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, and good experiance in my field, I will be working as a temp ...
It means there is no security, no paid time off, no benifits, and no future. After 1 year at the most the contract will end and I'll be looking again.
For anyone who may be interested, here is how it works.
Agilent *used* to be one of the top rated employeers in the world, they had great pay, the best benifits and a real family feel. It was *the* company to work for when I graduated from college and I considered myself lucky to get a job there.
Then the founders died, the company changed hands, and they started to not care about the employees. They had me training large groups of foreigners how to do my job for about 1/7th the pay. They video taped all of the classes I taught so they wouldn't need me afterwards.
Oh, they still needed some people in the US, so to save more money they started letting older people go and hiring young kids right out of school at much less pay, the more experianced workers had to teach the new peolple how to do their jobs if they wanted to get an severance pay and good referances.
Now they only give real jobs to kids fresh out of school. When they need someone with experinace they hire you as a temp to do one big job and then they get rid of you.
So, in summary:
They fuck you, and then they fuck you, and then they fuck you ...
I think these are silly
I never...
(_)= What i have done... (x)= What I haven't ever done
( ) BEEN DRUNK
( ) SMOKED POT
( ) KISSED A MEMBER OF THE OPPOSITE SEX
( ) KISSED A MEMBER OF THE SAME SEX
( ) CRASHED A FRIEND'S CAR
(x) BEEN TO JAPAN
( ) RODE IN A TAXI
( ) HAD ANAL SEX
( ) BEEN IN LOVE
( ) HAD SEX
( ) HAD SEX IN PUBLIC
( ) BEEN DUMPED
( ) SHOPLIFTED
( ) BEEN FIRED
( ) BEEN IN A FIST FIGHT
( ) HAD A THREESOME
( ) SNUCK OUT OF MY PARENT'S HOUSE
( ) BEEN TIED UP (SEXUALLY)
( ) BEEN CAUGHT MASTURBATING
( ) PISSED ON MYSELF
( ) HAD SEX WITH A MEMBER OF THE SAME SEX
(x) BEEN ARRESTED
( ) MADE OUT WITH A STRANGER
( ) STOLE SOMETHING FROM MY JOB
( ) WENT ON A BLIND DATE
( ) LIED TO A FRIEND
( ) HAD A CRUSH ON A TEACHER
( ) SKIPPED SCHOOL
( ) SLEPT WITH A CO-WORKER
(x) BEEN SKYDIVING
( ) BEEN DUMPSTER DIVING
(x) WALKED IN ON FRIENDS HAVING SEX
( ) WALKED IN ON MY PARENTS HAVING SEX
( ) BEEN CAUGHT HAVING SEX
( ) LIED JUST TO COVER MY OWN ASS
(x) CUT SOMEONE AND MADE THEM BLEED
(x) TOLD SOMEONE I LOVED THEM JUST TO MAKE ME OR THEM FEEL BETTER OR LIED ABOUT LOVEING SOMEONE PERIOD
( ) EGGED A RANDOM CAR
( ) BEEN TO A DIFFERENT COUNTRY
( ) BEEN IN THE BACKSEAT OF A POLICE CAR
( ) EGGED A RANDOM HOUSE
( ) BEEN EXPELLED/SUSPE
( ) CHEATED ON MY BOYFRIEND/GIRL
(x) FLED THE AUTHORITIES OF A FORIEN LAND
(x) HAD SEX ON A BUS
(x) MADE A BOMB THREAT
( ) MADE OUT WITH SOMEONE OF THE SAME SEX
( ) MADE OUT WITH SOMEONE OF THE OPPISITE SEX
I've been all over the state of California so far in 2006.
Spent New Year's in L.A., that next week in Tahoe, and I just got back from Eureka.
I seem to be interested in travel, and so time of work makes that do-able.
Where to next?
Sonoma County: It is beautiful here, but it is also very expensive, and good jobs are very hard to find. Still, I had some reasons to stay here.
1) I had a house/area I liked a lot but I was forced to move out in mid Oct. I was unable to find a place in the same city in time that I could afford, so now I live about a 30 min drive west of there. I could just as well moved much further to another nice area, but ...
2) I had a great paying job that I liked a lot, but I was laid off in mid Nov. (I'm an electrical engineer, my job was sent overseas) It has been almost two months now with no real work. I'm still looking. Since I don't have the house or the job anymore, I could move somewhere I like were there actualy are good jobs except ...
3) I had a serious girlfriend who didn't want to leave here, but we broke up in early Dec. She was kinda open to moving away when I never would have. Now she still has a house she loves and a great paying job, and things between us haven't been that good for a while anyways.
I can just feel my roots to this area melt away.
Do I have other good reasons to stay? My family is close, but I see them infrequently anyway, and I could travel to see them a few times a year and they would see me as often as they do now. So, staying to keep them close, when I haven't been seeing them doesn't feel like a good reason.
Oh, I'm in 'North of Malibu', this really fun surf band. It alone isn't a good reason to stay, but it was just about my last reason to not want to move away. I found out just this morning that our drummer is moving to Kansas in Feb. and that will be it for the band.
Sure, I could keep looking for a good job here, while I keep looking for a place I'd like to live near by. Sooner or later I'll meet another great local gal, and I know I can find another band to play with in the area, but do I really want to?