Job news

I forgot to put my last group email on the blog, and today I wrote a follow-up to it, so I've posted them below in chronological order:)

#1: May 1, 08

And here I thought April was going to finish up being completely uneventful…

On Tuesday morning, we got an email from our CEO at work with the news that "significant redundancies" were about to occur in the company, due to a softening in the order book and the continued weakening of the US dollar – financial speak for "tanking" I think.

Predictably, no one did any work for the rest of the day while we waiting for axe to fall, and in the end over 60% of the company was let go, including the entire documentation team, save one trainer.

Here's where things get a bit strange… When they told us the news, they said we could basically leave at the end of the day and we would be paid a month's salary as notice. So we all went in yesterday to clean out our desks and sign whatever we had to sign, and another email came out saying that there is a new law stating that whenever a company lays off such a significant portion of a workforce, there has to be a 30-day period of consultation. And then our notice period begins.

So they went from telling us we could leave at the end of the day to telling us we not only have to work the consulting period, but we now have to work the notice period as well – a total of two months working for a company that has just laid you off. You can bet how well that's going to go down!

My manager was so furious she told us all she's going to bring a book to work, that she'll be there in body but nothing else. The chances of people actually working out that two-month period are slim-to-none. The job searching has begun.

Anyway, while I'm disappointed, and was initially pretty shocked, the market in Dublin is still fairly buoyant and Mary, my manager, has already passed on some contact information to the team of people who have immediate positions to fill. I still have 5 months left on my visa, so hopefully I can find an employer who will keep me on beyond that, and if not, well, that's life. Just gotta roll with it. I already feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity to live and work overseas, so it'll be fine either way.

And, in other news, on Saturday I'm going on my first "European vacation" and I'm totally psyched!

So the story is: My best friend from high school, Monique Gross, had a baby last January. I haven't seen Monique for over three years -- I last saw her when I was in Alberta the Christmas my nephew Jeremiah was born (she lives outside of Edmonton). Anyway, her dad is Swiss born, so Monique, her husband Ben, her son Kurt, and her mom Eileen, and dad -- also Kurt -- are all going to Switzerland to show the baby around. And since I'm practically part of their family because I basically lived with them when I was in high school, I'm going too:) Got it?

I'm so looking forward to this trip. I'm going to meet them in Kurt's hometown, a little village called Hedingen, about a half hour outside Zurich. We'll be there for a few days, and then will be in Zurich at Kurt's sister's place for the rest of the week.

I cannot overstate how much I adore the Gross family and how happy I am that I get to spend a week with them in Europe. It's good timing really, as it will be nice to have some support right now, and it take my mind of the job thing and help me enjoy the vacation.

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#2: May 13, 08

Well, where to begin...

So because I was going on holiday to Switzerland just a few days after we got the layoff news, I didn't really do any job searching in the immediate aftermath. The only thing I did was on Wednesday I sent my updated resume to one of the recruiters I had worked with back in October when I first arrived in Dublin. Brian got in touch with me on Thursday morning, asked me a couple of questions, and then called me again that afternoon to schedule an interview. I said I was available the following day (Friday) but would be out of the country all the following week. I didn't really think they'd be available at such short notice for an interview -- esp on a Friday, but he called me back and told me to show up at 3pm the next day.

The interview was with a company called Fineos, who are a financial software company. They have really taken off in the last few years and seem to be doing really well. They've recently gained a ton of new clients all over the world, and have been adding to their technical writing team steadily -- there's currently a team of 5 people. Ironically, the woman I replaced here at Xsil is at Fineos, so I got a hold of her and picked her brain about the company and her interview experience. She had only positive things to say and seems very happy there.
The interview went well, and even though the HR woman I met with in the beginning told me they wouldn't be making a decision until the end of the following week, I was standing at the bus stop 20 minutes later when Brian phoned me to tell me they'd made a verbal offer to him and wanted to know if I could start on the 19th of May. I couldn't believe it...in some ways I still can't. I'm still in a slight state of shock that it happened so fast.

I was on a mountain train in the middle of the Swiss Alps the following week when Brian called with news of the official offer, which was pretty surreal, so it's a done deal now! I start this coming Monday, and I'm really looking forward to it. I know I've said this before, but I have a good feeling about this place. My whole first two weeks are classroom training, with more to follow. They have a whole training department, which I'm delighted about because I might be able to move into that space eventually, which is a goal of mine. And their trainers do lots of on-site training, which means travel!!!

More good news is that it's more money and more holiday time than my current position -- woo hoo, more European vacations!! And it's also located in the city centre, which likely means lots of pub time:) I have been thinking of moving for a while now, and this just adds to my motivation -- it would be great to find a place just near the outskirts of the centre so I could continue to walk to work. I'll keep you posted!

Anyway, I wanted to say thanks for the dozens of lovely supportive emails I got in response to my news about the layoff. They were so nice to read, and I wanted to write this email as soon as I could to let you all know the good news. It took me until today because I had almost no time online when I was in Switzerland, which was fine with me because it made it feel like a real vacation, and yesterday I was too exhausted to do anything but lounge around the house doing nothing. Oh yeah, even more good news is that I don't have to go back to Xsil this week, so I'm essentially having another week of vacation. I'm planning on spending it doing some shopping, errands, and maybe playing a little bit of tourist in Dublin, since I haven't really done much of that.

AND it's sunny and warm -- first time I've been able to wear a short-sleeved shirt outside here. Does it get any better??

I'll write again with details of my wonderful week in Zurich once I've sorted through the hundreds of photos of snow-capped mountains, because really, all you need to see is 3 or 4:)

tm