ATOT Gives Awful Advice

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Gibson486

Lifer
Aug 9, 2000
18,378
1
0
1 - You dont know how good a career is going to be until you have been in it for a couple of years. Lets see how you do after a couple of lay-offs and cut backs.

Work a field for 4, 5 or even 6 years, then come back and say how steady it is.

2 - Paragraph breaks, learn them, use them.

exactly. I thought consulting was going to be an awesome career. 3 years later, I got laid off and I really rather be unemployed than work in that industry again.
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,655
687
126
In 1999 a company I was working for laid off about 20% of its workforce, I was one of the people let go. A few years later the company closed its doors.

To go home and tell my wife that I no longer had a job, was one of the lowest points of my entire life.

Where I am working at now, we have had some serious budget cuts, in some areas as much as 60%. I dont know if I will even have a job next month. But if I dont, everything will be ok. My wife and I live well within our means.

If I lose my IT job, I might go back to school for something else. I am about tired of computers. If I have to, I'll go back into the welding field.

I was an IT manager a few years ago and HR gave one of my employees a list of the people being laid off. We reviewed it and one of my really good friends was on it. To make matters worse, rumors were flying all over the office (we had about 300 people) that layoffs were about to happen. This same friend wandered into my office and asked me if she was being laid off. Talk about being in a tough, tough position.
 
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Tweak155

Lifer
Sep 23, 2003
11,448
262
126
I was an IT manager a few years ago and HR gave one of my employees a list of the people being laid off. We reviewed it and one of my really good friends was on it. To make matters worse, rumors were flying all over the office (we had about 300 people) that layoffs were about to happen. This same friend wondered into my office and asked me if she was being laid off. Talk about being in a tough, tough position.

Wow that WOULD suck. Double edged sword.
 

KGB

Diamond Member
May 11, 2000
3,042
0
0
If the OP is tired of the poor advice and general lack of sympathy exhibited here, I would like to extend a personal invite to join the TFNN forums.
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,655
687
126
Wow that WOULD suck. Double edged sword.

I did the only thing I could -- I told her that I didn't know. She was a bit of a hot head and if I told her the truth, she would've gone off and I probably would've been canned. Telling her the truth at that point made no difference; she was gone and there was nothing I could do to prevent that. I couldn't jeopardize my employment. It really, really sucked.
 

busydude

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2010
8,793
5
76
Things always do not work out as planned.. if you are looking for advice.. then be prepared to be open. Based on the trade-offs, everyone advices you to follow the path of least resistance.

You are just bound by nature.. and there is nothing else you can do about it.
 

Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,525
9,839
146
If the OP is tired of the poor advice and general lack of sympathy exhibited here, I would like to extend a personal invite to join the TFNN forums.

I hear the advice there is bold and imaginative, if sometimes anatomically impossible to actually do.

I further understand that much of it begins with a reference to an ancient Chinese board game.
 
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Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
197
106
The one thing that is missing from this thread, is OPs real life experiences.

Maybe because he does not have any?

Come on OP, tell us about the projects you worked on, or the times you got laid off and had to go job hunting. Does OP have any life experiences past playing xbox or playstation?
 

edro

Lifer
Apr 5, 2002
24,326
68
91
I car pooled with a guy that was laid off.
My boss told me not to ride with him on Monday, because he was laying him off and he would have to leave early.
It sucked knowing all weekend and telling my friend I was driving separate on Monday because I had other things to do after work.
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
What advice are you even talking about? You asked opinions and posted a couple polls.

I failed to see any posts from you like: "I need advice, here's my situation, should I do A or B?"
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
21,980
847
126
I guess this is your way of letting everyone know you hate their guts.

When, you could have realized the negative advice they originally gave you,... means they hated yours 1st.

Listen, there is a considerable amount of white trash on these forums. White trash that is angry bored. So bored that life is so awful, they need to spread their diseased emotions to all. Some of them plot and pray for the day when they get to do something good. Like "pwn" someone like you. Or, shoot someone who invades (read: accidentally wanders onto) their property.

Personally, if they say the sky is red, I add; "it's dripping with the blood of aborted fetuses."

Is this the same white-trash we see on youtube all the time? Like the stupid whitey that put a bullet proof vest on his son and shot him at point-blank range to test the vest while filming it? I bet it is. That would explain so much. But yea, this sure hell isn't the place to be for real advice. These tweens have no lives and will eagerly express that fact given half a chance.
 

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
197
106
What advice are you even talking about? You asked opinions and posted a couple polls.

I failed to see any posts from you like: "I need advice, here's my situation, should I do A or B?"

A few days ago / week ago or so, OP posted a thread asking about an IT or engineering career. Most of the people said engineering.

OP gets some kind of job. Then comes back to brag about his newly found career, and how he will be working there (happily) for the rest of his life.
 

Elbryn

Golden Member
Sep 30, 2000
1,213
0
0
In 1999 a company I was working for laid off about 20% of its workforce, I was one of the people let go. A few years later the company closed its doors.

To go home and tell my wife that I no longer had a job, was one of the lowest points of my entire life.

Where I am working at now, we have had some serious budget cuts, in some areas as much as 60%. I dont know if I will even have a job next month. But if I dont, everything will be ok. My wife and I live well within our means.

If I lose my IT job, I might go back to school for something else. I am about tired of computers. If I have to, I'll go back into the welding field.

this reinforces to me the value of living beneath your means and getting to being financial independent as soon as possible. it's a vastly different feeling to be working because you want to work rather than because you have to work. gives you options and in life, options are great instead of the shoe being on the other foot and having to do something because it's the only option.
 

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,543
651
126
Based on the number of stupid threads the OP has created, I'm surprised he knows how to dress in the morning.
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,471
3,590
126
Wait - someone thinks they may have gotten bad advice from the internet?! Unpossible I say!

Shit - read the advice. If it's good you may learn something but it is still your life not ours so ultimately its up to you what you do with it

Believe me ATOT doesn't really care if you ever ask for career advice again
 

JTsyo

Lifer
Nov 18, 2007
11,809
944
126
The biggest issue I think is when people post here they tend to leave out a lot of things. The other posters can only go of what you post. It takes someone that has the whole picture to help you and that someone isn't random people.
 

Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,525
9,839
146
It takes someone that has the whole picture to help you and that someone isn't random people.

I'm not at all random, I am a very specific person. For backup, my name is sewn into my underwear. And I possess the whole picture -- uncropped and unretouched. It is a picture of me.

Are you lost and need advice? Come to me. I'll tell you where to go.
 

FuzzyDunlop

Diamond Member
Jan 30, 2008
3,260
12
81
I'm not at all random, I am a very specific person. For backup, my name is sewn into my underwear. And I possess the whole picture -- uncropped and unretouched. It is a picture of me.

Are you lost and need advice? Come to me. I'll tell you where to go.

are... are you... are you Calvin Klien?!!


To the OP, if youre still around, I also thought my career was the cats ass when I was 1-2 years into it. Now Im 7 years and finding more and more reasons to NOT be in it.
Do not count the chickens before they hatch, as my gramma used to say.
 

KGB

Diamond Member
May 11, 2000
3,042
0
0
I hear the advice there is bold and imaginative, if sometimes anatomically impossible to actually do.

I further understand that much of it begins with a reference to an ancient Chinese board game.

If it's anatomically difficult impossible, ... they're just not trying hard enough!!!
 

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
3
0
A while ago, I was asking questions about careers, and a bunch of people on this site said crap like I wouldn't be able to get a good job, and that I should have done all kinds of things differently with my education. Now, I have a career, a great one at that. If I had followed ATOT's "advice," I would have given up a long time ago. I hate it when someone fails in their life, rather than accepting it as their own personal failure, they try to impose it on society. The attitude like, "this is the way it was for me; therefore, that's the way it is for everyone else." FALSE! Your failures are your own, and that doesn't mean that the next person won't succeed where you failed!

Well only a Dumb Ass would ask advice on this site that wasn't Tech related