Yesterday was... meh

[hkellick]

Yesterday was an incredibly 'meh' day.

Firstly, my mother had a bad day. She got very upset with my brothers, and fell. To the best of my knowledge nothing's broken or severely damanged, but she upset alot of doctors and nurses, and upset herself. And upset me, by proxy :p

Also, we got news, from work, that a big contract that I was hoping we'd get, we failed to even get on the Short List. Which IS really bad news, and puts me in a Spot (tm). Because I really want, feel I NEED some design experience before I Get my P.E. and it doesn't look like I'll get it working for my current company.
And, at this stage of my life, transferring to another office outside of the DC area just is NOT an option.
So, after Christmas, I'll tell Manas, straight out, that I'm looking for a new job, and then.. follow through. Maybe I'll try to look within the AECom Structure. Maybe not. I dunno. But I'm giving myself notice. I'm done with LOMRs.
And.. that's more than a little frightning because I HAVE a job here, a rather well-paid job (When we need money to save for a wedding), and all my experience is with LOMRs (which is why I NEED to diversify), and I may be able to get a job, but will I get a job where I'm paid something close to what I'm being paid now? I'm not accepting a job where I'm paid less than $45K. Not down here and not with some (if not fully applicable) experience.
Which COULD be problematic if I'm going for basically an Engineer I position, because I don't have experience in any other field.
I'll figure it out :p Somehow :p

So... that's the news that's fit to print.

Will call mom later to see if she's having a better day :/

Comments

[phoenixsong]

Unless you're changing fields altogether, or living in another job market where the cost of living is significantly different, you should almost NEVER take a pay cut. If the job is more hands-on engineering than this one, even at entry-level, that in and of itself makes it worth the higher compensation than an entry level position doing what you've been doing for almost three years. You should not expect anything less than something in the $48-50K range, given your current salary and experience level.

[lite.livejournal.com]

Mounir is 'taking me out to lunch', most likely to attempt to dissuade me.

Hope your mom is ok!

[clairelaine.livejournal.com]

A fall can be so scary. Hope she's not too injured!

Claire

Job Questions

[vvm1946.livejournal.com]

Totally understand you position with your job and what to do. I have the same situation facing me. You are young and have a lot more options/choices in where you go and what you do. I am 60+ yrs with physical disabilities making finding a new job a real challenge to say the least. Just remember you are worth every penny plus. Check our salary.com it really is worth the $50 bucks a year for the service they provide.

Changing jobs as an engineer in the DC area

[daisyconfused.livejournal.com]

I'm a Mechanical Engineer and I used to work in DC. It is really tough to find non-paperwork jobs there for engineers; well, if you don't want to work on military projects. I'm not opposed to people doing those projects who want to, I just chose not to at that time. Now, I'm doing a project for the Air Force.

Anyway, one place that comes to mind is Black & Decker's headquarters north of Baltimore, but I know they were cutting back in 2004. As I recall, Lockheed Martin near the BWI airport frequently sent me unsolicited job postings, probably because I already have design experience, but I never called for an interview. There's also a GE Medical Devices facility somewhere near Baltimore.

What might work for you would be to get in touch with the officers of local engineering societies, even if they're outside your specialty. I sent my resume to the local officers of Baltimore and DC sections of AIAA, SAE, ASME, IEEE, etc. and one of them got forwarded to the place I went to work for.

You might also contact the Small Business Administration, local Chambers of Commerce, State level small business departments and engineering colleges. They might know of somebody looking to hire.

Good luck!