u/Dry_Corner6431

They keep saying unemployment is low. No doubt their data however they collect it says so. but what is the ground truth?? I keep hearing about layoffs and my own situation as well weights into it.

Is it only some parts of the economy that is doing well or bad? how is it working out for us?

From my own survey of female friends in tech it is not all that great. Some have left the field for other employment u could say under-employed after layoff. Some have quit the field altogether and had a spouse to lean on or they just got rid of daycare for their kids and cut back on extra curriculars. so essentially no longer lookng for a job.

can we have an informal poll?

edit: Why would anyone down-vote this post?

anyway, if the unemployment numbers are not taking into account real unemployment doesn't it mean the Fed's reading is inaccurate as to what is going on with the economy? how could they not have accounted for this or have they?

I am trying to get an idea of how the work world is as i sit isolated in my home figuring out a way back. I am doing the usual stuff, github, courses, a bit aimless but mainly ai focused, have a project or two going but I am wondering what is going on in actual companies.

I am trying to get a sense of what changed with AI concretely. At a high handwavy level i know AI is being used for coding, meeting minutes etc but in your actual work flow how does it go?

After all work is about the team and process and ":enterprise" level ceremony, not just skill and right now i have no team, process or ceremonies. just me and github with whatever silly thing that catches my eye.

Would love to hear about how you are working now. Everyday I am not back to work I feel more and more left behind even if i am keeping pace with the learning

Not sure if the flair is right for this question but I just went with it

Edit: posting it here for more responses. this may be a better subreddit that womenintech for this?

My condo is up for rent and another one in the same building is as well. They are renting it out furnished.

Finding two issues with the listing;

1 Zillow has clubbed them all into one listing for the community which is townhomes as well as condos.

2 The listing variously shows up with filters selected and sometimes disappears. I am wondering if the is some how listed to them clubbing all the rentals together? Can they do something about showing them as seperate listings?

This is not an apartment complex but separately owned homes.

I am trying to get an idea of how the work world is as i sit isolated in my home figuring out a way back. I am doing the usual stuff, github, courses, a bit aimless but mainly ai focused, have a project or two going but I am wondering what is going on in actual companies.

I am trying to get a sense of what changed with AI concretely. At a high handwavy level i know AI is being used for coding, meeting minutes etc but in your actual work flow how does it go?

After all work is about the team and process and ":enterprise" level ceremony, not just skill and right now i have no team, process or ceremonies. just me and github with whatever silly thing that catches my eye.

Would love to hear about how you are working now. Everyday I am not back to work I feel more and more left behind even if i am keeping pace with the learning

Not sure if the flair is right for this question but I just went with it

I have not been employed since 2023 ( at that point health was an issue, and i was not sure i'd still be around either). Now i am better. But am finding that the 3 year hiatus is a HUGE detriment. My network seems to have dried up and a number of them are retiring, and a close friend and mentor actually passed away, she was amazing.

I need advice on how I can go about getting a contracting gig or anything at all that basically gets me back into the tech sector. I am 45+ and have had a long time in the industry. I have to say my confidence has taken a brutal lashing. I have been the go to person over my career but that feels like a life-time ago.

I am at a minimum wage job part-time rn and while i enjoy it immensely, it is not a substitute for a gig that pays me enough to keep my home.

Help?

edit: 700 views and few responses. Let me be more specific: What can I do to make myself more attractive to employers, not just my resume. My resume from 3 years ago is probably useless and all that experience is likely not so important.

How would I go about reinventing myself in a way that is interesting to a hiring manager. Some of you are hiring managers, what would you like to see someone like myself have done ? Do certifications help? which ones? I code routinely and use AI but since i am on my own there isnt any teamwork going on.

Are any of you hiring?

I have not been employed since 2023 ( at that point health was an issue, and i was not sure i'd still be around either). Now i am better. But am finding that the 3 year hiatus is a HUGE detriment. My network seems to have dried up and a number of them are retiring, and a close friend and mentor actually passed away, she was amazing.

I need advice on how I can go about getting a contracting gig or anything at all that basically gets me back into the tech sector. I am 45+ and have had a long time in the industry. I have to say my confidence has taken a brutal lashing. I have been the go to person over my career but that feels like a life-time ago.

I am at a minimum wage job part-time rn and while i enjoy it immensely, it is not a substitute for a gig that pays me enough to keep my home.

Help?

Over the years, I've seen many leadership changes that are external hires mostly men. I don't think I had a single female engineering leader, who was an outside hire, where I worked. Most of these men seem to follow a pattern to integrate themselves into the fabric of the company. But men did things differently perhaps?

There is a specific pattern I have observed that gets repeated but does not seem to be beneficial to all the people involved.

For instance, a new VP or director is hired. They find the nicest. quiet person in the teams, mostly often a diligent woman, and chat them up, give them a great deal of attention, pick their brain, questions etc.,. This is almost always NOT in meetings, just individually. These informal sessions do not give the person any credit and power from having leadership asking them for advice. Once they get a lay of the land, the tech, the politics, map it all out, they tend to cut lose the person they first connected with.

This is a repeated pattern and feels quite distasteful. This is how the world works? There must be a better way.

How do you integrate yourselves into the existing work matrix?

How did you get back to work? How long were you on the break and in general how did you manage your finances, sense of self-worth, self-image not working in tech, did you do anything else, try an alternate career? anything at all..

I am getting back from a 3 year hiatus due to health issues but tbh even with the horrible healt stuff, a part of me was delighted i was not having to go to work. I am over that specific hump but finances are brutal.

Appreciate any advice on how to get back to work. ATS systems DO NOT like me resume.

I learned too embarrassingly late in my life the benefits of networking... so that is a big hurdle

I've noticed that when I have my cleaning implements setup I tend to clean more often and better. But I don't have good systems for doing this. I'm ending up doing more cooking and hosting in recent years and its getting overwhelming.

what are your systems for cleaning? For instance, one thing I do is at the start of the day I make a pan of water with a little bleach and a rag in there, I just use it to clean all kitchen surfaces throughout the day with this. Not sure it is a great solution or even the right chemical for this job but it just felt better than just water.

How about the floor and mopping and dusting surfaces? how do you keep those items themselves clean?

Is it acceptable to get multiple CMA from different brokerage/realtors? or is this frowned upon?

i think the previous tenants had dogs/cats that may have made messes. there is a bit of a stink. The place looks clean though. i wonder if there is anyting that can be done to clean the floors to get the smell out and generally make the surface clean and germ free not just look clean.

This is for engineered wood flooring

In-town move. I have moved most of the items but have a few large pieces of furniture that are dismantled. This is a move from the 2nd floor.

There is an elliptical machine that I really am reluctant to dismantle. I could but probably better if I just had some help?

I already rented a u-haul truck for a couple of days and have it mostly filled. What would be the cheapest and best way to get moving help. It will need to be unloaded and placed into the basement in the new place. About 4+2 stairs. Is there anything I can do to make their lives easier ?

Is it better to get help from uhaul movers or taskrabbit and such? I already have the truck so i cant add moving help to my cart anymore.

i understand that most of us have many different areas we geek out in, but we tend to have special things we are very proud of. Tell me yours. The reasons could be anything technical difficulty, accomplishing something efficiently, new ideas anything at all that you are particularly pleased about.

I cant find any clamps that do that. I am ok with soft but strong solutions that can hold about 50lbs of load.

I need to move boxes and dismantled furniture from the first floor patio on to my moving van. Once the loads reach the ground it is easy enough to maneuver and lift manually a few feet. I just do not want to navigate the stairs for various reasons, not least of which is that the stairs feel somewhat dicey and i am gtfo of this community that cant seem to fix it.

I considered renting some sort of vertical lift since the area outside the patio is just flat ground with no people around, it is sort of the backyard of the building. I also considered doing some kind of a pulley system but securing it with a bolt to the header would not be that safe. i need better ideas.

I am not averse to renting or even buying permanent gadgets but i simply cannot pay someone to do this since the move will be over weeks/months.

Edit: I mentioned hiring out is not what I am looking for.

The ramp idea would work. I am still leery of he stairs but I can get a majority of things out this way. I just wish there was some solution where I could rig up something to just move stuff vertically. Everything will be dismantled into small parts so would not be THAT heavy

Do you have any tips?

I am dipping my toes back into tech ( officially anyway- I keep up because absent the must-dos and such I like tech and these are some veeee..rry interesting times). As to what to do specifically. I am all over the map. But I don't want to decide in haste.

I put my profile up on upwork but that site has a need for actual photos and names and I've not had a single call back and each proposal there costs some kind of points and you have to pay to get more. Feels pretty scammy..

How do you guys get freelance work and what kind of freelancing work are you getting?

thanks!

Assuming you were the architect that ended up recommending this to your org. How did you arrive at this? Did you consider the scale and scope of what your were about to unleash and was the ROI worth it?

I know this is possibly the worst kind of thing you could do wrt your career.

Having said that I know of several couples that met at work, married and have happy lives as well.

It definitely was uncomfortable for me and other team-mates when we found they were dating and changed team dynamics. They disclosed to HR etc and did the prescribed things. We even went to their weddings!

>But I wonder how they ever got into the situation of dating. I've heard that they found it difficult to find people in social settings, and most spent a very very large portion of their day at work routinely for years, even weekends. This is not new in tech (gen-z is better at pushing back :D)

Would you be completely against it? did u ever? and how to navigate it or avoid it? people are people. In an ideal world, you'd keep it completely professional, but stuff happens.