u/reepobob

RIP Frank Beard from ZZ Top, the original “God Drummer” of “Velcro Fly”.

I find myself in a pretty advantageous position, but I'd like this community's feedback. I was laid off from a job I had been working for 3 years. A colleague at that company told his wife about my situation and she reached out to me the next day to discuss a job opening that pretty much exactly matches my experience and skills. Here's the kicker. Both the male colleague (who also spent about a year and half as my boss) and his wife were BOTH colleagues of mine from a job I left over 7 years ago. The woman who reached out to me is now the HR Manager.

I interviewed last week and it was successful enough to garner a 2nd interview (via Teams). The 2nd interview is scheduled for Monday and the two people interviewing me are the head of operations for the Americas (global company) and my old colleague.

I feel I have an excellent chance at landing this position. It is a great opportunity with a growing company and the compensation is ~50% higher than my last role.

My question is how "chummy" should I be with my old colleague in this interview? I believe I am capable of landing this job on it's own merits, but I am unsure on how to address her in the interview. Do I acknowledge the elephant in the room and get the familiar pleasantries out of the way and then proceed with the interview? Do I treat this as any normal interview and be rigid with my professionalism? I believe that being "too chummy" will come off as cocky and that the job is mine and the interview is just theater. I want to present myself as professional but acknowledge the prior working relationship. I think it is safe to assume that the other interviewer will be made aware prior to the interview.

Maybe I am overthinking this...what is the community's take?

Man, this really stinks. This post may be more of a venting post than anything.

I was laid off in 2019 at age 48. Tooled around in real estate, did some Ubering and sort of 'survived' until I found similar work I used to do in 2023. Fast forward 3 years later and I've been laid off again at 55. I am still recovering from being laid off 6+ years ago.

I'm getting severance (probably end up being 10-11K after taxes), I already donate plasma for extra money (was trying to pay off some credit cards) and I know the Uber game to keep some money coming in. I will more than likely sign my severance agreement and start that clock so I will have that money, but man, I look at what is going out every month versus what won't be coming in and I just want to crawl into a hole. My plan is to update my resume (maximized to try to avoid the ageism issue and be 'AI scanner friendly', update my LinkedIn and put myself out there, and start the grind of looking for a new opportunity.

I guess one question I have is that if you know that you will have trouble paying your bills in the short to medium term (primarily credit and potentially mortgage), are they any options? I feel I need to reach out to my creditors and let them know what is going on, but are there downsides to doing this?

I'm terrified because I had a bit of a safety net before (savings) in 2019 and that 'luxury' is gone and I am the primary breadwinner.

I need to find something similar to what I used to do sooner than later and a lot of the previous posts I've read from folks with similar stories where it took them YEARS to find work is really sobering.

Sorry for the downer post. If anyone has any advice outside of what I have already listed as my to-do list, I am all ears.