I appreciate the advice that CHH laid down on matters of staying busy. I've been laid off twice this year: once in February from a Boulder startup where I worked myself blind. A few months later I picked up a contract job that turned into a FT job offer that turned into a layoff within a 10-week cycle. I am now semi-employed: I keep a part-time retail job at the local mall in my hip pocket. The wages are laughable, but it does keep some income coming in and gives me a reason to shower at least four times a week. Maintaining some small ritual of engagement with the working world has been invaluable for me, although it was less than fun to be on the sales floor when colleagues from the past have wandered in and done double-takes when they saw my name tag ("Are you..." "Yes. I sell chinos."). I recognized a guy from my college the other day. He's on the board of a big Boulder VC now. I was helping him pick out pants. A good exercise in humility. I can still draw partial unemployment while I make lists for contacting and following up. I have some promising stuff on the burner, and can't emphasize enough the value of relationship mining. I guarantee you there are thousands of dollars of income waiting to be harvested with just phone calls and emails to your close professional contacts. You pick up the phone, tell them where you've been, tell them where you want to go, and see what they know. One of these seemingly random calls got me 10 weeks of income after my first layoff.
I've got three or four more good opportunities going, and I haven't even begun to scrape my list.
And don't be too proud about doing some dopey little job to keep some money coming in while you cultivate an opportunity more germane to your skill set. A company I worked for in '06 shut down, and I told myself that I wasn't even getting out of bed for less than $70K. I finally did get another job in that range, but it took me nine months and I'd blown huge holes in my savings. Foolish and prideful.
So, yeah. Stay busy. Stay sane. Keep the wheels turning. Even small wheels. Like personal creative project you no longer have the excuse not to try.
Colonel Hector Bravado
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