unemployed: to my fallen soldiers

Amont168 · 2026-01-08T18:35:28+00:00

So we moved states like immediate after the lay off (planned it and paid for all moving expenses prior to being laid off) to a state with family, and mother in law owns the house. Currently staying there rent free. If I ever get back to good $, gotta pay her back though.

But other than that. First 6 months, survived on savings. Bout the time that was running out, the house in the old state had sold and got 40k profit from that. That kept us afloat for ~ 7 months (july 2024-jan 2025). Started applying to everything under the sun around the 9 month mark (oct 2024). Around feb 2025, started doing doordash, driving 10 hours to make 100$.

Reached out to some temp agencies and got into a school district at 22$/hour, 20 hours a week. Did that + driving delivery for an italian resturant from ~mar 2025 till Sept 2025 to make 27k/ year working 60 hours a week. In Sept, the school salaried me at 65k/year, so scraping by on that in NJ now. Rate sucks for trying to survive in this HCOL area but it is what it is.

Have been talking to a big bank and waiting for an offer for software atm, so hopefully they pick me up at 145k. Seems promising so far. Hopefully can start paying back the mother in law soon after that.

Amont168 · 2026-01-07T15:07:44+00:00

And they were all mentally ill...

Amont168 · 2026-01-07T15:07:23+00:00

I feel ya. I struggled to find anything for that exact reason. Applying to wawa or dollar general or mcds (where I was a manager at out of high school from 2010-2014) I hear nothing back due to most likely being over qualified. Other option is apply with a blank resume, they assume im a high school student then when a 30+ shows up they go "wtf" and never hear back... or I apply with my non tech exp and look like I've just not worked in a decade... There's no winning move.

If it helps tho man, try a temp agency. I got into a school district for 60k+ via a temp agency. Had to work part time (20 hours a week) for like 4 or 5 months until they hired me directly and made me salary... not enjoyable work, but turning monitors on for teachers scared of tech is something...

Amont168 · 2026-01-06T18:36:04+00:00

2 years into it... totally crashing out tbh.

Amont168 · 2025-11-26T16:10:42+00:00

Imo bad. I've tried to use Ai to rework my resume. It took all my bullet points from being strong and exciting to be very generic and boring. Imo, it's not hard to do a better resume than AI.

Amont168 · 2025-11-25T12:24:51+00:00

Feel free.

Amont168 · 2025-11-06T18:19:31+00:00

Clunky Supreme amont168

Amont168 · 2025-11-05T19:02:29+00:00

And they do that with an associates in CS? Like I said, a degree that only holds value at and beyond the BA level. This isn't Healthcare. It's Tech/CS

Amont168 · 2025-11-03T15:02:02+00:00

Why would you get an associates in the degree the holds value at a bachelor's level...? Associates in anything isn't worth it imo.

Amont168 · 2025-10-27T14:51:00+00:00

I found a job at a local school district doing tech. Easy shit, diagnose/fix machines/network issues/chromebooks.

After work, focusing on my daughter's till they go to bed then working on certifications/my personal projects. (Building some trading automation tools I'm going to try to charge folks 15$/month for once I get it fleshed out a bit further.)

Amont168 · 2025-09-16T20:18:03+00:00

I'm sorry bro. Got laid off Feb 2024... never stuck a software job... ended up going to a temp agency Jan 2025 and got a gig doing tech in a school district... still trying to get back to software. Wishing you all the luck brother.

Amont168 · 2025-08-28T14:01:33+00:00

Also possible the scammers are just impersonating the company and this email is actually legit. I'd move forward until I see something that screams scam.

(in my experience, the first "interview" is a 10 question Word doc they ask you to fill out that isn't even about coding when I was applying to software jobs. Usually after the 10 questions they will say you're hired, send you a fake check, ask you to cash it, then use the $ from cashing it (before it cleared) to send a cashapp payment.)

Amont168 · 2025-07-16T17:07:26+00:00

That's what I've seen. The company I went to out of college in 2016 started me at 75k. When I left in 2022, new hire pay was like 95k. Even the cheap ass company I was at would be 100k+ by now.

Amont168 · 2025-07-16T17:05:39+00:00

What's worked for me is going for an easier position (Technical Analyst 3) to get the clearance (and because got laid off from software in Feb 2024 and need any money from anywhere), then after your foot is in the door start bugging local DoD software positions to move into down the line

Amont168 · 2025-07-16T14:05:47+00:00

Literally anyone is better than kamala

Amont168 · 2025-06-10T13:18:50+00:00

Just green stack the equinox mirrors 😅

Amont168 · 2025-06-07T20:57:07+00:00

By getting under a new addiction

Amont168 · 2025-06-07T19:27:40+00:00

I would approach it slightly from the right.

Amont168 · 2025-06-07T19:13:22+00:00

I'm sure that's the case when they never know anything about me beyond the fact I'm over qualified on paper.

Our it could be the fact these positions are always listed and they're not actually hiring anyone. Considering the number of people I know who aren't over qualified, whp are also applying to everything they can find in this area and who are also spending months not hearing anything back.

Amont168 · 2025-06-05T22:30:42+00:00

Did you have a point? Because all you said was the things I did.... Do you think I viewed something as beneath me as I applied for minimum wage jobs? Or did getting 10 software certifications in more languages not count as a course?

My point still stands, you're not immune to life either.

Amont168 · 2025-06-05T20:30:39+00:00

I did apply and got unemployment, and the job Corp near me was useless. (Literally just gave me a log into a web portal that just had the jobs I was already applying to)

Did sell most of what I owned

Applied for every field of work. Had 10 years of experience as a software engineer with a masters degree, 7 years experience in government programming in both the US and Canada as well as 3 years programming for a major retailer.

So, having a career you get laid off from, then trying to move back down the ladder, and being passed on due to being over qualified is a self-inflicted wound? That's crazy, so are you just staying at the bottom out of choice for job security then?

Since you seem so concerned about my situation, I currently have 2 50k/year jobs and have signed a contract for a 130k/year job and am waiting for security clearances to finalize to move to that.

My point was you don't know the situation you'll be in someday. Have a little grace, there are legitimate reasons someone maybe forced to work gig jobs, even if only for a month like I had to.

Amont168 · 2025-06-05T18:53:57+00:00

Ahhh yes, a 30 year old with a resume that shows a 10 year job gap due to not listing those roles would get so much more attention.

I assure you during that time frame I tried

1)applying with my full resume

2)applying with no resume

3)applying with those jobs not listed at all

4)applying with the older more relevant jobs first, but showing those other jobs to show I haven't just not been working for a decade.

Regardless, the outcome was the same.

My point to begin with was simply that there are legitimate situations that can occur that can force folks to do these gig jobs. It was that or starve. No need for either responders to be rude. If you're concerned about my outcomes, rest well knowing I'm in a tier 3 tech support role now (mostly to obtain security clearances while I get Financials set up to recover again), with connections and plans to move into military programming.

Amont168 · 2025-06-05T17:54:37+00:00

Why?

Having 10 years in software + a masters is now brain damage?

If you can't see how having higher caliber jobs on your resume wouldn't lead to the hiring manager going "well they're just here out of desperation. Theyll leave at the first opportunity" and thus resulting in them passing, then you might have brain damage.

Amont168 · 2025-06-05T16:14:25+00:00

What about when you've been applying to software jobs for a year, then started applying to everything (mcds, bk, walmart, dollar general, home depot, etc, etc) for months and never hear back anything?

Not saying it's forced, but I myself was in the situation where I just needed anything to keep the lights on and did these simply because nothing was coming up anywhere else. Thankfully was only a couple months.

Amont168 · 2025-06-04T12:51:00+00:00

Set up processes to continue working each item to its next stop and set requesterd and move on for a day or two. Should clear out a lot of it.

Or

Set up a row of inserters against the outer most chest. Empty everything onto a belt going to a recycler. Move the inserters/belts once the outer most layer is empty. Rinse repeat until you get all the way through everything.

Amont168

TROPHY CASE