Story

Lost my job due to COVID mandates. I have been at this for over 4 years now. It’s insane, some months there weren’t any jobs being posted and I have scoured all the typical job sites.

Can’t find another job. My resume goes into a black hole and the obligatory canned responses are.

“After careful review and consideration, we have decided to pursue other candidates whom we feel more closely meet our

needs at this time.” I have over 400+ responses in my inbox with those same exact words.

I’ve rewritten, used AI and even used the trick at the end of the resume. “This resume was not written by AI” to trick the scanners to see if that gets me to the interview stage.

Most likely to do with Ageism also.

I have worked in IT for well over 25 years so it’s definitely not the experience they are looking for, it comes down to who can we get the cheapest to do this job. and yes I have lowered my salary requirements.

I do Security and Compliance PCI, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 and you would think that would get me an interview.

Just recently I was listening to Erick Erickson on the radio stating he has a friend in IT that has been out of work for 2 years. Yeah tell me about it.

So I am trying to get some relief from the VA since it’s a VA loan to see if they can assist me but it’s not looking good. I have tried other websites and charities and they have amazing websites but it’s interesting they tell you how to donate money but there isn’t a way to solicit for assistance.

Just dealing with the VA has been interesting.

So here I am. Yes all the savings and 401k is drained. Selling things online to keep the lights on and eating one meal a day. Which isn’t bad really. I could use to loose some weight.

I have even posted on another charity website for assistance but haven’t gotten any response from them so I don’t even know if the website works for not.

I am 90 days behind in my mortgage payments and sure I could short sell and move where? That’s a whole other ball of wax. 16 years of mortgage payments to sell in an emergency? These real estate vultures will eat me alive.

I need 10k to set things back on track, 20k would hold me over for the next 6 to 7 months. Paying it back would take some doing.

I don’t know what else to say. If you need someone to do IT Security Compliance I would rather do that than to beg.

Haven’t even gone to get any Gov assistance, but I am close. The pride and the shame is what’s haunting me.