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how is the work force for you?

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NiN^_^NiN:
Funny enough i was working for HP in Australia and was retrenched last year.

I was on one of the special service desks and they just moved most customers overseas to their India and Philippines branch and moved the 3 customers who had to have on shore service to another company they just brought out.

It's sad cause im still looking for a job and have a house that will be finished in 3 weeks which means im pretty screwed right now :(

Vanguard:

--- Quote from: AtomSmasher on February 12, 2010, 01:08:12 pm ---
--- Quote from: pinballjim on February 12, 2010, 11:25:12 am ---Just ignore me, I'm being a dickbag again.   :P

Genuinely sorry to hear about your situation, actually.  You were kinda living out a fantasy shared by a lot of folks here, I'd imagine.



--- End quote ---
Heh, no worries.  I really wish I could keep my current job as it is a lot of fun and really cool working on video games, but for the past year I've had to work a second job on the weekends just to keep the bills paid.  Since I can't afford to take any time off, the closest thing I've had to a vacation is I once had a 4 day weekend back in October.  Getting a raise, or at least a little paid time off, at my current job would help with the situation, and even though both are promised to come "soon", I don't really trust the management to deliver anymore.

At least I got to have some fun and managed to get my name on 4 different games, 3 of which I made significant gameplay contributions to, and 2 of which I can be proud of.  Now it's time to enter the real world where I can get reasonably paid for my work and maybe I'll actually have my weekends back :)

--- End quote ---


Video games are what got me into engineering.   I always believed I would either start my own company or work for one of the big ones.  Once I graduated college, I quickly abandoned that dream.   Working on games wasn't' enough of a passion to give up making money and having a life.  The salaries and hours offered by the game companies were an insult.  I'd have been better of not going to college with the salaries most of them offered.  There are several game companies near me EA Sports, N-Space, etc... and after talking to people who worked for these companies its clear that the industry as a whole has a sweatshop mentality.   I chose to go into the hardware side of 3D graphics instead and feel like my decision was a good one.   Any time I open of reqs for hiring, I get 3-4 candidates coming from the major game companies.   They all basically are in the same situation.  They are burned out and disgruntled and ready to give up the "fun" environment for something better.  I've talked to guys who's marriages were on the line because of their work environment.   It's not pretty.

As far as the "getting your name" on things.   You can pick up 60% of graphics cards or  90% of cell phones and you'll be picking up a product that has my name on it.   I actually don't find this to be the least bit rewarding.  I would be happy building any of these products and be completely satisfied If I never saw one on the shelf at BestBuy.  Just pay me a fair salary and give me time to enjoy my family.   That's all the reward I need.

Glad to hear you found out what you're worth.   BTW, I'm hiring 15-30 people.  Job situation is looking good.

Level42:
Threads like these make me happy again to live in Europe.

I can't see how companies can cut benefits and/or salary at will. Here, you sign a contract and you are both legally held to keeping what you signed to. It's impossible for companies just to change that contract as they want.
They will have to break the contract which means lay-off.
There are only two ways: through court (which is usual for individual lay-offs, or "a couple"), with consent of the employee (I've had that, company offered the same exit-bonus as the court would rule) or "en-masse". Of course companies can go bust too...

I only know two persons who got layed-off due to the poor economic situation.

Our company is still quite busy and actually had a "satisfying" year 2009 (although it wasn't as good as 2008 of course). Nobody is at risk of loosing their job at this moment. In fact , contrary to what the unions and employers agreed to, we will actually get a rise of 1.5% by february, so there is nothing to complain for me.

The lucky thing of our business is that we on one side do new projects (fire alarms) but on the other side we maintain them and the service contracts run for 5 years. Of course some customers get in trouble but we still get in new projects too.

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