Thread regarding IBM layoffs

You do not say how long you were at IBM, but if you were there around 2000 or before, you may have health insurance and not know about it. Look in your Fidelity NetBenefits site. You have to scroll down to the future health account, not the account you may have for setting assigned for health expensive. If you were in IBM around the turn of the century, there was a settlement to a lawsuit made when IBM dumped the pension program, etc. The employees close to the timeframe for retirement sued, and as part of the settlement all employees at that time frame had a sum of money set aside in a future health account to be used solely for paying for IBM Health insurance if you lost a job and did not have health insurance, or if you are 65 and over on Medicare it would pay for the supplement insurances. They do not really brag about this being in your benefits, so you have to check. It remains there even if you quit, retire, get laid off.

You do not say what area of IT. One thing to consider is train up in the fields that have a lot of openings and need for skills. cyber... software supply chain security... etc. Sometimes we tend not to learn new things as we grow settled in our careers. We always need to invest in ourselves to stay current.

Start your own business in a nitch tech segment you understand very well and like. I did. Never looked back.

I suggest that you find a small company. They can't afford the market price but they do offer a place to stay sharp and keep your skills. Less money but more job security. Usually found through networking. Microsoft skills mostly. I did.

For starters, don’t include anything that will give them a whiff of your age. As soon as they figure out you are over 50 you go into the waste bin. So don’t give them 27 years work experience and don’t include when you graduated from college.

This is so inspirational. Someone took the decision to live with dignity and work for less rather than b**ch about the system. I salute this man.
There is absolutely no shame in driving a shuttle. It’s honest work and I have more respect for the guy who take me to my hotel over my a-s kissy manager.
Bro, if I was a hiring manager, I would go searching for men like you.

Most jobs are found thru your network of connections. My friend found an IT job in about 4 months sending out 30 resumes a week. So if you find a job you want see if anyone in your network can connect you etc. I have seen jobs come on LinkedIn and have 100 applicants in 12 hours! Best of luck!

For the OP: You do what you have to do to survive. Good job!

Truth be told, IBM is not alone as an IT industry dinosaur. Most of the companies you know today will be long gone in 25 years. Almost ALL of the IT workers you know today in any company will be doing something else in 15-20 years, and it won't always be a promotion for them either.

Life has its ups and downs, sometimes the ups are REALLY UP, and sometimes the downs are REALLY DOWN. Enjoy the action while it lasts, and prepare for rainy days whenever you can. We are in a time where the economy su-ks across the board, in all market sectors. People are getting canned from IBM, Intel, AMD, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, 3M, Ford, Stellantis, Wells Fargo, among others. IT people, lawyers, finance people, bankers, factory workers, salespeople...people who did lots of great things, but were ultimately in the wrong place in the wrong time. It happens.

IBM isn’t innovating in product development enough to grow revenue. Too much competition in IT and IBM has been left behind. Current CEO is cleaning up the mess that was left by his predecessors.

CEO reports to the board; the board only cares about the investors and the stock performance; CEO’s job is to move high paying jobs to low cost countries India, Vietnam, Mexico etc…
As a result thousands of employees from USA , Europe etc lose their jobs: CEO, executive management and the board aren’t gonna shed a tear for that. It’s just the nature of western capitalism.
Dinosaurs rejects from IBM , like OP, won’t find another job in IT and will have to find a job in another industry

I am glad to hear you landed on your feet even though you still don't get health benefits. The average time for finding a job in tech these days is more like 18+ months due the huge numbers of people who have been let go (and continue to be let go) from companies like IBM, Google, Microsoft and others. You just have to go to Web sites like Glassdoor to read the horror stories of US techies who have been let go in the last 24 months and have not been able to find a new job. I heard a few days ago from a company that had an entry level tech job opening that I applied for - they were overwhelmed by the number of applications they had received . They got over 400 application for that one job the week after posting it, so you know what the competition is. This is the world we have created for ourselves in the US by outsourcing and transferring skills and jobs to Third world countries (can you say H1B visa ?) and pretending to ourselves that we were going to do more valuable and rewarding work by upskilling in something like AI. It is a total lie brought to you by the unethical executives, managers and CEOs of companies like IBM. And the same lie is brought to you by our crooked politicians in Washington - Democrats and Republicans - who bear a lot of the blame too. Americans need to set terms limits on all of them. They have allowed millions good tech jobs to go overseas without even trying to stop the flow. Big business (tech companies) and unethical executives (like Alvind) and US politicians get rich while the rest of us are thrown into the gutter. Globalization and Capitalism work for the select few at the top only but no one ever tells you that until you experience it first hand when you are shown the door. The realization comes only when you have been unemployed for more than a year and can find no job like the one that was taken from you. Open borders are another lie and will bankrupt America but that is another story for another day. America is on the road to ruin and there is no turning back.

The bottom line is we in the US need to become self reliant and dump globalization, stop the outsourcing of jobs and push out those who say globalization is the cure for all our troubles. It may be great for Big Business and Third World countries but not for the middle class in the US. The only winners are the big business shareholder guys on Wall Street and the corrupt and unethical politicians and business executives.

Glad you found a job with benefits. Most IT tech jobs are going to India, Vietnam, etc. I was really surprised today when I read that one-third of Americans who earn up to $250,000 live paycheck-to-paycheck. The problem is that people are not living within their means. If they bought a smaller house instead of a big 5 bedroom house with swimming pool, perhaps they could afford paying the mortgage in full and still have some savings.
Recession is coming to USA. Most companies are laying off workers.