Kymermosst's Journal: The Outsourcing Has Come

So, today I (among many) was informed that my job function will be outsourced to a well-known IT outsourcing firm. Along with that they also said the location where I am employed is not in the list of delivery locations for IT services in the future (the site has 1200 people, about 300 are IT). So, that's a great way to start a vacation. So it seems a slim chance that I have long-term employment at this time.

So, has anyone else who might be reading this gone through outsourcing? I'm especially interested in hearing from people who were not in a location preferred by their employer or the outsourcer, and what the outcome was. Anyone have luck finding employers who would allow them to work remotely? There are not many employers of UNIX systems administrators in the local area, my current employer being the largest. I mean, we are talking about potentially 50 qualified sysadmins exploring the local job market for about 2 open sysamdin jobs (based on searching Monster). I'll find out how I am affected as an individual sometime near the end of September.

The chief difficulty with this situation is that I can't just pick up and move. I bought a house a year ago right before the market "slump," which in my neighborhood is more aptly described as a crash. This guy down the street with a house of similar age, style, and only 150 square feet smaller just listed his place at $135,000. That's a hell of a lot less than I am paying for my place, so selling my house really just won't work right now. My wife also has a small business here in town with many years left on the lease.

So, basically I am seeking advice from anyone who has some to give. Mostly centered around a few questions and comments:

Has anyone else been through a similar situation? How did it turn out for you?

Should I seek an internal transfer in the company to another position, possibly outside of any technical role?

Both my employer and the outsourcer expect cooperation through the "transition" process, even if I know my job is short term (I don't know that, yet). Do they enforce this by blackmail with severance packages (if we don't feel you are cooperating, we'll take away your package)? Would you cooperate?

Any thoughts on some of the options I have thought about, assuming the worst case?

1. Go back to college for a Master's (my alma mater is local and I am pretty much guaranteed to get in and very likely to get a fellowship).

2. Try to find another job in my field locally.

3. Find another job in another industry (but what pays as well that I'd be qualified for?)

4. Sell my house at a loss, refinance the debt so the monthly payment is low, and just move.

5. Start a technology consulting company with some of the other ex-employees.

6. Start a different business entirely with some of the other ex-employees.

7. Look at the job market in the closest major city and put up with the 2+ hour commute every day.

8. Suggestions?

Finally: I am a UNIX Systems Administrator with expertise mainly in Solaris and Red Hat Linux. I am a Red Hat Certified Engineer. I can code in PHP, Perl, and (rusty) C, and probably anything else if I have enough time to learn. My best skill areas are server provisioning automation (custom Jumpstart/Kickstart), OS image management, scripting/common task automation, troubleshooting, and general Sr.-level administration, among others. I am also good with hardware. I am familiar with lights-out data center management. In fact, in 3 years at my current employer, I have never seen our primary data center that I do 90% of my work in. I have a B.S. in Computer Science and have taken a number of professional classes from Sun, Red Hat,
IBM, Veritas (Symantec), and others.

So, if you know someone looking for someone along those lines and there is a possibility of remote/telecommute employment (I don't mind travel to the office every now and then), please let me know.

Thoughts...

[Shadow Wrought]

First off, I wish you well. Uncertainty sucks. I guess my main advice would be to decide what it is that you want. If going back to school is something that you've always wanted to do, then that very well may be the best answer. I certainly wouldn't take the hit on the house unless you absolutely needed to, and working in a different industry or even profession could also be quite rewarding. So I guess the real answer is the question, what do you want to do. Then you can figure out the path to make th

dang

[Bill Dog]

First of all, I'm sorry to hear of the situation you're in. While I don't know what it's like to be in your housing situation, I have been layed off 3 times now, and even with notice it's still hard on a person.

You sound like a fairly senior-level person in your field. I pretty much am too, altho on the software development side of things, and it's occurred to me that as I keep getting more experience and more skilled and more expensive, it'll likely get harder for me to find that next (full-time) programmi