blog.josephhall.com

A few of my readers already know this, but most of you don't. A little over a week ago, I was laid off from Guru Labs. I know that it was not an easy decision for the owners to make, and I don't fault them for it. It was easily the best company that I ever worked for, and I already miss working for them.

This time around, my luck was good. When I first accepted the offer to work for Guru Labs, I had another offer on the table from another company as well. When I politely declined the other company's offer, they told me that if I was ever interested in coming back to let them know. I did so the same day I was laid off, as I was sending my resume to several other companies, and they contacted me almost immediately. They were the first of a series of interviews, and the first to give me an offer.

I think that had I held out, some of the other companies might have given me offers for more money. But this company paid well enough, and the drive into work was pretty close to what it had been. I already knew one of the programmers there, and that sweetened the deal. Today was my first day, and I had fun. In fact, I've already started working on a small project that I will probably lay out in a future post here.

I think I will keep the company anonymous this time around. When I was a guru, I had to be careful how I presented some companies on my blog, and I would often forego posting certain pieces of information entirely, to be on the safe side. Keeping my present employer seperated from my blog will make things a little easier on me.

Four other gurus were laid off at the same time as me. As as this writing, they are all still unemployed, though at least one seems to be on the verge of getting hired. If you are looking for one of the best system administrators you could ever hope to hire, I can hook you up with them. One of them was my instructor when I took the RHCE exam, and parts of his lectures still resonate in my mind. The others have also taught me a world of things (both Linux-related and otherwise) that I will never forget. Each one of them also knows Python to varying degrees, which I know has become increasingly important at many companies.

If you are looking for an admin, click the "contact" link on the right side of my blog and send me a note. I will happily forward your information to these gentlemen. And if you're looking for Linux training, I would still recommend Guru Labs in a heartbeat. You will not find better Linux training than them. They are still around, and while they did lose some excellent instructors, they also kept some excellent instructors. You will not go wrong with them.