Frumpy old dad laid off

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
OP, your "frump" isn't a turn off--your salary history or requirements are the turn off. Face it, you were overpaid as a "somewhat technical" government contractor (and good for you for raking it in while it lasted). I work for a large company on a technical classified/SCI contract and only management or principals or subject matter experts make over $200k salaries! These days, Contractors on unclassified or non-SCI contracts make apx $150k or less.

I’m not demanding $220k, I don’t actually make any salary requirements and let them we the salary. I’ll take much lower but I don’t want to lowball of course. Right now it’s $0! I’m pulling espressos on weekends and some midweek.

I mean I’m an expert in wind turbines and other mechanical energy generation — I just can’t whiz bang the latest GPT python framework into a docker instance, because we used older and simpler systems since we weren’t massively paralleled like a consumer facing application or AI process. I don’t think I was over paid, but most of the commercial jobs aren’t in this region hence why I was contractor (DW is very DC bound career).

If I got dropped when we discussed salary, sure I would believe it but it’s always after the first video chat or in person interview.

You can teach yourself docker. You can build some things in Python. In a labor market like this, employers are less likely to take a bet that you're going to learn their tech stack when lots of candidates already do.