This Gun’s for Hire

Screen from the arcade game "Battlezone": "Game Over. Press Start."

Life in a startup is full of adventures with its fair share of ups and downs. Budgets shrink and grow, teams shrink and grow and strategies constantly evolve. During these challenging economic times, it’s the companies who maintain their focus while controlling their spending discipline that will survive.

b5media lives and dies by these same rules, and those of us in the ad-driven internet business expect no less. In this current market environment, it is the mandate of a responsible business to look at ways to stretch their dollar and cut their costs.

My role at b5media as Nerd Wrangler, a.k.a. Technical Project Manager, overlaps too closely with the Director of Technology, and there just isn’t enough work to go between the two of us. The Powers That Be at b5 had to make a tough call, but they made the right one for the company: they had to let me go. My final day at the company will be Friday, October 3rd.

I’d like to thank Jeremy Wright and the rest of b5media for taking me on and for the experience at b5 over the past seven months.

Old movie poster: "This gun for hire"

And to the rest of you: this gun’s for hire!

(Here’s my LinkedIn Profile.)

15 Comments

  1. Hampton Catlin
    Posted September 26, 2008 at 10:33 am | Permalink

    I give it 3 hours till you are hired.

  2. Posted September 26, 2008 at 10:36 am | Permalink

    @Hampton: Thanks for the vote of confidence!

  3. Posted September 26, 2008 at 11:51 am | Permalink

    I’ll sure miss seeing your name around - I wish you all the best Joey! You Rock!

  4. Posted September 26, 2008 at 12:01 pm | Permalink

    I’d just like to repeat what everyone knows: Joey is an awesome employee. From an attitude standpoint, an experience standpoint and a cultural standpoint he’s fantastic and I’d be happy to recommend him in the future!

    (hell, if he’ll have me I’d love to work with him in the future!)

  5. Posted September 26, 2008 at 2:32 pm | Permalink

    Joey, think positive because I think you’ll find something soon! Please keep us posted on your status.

  6. Posted September 26, 2008 at 3:47 pm | Permalink

    Good luck Joey! Sorry to hear this news, but I’m sure you’ll have some nice offers to choose between.

  7. Terry Baldwin
    Posted September 26, 2008 at 5:22 pm | Permalink

    Gooey, once again you show nothing but class and grace in what, for most, would be a very disheartening situation. I’m sure the toughest decision you’ll have to make is which of the many inevitable job offers you’ll accept!

    Cheers!

  8. Sloot
    Posted September 26, 2008 at 5:44 pm | Permalink

    I’m hoping that wherever Joey ends up needs an Oracle dude so that I can jump ship and work with him.

  9. Posted September 28, 2008 at 8:19 am | Permalink

    Joey, that’s tough new to hear. Great meeting you earlier this year in person and hanging out. As the previous commenter said, you handled tough news with class and professionalism on the blog. Exactly what matches how everyone knows you in the real world too. Best of luck. Look forward to seeing where you end up.

  10. Posted September 29, 2008 at 12:13 pm | Permalink

    I miss you already!

  11. Posted September 29, 2008 at 3:20 pm | Permalink

    Oh man… I was so looking forward to more accordion around the campfire at SXSW next year. :(

    Best of luck to you, Joey!! You will be missed!

  12. Jon Husband
    Posted September 29, 2008 at 3:25 pm | Permalink

    Surprised you haven’t been hired already !

  13. Posted September 30, 2008 at 5:07 am | Permalink

    You’re top notch, Joey. So sorry to see you go. I do wish you all the best! Take care and please stay in touch.

  14. Posted October 8, 2008 at 4:49 pm | Permalink

    Very sorry to hear this, Joey. I’ve been away on holidays and just found out. I know you’ll land on your feet again, and I can see that all the previous commenters agree with me.

  15. Posted October 9, 2008 at 11:55 am | Permalink

    Aw snap. I had no idea. Just back from a trip abroad and behind on my feed-reading, so I completely missed this.

    I’m sorry Joey - this sucketh mightily, for both you and Jeremy and gang. It’s heartening to see the two of you displaying so much grace and professionalism over this, yet there’s still no way to unsuck it.

    If you don’t mind, I’m going to ping a few people and see if I might be able to stir anything up. A real longshot, but you never know…

6 Trackbacks

  1. [...] Hello. My name is Joey deVilla, and I am unemployed. [...]

  2. [...] Hello. My name is Joey deVilla, and I am unemployed. [...]

  3. [...] My sudden surplus of free time has given me some time to do some thing I’d been meaning to do but never got around to doing. One of those things is doing a little decluttering, and as a result, I have a number of computers that I don’t need anymore. [...]

  4. [...] of the best ways to pull yourself up from a fall is to pull others up along with you. That’s why I’m giving away some old computers that [...]

  5. [...] Ever since I announced that I’d been laid off, I’ve had a lot of kind offers from people who wanted to take me out for a beer. I was IM’ing with one of those people yesterday. [...]

  6. [...] while I know I am in good company (hey Seesmic folks, a shout out to Accordion Guy, to name a few), it still really kinda sucks. As Seesmic’s Le Meur noted about their recent [...]

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*