Notification and key code etc. arrived Friday pm. They ship 1-3 day fedx so I should have it by Tuesday latest.
*** On other fronts, searching Youtube.com for "IOUSA"... as in . I.O.U...United states, is a preview of a film by the same title just out from the Sundance Film festival.a must see imo. I am posting this here because CAD people, especially designers or engineering trained CAD people will be among the relative few in private enterprise who will still be able to afford an occasional starbucks as this economy melts down, especially since a very high percentage of this work can be done from home or even 100% by telecommute to a national if not international market.
Those with famlies, or people wishing to be in the best financial shape no matter what will get a side line going as well.
Last year I ran some ads in a local chamber of commerce directory... on my sebatical from my current engineering project (stalled because it needs a new roof and structural debug)... I got 1,000 dollars worth of low end trade work... not so bad. I didnt particularly need it now, but in a worse economy it would be a life saver...even 500 dollars a week would be a life saver.
Along those lines I was thinking that since the new chamber of commerce book comes out in 6 months ....now would be the time to pay for a bigger ad... a big ad as everyone else is tapped out with no work would be perfect timing.
** My experience with advertising... 45 years worth, many different states, and nationally.Yellow pages doesn't work for the small guy, at all... you need a quarter page to make even a small dent... thats thousands of dollars a month. Chamber of commerce ads in a small population work very well...these are affordable... cold calling also works but its labor intensive.
Craigs list and ebay work well also. Newspaper ads don't work, trade journals not much better. Even a front page banner (1" at the bottom in color failed for me in one attempt , not a single call.. distribution over 100,000.).
Recruiters and the job market generally have been a gross dissapointment... exceptions being those who will work way below market and a few in very rarified qualifications market...maybe 1%. You are dealing with a meat market run by people with no clue about the business or life in many cases.. they make bad decisions... 4 interviews and rave reviews for instance then a decision to hire someone else because they have 'lived in the area an extra year'... utter insanity.
Phil scott