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.
And to the rest of you: this gun’s for hire!
(Here’s 
.)
25 replies on “This Gun’s for Hire”
I give it 3 hours till you are hired.
@Hampton: Thanks for the vote of confidence!
I’ll sure miss seeing your name around – I wish you all the best Joey! You Rock!
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!)
Joey, think positive because I think you’ll find something soon! Please keep us posted on your status.
Good luck Joey! Sorry to hear this news, but I’m sure you’ll have some nice offers to choose between.
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!
I’m hoping that wherever Joey ends up needs an Oracle dude so that I can jump ship and work with him.
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.
[…] Hello. My name is Joey deVilla, and I am unemployed. […]
[…] Hello. My name is Joey deVilla, and I am unemployed. […]
I miss you already!
Oh man… I was so looking forward to more accordion around the campfire at SXSW next year. đ
Best of luck to you, Joey!! You will be missed!
Surprised you haven’t been hired already !
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.
[…] 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. […]
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.
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…
[…] 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 […]
[…] 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. […]
[…] 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 […]
[…] in mid-October, I wrote about an IM conversation with a friend. Heâd heard about my getting laid off from b5media and offered to take me out for a beer. I told him that Iâd accepted an offer and would announce […]
[…] was looking for a job, what with my old one having been rendered defunct by the econopocalypse (mind you, in retrospect, that was one of the luckiest breaks of my […]
[…] Those of you who know me well know that I went to one of the âwhite kidsâ schools â Crazy Go Nuts University, a.k.a. Queenâs. For me, it’ wasnât that University of Toronto was too Asian, but too close to home; going there felt like flying to Paris and eating at McDonaldâs. Queenâs, and for that matter, the other âCanadian Iviesâ Western and McGill (where my sister did her undergrad), were popular choices with those Asian students who wanted to work both sides of the cultural divide. I led an experience more akin to Harold and Kumar than Long Duk Dong, but still majored in computer science. Crazy Go Nuts University let me sharpen both my computer programming skills and schmooze-fu, and both have proven to be a handy yin and yang that have kept me quite recession-proof (I even ended up benefiting from the econopocalypse of 2008). […]
[…] Those of you who know me well know that I went to one of the âwhite kidsâ schools â Crazy Go Nuts University, a.k.a. Queenâs. For me, it’ wasnât that University of Toronto was too Asian, but too close to home; going there felt like flying to Paris and eating at McDonaldâs. Queenâs, and for that matter, the other âCanadian Iviesâ Western and McGill (where my sister did her undergrad), were popular choices with those Asian students who wanted to work both sides of the cultural divide. I led an experience more akin to Harold and Kumar than Long Duk Dong, but still majored in computer science. Crazy Go Nuts University let me sharpen both my computer programming skills and schmooze-fu, and both have proven to be a handy yin and yang that have kept me quite recession-proof (I even ended up benefiting from the econopocalypse of 2008). […]