Feature in The Central Valley Business Times

Hey all,

I’ve recently been featured in an article in the Central Valley Business Times. There’s both a written article and an audio interview posted. Here’s a link to the original article.

I’ve gone ahead and copied it below:

Out of Work? Get out of The Box
Audio Interview Here

Lost your job? It may turn out to be a good thing, if you’re willing to think outside the box, says Javy Galindo, whose Silicon Valley engineering career has taken a new turn.

Laid off once too many times in the cyclical downturns in high tech, Mr. Galindo has shifted careers, but only after losing his job.

“When we’re stressed, there’s a tendency to limit ourselves, limit our perceptions, limit our view of what we think is possible,” he says, describing the typical reaction to suddenly being without a paycheck. This leads to almost blindly following old habits in seeking new opportunities, he says.

Mr. Galindo says others who find themselves unemployed in the Great Recession might want to follow his example, if not his exact path.

“You can approach your layoff differently, with a different strategy,” he says. “In my case, I was subjected to three different layoffs in my career. The first two layoffs I went through I didn’t think of anything other than let’s find a job immediately, let’s find the same type of job. I didn’t allow myself to think about other alternatives.”

As it turned out, the third layoff was a career changer, something he talks about in today’s audio interview.

(Javy Galindo talks about how your creativity could be your greatest asset in coping with job loss in today’s CVBT Audio Interview via Skype. Please left-click on the link above to listen now or right-click to download the MP3 audio file for later listening.)

Mr. Galindo has put his ideas into a new book, “The Power of Thinking Differently,” now available through Amazon.com.

“Sometimes it feels like people are frustrated and stuck because they’re approaching it the same way. I’m hoping they can use the book, use my material, to approach it differently,” he says.

He says he managed to engineer a new career through his writing and speaking engagements at workshops and seminars.

“Though we can be fearful of change, and fearful of trying something new, you’ll never know it it’s worth it until you try it,” he says.