Planning Ahead. HP/HPE Alumni

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Planning ahead. For current employees of HP or HPE (or any company.)

Information and advice for current employees from HP alumni. (Updated November 16, 2019.)

If you will be leaving HP Inc or Hewlett Packard Enterprise shortly. For more mutual help, join the independent, volunteer HP Alumni Association if you are in the process of leaving. Thanks to our Supporting Members, there is no charge to join.

Questions or comments to: info@hpalumni.org

Actions you can take

Evaluate your situation. Use the HPAA's Career Checkup -- hard-earned advice from members on evaluating your career situation -- wherever you work.

Diversify. Don't let the company make you an expert in just one thing (unless it is what you really want, you are really sure it is something that will always be in demand, and you are willing to change companies to follow it.)

Establish your personal network. Powerful while at your current company -- and you may need it later:

- Connect -- inside your current company and outside. Maintain your relationships and track the career changes of your former co-workers. "I became an internal-only resource." Participate in a professional association, an open-source project, a church, or a community activity. "I realized that I only knew HP people." "My friends and acquaintances were about my age and worked in similar jobs. When things changed for me, most of my friends were in no position to help, because they were in the same boat."

- Recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates. You can use LinkedIn to reconnect with former co-workers who know you and your work. Many HPAA members report that LinkedIn helped them find a new job. Use HPAA's LinkedIn Tips and Traps: https://www.hpalumni.org/LinkedIn LinkedIn doesn't work the way you might think it does!

- Check your LinkedIn profile. As part of the HP/HPE separation, HP changed the personal profiles of many former and current employees to display the Hewlett Packard Enterprise logo rather than the Hewlett-Packard logo for past positions. This may not be what you want. https://www.hpalumni.org/LinkedIn

- Join the 81,000-member HP Connections LinkedIn Group to reconnect with former co-workers inside or outside HP -- they know you and they know your work. LinkedIn helps you find current and former HPers in your area -- or where you would like to work. (HPAA membership not required.)

- Professional and social networking. HPAA's directory of 190 Professional and social groups for alumni and current employees of HP, HPE, predecessor, and successor companies: https://www.hpalumni.org/network

Move from company to personal PC and email. For privacy reasons now -- and impossible to do quickly if you retire or leave.

- Personal business on company systems. No matter where you work, what your job situation, or how innocent your activities -- there are serious legal and privacy issues with using your employer's IT facilities for your personal business. The email accounts and files (and the email and file backup archives -- which may cover years) all legally belong to your employer, not to you. Emails that you wish to receive may be inadvertently discarded as spam or phishing by the company firewall. There are also identity-theft and data-loss risks.

- How to set up professional email. Advice from HPAA members on getting a private email account on Yahoo Mail, Google Gmail, or Microsoft Outlook.com -- and choosing a professional email username.

Plan for transition when you retire, get WFRed, or leave:

- ASAP Checklist. What you need to do before losing access to internal systems and in the following few weeks.

- Questions to ask if you are offered the "Golden Boot" Pragmatic advice from Jane Bryant Quinn.

- "What I wish I had known before I left"

- Advice from HPAA members on job hunting -- inside or outside HP.

- How much notice to give on retirement -- at any company. Advice from HPAA members.

- Advice and info on returning to HP Inc, HPE, DXC, or Micro Focus -- including informal and formal restrictions.

- Time to untangle your stock! With any employer, no one but you really cares about your employment-related stock. You may have stock in up to seven HP-related companies. With each spinoff, the cost basis for your shares changed. Many find stray accounts -- or need to retrieve stock or dividends turned over to a state as "unclaimed." You could pay taxes twice on the same income. Your heirs may not find it all. An HP Alumni team developed a step-by-step process to find it, protect it, and prevent double taxation. Go to Employee Stock

References recommended by HP alumni:

- "Think you might lose your income? Four money moves to make now" by Michelle Singletary. Washington Post (Several free articles per month.)

- "Making the Most of Your Money Now" by Jane Bryant Quinn. Explains how financial things really work -- especially good for analytic folks. ISBN-10: 0743269969

- "Get a Life" by Ralph Warner. "How to beat the anxiety surrounding retirement, and to develop a plan to make your golden years the best of your life." ISBN-10: 1413300847

- Social Security. Slides from the August 2016 HPAA Social Security presentation and webinar. Member advice from an ex-HP perspective.

- "You're no longer nailed to your job in order to get health insurance" (AARP membership not required.)

- If not 65 yet: A “qualifying life event” gives you a limited “special enrollment period” to purchase health insurance under the ACA: www.healthcare.gov

- If approaching 65: "Medicare and You" Download a searchable pdf copy from the official Medicare site. Especially see the very helpful flowchart on page 16 and the table on page 69.

Information and links specifically for people from... Agilent Compaq DEC DXC EDS Keysight Micro Focus Perspecta Tandem

The Hewlett-Packard Alumni Association is an independent volunteer organization of former HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise employees – and those in the process of leaving. Operated by former employees who volunteer their time; Not endorsed or supported by any company.

For more mutual help on this topic and many others, join the independent HP Alumni Association. If you were formerly a regular, direct employee of HP, HPI, or HPE -- or are in the process of leaving -- join HPAlumni. No charge, thanks to HPAA members.