Job searching...

[Deathravin]

So I've been jobless for about 3-4 months now. And I've been really focusing my search on my previous jobs, IT. I've applied to at least 10 jobs a week. Other than a couple phone interviews, some courtesy calls and some e-mails saying they went another way, I haven't made much headway.

I was thinking about ways to broaden my search. All I've done since I was 18 was IT work. But as I was gathering some in-game data to interpret, making charts & spreadsheets, I realized I love doing crap like that. I was always the person you came to at my last job if you wanted any kind of metric about the company, IT in general, a specific computer, etc. I could predict with surprising accuracy when the next big lay off was going to occur (in fact I predicted my own to within about a week).

I'm always making spreadsheets and gathering as much data as I can and packaging that data up nice and pretty.

So my question is... What IS that? What kind of a job can I look for to do that for a career? Cause I could see myself being very happy doing that.

[radamanthys]

Could fall under the purview of Database administrator. Look for Crystal Reports- typically a job with that knowledge requirement would be in the business of Data analysis and reporting. I dunno, that's pulled a bit out of my ass.

IT job market is really barren right now, unless you're network/security or web programming- I've seen plenty of those opportunities.

[Deathravin]

Problem with network security is you have to be a borderline hacker (real hacker, not just a script kiddy) to be good at that. I don't think I could be comfortable being the defense of my company to outside intrusion. I'd be way too stressed out all the time.
For example, the Airforce I think is looking for network security people. Um... NO THANKS!

Ya, there's a billion of those and java programmer jobs I've been seeing. And they're never filled.

[AnticorRifling]

So I've been jobless for about 3-4 months now. And I've been really focusing my search on my previous jobs, IT. I've applied to at least 10 jobs a week. Other than a couple phone interviews, some courtesy calls and some e-mails saying they went another way, I haven't made much headway.

I was thinking about ways to broaden my search. All I've done since I was 18 was IT work. But as I was gathering some in-game data to interpret, making charts & spreadsheets, I realized I love doing crap like that. I was always the person you came to at my last job if you wanted any kind of metric about the company, IT in general, a specific computer, etc. I could predict with surprising accuracy when the next big lay off was going to occur (in fact I predicted my own to within about a week).

I'm always making spreadsheets and gathering as much data as I can and packaging that data up nice and pretty.

So my question is... What IS that? What kind of a job can I look for to do that for a career? Cause I could see myself being very happy doing that.
Welcome to the wonderful world of being an analyst. You can marry up your IT background with your passion for statistics and trends.

I know you don't want to hear this but applying to 10 jobs a week isn't, in my opinion, trying to get a job. You're still cherry picking postings. You need to be applying for anything you can do that will pay the bills. Right now isn't best environment for applicants to be picky. I say I got lucky and landed a job that is what I want to do and pays the bills but really that luck was the result of 400+ applications. Each resume I sent was tailored to the application/company I was submitting it to. Form/vanilla resumes get filed in the trash quickly given the volume of submissions companies have to wade through.

I would encourage you to take my approach which was "Getting a job is my job." You'll get to the point where you've applied to every single posting on monster, dice, careerbuilder, whatever, and you're waiting on new postings. For me that meant IT, management, manual labor (again when I was unemployeed I wasn't looking to advance my career I was looking for a J O B) etc. Even on the most basic job postings I changed my resume to better fit. I got a shit ton of calls, most of them laughed on other end saying that I was just too overqualified and they didn't want to bring me in just to have me leave or what have you.

Even if you know you're not going to get a job, send a thank you email/letter to whoever you talked to. You never know when there could be an opening or that person could move to a different position/company and shit like "Hey you told me to fuck off but thanks for taking the time to say it" it sticks with people. I'm all about networking and keeping my options open for the future.

[Bobmuhthol]

Networks is such a sweet field to work in.

Edit: You don't need to do security at all. I know no security since there is someone with a CCSP right next to me. All it takes is physical layer knowledge to be a technician.

[AnticorRifling]

Problem with network security is you have to be a borderline hacker (real hacker, not just a script kiddy) to be good at that. I don't think I could be comfortable being the defense of my company to outside intrusion. I'd be way too stressed out all the time.

Ya, there's a billion of those and java programmer jobs I've been seeing. And they're never filled.
Hopefully work visas become harder to get and more of those jobs open up. Thank you come again.

[Deathravin]

Buncha stuff

I do most all of that too. I apply to everything I can do or could do within a couple weeks of learning the ropes. I don't go for things that I know I can't do. But I do agree that I've been pigeon holing myself into a single field. And I'm getting to the point where I just need something, but with all the medical problems my wife has, I require health insurance and a lot of the "just give me a JOB, any job" jobs comes with no benefits, and a pay scale that would be hard for me to afford even the shittiest insurance.

To be honest, without Obama's COBRA subsidy bringing it from 800 a month to 250 a month, I'd be out on the street, bankrupt from medical bills two months ago.

[Deathravin]

Hmm... didn't mean for this to turn into me whining about not being able to find a job. Was more just curious if there was a job type that gathered and interpreted data so I could widen my search a bit.

[Apotheosis]

"Get Hired Now" by C.J. Hayden and Frank Traditi is a great book that examines the job search process step by step and is a great tool / info resource to help.

[AnticorRifling]

Networks is such a sweet field to work in.

Edit: You don't need to do security at all. I know no security since there is someone with a CCSP right next to me. All it takes is physical layer knowledge to be a technician. Depends on the area. Lots of places are flooded with retards that went to PC Pro School or some other bullshit and they are now "IT". Which means not only is the market flooded with people that really don't know shit and have no experience with IT in corporate America (which is way different than home use, sure a lot of the theory is the same but it's still very different). It means that this idiot might actually get a job and hold it for a few months until he can show his ass and then it's free again for someone with skills.

Physical layer and topology theory are great but unfortunatly there's a lot more to the game than just generalized knowledge. Application of the knowledge is a big plus and I think most people here, to include you Alex, will have no problem with application of theory in a less than clean/static/ideal environment.

[AnticorRifling]

Also, Deathraven, the resume is the foot in the door. My resume got me so many hits it was crazy ( I was just lucky enough that my situation allowed me to be very picky so I waited for THE job even though I was applying to everything). If you'd like I can take a look and offer suggestions. It's 2 pages to get enough interest that the company is like "We should talk to this guy" I also believe that the resume is a place for creative writing, not fiction. Brag about yourself (this is actually pretty difficult to do properly), don't lie about yourself big difference. Too many times when I was a hiring manager I'd call people out on things in their resume.

[Lord Orbstar]

Agreed, Anticor is giving good advice. Resumes are critical: format, weight of paper, font, length, honesty, grammatically correct, and free of spelling errors.

I recommend you look on USAJOBS and CPOL.ARMY.MIL. You may find some government jobs there up your alley, civilian side.

Whatever you have to do, give it a shot just to pay bills and not have a long unemployed period on your resume. It looks fishy... Employment/Temp agencies are pretty good too. If you are worth a damn and have a good work ethic, the company may pick you up full time (if they are financially able to).

Think about your subskills and where those may make you successful in other career fields than "IT". Or you can join the US Army.

[Trouble]

<cue broken record>

Plenty of jobs here in DC... if you have or are willing to get a clearance. We routinely have at least 3 openings on my contract at any given time, from people jumping ship to something that looks better to them at the time. IT jobs here can get anywhere from 45k - 150k here. My govt boss is contantly giving my contractor boss crap for not being able to fill our positions.

</end broken record>

Forget about paper weight on your resume (and never use anything other than white paper!!). For IT jobs most of the time people will be emailing resumes and printing them out on whatever local printer they have. So keep resumes short (never longer than 2 pages unless you're applying to be a board member) and have someone look at it for grammar and flow. No crazy fonts or formatting. Keep it simple. My boss literally takes a stack of them to the can so you need to jump out from the stack by putting key info at the top - any certifications or clearances required for the job are good, plus a one or two sentence summary of your experience. For big companies, make sure you use the key words mentioned in the job posting so that you make it past their OCR/intake process.

Every job I've gotten since 1999 has been through networking, so make sure you ping friends and former co-workers. The interviews I've had were more of formalities than anything.

Speaking of interviews, it seems like simple stuff but FFS, show up early. You might need to scout out the place the day before to ensure punctuality. Make sure that if you are a smoker you don't smell like ass when you walk in. Cultivate an image and presence approriate to the work site. If you are uncertain of the image/culture, ask your handler (HR person or whoever called you in) before showing up.

And yes Anticor is correct in that you sound like you're looking for an analyst job. For my job I take technical (vulnerability) data and make reports for management out of it. The reports have to be tailored for the audience (CISO, CIO, or higher) and contain various tables, charts, and always include an assessment of risk and recommended solutions. I track the issues and make sure their resolution is properly documented. I also wrangle various POCs (like ISSOs or admins/engineers) to make sure they feed us the information in a timely and coherent manner.

I don't know what your family situation is, but if you're willing to move, check out places where they are desperate to fill positions, especially places where government contracting is a dominant source of jobs. It's all about billable hours so they'll put you in a position you're peripherally qualified for sometimes just to get the hours. Once you're in place you can do the sink or swim thing and they can always try throwing you at another contract. Government contracting is great because you rarely have to worry about people on work visas taking your shit since most contracts require the encumbents to be US citizens.

If you don't have a certification, look at things in the CISSP family. If you prefer the management side of things look at the PMP. For government contracting (especially DoD) there is a list of certifications needed to fill various positions on any given contract. Find one on the list you think you can get and set that as your short-term goal. Here is a list of the certs: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/857001m.pdf (see page 92) and the SANS classes that match up: http://www.sans.org/8570/
SANS is crazy expensive but is a gold standard for IT training. Some are pretty easy for nerds like us to get, like Security+, Network+, and A+.

For IT jobs I recommend DICE.com. USAjobs is good if you want to go to the dark side.

[Bhuryn]

There are TONs of free/semi-free job fairs all over the US for IT. Have you tried that route? Local career fairs can be a gold mine of networking.

Also, the whole business analytics is sort of moving away from pure IT these days unless the data you're working with is only legible to IT folks. Business Analytics has become a field in an of itself for a lot of companies.

[Tsa`ah]

You could try marketing research firms or state and federal census jobs.

Really any job where data is compiled and then disseminated. While you're not "the ideal" candidate, an IT back ground offers a unique appeal.

[DoctorUnne]

My resume is in purple Wingdings font