[olug] Finally, geek for a living

[John Dickson]

>There are tons of people out there that have experience, but
> the farther they get from their last IT job (or schooling) the less
> attractive they become as employees.



I think I have become more attractive with age. I hear it all the time, "Men season with age, women sour". Not that I am offended or soliciting.




Bill Brush <bbrush at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote ..
> 
> Well the period we're in right now in IT is a contraction/consolidation
> period.  The IT job market will probably never return to the conditions
> in
> the mid 90's where anyone with even minimal qualifications could get a
> job
> in IT.  Since there was the massive buildup of "IT" people in the 90's,
> especially Web content developers, there became a glut on the job market
> of
> people who were at least nominally qualified.
> 
> Major economic trends seem to lag about two years behind the coasts to
> get
> to Nebraska, so the "recovery" that started a while back should be getting
> here sometime in the next year or so.
> 
> >From an IT standpoint we're getting far enough from the "bust" that most
> of
> the people who were cut loose have either found jobs (many probably not
> in
> IT), or moved for greener pastures.
> 
> >From a hiring standpoint I'd be more likely to hire a fresh-face
> know-nothing newbie right out of school who has been actively working with
> computers recently than a guy with several years of experience which all
> happened 2 or 3 years ago (providing this was an entry or near-entry level
> position).  There are tons of people out there that have experience, but
> the farther they get from their last IT job (or schooling) the less
> attractive they become as employees.  When I'm going through a bale of
> resume's and I see someone who got out of school or left their last IT
> related job 2 or 3 years ago, I figure there's a reason he hasn't been
> hired somewhere, and he goes in the "No" pile.  Maybe that's judgemental,
> but when I have 50-100 resume's I don't have the time to give everyone
> the
> benefit of the doubt, and quite frankly I don't need to as their are plenty
> of qualified applicants without that.
> 
> The thing that can set you apart when you're looking for a job, especially
> interviewing is if you can demonstrate that you have some initiative and
> genuine enthusiasm for the technology.  If you go into an interview and
> they ask you "So what computer related publications do you read on a
> regular basis?" and your answer is "uhhhhh, let me think...... none." then
> your're probably not going to get the job.  But if you go in, show that
> you
> have a genuine interest in expanding your skills, and are willing to do
> it
> on your own then that makes an impression; because, that is VERY rare.
> If
> you get out of school, go to work at Target, and never look at another
> computer figuring that whatever job you get will train you to be a computer
> guru, you're probably going to be at Target a LONG time.  Probably the
> most
> impressive interviewee response was when I asked him if he had any
> experience with app X.  He said yes, because when he'd done some checking
> after the interview was scheduled, seen that we used it, went out
> downloaded the eval version, installed it and gotten a basic understanding
> of it before the interview.  That showed us he had initiative, interest
> in
> both the job and what it would take to do the job, and that he was prepared
> to take it upon himself to get those skills.  With that one answer he got
> the job offer.
> 
> This got a little longer than I intended, but hopefully you'll find it
> encouraging.  I think anyone who bothers to be on this kind of a list
> probably has what it takes to be an IT professional, it just takes some
> work to get that first break.
> 
> Bill
> Nebraska Educational Telecommunications
> CNE
> 402-472-9333 ext 589
> 
> Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds.
> The
> latter cannot understand it when a [person] does not thoughtlessly submit
> to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses their
> intelligence.
> --Albert Einstein
> 
> olug-bounces at olug.org wrote on 08/18/2004 11:26:55 PM:
> 
> > <my .02>
> > I'm in the process of getting a (3rd) degree in CompSci because I had
> > the work experience (on Mainframes). I kept seeing ads for people with
> > CS degrees and I decided nothing is going to open up for me anyway
> > because of my work experience being mostly mainframes. This economy
> > sucks right now insofar as tech jobs are concerned. I hope there will
> be
> > more tech jobs when I'm done but it doesn't look promising.
> >
> > </my.02>
> >
> > Don Kauffman
> >
> > On Wed, 2004-08-18 at 19:13, OBrien, Timothy (Omaha Linux Users Group
> -
> > OLUG) wrote:
> > > Even with the work experience it is a hard, uphill fight. =(
> 
> 
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