ok i need help, where are the creative free thinkers with a good business sense at?

itschrome · #1 (**permalink**) 11-06-09, 12:55 PM

Ok, here is the deal. I am now 3 months unemployed, highly skilled IT professional and i just cant get a damn job. I send out at least 5 to 6 resumes a day and here back on maybe one or 2 of them a week, out of which i get maybe one interview every two weeks. The jobs are out there but i just cant seem to get through HR to get them. This is were i want your help, i need good out side of the box ideas to get hired. your always hearing about some random person who went out side the normal and did something different to advertise them selves to job recruiters. I want ideas on what i can do to stand above the crowd.

EcSTSatic · #2 (**permalink**) 11-06-09, 01:14 PM

I work in IT at an Aerospace company. Our new CIO wants to downsize our IT dept of about 400 people by 20-40% by the end of the year. It is being publicized as trying to support a global enterprise, not a cost savings.
Anyway, the key areas of stability are in governance, business cases, integration testing and deployment.

It's too easy to outsource development or what the call commodity skills. You need to market a niche skill you have that is not replaceable or get into some sort of oversight group that works with companies and their external partners.

gary88 · #3 (**permalink**) 11-06-09, 01:20 PM

I saw a kid standing outside the board of trade the other day with a sign that said "Entrepreneur - need capital" and a bucket next to him.

submariner409 · #4 (**permalink**) 11-06-09, 02:09 PM

"In the Navy, you can sail the seven seas,
In the Navy, you can put your mind at ease..................."

Better yet, get into the Air Force and make a few bucks, stay in the U.S., and start a career. .........and they'll send you to school and pay for a degree.

itschrome · #5 (**permalink**) 11-06-09, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by submariner409

"In the Navy, you can sail the seven seas,
In the Navy, you can put your mind at ease..................."

Better yet, get into the Air Force and make a few bucks, stay in the U.S., and start a career. .........and they'll send you to school and pay for a degree.

I tried to join the navy back when i was 20. they turned me down do to weight.

i had to be 210lbs at time of weigh in i weighed 225lbs. i had lost 35lbs in two months to reach it. now i am 25 and have a bad back due to injury. which as a result of constant back painmakes working out hard and coupled with the stress weigh since i lost my job i now weigh about 310lbs......dont think they willl take me.

hardrockcamaro@mac.c · #6 (**permalink**) 11-06-09, 05:16 PM

Be careful re niche IT skills.

I am also a highly skilled IT guy, and my speciality is datacentre design with particular regard to high density cooling solutions and datacentre resource management (ie datacentre design & management).

But in a recession no-one is building datacentres and those in their jobs are hanging on to them.

I left my old company just before the recession hit and then struggled to find datacentre work as I was considered "over qualified" for normal datacentre stuff even though I was perfectly happy with the salaries. I've recently taken to lying on my resume, pretending to be "just" a datacentre engineer or team leader at best as I was out of work for 6 months. I am lucky to now have a *a* job, although low paying, doing basic IT work for a friends company.

At least it gives me motivation to do something with my photography and web design skills where I have been picking up the odd paying job which tops up my pay.

I'm still looking for datacentre work though as it pays well.

Best of luck to you, just go for whatever you can get, having several resumes pitched at different levels of job and make sure you use the same words as the job listing as HR people are stupid and don't realise you have the skills they want if you use different terminology for what is the same thing.

itschrome · #7 (**permalink**) 11-06-09, 06:57 PM

google is designing a new data center in new york. i dont know too much about it 'cept that they are taking bidders on the project. i know cause my old company was a design/engineering firm who was looking into. google is funny, they try to keep things hush hush, yet they use names like 'project oo-le data center' jee i wonder who that could be. haha

the recluse · #8 (**permalink**) 11-07-09, 12:35 AM

This is NOT to insult, NOT to flame, NOT to cause a riot, but...

it really is another reason why I gave up the whole "higher education" thing and stayed in a career where I work with my hands. I saw years ago that people all piling into the IT business was bad news; data compiling/entry was going to be almost completely automated by the time a few key systems were built. It was fun when nobody knew what was going on or how to compile systems and code, but with the right software now a days, it really is easy to do a lot by yourself...

MrEldo97 · #9 (**permalink**) 11-07-09, 01:02 AM

"Free Trade" The scam of "Free Trade". Every time we buy something at Walmart or something made in Red China or call a Sirius Radio call center in the Pilippines we are putting another American out of work. Don't vote for a politician who supports the swindle of "Free Trade" don't buy the B.S. of "Free Trade". "Free Trade" is nothing more than the goal of depressing the cost of labor in the USA by the corporations. Enacted by corporate stooges in Government and justified by corporate hacks in academia. It is a race to the economic bottom for every working man and woman in America. Every time you buy something made in Red China you are putting yourself out of work. I travel across the country in my job and I have seen how the the swindle of "Free Trade" has economically devasted HUGE areas of America. We must force the USG to end "Free Trade" now or we'll all be living like coolies in five years. STOP "FREE TRADE" NOW!

DILLIGAF · #10 (**permalink**) 11-07-09, 10:36 AM

Why do you think your not getting hired for jobs your qualified to do?If you can't see your weaknesses you certainly cannot work on them.And everybody has them.Post it up!You want sugestions we'll need to peek up your skirt a little further.

dkozloski · #11 (**permalink**) 11-07-09, 05:00 PM

Get a real skilled trade like electrician, plumbing, carpentry or maybe heavy equipment operator as a cushion to fall back on. With a real trade, an old pickup, and a box of tools you can always make a living and support your family. Pencil pushers are the first guys to hit the bricks in hard times and the most helpless. I always had a trade to fall back on and most of my acquaintences did too. I've seldom seen successful college graduates that were working in their degree field but I seen an awful lot of really good skilled tradesmen that were degreed or had a trade school education in a totally unrelated field. Dreams are great but when reality hits close to home you better be ready to grab a pick and shovel to put some food on the table. If you're too proud or too lazy to earn your living with the sweat off your brow you deserve to starve.

When you're out of work you take any kind of job you can get and no job is too menial. If you don't like the job, you turn it into the job you do like by always being on the lookout for extra stuff that you can do. Make yourself indespensible. I've seen go-getters elevate themselves from floor sweepers to managers in a matter of months using this technique. The guy running the business will recognize and reward the guy willing to bust his ass and do extra jobs just because they have to be done. Just the other day I had the general manager of the local Home Depot store help me load out some flooring. He was wearing a suit and a white shirt. He saw the surprised look on my face and said, "I can't stand around and watch when there is work to be done." Lazy bastards on the same job willl see you pass them by as you go up the ladder ahead of them. You can spot these guys a mile away because they're the ones trying to stab you in the back because you make them look bad.

"G$" · #12 (**permalink**) 11-07-09, 07:22 PM

Yo ITS CHROME... Where in the US are you looking for a job? I work in IT Sales targeting companies with the most amount of servers and the most data. I see the IT sector as very healthy compared to others. The reason I'm scratching my head is that all businesses' data is growing, everything is becoming digitized, everyone is implementing DR plans and a lot of company's IT departments are "short staffed" right now. So if you're a highly skilled IT professional...you must be doing "something" wrong. Without speaking with you, I recommend networking as much as possible...it's who you know most of the time if your resume doesn't stand out already. Also, have someone give you feedback on your resume and make sure to also write good, pleasant, concise cover letters. You're actually in sales right now, you're trying to sell yourself.

itschrome · #13 (**permalink**) 11-07-09, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by "G$"

Yo ITS CHROME... Where in the US are you looking for a job? I work in IT Sales targeting companies with the most amount of servers and the most data. I see the IT sector as very healthy compared to others. The reason I'm scratching my head is that all businesses' data is growing, everything is becoming digitized, everyone is implementing DR plans and a lot of company's IT departments are "short staffed" right now. So if you're a highly skilled IT professional...you must be doing "something" wrong. Without speaking with you, I recommend networking as much as possible...it's who you know most of the time if your resume doesn't stand out already. Also, have someone give you feedback on your resume and make sure to also write good, pleasant, concise cover letters. You're actually in sales right now, you're trying to sell yourself.

Sup G$ i'm in the albany Ny area. and i agree networking is HUGE, which is one of my problems. I have only been in town for a year and i dont know a whole lot of people. I'm not reall sure what my problem may be, i do know there is a large IT worker pool here in albany. Being the state capital is draws a lot of people into the area looking for office and IT work.

dkozloski · #14 (**permalink**) 11-07-09, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itschrome

First off, **** you. get a "real trade" what are you some backwoods inbreed hick who obviously has no idea what being IT can entail. Its about as real a trade as you can have. plumber, electrician, carpenter all great trades, but in no way are they any more 'real' than IT. I mean **** you with your 'real' trade skills, any dumb **** can do that shit. Believe me i know i use to be the maintenance manager of a resort, any any dumb **** could do the work i needed them to do as long as they applied them selves. I like to see any inbreed retard try to do what I can do. Its not lack of skills or drive its the whole job market right now. no matter how skilled you are there are more skilled people flooding the market for jobs they would other wise not be interested in. Companies are repeating the benefits of this by hiring guys who are taking 20k or more pay cuts to take jobs so they are making a pay check. That's hard to compete with. well any ways back to trades, the reason i dont do that work any more is due to a back injury that has me in constant pain. thats your pay off for having a real trade, a life of abuse on your body that will leave you miserable and in pain your whole life. **** that and **** you you dumb ****. go dig hole or something.

I must have jabbed a sensitive spot. For your information I worked military and industrial electronics and computer technology from missiles and spacecraft to mainframes, PCs and networks on and off for fifty years. When things were slow in the tech fields I worked at whatever I could find from plant engineer at a newspaper to facilities manager at a large regional airline. It sounds like you could stand a little more physical exercise and exhibit a more dynamic presence.

"G$" · #15 (**permalink**) 11-07-09, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkozloski

I must have jabbed a sensitive spot. For your information I worked military and industrial electronics and computer technology from missiles and spacecraft to mainframes, PCs and networks on and off for fifty years. When things were slow in the tech fields I worked at whatever I could find from plant engineer at a newspaper to facilities manager at a large regional airline. It sounds like you could stand a little more physical exercise and exhibit a more dynamic presence.

WOW. This thread just got all sorts of good. Koz by reading your first post you sounded like an old codger speaking down to someone and belittling what he does/wants to do for a living. But then the above post is a completely different tone like someone else wrote it.

And ITSCHROME, you can't let someone get under your skin that easy. It's obvious you have a temper. Relax, it's the internet. So quick to call names...He may be an inbreed but you can't assume that.

anyways, i'm out boys!