[olug] Finally, geek for a living

[Bill Brush]

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. =(