[I really liked Steve's message, and thought others on this list might find it valuable... --Hal]
----- Forwarded message from Steve Simmons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ----- Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 09:02:35 -0500 From: Steve Simmons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Brad Knowles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, lois garcia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [SAGE] Job search strategies User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Precedence: bulk Subject was: Re: [SAGE] Need help creating Sys Admin major This is for Lois, and for other folks looking for work. As will become very apparent, my situation was quite different from Lois', but I think some of the things that worked for me will work for her. On Wed, Feb 18, 2004 at 03:01:33AM +0100, Brad Knowles wrote: > At 2:45 PM -0800 2004/02/17, John Sechrest wrote: > > > This is the phase in the employment cycle where people who > > have degrees and who have experience, win out over people who > > don't have degrees. > > With regards to stupid HR departments and pointy-haired managers, > the same is true for certifications as well as actual degrees. They > filter based exclusively on the resume', and then take the top 10% > (or whatever) and actually give a moment of thought to them. Having just survived 16 months of unemployment, let me toss out a few random comments on what did and didn't work. That 16 months may be a bit misleading; the last 6 of it was when I did the most serious and dedicated looking for work. But for a sysadmin with 25 years of experience and a major reputation, it was quite a sobering experience. Blindly sending resumes didn't work, not once. Interesting cover letters did work a couple of times. The best case of that was a company that (in the middle of a huge tech slump) advertised for an experienced programmer/admin to become a full-time trainer for programmers. This seemed to be the kind of company that put its money where it's mouth was with respect to making employees productive and treating them right. I said so in the cover letter and said that I was deeply interested in working for a company that did that. It got a personal response and a recuiters name I could stay in contact with. The biggest response I got was "you're overqualified". We didn't want to move if possible, especially for the first 12 months while our youngest finished his last year of high school. The combination of "you're overqualified" and not wanting to move meant no local interviews (zero, not one) for nearly a year. Around here nobody is leaving jobs at that level, nobody is creating jobs at that level, and that means no interviews and no motion. In spring I began looking outside the area. Sending blind resumes was pretty much useless, but networking and persistance worked. In two cases I was introduced to the company by a current employee, and the internal recruiter liked me well enough that I had three separate interviews there. Staying in regular touch with those recuiters and daily scanning of their job postings was a big clue that I was interested. Neither wound up being a job, but as one recruiter put it, "we need to change our selection criteria." Damned right. At the same time I started more actively fighting the "overqualified" problem locally. One place I targeted heavily was the University of Michigan, where I now work. I knew a lot of folks there, and they knew I was unemployed. But somehow nobody ever called me about positions they knew of. The refrain "you're overqualified" was pretty regularly repeated. So I started actually applying for positions under folks I knew, including positions for which I was grossly overqualified. It worked; they finally got the clue that I was willing to take the jobs that were there rather than wait for the one 'at my level.' It was still a difficult fight; the U had just laid folks off and for six months they give very heavy consideration to hiring back before considering others. But once that six months was over, I'd interviewed with a lot of folks who knew that I was seriously interested and who talk to each other. Now I'm the one-man-band UNIX sysadmin at the School of Public Health, once again getting my hands dirty to the elbows and cleaning up years of neglect. So what worked and what didn't? Use the job boards like Monster, etc, but don't expect any results. They were utterly useless except as indicators of where jobs were. Applying through them got silence or auto-responders, with only two -- count 'em, two -- responses from human beings. That's out of 500 to 1000 electronic resumes sent. Monster is where you find out who's looking, but if you apply your paperwork is lost in the blizzard. Research. Read the companies web pages, use Google to search for things *about* the company. For many companies, you can often find the names of managers or staffers who are relevant to the position you're applying for. Names are important! Keep them, remember them, use them again when they advertise another position in six months. After the second call, they'll remember you. Find the names of the hiring managers if possible, HR folks if you can. Get your friends and local technical groups to help. I sent a lot of email that read "do you know anybody who knows anybody at XYZ Corp." Then send paper resumes with carefully targeted cover letters to real human beings (by name! not by position.) When I could do that I got nearly a 10% response rate. The research is hard, but it pays off. When calling personell or recruting departments, try not to leave phone messages on first calls. The recipient deletes them without feeling guilty. Call, and call, and call. Call until you catch them in their office. Then they'll usually give you about 60 seconds. Make sure you say something interesting and useful in that 60 seconds. Practice it, so you can say it clearly and without rushing. And if the phone number you're calling seems to be nothing but an answering machine, you need to do more research. If you interview with a company, make sure you get names of everyone you interview with. Use them again when the company advertises another position. You've made a personal connection of a sort, use it. Make friends with the recruiters. No, don't send them cookies. Do what they need -- get them a qualified candidate (you) for an open position with the minimum work on their part. Once you've spoken with a recruiter, drop them an email once a month or so saying you're still available. It shows you're interested, keeps your name in their head, but doesn't take up much of their time. But contact them immediately when there's a position you're a good fit for. Check their company job boards every day, and contact them immediately. It shows your diligence, and the first person to respond is the easiest to remember. That also means not applying for things you're not fully qualified for, too. Several place told me that the same guy has applied for every single opening they've ever posted. His resume became 'trash on sight.' Waste a recruiters or managers time, and your will become the same. Don't bother with contacting job shops thru Monster, etc. Instead, ask locals who work for the shops to give you the name of their handler, and contact that person. Develop a set of bookmarks of company job pages and their job boards. Applying through a company's web page is generally better than applying through the same job on Monster. Save those bookmarks in a folder, and use a browser which will let you open an entire folder of bookmarks at once. It makes your daily search much easier. It helps to have an interesting web page (http://lokkur.dexter.mi.us) with work-related material (http://lokkur.dexter.mi.us/TechWriting/) and general stuff about you (http://lokkur.dexter.mi.us/Writing/). They were a major help in getting those recruiters interested; in several cases they were mentioned positively by the staff I was interviewing with. And even if you don't mention it in the cover letter, if you have a web site, assume you'll be googled. Don't put things on your web page you don't want seen. Duh. Good luck! Steve ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Hal Pomeranz, Founder/CEO Deer Run Associates [EMAIL PROTECTED] Network Connectivity and Security, Systems Management, Training _______________________________________________ EuG-LUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.efn.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/eug-lug
