Landing a "Regular Job"?

sfe_software asks: "I'm an out-of-work programmer and systems administrator. I've reached a point where I have to find a job - any job - and I am finding this quite difficult. I'm apparently 'over-qualified' for everything from flipping burgers to fixing PCs at the local CompUSA. Noone wants to hire you at $6-$12/hour when you were making $45-$75/hour on previous jobs, yet, I'm not finding the high-paying work any more and need *something*. As a contractor, I've always kept a savings, but at this point that river is quickly running dry. What are other out-of-work techies doing? How do you convince a hiring manager that you aren't simply using them as a temporary stepping stone (even if this is true)?"

Comments

Are you sure that you aren't just using them?

[eugene ts wong]

I totally understand the difficult situation that you are in. In fact, I ended up giving up the IT career that I had and went into the retail market.

I think that employers want to know how long you want to work for them. When you go in and hand in your resume, do you explain to them that the IT market is not good right now? If you just go in and ask for a job, how will anybody know that you will still be around 3 months from now? How do *you* know that you will stay with the company 3 months from now?

Anyways, my story is that I moved to another city and planned on finding a simple retail job to get me settled in for a year. After that, I intended to find computer work. The reason that I wanted to wait a year, was because finding computer work is hard.

I would ask to speak to the manager, and when I saw him, I would say, "Hi. My name is Eugene, and I am new in town. I'm just looking for some work right now to help me get settled in for about a year. After that, I'd like to get some computer work. Have you got anything available?". This got a me a job the first day that I tried it. In fact, I got 3 interviews and 2 job offers. One was with Grand & Toy [stationary company] and the other was with McDonald's as an assistant manager.

People understand that the .com bubble has burst. Don't afraid to be honest with them, but you have to be honest with yourself.

If a job offer for an IT job comes your way at $50K/year, are you honestly going to stay around flipping burgers or running a cash register? If not, then you can't make promises to them.

yay for the military

[ft silent]

Myself, I always had an interest in submarines, action, and travel so I joined the military as a Fire Control Technician. Awesome job, I couldnt be happier...Im a computer junkie and was all self taught but they surprised me with 3 schools known as ISA, NSVT, and ANA. The first is fairly high level computer training, second is Network System Vulnerability Tech.(hacker school! sweet!!) and the third is Advanced Network Admin, which is godly. My self taught level covered me up to the last, and that one surprised me most, it covers EVERYTHING and then some. The guys that run that are extremely well paid in the civilian world(after the service) and work for almost every big tech firm in the country, except Micro$oft ;) I've been having a blast since day one. You probably have the option of being an officer, and on a submarine, my my thats nice pay.

Teach!

[gmaestro]

Many school districts in the US are at critical need for Tech Teachers. In fact, a program in texas will pay for your college + extras if you promise to teach in Tech (among other things).

If you find the right district (or private school gig) and you have the skills, they'll help you work around the certification thing while you work.

it might also help to be flexible about location.

Re:Oh my wealthyness

[Evro]

Unemployment will get you at least a 6 months buffer in any humane US state as well.

I was making $65,000 / year at my previous job, and when my employment there ended, I applied for unemployment. I was denied unemployment because I made too much money. Apparently, if you gross over $600 / week in New York State, you are ineligible for unemployment. I listed my position as "programmer" and they denied me because "executive, administrative and professional employees earning over $600 a week are exempt from the wage payment provisions of the labor law." I'm curious: does that mean I didn't pay into the unemployment system, since I had no hope of getting anything out?

Truck Driving

[Judg3]

I'm in (well was) the same boat you were in. I used to do all the systems and application managment on one of the largest Windows 2000 datacenters int he country, over 2300 servers. I've written articles for Hewlett-Packard newsletters about OpenView, written a few articles for Windows 2000 magazine, even see me in a book or 2 here.

Six months ago recession hit me. I lost a 65k/year job (Not to bad for Illinois) and the reserves started to go.

What did I do? Well, after an exhaustive search I found and settled on (quite happily I must admit) Semi Truck driving cross country. The company I work for pays for all the training, gets me my CDL, and sends me out in a truck. Pay is low for the first year (no more then 36k or so) but within a few years you go up to 60-70k/year plus.

Thing I dig about it, I only work 2 weeks a month. 2 weeks in a row mind you, but I have 2 weeks off. And Im getting paid for it. It's not as abnormal as I thought either, normal job stuff. Drive 8 hours, etc. Only thing is sleeping on the road thats odd.

And on the upside I get to work on my OWN projects now. I'm working on a free game for fun, and talk about war driving. How about over 2000 sites on a trip from Illinois to Oregon and back. Hell, if anything it's sweet for geeks. A lot of toys I get to bring with me on runs. Plus I do IT stuff on the side.

I used to work 15 hours a day. 3 hour round trip commute, plus 12 hours in the shop. Now I'm not so stressed, the money is good and you meet a lot of cool people.

So give it a shot. I went through Schneider Trucking but I see ads for a lot of other companies that do the same thing.
And yes, they hire ANYONE. Literally anyone. During training I was with 5 other IT pro's, one with a MIS. There was a college professor, and a housewife too.

Re:When all else fails, omit details

[ScuzzMonkey]

RE: overqualification

From my perspective, when hiring, it depends on the job. Am I going to find a programmer who is 'over-qualified' for a position? No, probably not--whatever experience they have that is over and above the requirements is cool, as long as they're willing to work the position for the pay that's offered.

But there are positions where I really want just a total drone, too--the ones where if the employee starts thinking too much, it just causes trouble. I don't need a junior level tech support guy trying to re-engineer my network. If he used to be a senior sysadmin, that's almost certainly what's going to happen. This is IT--there is no one right way to do anything. Watch /. for some great examples of people vehemently arguing over completely trivial optimizations or techniques or tools. Fine for a discussion board; not something I want happening in my IT department between a sysadmin and a junior assistant underling phone monkey who used to be a sysadmin.

Re:Cool!

[nolife]

Funny thing...
I did the same exact thing for the job I am at now.. I softened the resume and started getting calls. My last job paid below average for what I was doing and the one I have now pays above average so in the end I'm not really making that much less. Of course now I deal with end users which I thought I'd never have to do again. Bottom line, it pays the bills and I am not under any pressure. I want to eventually move around again and I hope this job will not be a negative in the future, I'm trying to stay in the loop. I actually have fun calling the system administrator and telling him that the mail/file/backup/etc server is all jacked up again. Then I add a "maybe you should just reboot it again" ;)