Just have to put my two cents in on this one!!

I've been out of work since January 2002.  I have a whoop ass resume,
including CCNP, Novell, A+/Net+, and Solaris Admin certifications.  I'm
about 25 hours away from my Bachelors in CS and I"m currently attending
school so I can have that check mark on my resume too.  When I was
shitcanned by Andrew Corp as part of a huge move to ship jobs to China, I
was earning a 75000/year salary.  Currently I'm hoping for an offer from
an interview I went on last week, however it was sheer luck that I got the
interview.  Previous to that there has been nothing out there.  A friend
of mine whom works for AON Insurance says for every position they post,
they get about 2500 resumes in the first week of a posting.  Many of them
are from PHDs or people that hold several masters degrees with over 15
years experience.  This is my competition.  Here's the sad part -- AON has
hired many of these kind of people for between 30k and 40k for what I'd
call high level network and/or systems engineering.  There's not a lot out
there right now.  I don't care how good you are, the only thing that will
get you a job is persistence and knowing someone that can place you 
into a position.  I've survived by going out of my way to
find odd jobs here and there and working for as little as eight bucks an
hour.  I qualify for food stamps and welfare (but I'm not going to take
it).  When people say, for practical purposes, there is nothing out there
I believe them.  If you have a job, consider yourself fortunate.  Don't
minimize the plight of the unemployed.  For people like me, the longer I
don't work, the more difficult it will be for me to find a job.  We're
talking 19 months for me at this point.  It pisses me off me when someone
with a job says that those without aren't trying hard enough.  For about a
year my full time job was looking for a job.  I sent out between ten and
twenty resumes a day.  I was willing to relocate to anywhere in the
country.  I've written about 15 different cover letters that I send with
my resume tailored to the industry I'm targetting.  There are five
different versions of my resume for the same thing.  There's even the
stripped down version of my resume so I can try to get that low paying
helpdesk job.  Yes, I've been turned down for low paying helpdesk job
because I'm "over qualified"  For those with jobs that think a highly
qualified person can just go out and get a job, I challenge those people
to go ahead and personally help place some of these kinds of
people.  Instead of saying how easy it is to get a job, I'd like to see
some of these people put their words into action.  I know what its like
out there and it sure isn't pretty.  If I didn't love building networks
and wireless communications as much as I do, I probably would have decided
to change careers -- perhaps go into financing or real estate.

IT in the USA has forever and completely changed.  If it can be outsourced
offshore it will be.  At this point, I think the jobs that will remain in
the country will be the ones that physically require someone to be
onsite, so I'm interested in things like cable and wireless installations.

Just my two cents worth....

	mike