Work In KC Area?

[Aaron]

> > It's all about your attitude.
>
> And the attitude of the employer.  It is a two-way street.  I'd hire
> someone with experience and no degree before I'd hire a degree with NO
> experience.  Most jobs are the other way around.
> >
> > Third.  I still, in this economy, get two or three offers a month to
leave
> > my current position for same or better benefits and pay.  The jobs are
out
> > there.
>
> Yep, all at Wal-Mart for $5.75 an hour.  The businesses that pay poorly
> have high turnover, and those that pay well have little or no turnover.
> Lots of jobs if you don't have a wife, kids, mortgage, car payments,
> school loans to support.  Live like a pauper, that's exactly what
> businessmen like in their workers, as they drive home to Leawood in their
> new Lexus.

I'm not sure how to respond.  I don't know if you're employed or not, but if
not I can probably tell you, from the two statements above, why.

The fact of the matter is that you need to give the employers a reason why
they should hire you.  They already have jobs.  There are LOTS of good
paying tech jobs out there for people with the right qualifications and
attitude.  The people who have experience who are having problems are the
people who have been working at someplace like Sprint for the last 5 tears,
have gottent thier knowlage base into a rut and aren't "cutting edge"
anymore.

You're right.  You might not be able to find a six figure job developing
Linux applications in this market.  You might have to settle for $50K a year
as a Windows admin for awhile.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day.  He has a Masters Degree in
Computer Science and 15 years of experience.  He's been unemployed for the
last 4 months.  He was basically whining to me about how there were no jobs
available.  I asked him how many resumes he'd sent out.  "Thousands" he
replied, "I apply for every job that comes along."

"Great. How many phone calls have to made?"

"What do you mean?"

His problem is he's lazy.  Either that or he doesn't know how to apply for a
job.

Here is how you get a job.  (I should be selling this stuff....)

1.  Find a company you want to work for or a position that interests you
either through the newspaper, online job searches, friends, reletives, etc
etc.  For the company part.  They don't need to have a position open.

2.  Do a little reaserch on that company.  Make sure you know what they do.
Call the company and ask for a person's NAME in human resources that you can
submit a resume to.

3.  Create a personalized cover letter addresses to that person and explain
why you want to work for them.  You're interested in thier products, you
heard they were working on a new application, you admire thier long history
of quality, etc etc etc....

4.  Include a ONE PAGE resume.  (if you don't know how to write a resume,
that's another class. :) )

5.  E-mail it in MS Word format (Yes, swallow your pride and send it in
Word.)

6.  The same day (!!!)  send a hard copy by mail, addressed to the person in
the company who's name you got in step 2.

7.  Wait one week.  Chances are you won't get a call.  If you do then that's
even better.  After your week, call the company and ask to speak to the
person you sent your resume to.  If you get thier voice mail leave a message
with your name, phone number and tell them you are calling to follow up on
the letter you sent.  (Don't say it's about a job)  Call at different times
of the day once a day for a week.  If you don't get ahold of anyone and they
won't call you back move on to the next job.

8.  When you get ahold of the person say this - "Hi.  This is Buggs Bunny."
replace Buggs Bunny with your own name please.  "I sent a resume in a week
go for the boot licker position." Please replace boot licker with the actual
position you're applying for.  "I'd like to schedule a time to get together
and discuss any questions you have regarding my qualifications.  Would the
end of the week be good for you?"

You didn't beg for an interview.  You didn't ask if they got your resume,
the mail is pretty reliable and you sent it two different ways.  You didn't
ask if the position was still open, that gives them an out and you really
didn't make an interview optional for them.  You're calling to schedule YOUR
OWN interview.  About 50% of the time you'll catch someone who is SWAMPED
with resumes, trying to sort through them and hasn't had time to get back to
people, or may just be taking the top 10 off the stack without reading them.
You have them on the phone.  You've already saved them time and done some of
thier work.  90% of the time they'll say, "Okay, can you come in next monday
at 2?"

There you've gotten your interview.  Getting through that is a whole other
e-mail and I have to go. :)  I'll do part two later.  Just for further
reference.  I have never had an interview for a position I wasn't later
offered.

I know this is all very frustrating and that alot of you have families
depending on you.  You can't let the current morket get you down.

Aaron