So as I stated in my last post, I'm on the prowl for a new job. I opened up my experience to the Universe, and promised to keep whoever was interested posted on my progress. This is one of those times. Welcome.
- My resume sucks. Well, it sucked. I got some feedback from a job site that was selling resume design services and, well, I took a lot of that criticism to heart. So I ripped it a new one and my resume is now 70% better. (And 30% shorter.) Point here is that your resume probably sucks, too. If I could afford a consultant, I'd have paid for the service and saved a bunch of time (and maybe had a 90% improvement), but I'm unemployed and you're probably not. So take that for what it's worth - free advice from a cheapskate.
- Almost all online job applications are horrendously bad. I've seen maybe two or three that got it right that were *not* dice.com or TheLadders. Truth is, when it comes to soliciting applicants, companies are better windows than doors. Bad user interfaces, annoyingly tedious arrays of form fields for employment history even when I just uploaded my well-formed resume in the previous screen, even obtuse instructions on how to associate a cover letter with my application once I've created *yet another account* and submitted my resume across ten pages. So, before you think, "I found ten jobs on this site! I'm going to apply to each and every one of them!," be careful what you're committing yourself to - each application is going to be way more time than you anticipated spending on one prospect. I'm not saying not to apply for positions for which you're qualified, rather I'm saying to *just* focus on those, Great Hunter. You will waste fewer spears.
- Why, oh why, did I have five recruiters from the same firm contact me in the course of a week? If you were to follow my lead on this, don't spend time on vultures. There's no way Harry, Dick, Tom, Sue Ellen, and Pat all had opportunities perfect for me. In fact, I'm pretty sure they were competing for the same placement based on their respective descriptions. Not cool to dial for dollars. At least, not my number.
- I cultivated a relationship with one recruiter who didn't have anything in my salary range at the time. Then I refreshed the contact last week, and he still didn't have anything that wouldn't be a 20% pay cut. He kept suggesting those positions because they're what he had on hand. I am not a ball of meat. I disengaged by email on Friday.
- I am not a Java programmer.
- No, really. It's not something I do. Etc.
- I realized, based on my New Year's Resolutions, the process of rewriting my resume, and sludging through the current market, that I probably need to be with a consulting firm. The things that I love doing are not (a) spending dozens of hours on a funky little integration problem or (b) refactoring code for a release. Sure, I do those things - they're where I've made my money for some time and things like them are what will pay a chunk of my mortgage for some time more. And every time I do them, they have to be absolutely dead on. But the process is more important than the final development artifacts. From good requirements - even those redrawn over an iterative lifecycle - come "some thing" that works. That could be a .NET app, a neat Drupal integration, a business intelligence layer that didn't exist or work previously... The technical skills necessary in executing each are important. But far less important than managing to create that thing that pulls together the collective wisdom of many people. I like that overarching responsibility and a lot of job descriptions out there tacitly agree that *this is what employers want*. Yet, in practice, it's an outside firm that has the opportunity to pull that off. The chance to question assumptions, to create beyond the scope of current practice and break new ground forged with a client. Perhaps I'm being rosy and idealistic about this, but that's where the value of such a firm truly lies, and it resonates with me even as I write this.
Anyway, there are a few more potential lessons but I'm waiting to see if they're good advice (I should know this week) before doling them out.
Comments
sorry to hear
Sorry to hear about that, Jill. I've gotten a lot of interviews out of agencies in the past, too. But what I most often see even in those cases is *zero* transfer of information, just my resume in a stack along with ten other candidates, and five of us got to the interview stage. My story is more complex than those bullets portend, and I'm trying hard to do a better job of telling that story with my rewritten resume.
As an aside, I recently interviewed with a company that actually read my resume and a hiring manager said, "You know, you've got a lot of relevant experience for X position, but why aren't looking for a Y position?" That was possibly the best interview I've had in a long time and it was thanks to the improved resume. While it did not result in Y position for me, they still got me thinking of departing from X career path (and I'm in talks with them about X position again now, though the jury's still out).
Good luck with your search. I'll send any excess your way the moment I don't need it.
Job Search
I've been out of a job since October.
I totally agree about the online application process being totally obtuse - it's way more of a time-suck than it needs to be! And even with all the time spent filling out those applications (and I'm talking about *dozens and dozens*!), I only got one phone interview out of them. The only way I've gotten face-to-face interviews is through job agencies.
It sounds like you're looking for something a bit more specialized than what I've been applying for, so maybe you'll have better luck. I hope you do!