[Loch-Ruadh] What Jesus Would DO!

Patrick Bixler pbwidget68 at yahoo.com
Mon Mar 1 15:40:41 PST 2004


The job market today is hard and sometimes you need to
humiliate yourself into a job.  I spent over 2 years
looking for full time work.  During those 2 years I
took up temp jobs.  I changed my student job at Purdue
into a temp job until I found a real job.  But after
looking for almost a year I did not find anything.

I then took a huge chance, packed up my car and move
back here to texas to find a job.  I did not find
anything the first 3 months I was here.  I finally
started going door to door and found work at a temp
agency.  

But when I hit another 3-4 months of no work, I did
the super serious job search.  I applied for
unemployment at TWC, went in there every month, and
the last time I went in the guy told me to find all of
the government places I could and see what jobs they
had.

So I got onto google.com and ran searches for all of
the "City of" web sites between Weatherford to
Lewisville.  I looked up every single ISD in those
same areas.  I also looked up every college.  I was on
every online job board.  I started looking on
usajobs.com or govjobs.com or something like that.  My
search for a full time job became a full time job.  I
have bookmarked 59 web sites that I use to find jobs
in this area.

I finally caught a break when last summer I applied to
13 different IT jobs at UTA.  I had 3 interviews from
those.  1 of those interviews I was told I was
"overqualified".  But I had my choice of which one of
the other 2 jobs I wanted.

The thing is, I am way underpaid and overqualified for
the PC/Printer Tech job I am doing now.  I am paid
half of what I should be.  But hey, its a full time
job.  I am making 24k a year now when I should be
making at least 40k. 

The way the IT job market is today is not the way it
was 5 years ago.  There are no more bloated budgets
being spent on IT.  They are doing more for less, and
there are millions of other unemployed IT people out
there looking for the same job you are.  

Here are my tips for finding a job.

1. Don't use the online job sites.  They don't work,
because you and 8 million other people are looking at
the same job.
2. Network around. Talk to as many job recruiters that
you possibly can find.  There are quite a few in the
DFW area.
3. Every company, school, university, government
agency has a web site.  Look and see what they have.
4. Texas Workforce Commission has a list of jobs as
well, but not everything that is available in the
area.
5. Make looking for a full time job your full time
job.
6. Take what you can get, not what you want.  Humble
yourself into a job.  You can still look for that
better job while working the crappy one you find.
7. Drive around and see what companies are out there.
There are quite a few off of 360 and all of the exits
from 30 to the airport.  While you are driving around,
stop off at places and see if they are hiring, fill
out an app and drop off your resume.
8. Make a plan.  Small steps are better than a giant
leap.  
9. Find a way to branch out your skills.  I am a "jack
of all trades" type of IT person.  I find that to be a
plus since I am not locked into a single job title
like "System Administrator" or "PC Technician" or
"Disaster Recovery" or "Network Engineer".  I can do
all of those things.

One of the things that I hate to say is that Fort
Worth is bad for IT jobs, but I see jobs all of the
time in Dallas and Plano.  Landing the job at UTA in
Arlington is a springboard to get me into Dallas and
Plano and hopefully that bigger paying job making 40k
or more a year.  

UTA will pay for my certifications like A+, Dell, HP,
and Apple.  They will reimburse me on MSCE if I pass
the exams.  I am finding that more and more places are
looking at certifications over education.  So I will
not be leaving UTA until I get the certs that I need.

Many of us have been in the same place of not finding
full time employment.  Heck, when I first moved to
Indiana, the first job I got there was unloading
trucks in the middle of the night for Walmart.  It was
a crappy job, but at least I had money in my pocket.

That is my dollar fifty's worth of story and advice.

Eirikr

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