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Struggling to find a new job

hepcat

By hepcat,
in Huddle Lounge

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hepcat Grand Master

hepcat

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1 hour ago, Inimicus said:

I would never recommend that someone not be completely honest on a resume.  If I found out someone had outright lied on a resume Id walk to their desk and walk them out on the spot without regard for how well they were doing.  Its a complete non-starter for me.

 

Instead you should include a cover letter that touches on the lack of upward mobility in your job and highlight that its a big deal for you to feel like there is room to grow.

More than that, and Im sorry if Im reading you wrong here, you need to look at this as your gig and music as your hobby.  IT is so competitive that if you cant really pour yourself into it 60-70-80 hours a week you'll fall behind.  I'm not talking work hours as much as I am talking about how much time you devote to your job and then self study/side projects outside of the 40-50 you'll put on the clock.  You have to be the guy in the break room talking up some new tech or programming trick (even if you're a systems guy you have to know a couple scripting languages).  Employers have too many options to invest in people who are just looking for a steady gig with benefits.

 

The very first question I ask in any interview is this:

Why are you a _______________ (programmer/network engineer/etc...)?

If the answer is anything that doesn't boil down to "Because I spend most of my free time doing this anyway so I might as well get paid" then the candidate is already in a hole.

I'm not suggesting lying on my resume, rather rearranging how the dates are structured to imply I've moved around more than I actually have. In my time working for the state I've technically had three job titles and worked for three different companies. If I list all of them on my resume it looks like I had three different jobs despite it really being the same job at the same location for 6 years. 

And I agree with everything you're saying. I've thought about it a lot. I agree it's better to whole-ass one thing than to half-ass a bunch of things. You talk about honesty, well the problem for me is I'm honestly not as interested in IT as music. There are people who have devoted just as much time to learning about computers as I have to learning about music. I can play 5 instruments which is like knowing coding languages for programmers. I'm a professional audio engineer and I've written, recorded, mixed, and sold songs to licensing agencies. Problem is those deals are few and far between and don't pay that great.

I'm never going to be as passionate about IT as I am about music. I can't fake interest in something I find to be just acceptable. At the end of my life I know I'd regret saying "I really did a great job with this IT work that no one is going to remember" over "I wrote songs people are still listening to today". I'm really not a slouch, I've been told by many people up and down the industry I'm a great songwriter.

So you can see why I'm frustrated. I can be a musician, be extremely poor, probably be alone because what woman wants to spend her life with someone who is making minimum wage their whole life, and be unhappy because I'm alone, poor, and living in squaller. Or I can work in IT (or various other industries that I feel "meh" about), give up or greatly reduce the amount of time I spend playing music, live in a decent house and have enough to maybe retire one day, but be full of regret because I know I didn't do the things in music I was capable of. And maybe also be alone because of that reason. What woman wants to be with a man who is deeply unhappy doing something they aren't passionate about. Either way I'm unhappy in some way.

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Anybodyhome Grand Master

Anybodyhome

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21 hours ago, thefuzz said:

Gotta be honest here man....you need to leave Austin.  I know it's cool, and hip, and every other word....but you need to start considering your life long term.

 

I heard something the other day that made perfect sense to me. I was obviously aware of the Austin craze a few years back when interest began peaking and the real estate market began a recovery long before the rest of the country.

Someone said, "Austin is outgrowing Austin."

Remember Charlotte in 1990 and what happened over the next 20 years? Very comparable and many of the same issues associate with such rapid economic growth, development and population: real estate, infrastructure (traffic), employment competition, etc. 

 

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Hoenheim Grand Master

Hoenheim

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On 5/25/2017 at 2:40 PM, hepcat said:

, be extremely poor, probably be alone because what woman wants to spend her life with someone who is making minimum wage their whole life, and be unhappy because I'm alone, poor, and living in squaller. Or I can work in IT (or various other industries that I feel "meh" about), give up or greatly reduce the amount of time I spend playing music, live in a decent house and have enough to maybe retire one day, but be full of regret because I know I didn't do the things in music I was capable of. And maybe also be alone because of that reason. What woman wants to be with a man who is deeply unhappy doing something they aren't passionate about. Either way I'm unhappy in some way.

You seem to be super concerened about finding a woman , I can understand though I've been single for 8 years and its not really a coincidence considering ive had all min wage jobs or close to it since i finished college in 2013. 

poo at least you have this IT stuff . Alot of my friends majored in computer science or business and I was that one dumbass that majored in something utterly useless , thus being unemployable from anything besides non-skilled labor retail/food joint jobs. I admit I don't have poo I'm passionate about but I can understand you saying you want to do what makes you happy. But If I had a choice to go back to around the time I graduated high school and "redo" my early adult life , I'd be alot less focused on hapiness and more foucsed on practicality of getting a good job soon instead of assuming im going to get a doctorate or professional level degree and racking up untold debt in the attempt to do so. Or hell I'd even join a military branch I'd probably would have been much better off right now in my mid 20s like a lot of my old classmates from gradeschool are just starting to get good paying positions and houses/families and I'm still working poo jobs that a 16 year old high schooler in decent physical shape could easily do. 

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hepcat Grand Master

hepcat

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On 5/25/2017 at 9:59 PM, SOJA said:

good luck man- how do you like austin 

was thinking about maybe trying to do my residency there 

 

What do you want out of a city? Austin has great weather 8-9 months out of the year (June, July, August...it's miserable), there's tons of stuff to do in way of music, film, outdoors stuff, etc. The problem with that is it's starting to be more like California with prices and quality of housing, there's a wait to do almost anything worth doing in this town especially when school is in session at UT, and traffic is beyond horrible. So depending on what you want you can make a great life here, or it might chew you up and spit you right back out. Austin is definitely not for everyone, but if you can fit into the style of the city it can be a great place to live.

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  • 4 weeks later...
hepcat Grand Master

hepcat

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I have an update on this - my girlfriend redid my resume for me and it seemed to do a lot of good. I started getting a lot more responses and interviews. I'm far along in the interview process with two companies right now and one is looking like they are going to make me an offer. I'll update when I have more info.

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ladypanther Grand Master

ladypanther

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1 hour ago, hepcat said:

I have an update on this - my girlfriend redid my resume for me and it seemed to do a lot of good. I started getting a lot more responses and interviews. I'm far along in the interview process with two companies right now and one is looking like they are going to make me an offer. I'll update when I have more info.

 

Good luck!

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Raskle Contributor

Raskle

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1 hour ago, hepcat said:

It looks like both jobs are going to pass on making an offer. Feeling very down and dejected. Not sure what to do next.

Slightly tweak the resume some more, ensure it has action verbs, rather than passive. Make sure you bring SMART goals that you achieved to the interview (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-based) to show that you can plan out your objectives and achieve them within a reasonable time frame. Always follow up afterwards with a thank you email, stating you appreciate their time in speaking with you, and if they have any further questions, you're happy to clarify. Things along those lines.

 

But above all, don't get dejected right now. You have a lot of positive going. No, you may not be getting those two particular jobs, but you got through the door on them, and the next one or two may be the big winner. Remember, you're making progress..better than before. Patience is sometimes a difficult thing to have, but eventually you will get to a spot that you like and are comfortable with.

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