How to get a job after being unemployed for 3 months?
October 14, 2015 9:43 PM Subscribe
How to get a job after being unemployed for 3 months?
I've now been out of a job for about 3 months now. I lost my job due to politics in the office and was thrown under the bus. Though I cannot say I didn't have any responsibility of the mistakes that were made, I feel that it wasn't justified of letting me go over them.
But to the point. I was working in IT as a Systems Administrator and live in San Francisco. But I've been applying for jobs daily and seem to be overqualified for Helpdesk positions or under qualified for Admin or Networking positions. I've applied to over 100 positions and in different cities but can't seem to get many interviews or land a job. I use all the sites to apply for IT jobs (Indeed, dice, craiglist and I also have an IT recruiter). What should I be doing differently?
My other question is, if I want to do something else out of IT (since it seems like I can't get a job), what jobs could I get with 10 years of IT experience?
I've now been out of a job for about 3 months now. I lost my job due to politics in the office and was thrown under the bus. Though I cannot say I didn't have any responsibility of the mistakes that were made, I feel that it wasn't justified of letting me go over them.
But to the point. I was working in IT as a Systems Administrator and live in San Francisco. But I've been applying for jobs daily and seem to be overqualified for Helpdesk positions or under qualified for Admin or Networking positions. I've applied to over 100 positions and in different cities but can't seem to get many interviews or land a job. I use all the sites to apply for IT jobs (Indeed, dice, craiglist and I also have an IT recruiter). What should I be doing differently?
My other question is, if I want to do something else out of IT (since it seems like I can't get a job), what jobs could I get with 10 years of IT experience?
Try "Job Hacking". The job boards make it easy for companies and hard for you. This is no fun. Think like a salesperson. Pick a process that makes it easy for you and harder for the companies.
1. Identify companies where people do the job you want to do
2. Find names of hiring managers using LinkedIn premium or other websites
3. Guess the hiring managers' email addresses. use bcc: with a bunch of different variations/guesses.
4. Email the hiring managers. Your email should contain: a compliment about their career or their company's recent activity, a few sentences about you, and a request to meet them for coffee so you can learn from them about the industry. Do NOT ask for a job. Do NOT attach your resume.
5. Expect a response rate of 1 in 10 or so if you have a good email.
6. Meet. Talk to them. Ask their advice. Listen to it. Do NOT ask for a job.
Also, don't talk about office politics or anything negative about your previous jobs. Think like a salesman -- talking about politics, mistakes, layoffs, etc. makes you look bad. Talk as little as possible about this. Your story makes it sounds like you screwed up and are in denial about it. In the interview just talk about how the company was a great place to work and unfortunately they downsized for business reasons.
Good luck.
posted by sninctown at 11:24 PM on October 14, 2015 [12 favorites]
1. Identify companies where people do the job you want to do
2. Find names of hiring managers using LinkedIn premium or other websites
3. Guess the hiring managers' email addresses. use bcc: with a bunch of different variations/guesses.
4. Email the hiring managers. Your email should contain: a compliment about their career or their company's recent activity, a few sentences about you, and a request to meet them for coffee so you can learn from them about the industry. Do NOT ask for a job. Do NOT attach your resume.
5. Expect a response rate of 1 in 10 or so if you have a good email.
6. Meet. Talk to them. Ask their advice. Listen to it. Do NOT ask for a job.
Also, don't talk about office politics or anything negative about your previous jobs. Think like a salesman -- talking about politics, mistakes, layoffs, etc. makes you look bad. Talk as little as possible about this. Your story makes it sounds like you screwed up and are in denial about it. In the interview just talk about how the company was a great place to work and unfortunately they downsized for business reasons.
Good luck.
posted by sninctown at 11:24 PM on October 14, 2015 [12 favorites]
You're in San Francisco? Your job is now networking, and your job hours are every breakfast, lunch, and evening tech event you can find on meetup.com. DevOps, Big Data, Security, Startups -- you are about to become interested in everything. Do some googling on 'san francisco tech events' and you can find some more links on Quora and elsewhere, but really, Meetup has most of them. You should be out having beer and pizza every night.
For the local conferences or events that cost $, you're going to cold email them and ask if they need volunteers.
You're a network admin? You're going to Google for every Cisco, Arista, VMware, Juniper, etc User Group in the Bay Area. There's a VMware UG in Santa Clara on Oct 21 and a Cisco UG in Milpitas on Oct 24. Get on the train if you don't have a car.
Spend a little money on some business cards better than the cheapest. You have updated your LinkedIn profile, right? Make sure it has good keywords and job titles.
At each of these events you are going to go up to 10 strangers, say hi, and ask what they do or how they like the event. Only after they talk are you going to share your card and say you're looking.
When you're not at events, you're going to (a) subscribe to Pluralsight for $30/month and watch videos every day; (b) if you have a coding bone in your body, poke around some open source projects (OpenDaylight? Docker Networking? OpenStack?) and figure out how to contribute, even if it's just helping with documentation. List your github profile on your LinkedIn and resume; (c) start listening to Packet Pushers and other network engineering podcasts on your phone as you take Muni to all the events.
All this new training is going to give you something to talk about at the Meetups, help direct you to new areas you didn't know you were interested in, stop you from eating cheetos and watching Netflix all day, and will impress employers when you casually mention it.
You can continue to submit resumes for max 1 hour a day (don't customize them), but you have empirical evidence that this is not how you're going to get a job. (Was just at a conference where I asked a room of mid-level IT people if they had used a resume to get any recent job -- zero hands.)
Normally I'd recommend doing a lot of online forum stuff, but that takes longer and has a global reach, where you need a local one.
If you stay busy and meet enough people for 30 days, you will have some job leads. 60 days and you'll have job choices. If you're at all an introvert, this will feel like real work and you'll be so happy to just sit at a desk and configure routers, but you'll have earned it.
If you take the training & meetups seriously and investigate new areas, I would not be surprised if your entire career trajectory is influenced for the next decade.
You are one of the most lucrative career paths (tech/IT) in one of the hottest areas today (SF). Do not waste your time with Dice & Craigslist - get out there and meet people.
posted by troyer at 1:00 AM on October 15, 2015 [33 favorites]
For the local conferences or events that cost $, you're going to cold email them and ask if they need volunteers.
You're a network admin? You're going to Google for every Cisco, Arista, VMware, Juniper, etc User Group in the Bay Area. There's a VMware UG in Santa Clara on Oct 21 and a Cisco UG in Milpitas on Oct 24. Get on the train if you don't have a car.
Spend a little money on some business cards better than the cheapest. You have updated your LinkedIn profile, right? Make sure it has good keywords and job titles.
At each of these events you are going to go up to 10 strangers, say hi, and ask what they do or how they like the event. Only after they talk are you going to share your card and say you're looking.
When you're not at events, you're going to (a) subscribe to Pluralsight for $30/month and watch videos every day; (b) if you have a coding bone in your body, poke around some open source projects (OpenDaylight? Docker Networking? OpenStack?) and figure out how to contribute, even if it's just helping with documentation. List your github profile on your LinkedIn and resume; (c) start listening to Packet Pushers and other network engineering podcasts on your phone as you take Muni to all the events.
All this new training is going to give you something to talk about at the Meetups, help direct you to new areas you didn't know you were interested in, stop you from eating cheetos and watching Netflix all day, and will impress employers when you casually mention it.
You can continue to submit resumes for max 1 hour a day (don't customize them), but you have empirical evidence that this is not how you're going to get a job. (Was just at a conference where I asked a room of mid-level IT people if they had used a resume to get any recent job -- zero hands.)
Normally I'd recommend doing a lot of online forum stuff, but that takes longer and has a global reach, where you need a local one.
If you stay busy and meet enough people for 30 days, you will have some job leads. 60 days and you'll have job choices. If you're at all an introvert, this will feel like real work and you'll be so happy to just sit at a desk and configure routers, but you'll have earned it.
If you take the training & meetups seriously and investigate new areas, I would not be surprised if your entire career trajectory is influenced for the next decade.
You are one of the most lucrative career paths (tech/IT) in one of the hottest areas today (SF). Do not waste your time with Dice & Craigslist - get out there and meet people.
posted by troyer at 1:00 AM on October 15, 2015 [33 favorites]
Oh, and when you get the cards for the 10 people you meet at each event, you're going to email them a nice note the next morning saying that you enjoyed talking to them last night, remind them that you're looking for a network admin job if anything that comes across their desk, and your contact info. No resume.
As I said, this is rough for introverts. You will talk to a lot of people who do not have a job to give you, and that's ok. Just meet people and ask them questions about what they do.
posted by troyer at 1:06 AM on October 15, 2015
As I said, this is rough for introverts. You will talk to a lot of people who do not have a job to give you, and that's ok. Just meet people and ask them questions about what they do.
posted by troyer at 1:06 AM on October 15, 2015
I didn't notice LinkedIn in your list of what you've done - do you have a full profile set up (picture and extensive keyword collection for skills)? In my experience (not in your market), that's enough to get recruiters coming to you.
You said you have one recruiter - sign up with multiple ones.
As troyer said, you're in one of the best fields in one of the best job markets for it, so switching career paths isn't likely to be what you need. If you were in Systems Administration and your company wasn't up to modern par with DevOps techniques, start studying those and getting the keywords on your resume.
posted by Candleman at 2:10 AM on October 15, 2015
You said you have one recruiter - sign up with multiple ones.
As troyer said, you're in one of the best fields in one of the best job markets for it, so switching career paths isn't likely to be what you need. If you were in Systems Administration and your company wasn't up to modern par with DevOps techniques, start studying those and getting the keywords on your resume.
posted by Candleman at 2:10 AM on October 15, 2015
Three months isn't necessarily a long time to be looking these days, but you are at a point where you need to plug the gap on your resume. Line up a bona fide consulting or freelance project (paid or volunteer) that you can list to show that you're being productive and proactive with your time*.
(*Not to imply that job hunting isn't productive or proactive ... it's just one of those unfair realities [in my field/city, at least] that you need to demonstrate you're "doing something.")
Also nthing really utilizing your LinkedIn network. Do people know you're looking? Don't be afraid to message folks (privately, not as a blast post on your feed) to ask your connections to share leads with you. Just about all my interviews in my last two searches came through leads from people I knew personally rather than from job postings - or, if I saw a posting, I was able to follow up on it and often cut through the HR portal black hole through an "in" with someone I knew.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 3:32 AM on October 15, 2015
(*Not to imply that job hunting isn't productive or proactive ... it's just one of those unfair realities [in my field/city, at least] that you need to demonstrate you're "doing something.")
Also nthing really utilizing your LinkedIn network. Do people know you're looking? Don't be afraid to message folks (privately, not as a blast post on your feed) to ask your connections to share leads with you. Just about all my interviews in my last two searches came through leads from people I knew personally rather than from job postings - or, if I saw a posting, I was able to follow up on it and often cut through the HR portal black hole through an "in" with someone I knew.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 3:32 AM on October 15, 2015
Get a volunteer gig with a nonprofit that will let you stretch the time to cover the last three months too.
posted by corb at 5:15 AM on October 15, 2015
posted by corb at 5:15 AM on October 15, 2015
This is weird. An IT person should have no problem getting interviews in SF today if the resume is good other than a 3 month gap. A 3 month gap is nothing in IT.
Get another recruiter, have them go over your resume with you, and also make sure they do temp to hire placements. Being unemployed means you are available immediately and this is can be a plus in a hot market. Even someone like Robert Half Tech should be able to get you a decent temp to hire job.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:13 AM on October 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
Get another recruiter, have them go over your resume with you, and also make sure they do temp to hire placements. Being unemployed means you are available immediately and this is can be a plus in a hot market. Even someone like Robert Half Tech should be able to get you a decent temp to hire job.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:13 AM on October 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
More specialized is better. "Sysadmin" doesn't mean anything. "Active Directory expert" means something. Or whatever you can plausibly call yourself an expert in.
In IT an "expert" is someone who has read 3 books, done 1 project, and presented it. It doesn't take a huge amount of effort.
I actually haven't found merely attending meetups to be that valuable. PRESENTING at meetups is incredibly valuable. I'm still getting emails and feedback about a talk I did nearly 6 months ago.
You're not unemployed, you're an "independent consultant between gigs."
Indeed, Dice, and Craigslist are virtually useless. Recruiters are ... not useless, but not that great either. You get jobs by talking to people who have job openings. The trick is in finding those people.
posted by miyabo at 8:23 AM on October 15, 2015
In IT an "expert" is someone who has read 3 books, done 1 project, and presented it. It doesn't take a huge amount of effort.
I actually haven't found merely attending meetups to be that valuable. PRESENTING at meetups is incredibly valuable. I'm still getting emails and feedback about a talk I did nearly 6 months ago.
You're not unemployed, you're an "independent consultant between gigs."
Indeed, Dice, and Craigslist are virtually useless. Recruiters are ... not useless, but not that great either. You get jobs by talking to people who have job openings. The trick is in finding those people.
posted by miyabo at 8:23 AM on October 15, 2015
I recommend networking. It has worked for me after I was laid off. Three months is not a significant period of time to be unemployed. For every 10,000 of salary you want it is going to take you a month to find a new job that is a good fit.
Networking, which means meeting people, explaining your goals, listening to their goals, and staying in contact periodically, is an enjoyable way to look for work. Responding to help wanted ads is not.
Check out Reid Hoffman's approach to breakfast meetings in the latest issue of the New Yorker. It makes so much sense. I love it.
But you gotta build your personal network. People tend to hire people they know and trust.
posted by Nevin at 8:26 AM on October 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Networking, which means meeting people, explaining your goals, listening to their goals, and staying in contact periodically, is an enjoyable way to look for work. Responding to help wanted ads is not.
Check out Reid Hoffman's approach to breakfast meetings in the latest issue of the New Yorker. It makes so much sense. I love it.
But you gotta build your personal network. People tend to hire people they know and trust.
posted by Nevin at 8:26 AM on October 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
TenaciousB mentions searching employers own career sites rather than aggregators and is correct that there are a ton of jobs that never make it to Indeed, Dice or others. Going to individual company sites can be crazy time-consuming, but there is a hack I just learned about that looks like it will help a ton from my brief testing.
From here you can see google search strings to search across all companies that use one of the common Applicant Tracking Systems. (I've included them below as well, but check out that blog for other job hunt tips)
The most common ATS systems are Aplitrack, Bullhorn, Smartrecruiters and Taleo.
So for example, to search for sys admin positions posted on Aplitrak, use the following search string:
site:aplitrak.com intitle:"systems administrator" AND "[location]"
For the others:
site:bullhornreach.com/job intitle:"systems administrator" AND "[location]"
site:smartrecruiters.com intitle:"systems administrator" AND "[location]"
site:taleo.net (inurl:careersection OR inurl:requisition) "systems administrator" AND "[location]"
You can narrow your search to include jobs posted in the last week or the last month by clicking on “Search tools,” then “Any time,” and then selecting the time period desired. Bookmark your search string if you plan on returning to it frequently.
Good luck in your hunt!
posted by thatquietgirl at 10:59 AM on October 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
From here you can see google search strings to search across all companies that use one of the common Applicant Tracking Systems. (I've included them below as well, but check out that blog for other job hunt tips)
The most common ATS systems are Aplitrack, Bullhorn, Smartrecruiters and Taleo.
So for example, to search for sys admin positions posted on Aplitrak, use the following search string:
site:aplitrak.com intitle:"systems administrator" AND "[location]"
For the others:
site:bullhornreach.com/job intitle:"systems administrator" AND "[location]"
site:smartrecruiters.com intitle:"systems administrator" AND "[location]"
site:taleo.net (inurl:careersection OR inurl:requisition) "systems administrator" AND "[location]"
You can narrow your search to include jobs posted in the last week or the last month by clicking on “Search tools,” then “Any time,” and then selecting the time period desired. Bookmark your search string if you plan on returning to it frequently.
Good luck in your hunt!
posted by thatquietgirl at 10:59 AM on October 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, use LinkedIn to find out if people you know work at a company you're interested in. It's interesting to me to find people in my LinkedIn network who work at Company A - having moved from Company Z six months ago. A robust LinkedIn network can be very helpful! It was connections through that which got me my last job.
posted by dbmcd at 12:08 PM on October 15, 2015
posted by dbmcd at 12:08 PM on October 15, 2015
I have a friend who has worked in IT for the last ten years or so. He is a good guy but isnt very technical. He has made mistakes and I wouldn't call him one of the most reliable guys.
Strangely, he seems to move around from one IT job to another. I looked his stuff over and it seems that his knack for getting new certs all the time is the key. Maybe you can look into that. Add a cert. I know HR lovers them and that opens doors.
posted by gregjunior at 6:00 PM on October 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
Strangely, he seems to move around from one IT job to another. I looked his stuff over and it seems that his knack for getting new certs all the time is the key. Maybe you can look into that. Add a cert. I know HR lovers them and that opens doors.
posted by gregjunior at 6:00 PM on October 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by TenaciousB at 9:52 PM on October 14, 2015