Relocation and finding an IT job in Chicago

January 4, 2007 6:33 PM

I'm a Linux systems administrator / web programmer looking to relocate to the Chicago area in the next couple of months. Where do I start my job hunt?

I'm Albuquerque, New Mexico born and raised and while I've got a pretty good handle on how hiring practices work out here (i.e. rampant nepotism and general skullduggery), I'm rather clueless as regards finding a job in a large city where I've got no contacts. I've got a resume on Monster.com and it's garnered a decent amount of response, but mostly from recruiters and companies on the West Coast. Should I work with a recruiter of some stripe? Is it better to troll classifieds, craigslist, etc. and apply directly? What range of salary should I expect? How about relocation expenses?

If it helps, I've got a resume linked from my vanity domain: http://signalnine.net [PDF].

posted by signalnine to Work & Money (11 answers total)

This might be worth a look, if it hasn't been filled already.
posted by rossination at 9:52 PM on January 4, 2007

When I wanted to relocate to Texas to be close to my S.O., I found a job with a local university. They don't often advertise jobs, and usually have a hard time filling jobs because the pay rate's a little lower... but the jobs can be pretty easy. (And I get to work out at the student rec, which has it's own benefits...)

After a year in this job, I've got a good feel for where to look for a better paying job in one of the bigger markets, and I'll jump ship when the perfect job shows up.
posted by SpecialK at 10:00 PM on January 4, 2007

I moved to the Boston area about six months ago. My job searching was exclusively craigslist. (Oh, okay, I also sent Google a resume through a friend, but that's it.) It worked wonders. Last time I had searched for a job, my reply rate was probably something like 10%. Probably less. Through craigslist, it was at least 50%. If not more. It was excellent.

And you can be sure that the kind of companies that are posting on craigslist (and MeFi jobs) are a little more hip than average.
posted by Plutor at 4:53 AM on January 5, 2007

Job ads in newspapers can be a longshot, but you could check out the Chicago Tribune (they use careerbuilder), or The Daily "Hal" if you're looking for something in the suburbs. You can also try one of the user groups, though they sometimes tend to cater more to hobbyists.

The only better way to find a job is through networking and personal contacts, which can be tough if you're trying to relocate.
posted by SteveInMaine at 6:44 AM on January 5, 2007

you can make rss feeds of your favorite chicago job searches in indeed. its pretty bad ass.

i'm also a linux admin/web guy trying to relocate and i'm not getting many hits, i'm hoping its just the time of year and not that i suck.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 6:48 AM on January 5, 2007

When my husband changed tech jobs last year he had the best luck with craigslist. There are also lots of tech recruiters who might be able to help.
posted by sugarfish at 6:56 AM on January 5, 2007

I noticed Python on your resume. You should check with the Chicago Python Users Group -- either show up to the monthly meetings or just post a job inquiry to the mailing list. We're a nice group of folks. :)

Clearly Chicago has other user groups as well, along with a tech community that doesn't have the reputation of Silicon Valley but recently has been getting itself organized. Check Tech Cocktail and Tech Social for networking opportunities. Good luck!
posted by adrian_h at 7:57 AM on January 5, 2007

I'm going to nth craigslist. I've been looking for my ideal job (telecommute 2/3rds of the year) for a while, but haven't recieved a whole lot of traction, mostly because recruiters don't read very well. I've posted in multiple cities with my requirements and have recieved a lot of responses.

If you go this route keep in mind that you're gonna deal with the regular craigslist nonsense of resume harvesters and such. Make sure that you ask if they have a position actually available. I wouldn't respond via email to anyone that seems shady unless you have a good spam filter on your account.

I get a lot of responses from monster and dice.com as well. Those mostly come from recruiters. I don't particularly trust recruiters, so if this is your first time job hunting in a while I would give you the following advice for dealing with them:

1)Make sure that they are offering you a job and not an opportunity to put your personal information in their database.
2)Ask them what the range for the position is before you give them a figure for your expected salary. Don't put money into their pocket that should be going into yours.
3)Don't give references until you're positive you're a candidate for a job and you trust your recruiter. Some shady recruiters will add your friends to their database with out your permission and start soliciting your friends.

I'm also going to nth going through local development user groups. Not only will you get potential leads, but you'll have a development community to get in with. It looks good to employers when you say that not only can you rely on your own skills but you have the skills of the local community group to ask questions to and a resource to educate fellow employees.
posted by kookywon at 10:04 AM on January 5, 2007

First, try job boards. Look at 37 signals, Joel on Software, etc.

I looked at your resume, and I can't tell what your speciality is. You seem to be selling yourself as a jack of all trades in IT. That usually doesn't work out so well. Most shops want a very good web programmer, who knows enough *nix/admin stuff to get by, or a star sys admin who knows enough perl/bash to do his job. Pick one or the other and go with it. Its great to sell linux experience and all that, but if you want to do programming that should be front and center - and vice versa if you'd rather do sys admin.

You seem to have a wide range of experiences, which is great, but you really need to specialize and sell yourself as an expert in *something* in IT. Also, do you have a technical blog, open source contributions, anything like that you could point employers to?
posted by rsanheim at 12:35 PM on January 5, 2007

Response by poster: rsanheim: That's a pretty good point. Perhaps I should create a couple of different resumes, targeted towards different positions. I do both administration and development currently. Administration as a day job and development work on a contractual basis, so I'm willing to take on a job doing either, depending on compensation.

I do have a web development portfolio, should I put that in my resume itself?
posted by signalnine at 12:42 PM on January 5, 2007

Yes, definitely. Real work you have done always wins over lists of accomplishments. Portfolios are definitely a good thing, especially if they point to live sites or working apps.
posted by rsanheim at 9:03 PM on January 5, 2007