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I suppose that there are those that believe that they learned everything that they needed to know in life in high school or college. I tend to think that you make yourself a more well-rounded individual by continually updating your professional education by attending seminars, reading books and taking classes. One of my goals is to be a lifelong learner.
While, in general, I’d prefer to interview face-to-face, the phone screen interview does have its place during the initial selection process. Here is how to use the phone screen interview process to your advantage as the candidate.
You don’t normally have to go looking for recruiters. They usually find you. Just place your resume at some of the most popular job boards and it’s “open season” on recruiters seeking you out to fill their contract jobs. When you are unemployed, that can certainly be a good thing. I’ve found, however, that not all recruiters are created equally. Some are not worth your time and are just not a good match to help you.
When I lost my job at the end of November, I knew that it couldn’t have come at a worse time. There were those that told me that there would be few opportunities through the end of the year, and as hard as I worked to try to prove them wrong, they weren’t.
As part of my severance package for the job that I lost at the end of 2012 the company provided to me a company to help me through the job transition. I call the person assigned to me my Career Coach. Her name is Carla and she has been terrific to work with. Not only does her company provide group training sessions on such topics as interviewing and networking, but they also provide 1:1 guidance sessions.
Friends, I’ve come as close to NOT being unemployed any longer as I have recently. About 2 weeks ago I interviewed with a company where they revealed to me that I was 1 of 3 final candidates and that they would make a decision the next day. When I didn’t hear anything the next day, I was still undeterred. It seems unlikely that a company would interview 3 candidates and make an immediate decision. What transpired beyond that is a bit bizarre.
I’m not talking about working as an IT guy in healthcare versus working in IT in the finance industry. I’m talking about have you ever considered getting out of IT and doing something completely different?
I certainly remember starting my career where being in IT meant you knew everything about computers. You knew how to build one. You knew how to program one. Everyone came to you for advice on everything from writing software to creating a network. All of your family relied upon you for support. Okay, that part hasn’t changed!
I’m getting to the point in my life where I’ve got a few gray hairs. OK, maybe more than a few. Who am I kidding? I’m middle aged, but at the peak of my career with experience, wisdom and leadership. During my recent layoff I lost my job along with several hundred other folks at my company. One of the things that got me thinking about my age for the first time was that they included a letter in my severance package that showed the titles of each of the persons in my department and their ages. The only 2 of us relieved from duty from my immediate team were “over 40”.
I invited my friend, Joe, over last night to hangout, shoot some pool, drink some beer and talk about life. Joe's been out of work for awhile and I was interested in talking about our job searches. He and I have been working in Project Management in recent years and I wanted to pick his brain about what he’s been seeing out there and what industries and opportunities he’s looking at. In some cases we’re competing for the same spots, but I was more interested to see what he is learning about the local job market since he’s been looking for about 4 months and I’ve only been looking for about 4 weeks.
With the resumption of “The Laid Off IT Guy!” blog my hope is to dole out good advice about what I’ve seen that works and what doesn’t work while performing a job search. In this addition, let’s talk about finding job leads. There is time well spent and time wasted. Doing it the right way will save you hours of time spent in front of the computer.
