November 11, 2003
This burns me up...
OK, someone has a wicked sense of humour. This morning, after Carla had posted about the current difficulties in the IT market that I'm facing a leaflet drops through the door with this text on...
Make your living as a...
- PC engineer
- Bookkeeper
- Office Professional
- Webdesigner
- Network Engineer
- E-Commerce Professional
You could be qualified and in a rewarding career in less than 9 months. We can help you earn 750 ukp per week.
Thousands of jobs available NOW!
Sorry, where are these jobs exactly? I've been applying for a number of jobs that I absolutely 100% can definitely do (probably going on for 10 a week) since I was made redundant by my previous scum-sucking bottom-feeding employer with no response whatsoever.
Looking around at various jobseeker boards and going off the response Carla's post got (though not mine - perhaps I should just close comments on this page as no-one seems to bother anyway) it seems that this is a very widespread phenomenon. I wanted to take a law course this year but was too late to signup with the local college for it. Sigh.
I can already see that I'm almost certainly going to have to retrain to do something else and have I.T. as a hobby as it seems that the pendulum as swung completely in the other direction and now, as long as you can sell something and you're willing to throw your own grandmother into the deal, you can get a job as a sales guy without much problem. I don't want to work in sales. Why on earth would I? Especially with skills that should be perfectly marketable (cisco, wireless networking, general networking, WAN, procurement, server skills etc etc etc)?
So, perhaps I'll bide my time doing a warehouse job as I know at least one other person who's pretty talented is doing. At least it'll be bringing in some cash.
Or, perhaps I'll retrain with the company who had the leaflet dropped through my door this morning. After all the examples they give sound awesome...
- Knowing I have a qualification in IT is such a bonus. I know I can apply for new jobs if I need to. There seem to be so many these days, it's good to know I've got a choice.
- At last I can actually look forward to going to work and I have the confidence to make the most of new and exciting career opportunities.
- Now I've got a career I can actually enjoy, a job with genuine prospects. My future feels so much more secure.
Where did they get these people from? A parallel universe? One where techies are actually wanted and respected? I don't believe a word printed on the leaflet as I can see through my own experience it's all lies.
Garry, Just some thoughts. I've known of others in your situation who registered with agencies - like Manpower and other consultancy firms - that specialise in providing the right people, with the right skills, to work on specific business or IT projects. Assignments can be short, med or long term - depending on whether it's covering for someone on long term sick leave or to work on specific one-off business IT projects - some of these agencies have global contacts.
Agencies are in the business of putting as many people as they can to work right away - and keeping them in work - because they earn a fee from their client firms. It's a good way to try out different firms and their various departments, to see what they are really like to work for (without even attending an interview). Invariably, staff working within firms hear of internal vacancies or see them on internal bulletin boards before they are advertised externally.
A lot of people eventually obtain permanent employment this way - or it tides them over while they are working through a business plan to raise financing and start their own enterprise.
Short term contract work also helps to keep one's CV "alive" and up to date while considering other avenues, ventures, setting up as self employed or freelance, raising finance or applying for advertised jobs (the process of which can take up to 3 months for one post if it involves panels of second and third interviews) which is what employers look for when faced with short listing hundreds (or even thousands) of applications for one vacancy.
Among all these applications are usually a whole pile of tried and tested internal applicants (or people they know) and young graduates who are willing to take a drop in salary just to get their foot in the door or on the rung of a career ladder.
A lot of jobs that are advertised on the "outside" are actually already taken by someone already known by the firm. Advertising vacancies in newspapers etc., is usually a formality so that firms are seen to be fair to applicants from within the organisation itself, and that they are seen to be hiring the best available candidate.
You will see what I am talking about if you are working on a contract assignment within a firm and then apply for an internal vacancy - even if it is the job you are assigned to (and they want to hire you permanently) it will still have to be advertised, you'll attend a formal interview and second interview just like all the other short listed candidates - but you will probably be the one who has the most chance of being employed because they'll already have an idea how you will fit in.
Good luck.
Posted by: ingrid at November 15, 2003 04:58 PM