Job Search - Tips, Ideas, Suggestions, Advice, $0.02 - all welcome
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I've been extremely lucky to find my last few careers with direct contacts so I've been out of the job hunting game for a while. I moved across Canada from Toronto to my new (old) home in Victoria and I have found all my old contacts to be out of the game.
Suggestions for making new ones in a smaller city?
Any ideas on how to navigate all the job boards and such?
How does one get hired in 2014 anyway?
Resume / CV - what do you put on it, what do you leave off of it (example: picture of my face?)
LinkedIn - I am going to update my profile and make sure it's setup nicely.
SW meetings - seems like Vancouver might have an active cell but Victoria is too small. Perhaps start a Vancouver Island group? How successful / useful do you find these meetings to be?
What would be the best possible use of my time in this endeavour?
What am I missing? -
Network in professional circles that might not be IT. A good organization to network professionally with and also build your public speaking stills at is Toastmasters. I'd recommend that. Put your resume on Indeed, Monster, etc. Anywhere and everywhere. No pictures on your resume. Leave things like pictures of you to your profile pages on LinkedIn, etc.
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Spicecorps can be decent for networking, but in DFW, I'll talk to one or two people I don't know well at each meeting very briefly, and then hang out the rest of the time with @NetworkNerd or @PSX_Defector . Basically, people I already know.
But make sure your resume is up-to-date and just start trying to find other things you can use to connect with people. Maybe that's gaming groups or some other hobby. At this point, network with people in general, and don't be super concerned with networking with strictly IT people.
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Pictures on a resume might be good, but I don't do it and don't know of anyone who does it yet.
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Get your CV polished as much as possible. That's the obvious first step. Then get it uploaded to sites like Monster. LinkedIn is the second thing. I hate LI but tons of recruiters use it as a low cost recruitment vehicle these days.
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Contacts in a smaller city is tough. IT contacts may or may not be all that useful. IT doesn't hire much IT in the SMB space. That works for enterprises moreso, but not so much in the SMB. Meeting business people might be useful, they might know who is hiring. SMB is a tough game.
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SpiceCorps can be useful for networking but I've never seen anyone but entry level find work that way. Because IT people at SC meetings are rarely hiring managers and never non-IT, the senior positions or lone positions (the bulk of SMB IT) have no representation. SC takes months or years to get going even in large cities, in a smaller market they are almost impossible.
We run some in places like Rochester and Syracuse and after four or five years they get as many as ten people. But that's a huge investment. And of that ten people, none is someone that might hire you. So as a professional value, it might be good. As a job hunting strategy, it's only benefit is being a line item on your resume.
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Thank you both, I have somewhere to start now
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How has the hunt been going?
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Interviewed for a Provincial Gov IT job just before christmas and the wait is KILLING ME
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Ugh, that sucks. Nothing like waiting on word about a job. That is one of the most stressful things ever.
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@scottalanmiller Well, actually, as it turns out..... haha. The hunt continues!
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller Well, actually, as it turns out..... haha. The hunt continues!
That sucks
Sorry to hear that. I definitely know how that is. -
And sorry for the late response, took a while before I saw this one.
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What are you looking for, job wise?
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All good Scott, failure is always an option
Junior sys-admin, or something similar. I do extremely well in unstructured environments (SMB) where job titles are more or less meaningless and you're just the guy who fixes broken stuff.
I am the guy you tell "hey, that thing over there is broken, bet you can't fix it" and then walk away. My eye is twitching at the thought hahah.
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Would someone like to look at my resume and tell me what I need to add to make it IT wise, and what to take away?. I'm no good at putting myself on paper.
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@BMarie said:
Would someone like to look at my resume and tell me what I need to add to make it, IT wise, and what to take away?. I'm no good at putting myself on paper.
@Minion-Queen and @scottalanmiller Would be the one's to contact.
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@BMarie I would be happy to take a look at it.
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