Day 20: Still plugging away

This is hard. I have heard people say that looking for a job is a full time job. It is true, and as the process gets longer the motivation starts to wane. I know I need a new job so I will be happier and look forward to go to work in the morning. See the new link to the article about when it is time to go. Yes, I will keep submitting resumes and networking with people to turn over leads, but it is getting tougher.

My wife says that I should temper my goals and work on submitting one or two resumes for jobs that are a good match instead of going with the high volume, mass resume approach. It makes sense, but I feel the more I send out the greater chances I have to find a new job. However, it takes time. The old days, you had a resume that you printed out on nice bond paper, maybe an eggshell white or a ecru white to off-set it a little bit. Now, I have to fill out the same information on every website. My name, again, my past jobs, colleges, etc. Sometimes you can get lucky and the company has a job basket. You get to fill in one job application and then can apply to multiple jobs at the same company. Yes, it increases my chances because I can apply to three jobs instead of one, but what does a company think when they see me apply for three jobs. Does it scream "desperate"? please pick me. I will do anything if you can give me a job!

I filled out two applications last night in about an hour. One was for out of state which honestly if I get through the resume screening, phone interview, face to face interview, and do get a job offer, would still have to seriously consider whether I would take the job or not.

I had thought the Sunday paper was pretty worthless, but this week there are 15 IT jobs advertised in the Portland Metro area. That is almost double what it was two weeks ago. And for all the jobs I have applied for online, I have two phone interviews and one waiting for a call back "either way, they are going to call me back" Of course that was three days ago, so I am not holding my breath for that call.

So, what can I do to keep myself motivated and still looking. I haven't joined the Ladders yet, so I can do that this week and see if there is anything different after three weeks of searching the most$100K jobs on the web. I will do at least two resumes a day, and I am going to send a message to all of my LinkedIn contacts to fire up my network and see what I can do to get a lead or two. Tomorrow, I will tell you how many resumes I completed and how long it took. Sorry it is not more cheerful, nut it is late and time to go to bed.

Day 16: Good news and bad news

So it is past two weeks since we have started this blog and the results are two phone interviews. That is positive. However, the screener from the first interview said that she would let me know if I would be moved forward to the next round of face to face interviews or not be moved forward today. Either way, she said, I would hear from her. Well, of course, she didn't call, so now I can spend the weekend debating in my head what I said that made them not want to hire me, or was it that I asked too much for a salary, or was I really god as a strong #2 and would have been hired by anyone else, but in this case they found the one perfect candidate that was better than me. Or, maybe they had an internal candidate all the time and this was just a process they had to go through to justify the hiring, knowing all along what they were going to do.

Then, there is the possibility that the phone screener was busy and just ran out of time to get back to me. It happens to me all the time where I go to work with a list of four things to do and at the end f the day I look at my least and not a single thing is completed because some other "emergency" popped up that no one expected. So, for the rest of the weekend, I will gladly believe that they just got so busy they ran out of time to give me a call.

Related to this, when did the screening interview over the phone become the standard practice?Back when I last was hired for a new job, I was contacted for a live, face to face interview with the committee that was interviewing all the finalists for the position. That was almost 12 years ago, and I think the major difference and why the phone screening interview has been created is as simple as the fact that everyone has a cell phone now. The ability to contact every person that applies for a job, or at least the top ten or fifteen candidates with a cell phone direct to their pocket is now normal. Ten years ago, someone would have to call their home or work number and leave a message and hope for them to a return call the next day. Now, a company can call direct to their applicants, ask a quick five or six questions and select the applicants that gave the best or correct answers. Instead of trying to decipher and decode what an applicant is like with written word and a paper resume, you can call each person and ask them to clarify what they had written on their resume.

So, as much as I love new technology and my cell phone, it has actually created one more step in the hiring process.

The last thing as always, to my three loyal followers, here is my profile on LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=21037832&trk=tab_pro Can you help?

Thank you for your support -- for following this blog and sharing it with your friends, too.

Day 12: My first interview, I think

Great news today! I was called by a screener who asked me questions about my resume, my experience and why I had applied to be their IT Manager. I think I answered most of the questions well and correctly, but I always have doubts after an interview. Maybe i should have said this or I forget to tell then that. If I did good, I will either have a phone or face-to-face interview with the recruiter for the job next week. I will know by Friday.

The toughest question for me was why do you want to work for our company? I really did not have a good answer for why I wanted to work there as opposed to why I didn't want to stay where I am. I have worked at the college for 12 years and basically have the same job description and job duties that I had then. I want a chance to grow and advance. I feel like the big fish in a small pond waiting for my CIO to finally retire so I can move up. Maybe I over estimate myself and my skills, but what I want most is the opportunity to do more and face new challenges. If I fail so be it, but I at least want to take that chance instead of continue to sit on the sidelines and go through the same things each year.

I am not sure if the poll question is answered, but if so, no one won, because I didn't think I would have an interview so quickly. It is a good sign...

Day 11: I have reached double digits

It is Sunday again and there were 11 Information Technology jobs advertised in the paper today. That is over 20% increase from the week before. The recession has ended and the economy has turned around!!!

I would say that the online job search is far superior, but in the last two days I have had two of my LinkedIn connections tell me that the jobs that I had spent 30-60 locating on websites and apply to had already been filled. Is it better to never see the job or to go through the application process and discover that it had already been filled.

I have liked using LinkedIn. It has been the most successful so far. I tried Monster.com and was overwhelmed by the number of jobs advertised and underwhelmed more by the number of jobs that didn't really apply. Trying to narrow your search criteria seems very difficult with Monster.com and the number of jobs that had already been filled, or at least not advertised on the company website, is very high.

This week I am signing up for The Ladders.com. It is the home of the most number of jobs that pay over $100,000 on the web. Not that I am looking for $100,000 a year job. I just want a different job that is closer to home, allows me job growth in breadth and experience. I am tired of following the same cycle and the same projects as the academic year progresses from one term to the other and still being the highest paid manager at the college with nowhere to move until my boss retires. As the famous Dr Suess once said, I have found myself in the waiting place, and nothing good happens in the waiting place.

Some quick observations from my social networking:

I still have only one follower and she is married to me. I am announcing my first follower prize contest. Whoever is my first follower will win either my desktop table soccer game or my coveted copy of Windows 95, new in box, still in plastic.

My friend RM is the center of the universe. There is the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, but R. is the center of LinkedIn. He has been our link for the CIO of the company that I am where I am looking for a position and the link for my wife to a former co-worker in wedding planning. These are not just connections on LinkedIn (the equivalent of a Facebook friend), but actual people that R. knew and went to school with.

I am not a big fan of the groups on LinkedIn yet. I haven't discovered their real purpose yet.

I do like that I can search for a specific company on LinkedIn and then work back to people who work there, and then work back to people that are connected through my network.

Not much else to say and I have my 3 resume minimum to send out tonight, too. Thanks for following, and remember, a table soccer set is yours if you are the next follower.

Day 9: A little motivation from Dana

My NCAA basketball holiday had extended a bit, and whether is was intentional or just making conversation, Dana read me an article while I was washing the dishes after dinner tonight and got me going again. She is my wife, so I would suspect it was intentional, but done in a subtle, gentle manner to get me going and not let my quest for a new job drift off to the pile of other projects that I started and never finished.

The article was about how this recession has caused longer periods of unemployment, and with it a change in the way people view work. As people are unemployed longer, they become more depressed, sleep more, and socialize less. Americans in particular, define themselves by what their job title is, and an unemployed person is a non-existent person.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have a job, I enjoy my job, and I am gateful every time I hear the monthly unemployment report that I am not helping to drive tha number higher. But I do not and cannot believe that it is all doom and gloom with no jobs available for anyone. The article said that as each week goes by that a person is unemployed, they spend an hour less each day searching for jobs and begin to sleep in more each morning. No, I am not sleeping in more, my kids make sure of that, but i have had the feeling that sending endless resume into the abyss of some generic mailbox with the occasion automated response, "Thank you for your interest..." Only to be less motivational than the almost automated e-mail response that "Due to the high number of responses, we regret to inform you" At least there they have to cut and paste your name with each letter, so it you know that a human did see your resume at one point. I don't mean to be negative, but this job search goes in cycles of good news and bad news. You find yourself cheering for the slightest possible edge toward a job. The fact that one of my contacts on LinkedIn knows someone who works at the same company that you are applying to is a huge wish to hang your hopes on, but I am not sure it makes that much difference.

For now, I know that there is a senior IT network position that is a great match for my skills and will allow me to grow and be a valued member of an organization and I will find this position in the next 171 days. Once again, my linkedIn profile is below:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=21037832&trk=tab_pro Can you help?

Thank you for your support -- for following this blog and sharing it with your friends, too.

Day 8: Taking a break tonight...

It is St Patrick's Day and the first day of the NCAA college basketball tournament. I figured I would take a break from searching websites for jobs and relax one evening.

Well, St Patrick's Day fell on a Thursday this week and with Dana working, that means the kids and I have leftovers or pizza, if they have eaten their dinner during the week. Since it was St Patrick's Day, I figured we would just have pizza. Some day, when their tastes have expanded a little, we will be able to get vegetarian or meat lovers or Chicago style pizza, but tonight it was the traditional 1/2 pepperoni and 1/2 Hawaiian. Andrew eats the pepperoni and Delaney eats the Hawaiian. Neither is bad, but a little variety

would never hurt either.

I also watched the NCAA basketball tournament tonight. The first round (and it still is the first round contrary to what the NCAA marketing machine wants me to believe) is always fun for me because the big schools can't ditch the little guys any more, or agree to play them only if they travel and play on their home floor with their fans. Yes there are some blow outs, but normally the games are close and one or two of the little guys send the big schools home shaking their heads in disbelief. By the second weekend of the tournament, I have generally lost interest. If there is an underdog left, I cheer for them.

My pick this year is for Ohio State to win the whole thing. I know, after all that talk about cheering for the little guy, I pick Ohio State. I can cheer for "Cinderella" but when I put my money into the pool, I want to have a fighting chance of winning.

Day 6: Suggestions for online searches

OK, so here is what I learned so far when it comes to online searches.

1) Most people think that Monster.com is a waste of time, and from the little time I spent on it, I would agree. The search capability s too general, and most of the jobs that it told me was available were not listed on the company website.

2) My brother-in-law thinks that CareerBuilder does a good job for Southern California but he is unsure about any other cities or areas that it covers. He also recommends sixfigurejobs.com as a website to check out.

3) I have two friends that have "heard good things about the ladders" but have never tried it themselves and they can't remember if they heard those "good things" from a person or if they read it on the internet.

4) The best suggestion seems to be to target a company that you want to work for and then use the job search agent on the company website to notify you when a job is available.

5) No one has anything bad about LinkedIn which I have grown to like, but only one person has said that they have gotten a job using LinkedIn. There are alot of referrals about each other and finding out about companies, but only one person I know has gotten a job interview and job offer from applying to a job on LinkedIn.

I have gotten better at searching and finding companies and people using LinkedIn, so after a week I can say that I am better at using the software now.

If anyone else would like to recommend a job search site or job board site to me, I promise I will check them out.

Let's take a moment to review my progress after the first week. I have expanded my network connections on LinkedIn from 13 when I started to 61 connections. That says I have alot of friends that are willing to help me (which I am incredibly grateful for), but I have having trouble seeing how that could lead to an interview or new job. I have sent 23 resumes and have five positions on my "To Do" list that I still need to complete, but it is late and I am getting tired so this will have to be a tomorrow task. I have found the job that I want and I am qualified for. Now, I can I get my resume to be looked at by the right people so I can get an interview for this position. Once I get to the interview, then it is up to me from there, but right now, what can I do to get to the interview?

I said it once, that it is late and I am tired, but I am willing to listen to ideas. Talk with you later.

Day 4: Maybe I answered the question already...

This is the first Sunday after I started this experiment and I checked the available Information Technology jobs in the Sunday paper. There are nine jobs and five of them are public/government jobs that are probably required to advertise by law. I can remember five years ago that there would be nine columns across two or three pages of IT jobs in the Sunday paper each week. While I know that the economy is not humming along as it was a few years ago, I have to believe that there are more than nine companies that are hiring in the Portland Metro area. There must be more than nine IT jobs that are available in he Portland Metro area, isn't there??? And on a related thought, how are newspapers staying in business these days?

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, how can I find these jobs? I guess that I will move on from the once a week job postings in the newspaper and move to the second approach. This week we will create an automated job search using tools at Monster.com and see if we can turn up any more than nine jobs. Does anyone know if there is an automated search engine that will notify me once or twice a week and let me know when jos are advertised? The alternative is to search each company website by website and searching for all open careers on their website. That seems to either reqire more time than there is in the day or looking at the right website at the right time by chance.

So fellow readers, I guess I am stumped and in need of suggestions about what way is the best way to search for jobs that match my skills and are a good fit for me and the company. If anyone can help, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for your help.

Day 3: What I have learned so far???

Day 3, it hasn't been a long time, yet there are two things I have learned so far.

First, a quick reminder on our goal:

The Goal: To start from scratch and have a new job in 180 days or less.

1. We will use social networking sites LinkedIn, Facebook, and The Ladders to build a network of friends, acquaintances, and professional colleagues to find and apply for open jobs.

2. I will search for jobs on career bulletin boards like Monster.com and Career Builder.com

3. I will search for openings on websites of companies that I would like to work for and any other company website that my network of friends, acquaintances, and professional colleagues refer me to.

There are two things I have discovered so far. On the good side, it is amazing how fast you can make introductions and expand your network using LinkedIn. In my first three days I have connected with people that I would not normally have in my network of friends and acquaintances. Friends of my wife, friends of friends have been willing to help with advice and openings that I never would have known about. I received a note that The Boy Scout Council was looking for an IT Manager from a fellow Cub Scout parent. I found out that local company might be hiring an IT Project Manager soon from a friend of my wife on the elementary school PTA. I submitted my resume for those two positions and we will see what happens.

But what I have discovered is more than that. I have been able to ask people questions about whether or not I should contact a recruiter? I have heard from three people that I would not even consider an acquaintance except through LinkedIn about their experiences both being hired by a recruiter and being recruited by a recruiter. I have contacted a CIO at a local company who did not have any positions, but offered to look at my resume and give me suggestions and tips I might consider. I have used the InMail feature on LinkedIn to attempt to contact managers or HR people in companies that I want to work at and I have had one of them reply. Admittedly, 1 out of 5 is only 20%, but the possibilities that opens up to me is exponentially better than I had three days ago.

Now for the down side of what I have discovered. I have used the LinkedIn job search feature and two times I have found jobs that I want to apply to only to click "Apply on Company Website" And there is no job listed on the company website. According to LinkedIn, there was a job at Kronos Inc for an Infrastructure Manager. That is my current job title and something that I would be interested in finding out more details and maybe applying for. There were jobs listed on the Kronos website, but not that one. Infogroup is looking for a Vice President Information Technology Architect, I think, but am not sure. LinkedIn says yes and the company website says no. The Infogroup job says it was posted by a recruiter at Infogroup, but there is nothing listed on their website. If anyone works at Kronos or Infogroup and is reading this, and if there is a "Infrastructure Manager" or "Vice President Information Technology Architect" position available, please let me know. I am interested in learning more about these positions and showing you how my skills make me a perfect match for these positions.

One last bit of good news that I have discovered in this day of digital resumes and applying for positions online. After submitting somewhere between 8-10 resumes for various positions at various companies, I realized I had made a mistake. It wan't a misspelled word, but I had been re-arranging bullet points in each resume I had submitted. A different order for each resume so things I thought the company would be interested in would be listed first. So, as I said earlier, I read through the resume I had been sending out to about eight different companies and realized that I had duplicated one of the bullets. The same great accomplishment that I wanted all the possible employers to know about had been repeated twice in a row. I guess you could say it was for added emphasis and something I was especially proud of, but in reality in all my cutting and pasting and trying to craft the most amazing resume ever, I had made an elementary blunder.

So, why am I happy about this? Because in the old days of paper and mailing resumes, once it left my hand and dropped into the post office, it was out of my control. Short of committing mail fraud, I guess, but what was in the letter was what was read by the HR office. However, in this new digital world, I discovered that I could log in to each company's website and edit the profile that I had created. I could delete the resume that had the duplicated bullets and replace it with the corrected one. Now, instead of people thinking I was careless or had a terrible stuttering problem, I was able to fix my mistake and keep hope alive for those jobs that I had applied for.

I guess the internet isn't all bad.

The last thing is here is my profile on LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=21037832&trk=tab_pro Can you help?

Thank you for your support -- for following this blog and sharing it with your friends, too.

Day 1: Starting the Search

All of the websites and career advisers and life coaches tell you that most jobs aren't advertised and the best way to find a job is to let your friends know that you are looking for a job and to network with people.

So consider this an experiment about if social networking sites and the internet can make finding a job easier or if you have just as much luck looking through the Sunday classifieds.

The Goal: To start from scratch and have a new job in 180 days or less.

1. We will use social networking sites LinkedIn, Facebook, and The Ladders to build a network of friends, acquaintances, and professional colleagues to find and apply for open jobs.

2. I will search for jobs on career bulletin boards like Monster.com and Career Builder.com

3. I will search for openings on websites of companies that I would like to work for and any other company website that my network of friends, acquaintances, and professional colleagues refer me to.

That is all for now. Keep it simple with just three rules. There may be addendums and amendments along the way, but for now, just three rules.

So, with Day 1 started, and 179 days left, I submitted three job openings tonight to company websites. Portland General Electric, Clackamas Community College, and Goldman Sachs. I might as well aim high!

The last thing is here is my profile on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=21037832&trk=tab_pro Can you help?

Thank you for your support -- for following this blog and sharing it with your friends, too.