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Is anyone else in the same situation as I am; it seems like I can't even get an interview in the IT industry. I have gained 25 lbs due to the depression this has caused me despite the fact I exercise vigorously everyday. Where have all the jobs gone or am I just so incompetent no one wants to hire me?

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Hi Nomore,

 

Try not to be so hard on yourself k? The economy's really slow. Don't blame it entirely on your level of competance. Besides, when some companies hire you, don't they train? thereforeeee, I don't think that it's you. I think it's more because the trend is 'budgeting and downsizing.'

 

Anyway, keep up with a healthy diet. Exercise. Enjoy doing things that keep you positive and happy. Don't buy into that negative thinking. It will only consume you. Instead, find things that will help you to improve your life. Instead of focusing on the negative, focus on the positive. Now you have time to learn new things that you can, to build up on your future & career. Maybe you can take some supplementary courses that will make you stand out a bit, in the IT industry.

 

Whatever it is, keep busy. Realize that it's not you. I'm quite frustrated with the economy right now. Things are going down the hole, I hope not for long, but pick up on new hobbies or classes while you're waiting for your 'future' employers. Make yourself desirable. Hope this Helps. Don't give up hope. Mahlina

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Well the only thing I have time for is exercising: 6 days running, 4 days workout. That's pretty much what I do. As far as classes, I just graduated a month ago and frankly the last thing I want is to take another useless course. Beside, I am spending 5 to 8 hours daily reading books and article to expand my knowledge.

 

It's interesting now that you look back at Bushes tax-cut agenda, you realize it was an utter scam. They sounded the drum that all the money the corporates and entrepreneurs save is going to create more jobs in the private sectors. Well here we are and almost 0% job has been created by the private sector and most jobs are either governmental jobs or self-employed. So wouldn't been better if the tax-cuts targeted the middle-class and small business rather than big shots who didn't do jack?

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Completely agreed Nomore. Sorry to hear about your situation though. I know some college graduates, who attend highly competitive universities, who majored in computer engineering, and don't even have a job now. It's a sad scenario, and unfortunately, it doesn't seem as though the job market is getting any better. But no matter what, try not to lose hope. I know. Easier said than done.

 

Find things that motivate you. Maybe school's not the best choice for now, but try to indulge in some kind of hobby that will interest you. I always think that learning never stops. That's what keeps us young and happy, even through our toughest times.

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I guess it's good to be optimistic sometimes. I do have a pessimistic point of view of things sometimes too. I think it's necessary to have a combo of both a realistic/optimistic p.o.v.'s. Too much of one or the other isn't good.

 

Let me tell you, the biggest thing that I looked forward to was the $90 million California lottery jackpot. If I had all of the money in the world, even if I fnished my bachelors (still working on it ), I'd still go to school and learn new things. I know it's depressing to think about how tight our economy is. What's even more sad is, my step-dad used to hire people for the company that he works for, as well as working as software engineerer, and now he's scared that they might lay him off, after working for the company for more than 20 years. He tells me that they're tight on hiring 'new' people. What's makes it even more sad is, the company that he works for is pretty well established, but the head haunchos are still wanting to downsize. I swear. I can't imagine myself working in the corporate world, but eventually, that's where my future's headed at as well. Sadly.

 

At least you're not the only one who's feeling this way, right? Hang in there.

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Hi there,

 

Let me say I can sympathize with you. I'm a computer science graduate who worked the gas station tour for 6 months after graduation just to make ends meet while I looked for a "real" job. I used to think like you do, I used to blame "the man", engineers, everybody....except myself. Perhaps the problem is not the economy but more your job searching techniques and resume.

 

Have you gone to the student job board at your college? The student employment center where they can give you literature, review your resume and do mock interviews with you?

 

If you're not getting any interviews it's probably because they are not looking at your resume, and that's YOUR JOB. When you apply you get contact info, call back, keep calling back, ask THEM if they might know anywhere that's hiring someone w/your skills, etc...The other thing, spending 5-8 hours a day reading is time not well spent at this point because you should be using those 5-8 hours to be looking for jobs, knocking on doors, bugging ppl, getting contacts, networking, etc...

 

I got my first job by getting a contact through a place I applied to.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Bill

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I can relate to that.....I'm in Australia, and getting into the computer industry is....well.....impossible. No matter how hard I try, no one seems to want to hire you and the ones that do, won't hire someone as a computer technician until you are qualified.

 

OK no problem with the getting qualified thing, I'd love to.....but NO university (college for you guys) runs any computer hardware courses. I was doing one and then the uni restructured and removed EVERY hardware related course from the curriculum. All the trend is for programming and web development. I HATE programming, it's boring, and no matter how good you are at programming, if the computer breaks you need someone to fix it, but if no one is training anyone to fix them, and no one will hire anyone without training....am I the only one who sees a problem with this????

 

I'm not going to stop trying...but sometimes I think it would be easier to draw blood from a stone.

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You are focusing on a field that is proven to be a dead end. IT related jobs such as network admin or hardware technicians are looked upon as a liability. As long as everything is working, you are not outputing any product for the company (doesn't matter if it is a consulting firm, a hospital, or an insurance company) which means you are not generating any money. But as soon as something breaks, they go apesh|t.

 

thereforeeee, the first group of people who are downsized would be you. Being a computer technician is like being a car mechanic which is totally different from mechanical engineering. No university teaches you how to fix your car studying ME. That's something you learn at some technical school. If you are really into hardware, why don't you try computer engineering. I don't know how much you into architecture trend but it sure hell pays handsomely. Number of companies that looking for CE/ECE/EE/ME are just outrages; I wish someone would have made me to go into CE/ECE or even EE.

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Crap, what do you know? I got two interviews just today and another one which I'm going to find out when tomorrow. A company that has been one of my first picks and the other with one of the biggest defense contractors but I have morally not comfortable to work for even if I get a job offer. I hate 3-stage interviews, two is enough IMO.

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nomore, I graduated with my MSEE a few months ago, and had to do an internship in Cali over the summer as a stay-off since I didn't get a job. During the internship, I had calls from Intel, IBM, Space Alliance, HP, and Agilent. A few of them scheduled me for an interview only to cancel a few days later due to hiring freezes. I eventually got an offer from HP and Agilent (they were actually going to hold on it while interviewing someone else), and went with HP. I never thought it would happen but all my friends kept saying that someone will hire me. It seems like things are picking up lately, but in the meantime you might call some local places and see if they need any programming projects for their company/workplace. It can't hurt and will give you more info to put on your resume. Just keep trying and also work your way in through the backdoors (friends in the industry).

 

EDIT: Sorry but I didn't notice "page 2" of the posts. Here are some responses to that.

 

I worked for a defense contractor in San Diego this summer, and while you might feel you are morally objected to it, you don't know what you'll be doing elsewhere either. A job is a job is a job. People that designed computers contributed to wars as well (inadvertedly) so they might not have thought it would come to that but it does. Anyway, interview with everyone and be cool and confident. Interviews (especially IT) are always about your thought process and less about what you know on a specific subject. They just want to know if you have the thought process to work out a problem -- especially if you don't know the subject. Btw, I've been through 4-stage interviews before -- email, phone, phone #2, and on-site. Intel is easily the toughest interview I've ever had, and Agilent ranked a close 2nd. Both had 7 hours of interviews for me, and it was none too pleasant. I think the Intel guys were the most strung out engineers I've ever met as well -- way too overworked.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I know how you feel, bud. I've been crying almost every night lately. I graduated in march with an associate's in multimedia, and here I am breaking my back unloading trucks at UPS while looking for real work. In all the time since I've graduated, I've had a whopping 3 interviews.

 

I'd say you're having much better luck than I am as you have a few lined up all within a matter of days!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, beside those few interviews, I got a couple of more lined up for the next week and early Oct but mostly looking for specific skills. Only big companies are looking for a well-rounded person. My interpersonal relationship is not the strongest point of sell and usually become a nervous wreck so the second round interview call would be surprise for me.

 

I think the first interview I did last year was the best since I was just going into the room with absolutely no expectations, just went with the flow. If I didn't know the "right" answer (ya cuz everyone blurts out something regardless), I wouldn't mind admitting to not knowing (bad strategy by the way).

 

One thing I have noticed is I'm getting far more phone interviews rather than face-to-face ones. And I am not talking about small companies but rather international ones prefer to process the candidates over the phone. I cannot find an effective way to overcome my nervousness; you can literally see physical changes (color, shape...) from neck up. It is not that I don't know how harmful my anxiety is effectting the outcome of the interview but rather my lack of ability to bail myself out when the tough questions are asked.

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i was king of curious to know how your job hunt has been. I have been rather fortunate in not having the problem of being without work. My husband is a truck driver, I attend college full time and to supplement our income that little bit I work at a Pizza Place where I was hired by my mother in law, I was lucky that she was able to get the pull for me to work there, However I have been following your conversations a long with a few others in regards to a paper that I am working on for a class, when we talk about how hard it is to find a job these days with businesses moving to other countries because of Nafta and so on- i dont think that we as people take into consideration the burdens and frustrations not to mention the depression that one person will go through because of this. I was just curious to know how this has affected you since you first started looking for work.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am geared to the computer industry and the market sucks. Half of our jobs are in india. Most of them if you ask them, lie and say the united states. I stopped buying from companies that use foreign countries to cut costs, especially since this cut does not come out on the buyers side.

 

I interviewed for a few large companies. I did have one interview with a well known company that went bad. I had two guys interview me at the same time, and they were SOBs. I knew I was done before I walked in. I seen the look on the guy they interviewed before me. The dude looked like he was going to cry. They critisized my certifications and basically try to make me feel like an idiot. I did eventually stop trying to be nice since I know I didn't have the job and they were just being stupid with me, and let them know where I stand. I did get the one guy pretty pissed off, the other guy he was a bit nicer to me after the interview. After the interview my recruiter asked me how it went. I told him don't bother calling back for another interview for this company. On another interview they put me on a linux box and asked to find a file, so I did, but there was no file...he was giving me the wrong name of the file. He went back and told my recuriter I can't find files. I mean I work with linux everyday. Then I caught the recruiter lying to me. Always remember never to give any information back to your recruiter, all they care about is placing one of their people, so they will give this information to the next guy that interviews. I was stupid, I gave them the questions and answers and I lost a 50/50 shot at a good job. Cause this other guy went in knowing what was going to be asked. On top of that I just came off a 14 hour night shift and they would not change my interview, but they did let the other guy change his. Needless to say he did get the job. Can't trust nobody these days. I hope the information about how recruiters work will benefit somebody.

 

If you want a career where you will always have a job...become a nurse. You will never be jobless again....Plus think of all the girls you get to hang out with during class!

 

ComputerGuy...how could you say that programming is boring? All I can think of is that you have limited experience in programming. I think computer repair and admin is boring, there is no real creativity there. I guess maybe you have to be more creative for programming, or need more of a challenge.

 

DBL

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DBL, you're right about nursing. I wish I would have just listened to my parents and gone to school for that, but I was foolishly lured in by ITT Technical Institute's song and dance. Jobs have gotten so scarce for IT people. I've even heard stories of people breaking down and crying during interviews because they've been unemployed for so long.

 

I think it is really crappy how employers sometimes treat interviewees.

 

Earlier this year I had an interview that went like that. I drove about an hour and a half to the company and right when I got there, they called me on my cell and pushed the interview back about an hour. Whatever. While I waited in the lobby, the owner was shouting and screaming at one of his employees right in front of everyone! I sat down with the owner and the head of the H.R. department. They were both very condescending, and when I was showing them my portfolio they were both sighing, rolling their eyes, and looking at their watches. It is safe to say that when an employer acts this way he's not going to hire you. I felt rather insulted, so I gave the attitude right back to him and left. Who would want to work for a jerk like that anyways.

 

I have a friend who was interviewed by Harley Davidson. The interview itself lasted only a few minutes. The interviewer looked at his portfolio, handed it back, and said "Bye."

 

So far I am not impressed with these "recruitment" companies. I've dealt with two of them so far, and after one interview each they don't return my calls nor make any attempt to contact me.

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I gave up a good job to persue and IT job, I worked for UPS. I would be retiring in 5 years if I stayed. UPS was one of the best jobs I have ever had. It was not stressful, there was room for promotion, and I was well liked at the hub by the managers.

 

I have also gave up 12 years of my life to my family's company only for them to sell it off and not compensate me as they promised for sticking around all them years where gas station employees made more then me.

 

I did have an abusive boss a few years back in between one of my quitting stints from my family's business. I seen him yell at one employee in such a fearce manor, that I went up to him afterwards and told him don't ever get in my face like you did name here. It was tough working for a guy like that, that out of no where he would snap.

 

I also have a problem with education...I have no college education. So I have no degrees. I do get interviews a lot more then others I know have, but usually turn down the interviews now. It has given me too much anxiety. There is way too much pressure in the IT field.

 

I will most likely get completely out of computers and find another profession. I would like ultimately to have my own company again. Sometimes you never know what you had until it is gone. Then again hindsight is 20/20.

 

What fields of computer is everyone in as far as experience?

For myself...I am a perl/mysql programmer with a linux os background. I have my CCNA, and I worked on a need basis in computer repair and networking for a friends company back in NY.

 

DBL

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I specialise in Hardware and Network Administration myself, with some average programmiong (VB, HTML, SOME Javascript). I also know windows inside and out (all versions) and have a lot of elextrical knowledge and skills. I gotta stop being lazy and learn linux though, cause I really dislike windows, LOL

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See if you knew linux or unix, you would have more fun on IRC. I came from the old days or IRC. IRC rocked back then. I used to jump the split servers to gain admin functions to the chat - kick and ban everyone, collide nicks, steal nicks, and flood users off the internet, which was a lot easier when everyone was on dial up. I was most noted for trying to take of CService. It was a failed attempt and I got in some trouble, but had a lot of fun trying. I haven't dealt with IRC in a long time. It is all crappy now in my opinion. It seems like it is all about file trading and stuff.

 

I still use windows 98! My main programming computer is a pentium 133, it used to be a 233. My power supply is on the outs, I have to boot twice to get it to have enough juice to start up. One day I will upgrade both my programming computer and my os.

 

DBL

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Multimedia is like graphic design for the most part.

 

I work alot with Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, 3dStudioMax, Director, Final Cut, and AfterEffects. I also know HTML and have some XML experience.

 

I'm debating on whether or not to go back to school for networking (NOT going back to ITT though)

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I was just in the hunt for the last week for a graphics person for a small job. I interviewed a couple. Most were so arrogant that they actually though the site would not run without them. They are making demands on me telling me I have work with the space they give me. There seems to be way too many graphic artists out there that do not really know HTML and understand that they have to work with the programmer. I had to settle for what "my boss" gave me. I spent 1.5 hours of arguing with her over how things need to be done for this project. I honestly thought I was going to lose my cool there. When I left this ladies hair was standing up. She was litearlly pulling her hair trying to deal with me. She almost didn't want to do the job.

 

I laughed about how her hair looked my whole ride home.

 

I don't know the future for networking. Seems most companies just use recruitment companies now a days. That is the only calls I really get now. You may get work for a month or two, maybe a year. You will be lucky to get a "perm" job today.

 

DBL

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Hahahahaha...DBL you sound like me when I learnt to script in mIRC. I know linux is more powerful, and I'd probably pick it up no prob, but I'm just too lazy, LOL. I used to do similar things, I was right into it in the old IRC days. My favourite was jumping into the MSChat help room and going "/ctcp #MSChat /con/con.wav" and watching as everyone using MSChat crashed out of the room with bluescreen errors LOL

 

I'm over it now though LOL

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I haven't even try to get an IT job. Most of the reason has to do with my age. Being 20 years old with no cert or degree most companies would most probably think I am joking about what I know about computers. I know all windows os except NT, 2000, and 95. I also familuar with Linux, PHP, MySQL, Networking, Wi-Fi, and know how to fix most computer problems. Did I mention I self taught my self.

 

I was able to get a job as a "security professional" (basicallly baby sitting land and company property). So I am hopeing this can lead me into a computer security job since that is where I would like to working in. But without the needed knowledge it may take a long time. But I am glad I know people who are in either high places or in places of where they can pull strings and what have you to help me get a job.

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To me I think Linux is more straight forward. You have less attacks against your server with worms and viruses. I see more and more people using linux now then a few years back. I run two servers now. One is a dedicated in Texas, and the other is with me. With the prices of DSL coming down and speeds going up, it is almost cheaper to just host your own server.

 

DBL

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Jurupa,

 

Sorry seen this post after I sent mine. It is definitely who you know these days. My x-friend has an awesome job. Makes more money then most the people I know. All he has is an Associates. His friend, and manager, lied for him, and got him the job. He did once try to get me a job there, but all I get were insults. First I fail the phone interview with HR. They said that I don't have the skills to talk to people. I was shocked...I dealt with customers for years prior through the phone and in person. Never had complaints. At the interview they just comapred me to my friend. They though so highly of him, that I wanted to tell them the truth about how he got his job. They did kind of guarentee me the job, but that was squashed when me and my friend stopped talking.

 

I think a lot of us are self taught today. To me that shows ambition and drive to learn on your own.

 

DBL

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