5.04.2004
The Unemployment Blues
I can’t remember the last time I shaved. What for? I’m not working and I’m not getting any interviews. I check the online job portals each day, and pick out the jobs I think I’m qualified for, but the only contact I get from most of them is an automated E-mail saying they received my application.
Without a job, my days are endless torture. Everything begins to blend together. I didn’t even realize it was May until I noticed it on an E-mail. I don’t sleep well at night. I’m not particularly worried, just unsettled. I am a man with no real purpose. It is very discouraging.
I (barely) graduated high school and had no idea what I wanted to do, so I took my stepfather’s advice and joined the Navy. After a four-year hitch, I thought it might be nice to teach high school. I went to college and got a teaching degree, but after two years as a teacher, it was painfully obvious that I would not survive another 28 years in that environment.
So I struck out on my own. I started over again from scratch. Computers have been a big part of my life, so I found a helpdesk nearby that paid $9.50 an hour, and included training. I worked there for nearly a year and then I moved onto another helpdesk that paid more. Then I got a contract gig as a field technician for a national pharmacy chain- installing all their computer equipment from the storefront server, to the cash registers, to the pharmacy server, and everything in between. It was a sweet deal. I installed 7 stores in a year, did some upgrades and repairs, and remained “on-call” 40 hours a week. There were weeks where I was paid to do nothing but sit and wait for my beeper to go off. Alas, this couldn’t last. After a year, the parent company severed its ties with the agency that held my contract and I was thrown into unemployment.
The sudden drop from my steady wages to unemployment compensation was a shock. It threw me into a deep depression. Finding work was next to impossible. I signed on with several contract-IT agencies in the area, and I kept applying to jobs right and left. I still have a bulletin board peppered with fax coversheets from jobs I applied to. At the end of 2002, I got a temp-job as a field technician for a nationally recognized computer company. It was only $12.00 an hour, and it was 35 hours a week, but it was better than unemployment. I ran around town in my own car replacing parts.
This didn’t last very long. The expenses of keeping my car running, and dealing with irate customers eventually forced me to seek life elsewhere. Luckily, one of those IT-temp agencies found me a contract gig working as an IT Customer Support Specialist for a local courthouse, they were undergoing a new case-management software implementation and they needed someone with strong computer skills to help make that happen. I discussed my experiences there in a previous posting-long story short: my duties were not specific, management was not in total agreement over the software, and it seemed like people were always quitting, transferring out, or getting fired. Not the ideal environment. I worked very hard for over a year, and thought I was making a difference...only to be invited out to lunch by my case managers to be told my contract was being released. Further developments caused the parent company to decide they could no longer have me represent them. My direct employer did not give any specific reasons, but then, they didn’t have to. My guess is that a recently hired department head didn’t care for my “style,” and decided to make some changes. I complained to the parent company about my treatment, and lack of support, and won a puric victory: unemployment compensation.
Since then, I’ve been going to bed later, and getting up later. I spent the first few weeks sending out resumes and cover letters like a madman. Eventually, with no responses at all, I sunk into a deep depression. My wife is beside herself. I am ready to crawl out of my skin. I’m about 5 weeks into my first 13 weeks of unemployment compensation. I am pretty sure I can apply for, and get another 13 week extension if I had to, but UC has dropped my weekly income by more than 300 dollars. If it hadn’t been for my college loan refund, we’d be in serious financial trouble right now, and even that is only going to last so long. I feel as though I’m fighting a losing battle. I can only hold out so long and then the barbarians will storm the gates.
I’m trying to do some “odd-jobs” to help supplement my income. A lot of my wife’s colleagues need computer help, and I’ve made a modest amount of money helping them. I am having business cards made so I can hand them out to people. I am thinking about putting up some color flyers at the local supermarkets and wherever else I can to promote myself and see if I can’t go into business for myself. If it takes off, I’ll apply for a business license and the whole nine-yards.
In the meantime, I am hitting the job boards. I have automatic “agents” that send any jobs in the area to my E-mail on a daily basis. I also scan the “Help Wanted” section of the Sunday paper (better than the weekly editions). It seems like there are jobs out there, but I’m either unqualified or too qualified for them. My wife wants me to find a job...any job. She keeps coming up with ideas about me working at Home Depot, or Borders, or some other retail job. According to my calculations, in order to make more money than UC, I would have to get at least 10 dollars an hour. None of these places pay that much. Besides, I am sick of taking jobs to “hold me over,” I want a career. I wasn’t ready for computer science when I was in college; it took me several more years to understand the “mindset” necessary to develop applications.
The problem is that I have many of the skills, but no education or certifications. I am certain that most of my resumes and cover letters never make it past the HR filters. Most companies have some sort of human or automated process for scanning the content of resumes and cover letters looking for very specific key words. If those key words aren’t there, they “circular file” the resume and send you a: “...Thank-you-for-applying-and-we’ll-keep-your-resume-on-file...” letter. Additionally, I live in Las Vegas. One of the first questions on many applications: “Years in the gaming industry,” which of course, I have none. The casinos don’t hire IT folk off the streets very often. Usually, you have to “know someone” on the inside to get a job with them.
I am working on my master’s degree in Computer Information Systems Management. I am willing to bet if I were to take one of the Microsoft .NET exams and pass it, I would probably be in a better position to get hired. Of course, it would help if I actually opened those books and used them, but all my programming experience has come from actually having a need to create something that was meant to be used. Without a practical purpose, I have great difficulty staying focused on something. When the chips are down, and I have to create a working application for actual use, I can figure it out.
That’s the thing about computing that most people do not comprehend. Once you have been doing it for a while, going from one program or application to another is really not that hard, they generally all have the same basic features and functions. But people stubbornly insist that a person have demonstrated experience with whatever software or hardware they use. There is also a relative “glut” of IT professionals looking for work. Hiring companies can afford to be choosy, and they aren’t paying them the “big bucks” that the profession was used to only a few short years ago. Adding to this mess is the whole “outsourcing/off shoring” issue, and it is not exactly a good time to be looking for a job in IT.
I still believe I will find something. It’s all a matter of timing, opportunity, and effort. In the meantime, excuse me while I go mad for a while...
© 2004, J.S.Brown
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Without a job, my days are endless torture. Everything begins to blend together. I didn’t even realize it was May until I noticed it on an E-mail. I don’t sleep well at night. I’m not particularly worried, just unsettled. I am a man with no real purpose. It is very discouraging.
I (barely) graduated high school and had no idea what I wanted to do, so I took my stepfather’s advice and joined the Navy. After a four-year hitch, I thought it might be nice to teach high school. I went to college and got a teaching degree, but after two years as a teacher, it was painfully obvious that I would not survive another 28 years in that environment.
So I struck out on my own. I started over again from scratch. Computers have been a big part of my life, so I found a helpdesk nearby that paid $9.50 an hour, and included training. I worked there for nearly a year and then I moved onto another helpdesk that paid more. Then I got a contract gig as a field technician for a national pharmacy chain- installing all their computer equipment from the storefront server, to the cash registers, to the pharmacy server, and everything in between. It was a sweet deal. I installed 7 stores in a year, did some upgrades and repairs, and remained “on-call” 40 hours a week. There were weeks where I was paid to do nothing but sit and wait for my beeper to go off. Alas, this couldn’t last. After a year, the parent company severed its ties with the agency that held my contract and I was thrown into unemployment.
The sudden drop from my steady wages to unemployment compensation was a shock. It threw me into a deep depression. Finding work was next to impossible. I signed on with several contract-IT agencies in the area, and I kept applying to jobs right and left. I still have a bulletin board peppered with fax coversheets from jobs I applied to. At the end of 2002, I got a temp-job as a field technician for a nationally recognized computer company. It was only $12.00 an hour, and it was 35 hours a week, but it was better than unemployment. I ran around town in my own car replacing parts.
This didn’t last very long. The expenses of keeping my car running, and dealing with irate customers eventually forced me to seek life elsewhere. Luckily, one of those IT-temp agencies found me a contract gig working as an IT Customer Support Specialist for a local courthouse, they were undergoing a new case-management software implementation and they needed someone with strong computer skills to help make that happen. I discussed my experiences there in a previous posting-long story short: my duties were not specific, management was not in total agreement over the software, and it seemed like people were always quitting, transferring out, or getting fired. Not the ideal environment. I worked very hard for over a year, and thought I was making a difference...only to be invited out to lunch by my case managers to be told my contract was being released. Further developments caused the parent company to decide they could no longer have me represent them. My direct employer did not give any specific reasons, but then, they didn’t have to. My guess is that a recently hired department head didn’t care for my “style,” and decided to make some changes. I complained to the parent company about my treatment, and lack of support, and won a puric victory: unemployment compensation.
Since then, I’ve been going to bed later, and getting up later. I spent the first few weeks sending out resumes and cover letters like a madman. Eventually, with no responses at all, I sunk into a deep depression. My wife is beside herself. I am ready to crawl out of my skin. I’m about 5 weeks into my first 13 weeks of unemployment compensation. I am pretty sure I can apply for, and get another 13 week extension if I had to, but UC has dropped my weekly income by more than 300 dollars. If it hadn’t been for my college loan refund, we’d be in serious financial trouble right now, and even that is only going to last so long. I feel as though I’m fighting a losing battle. I can only hold out so long and then the barbarians will storm the gates.
I’m trying to do some “odd-jobs” to help supplement my income. A lot of my wife’s colleagues need computer help, and I’ve made a modest amount of money helping them. I am having business cards made so I can hand them out to people. I am thinking about putting up some color flyers at the local supermarkets and wherever else I can to promote myself and see if I can’t go into business for myself. If it takes off, I’ll apply for a business license and the whole nine-yards.
In the meantime, I am hitting the job boards. I have automatic “agents” that send any jobs in the area to my E-mail on a daily basis. I also scan the “Help Wanted” section of the Sunday paper (better than the weekly editions). It seems like there are jobs out there, but I’m either unqualified or too qualified for them. My wife wants me to find a job...any job. She keeps coming up with ideas about me working at Home Depot, or Borders, or some other retail job. According to my calculations, in order to make more money than UC, I would have to get at least 10 dollars an hour. None of these places pay that much. Besides, I am sick of taking jobs to “hold me over,” I want a career. I wasn’t ready for computer science when I was in college; it took me several more years to understand the “mindset” necessary to develop applications.
The problem is that I have many of the skills, but no education or certifications. I am certain that most of my resumes and cover letters never make it past the HR filters. Most companies have some sort of human or automated process for scanning the content of resumes and cover letters looking for very specific key words. If those key words aren’t there, they “circular file” the resume and send you a: “...Thank-you-for-applying-and-we’ll-keep-your-resume-on-file...” letter. Additionally, I live in Las Vegas. One of the first questions on many applications: “Years in the gaming industry,” which of course, I have none. The casinos don’t hire IT folk off the streets very often. Usually, you have to “know someone” on the inside to get a job with them.
I am working on my master’s degree in Computer Information Systems Management. I am willing to bet if I were to take one of the Microsoft .NET exams and pass it, I would probably be in a better position to get hired. Of course, it would help if I actually opened those books and used them, but all my programming experience has come from actually having a need to create something that was meant to be used. Without a practical purpose, I have great difficulty staying focused on something. When the chips are down, and I have to create a working application for actual use, I can figure it out.
That’s the thing about computing that most people do not comprehend. Once you have been doing it for a while, going from one program or application to another is really not that hard, they generally all have the same basic features and functions. But people stubbornly insist that a person have demonstrated experience with whatever software or hardware they use. There is also a relative “glut” of IT professionals looking for work. Hiring companies can afford to be choosy, and they aren’t paying them the “big bucks” that the profession was used to only a few short years ago. Adding to this mess is the whole “outsourcing/off shoring” issue, and it is not exactly a good time to be looking for a job in IT.
I still believe I will find something. It’s all a matter of timing, opportunity, and effort. In the meantime, excuse me while I go mad for a while...
TANSTAAFL!
© 2004, J.S.Brown
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