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Last Post:
Oct 30, 2008 10:21 PM
by: Emmasdad
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Posts:
19
Registered:
7/28/08
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Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 16, 2008 9:24 AM
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Now that I have been unemployed for almost 13 months, I am afraid potential employers will not even consider me. . .beside the fact that I am not an H1B. I have worked my entire life without a gap until this last year. When interviewing what do you tell employers about the gap in your work history? It's not that I don't want a job. . .I can't FIND ONE! My background is in Unix System Admin, EMC Storage, backups and disaster recovery. Please advise, thanks!
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Posts:
319
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4/2/08
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employer
Posted:
Oct 16, 2008 10:00 AM
in response to: burnttoast
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Tell them the truth and take a throw-away job or do something with your life. You can't just look for work, it be depressing, no? Stay involved with stuff even if it is going back to school to become a respiratory therapist. (I had a doctor tell me that's hotter than rad-tech)
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Posts:
5,136
Registered:
2/8/07
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employer
Posted:
Oct 16, 2008 10:13 AM
in response to: The Fat Housewife
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>>Tell them the truth and take a throw-away job<<
You've got to be careful with "throw-aways"!!! Some employers are understanding, others think you took the "throw-away" because you couldn't cut it in your technical field ...............
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Posts:
1,141
Registered:
5/11/08
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employer
Posted:
Oct 16, 2008 10:29 AM
in response to: burnttoast
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> Now that I have been unemployed for almost 13 months,
> I am afraid potential employers will not even
> consider me. . .beside the fact that I am not an H1B.
> I have worked my entire life without a gap until
> this last year. When interviewing what do you tell
> employers about the gap in your work history? It's
> not that I don't want a job. . .I can't FIND ONE!
> My background is in Unix System Admin, EMC Storage,
> backups and disaster recovery. Please advise,
> thanks!
Don't panic. Eventually, you will get an interview but I expect the market must first improve. Once that opportunity presents itself, there are prospective employers who clearly understand that there is little a person can do for themselves. Demand for American labor just hasn't been there.
If you encounter somebody that wants a perfect work record there is nothing you can do about it. I tried to fill in the gaps by working throw away jobs. It gives you a few dollars and permits you to make the "I want to work" observation to a future prospective employer.
I see that the inability to find work, global economic circumstances, and election year politics to be related. On that point, I would suggest that we all think long and hard.
I know that even everyday jobs are difficult to get. Keep searching.
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Posts:
121
Registered:
5/27/08
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 16, 2008 11:00 AM
in response to: burnttoast
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Do you have friends of relatives that own a business? Put down on your resume that you were doing IT work for them assuming they allow you to do it. You have to do what it takes to look good. Don't take chances with what employers might think. You don't have control of what they will think or perceive, so you do what you can control.
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906
Registered:
11/17/06
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 16, 2008 11:19 AM
in response to: burnttoast
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Dear burnttoast,
You have to be truthful, and there's no doubt that you will get another opportunity, but how you represent your activities over the last 12 months is vital. Envision yourself in a manager's chair interviewing an unemployed candidate and I think you'll see what I mean. Instead of saying that you were unemployed and looking for work for a year, it would be better to say that while you were looking for another full time job, you seized the opportunity to go to school and receive another certification, learned a new technology, did some paid and unpaid consulting etc. In other words, you want to show that you are committed to your profession and your own growth and development. Here's an analogy for you, head football coaches get fired all the time; they become assistants for awhile or sports analysts, something to keep their fingers in the pie and show that they can persevere through a difficult period. I’m sure you’ve done some of the same things, so be sure and talk about what you’ve been doing.
Good luck.
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Posts:
19
Registered:
7/28/08
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 17, 2008 8:46 AM
in response to: LeslieDiceExpert
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LeslieDiceExpert, this is excellent advice, thank you for your reply.
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Posts:
4,440
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3/4/08
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 17, 2008 9:11 AM
in response to: burnttoast
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I was laid-off in 2001, and it took me longer than one year to find a real job. I just say that the IT market collapsed in 2001, and potential employers seem to understand.
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Posts:
1
Registered:
10/17/08
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 17, 2008 3:27 PM
in response to: burnttoast
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why do u need to mention that you are nor h1b . does that make to entitled to somethimg?
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Posts:
2,211
Registered:
9/22/08
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 18, 2008 8:00 AM
in response to: harryzcool
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"why do u need to mention that you are nor h1b . does that make to entitled to somethimg?"
I can tell by the bad English above that you are from India. What is your impression of the misery that H1-Bs are causing this country?
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 18, 2008 5:18 PM
in response to: AronSmith
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Let me answer for him. He doesn't care.
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Posts:
1,242
Registered:
1/21/08
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 19, 2008 4:46 AM
in response to: burnttoast
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Could it be that you simply do not have the sense of your market?
How often do you get interviews? How often do recruiters call you back?
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Posts:
19
Registered:
7/28/08
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 20, 2008 10:48 AM
in response to: DW
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I do have a sense of the market and I have done everything I know to do to find a job. Countless Job Fairs, networking with former colleagues, resume posting, and hours on the phone with worthless recruiters. The last time I had to look for a job (10 years ago) it took me all of 4 days--yes I know, things have changed! Please, no need to doubt my efforts or my sense of what is going on in our economy. I have actually had several interviews over the last nine months, but oddly, those positions are still posted. . .and unfilled.
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Posts:
6,370
Registered:
5/16/07
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employer
Posted:
Oct 20, 2008 5:33 PM
in response to: burnttoast
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OP should abandon IT.
Best of Luck.
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Posts:
16
Registered:
5/14/07
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Re: Unemployed for 1 year and counting; what do you tell potential employers?
Posted:
Oct 22, 2008 11:45 AM
in response to: burnttoast
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burnttoast, your situation is much more common than you realize. I work with job seekers everyday in your predicament.
The number one problem I see with job seekers in the tech arena is diluting their skill set. You presented your background as "Unix System Admin, EMC Storage, backups and disaster recovery" and I'll be your resume shows the prospective employer exactly that. It shouldn't. If you apply to an Unix System Admin position, you need to present yourself as a Unix System Admin expert and downplay any deviation that smacks of anything else. The same thing applies to EMC Storage. Make as little mention as possible of Unix SA or backup/disaster recovery. Above all else you should be presenting yourself as a dyed in the wool, bad to the bone, expert in whatever position you are applying for.
This of course requires you to have many resumes. Is it safe to assume you have lots of resumes and their accompanying cover letters scattered all over your hard drive each identified with some kind of cryptic name? Is it safe to assume you dread applying for yet another job, because of the repetitive nature of the process not to mention being synonymous with being passed over yet again? Burnttoast, you need to get a tool to manage the process for you. If you have a Windows PC have a look at JobTabs, JobFish or PerfectJob. If you use a Linux based computer, have a look at jibberjobber.com. Whatever you do - get something.
As the author of JobTabs, I am familiar with your plight. As an independent IT Consultant, I has a home grown software program to manage my job search and I was an expert at rolling over from one contract to another. When I saw all my friends crying in their beer when they lost their jobs after the dot com crash, I knew I had an opportunity to improve the lives of others. Above all else, I am not trying to sell you anything as much as I am trying to get you to stand on the shoulders of giants. I mentioned the other products, because you should pick a tool that works for you and roll with it. Every job seeker feels like their plight is a very personal experience, but in actuality it is a plight experienced by everyone that this experienced alone. Pick yourself up by your bootstraps and walk down the path that has been blazed for you. Good luck in your job search. 
Sincerely,
John P. Coffey
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