For instance, a local drug company just added two UNIX admins paying close to the 100k a year range. Knowing the VP of IT, Chairman of the Board, and several global directors didn't land me that one, but at least I applied (as did probably everyone on this list an a zillion others) and managed to land an interview.
I hadn't even finished crying in my beer about the above job when I heard about another (even better in my opinion) job. The job I just landed is as close to my dream job as can be had these days. It's network management related, Linux related, and it rocks. To land the job I had to know some of the big dogs in the company, and some of the people that the big dogs know, and show that my 10 years plus of network management and UNIX skills hadn't gone stale.
Prior to working here I road the train wreck that was Lucent from 120,000 employees down to 35,000. While I was doing hard-core technically related stuff when I started at Lucent I ended by writing specs on splayed manholes that wouldn't crush under the weight of tanks or settle too deep into Korea's unique soil conditions. Oh yippie, that was fun I can tell you. But I did keep my skills up to date by volunteering for any technically challenging project that came along and tinkering with technical projects at home (i.e. learning new programming languages, keeping the ones I didn't know as sharp as possible, etc).
But the good news is there are jobs here! For instance UNC-TV also recently added two UNIX admins. Heck, Revlon Corporate has been trying to find a UNIX admin out in Oxford (a bit North of where I live in Youngsville) for EIGHT MONTHS. I've send the link out before, but here it is again:
<"http://skillnet.skillset.com/revlon/extpost.nsf/ bf017f390970e816882566f6005aa7cb/ fe05896282793df185256c4b00175e66?OpenDocument">
I guess what I'm saying is DON'T GIVE UP HOPE! Meaningful, challenging work is out there. Just be ready to pounce when the time comes and get that resume polished and get some good references that can really speak to your technical abilities. And get involved with a local LUG (as much as is possible, anyway) and just try to keep your skills up to date.
Just my $.02.
Greg
On Tuesday, June 10, 2003, at 09:34 PM, Philip Buckley wrote:
I am planning on moving down to the Raleigh area from up here in Boston. I will be heading down sometime in July and was wondering if you guys could help point me towards some good resources (internet or "real") to help me find employment when I get down there.
I'm looking, and I know this may be a shocker, for something Linux/Free/Open based, preferably doing web development.
TIA, Phil Buckley
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