On Wednesday 28 January 2009, David Hardy wrote:
>> "... the best way would be to improve your HR dept to be more responsive to 
>> job inquiries,
>> specifically after one has gone to the trouble of filling out the on-line 
>> form and submitting.
>> Waiting weeks before getting even some notification of receipt, let alone 
>> review, is BS."

> That seems to be S.O.P now in the industry.  They post gigs, we respond, and
> BTW, they all want the full alphabet soup for their site's infrastructure
> (which we must already know down to the smallest nuts and bolts before we
> even darken their doorways) and then we hear either nothing at all, or
> nothing for weeks and weeks.  I've sent in the stuff to LS before and got
> nada back.  
I can claim the same. Don't anybody tell me that I can't test equipment, but in 
their
wisdom (and w/no avail recommendations) they prob see me as a poor match so I 
fail even
the pre-screening "getting to know you" dance.

> Same with hundreds of other places over the last eight years. 
>  Of course I only have 12 years in IT across multiple hw and sw platforms
> and applications, plus college and grad school, and decorated combat vet
> status.  All apparently worthless, due to me being 55 or whatever.
Well, there it is! You old fart:) Join the club of dinosaurs. Tech, specially 
the www,
is so youth marketed and driven that you are handicapped the moment your CV 
gets read.
I can understand how some might think that oldsters are "net1.0"; but, speaking 
for myself,
I am as abreast of current tech as any 20-something; and FWIW enjoy their 
company more often
than a general cross-section of my peers. 
It's not about age but about the fun that comes from sharing knowledge and 
making shit happen.
Try selling that concept to the PHB in HR!

> 
> Meanwhile, I'll apparently be driving, cleaning out, and washing rental
> vehicles for a local chain. Sweet!  No cube farm, no pager, no cell phone.
>  And 12 years of IT down the drain.  As we continue to see mass layoffs and
> more savage and bloody competition in the job market, we're bled white by
> taxes, and our kids are still being fed to Moloch's jaws in endless foreign 
> cluster****s.

I feel your pain. It's like slowly getting pushed out of our field despite 
having so much still
to contribute. I'm in a constant struggle to re-invent myself just to find 
meaningful work in IT.

No sysadmin jobs: go back to programming. No local jobs: get on guru, 
scriptlance, elance, getafreelancer...
The absolute worst part about finding 'gainful' employment is that if you have 
to work too hard
to sell your strengths then they probably will never recognize them to begin 
with and you'll be 
frustrated that you never find a seat at the table for your ideas (like 
switching from x-change to scalix, or 
virtualizing, or designing sites w/compliant, non-tablular markup with decent 
style and presentation, whatever).
If they don't see you as an asset they never will because you'll never have the 
opportunity to prove it.

Fact is, you and I (and a few others on this list) are at that point where we 
have to draw upon our collective
abilities to "make something happen" or probably face our imminent demise.

Rion


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