[clug] Jobhunting

Brad Hards bhards at bigpond.net.au
Fri Feb 20 23:36:26 GMT 2004


On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 19:13 pm, Paul Warren wrote:
> After deciding to defer my studies for at least a year, I decided to
> look for some full time IT emplyment.  And have been having some trouble
> getting one!

> My questions:
> Am I doing the right thing?
Posting on the CLUG list ? Possibly not, but others are likely in similar 
case, and some of what I recommend is broadly applicable.

> Anything I'm missing?
Experience matters. Doesn't have to be paid work, but has to be justifiable, 
and ideally quantifiable. Knowing C++ isn't experience. Experience is having 
used it in some practical way (on a real project, rather than a uni 
assignment). Something of the form "Applied high level C++ skills as part of 
a multidisciplinary team that accomplished X under Y conditions with Z 
outcome", where Z is in terms of cost, schedule and performance.

For a lot of employers, qualifications matter, and much of the qualifications 
you've described don't seem to relate to each other. If you want to be in IT, 
and you don't have much experience, then you'll need at least a Bachelor's 
degree to get into public service jobs. If you do have that degree, you can 
at least look at some of the Graduate programs.

Some kind of intro statement that explains what sort of job you are most 
suited to would help too.

I agree with Steve Jenkins remark as well - my company never advertises. 
Everyone we have hired comes from personal contacts (people we knew and 
trusted, or word of mouth recommendations from people we trust). We don't do 
specific IT things thought, so you might want to take that with a grain of 
salt.

Brd
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: signature
Url : http://lists.samba.org/archive/linux/attachments/20040221/7f301320/attachment.bin


More information about the linux mailing list