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Finding a Job--NOT! Can you Help?

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by daikoku 1 view

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I am over 50 with a MS technical degree and than 25 years of IT experience. I was laid off 18 months ago after a year as a Customer Service Manager when the foreign software company decided to abandon the US market. The job was building the US technical support function -- both pre and post-sales. It was somewhat a career direction change as much of what I did in the new job was pre-sales related. I had been doing post-sales technical support as an individual contributor for the previous 6 years. Prior to that I was a Help Desk Manager (3 years) and before that Applications Development/Project Manager (10+ years). I discovered a real knack for the pre-sales process and received great feedback from a number of customers.

I would like to pursue a Pre-Sales Engineer job, but with the poor job market in Silicon Valley and minimum experience, I have been applying for jobs related to my background such as Technical Support, Help Desk and Development Manager as well as staff positions with no luck?no interviews. In the mean time, I have been taking on-line courses in the newer web-based technologies to keep my skills current. I feel like I am caught in the middle in two areas: management vs. individual contributor, and pre-sales vs. post-sales vs. development.

Two questions:
1. Would a good career coach be any good for focusing on one targeted job type? Alternatively, should I continue to pursue any job that matches my skill set?
2. How can I best capitalize on being a mature IT professional with experience along the product cycle: building, selling, and supporting software products?

Thanks to all!

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by john_wills

I too am in my mid 50s. I have experienced two long periods of unemployment, one of 68 months and one of 18 months. The latter had a few extra-professional jobs mixed in, e.g. census enumerator and(one day only) software tester. I cannot advise you on how to get a job soon, but I can tell you what I did that helped.
I joined a job club organized by the EDD, where I met people in similar situations from various professions and got at least some leads.
I got myself on the mailing list for www.ajb.dni.us and www.dice.com. Neither of these actually got me a job, at least not directly, but I got on the lists of a lot of agencies, and eventually one got me a job in Norwalk CA, to which I commuted weekly, retaining my foothold in SF, an important place for me. I also got on the candidate list of the City & County, and was called to interviews at several agencies before bagging my present job(the job in Norwalk turned out to be someone's over-enthusiasm in hiring, and 12 new hires got laid off after a month - still, I was paid and acquired 2 new skills). It does not pay as much as the one before the 18 months, but I am making progress in my multiple plans.
I took advantage of my unemployment by attending the noon mass most days, whichmay be one reason I never quite went crazy, although I did get quite deep into debt to pay the rent.
I attended all the nearby job fairs, which may not have helped but was fun - free candy, etc. And obviously the job fairs helped some people, so they may help you.

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