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Help with a career question

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by care

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My friend has been in Technical Support / Network Administration for the last 10 years. 2 years ago he was laid off and has not been able to find a steady job since. He has taken odd and end jobs just to make it. We live in Chicago and everytime a technical company looks at his resume they say "you have been out of the business too long" or with entry level help desk jobs they say "you have too much experience". He is A+ and Network+ certified. He is very discouraged now. What suggestions do you all have for him. He applies to at least 30 jobs a week.

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by matrixcsl

Hi, I was in the same boat myself. 10 years an IT manager, suddenly made redundant, no IT manager jobs in my area (NE England), applied for loads of techie/development jobs "too managerial", "you'll be bored", you have too much expertise/experience", so I decided to set myself up in business - NEVER LOOKED BACK. Perhaps your friend could work for himself thereby STILL BEING IN THE BUSINESS, he can continue to look for work at the same time. Does he have his Microsoft Exams? A MUST THESE DAYS. Hope this helps!!! Alternatively, maybe he could specialise more - e.g. internet security, ecommence, web design?

by dc_guy

Even if you don't get many clients, at least it will fill that gap on your resume so it doesn't look like you've been out of work. If someone asks you why you want to go back to working for a salary, just be honest: you haven't found self-employment to be all that it's cracked up to be and you'd rather spend more time working on IT projects and less time doing your own marketing and bookkeeping. You can even say in all honesty that the income was not what you'd hoped, without giving away the embarrassing details. A prospective employer would like to be reassured that you're not going to jump ship and restart your home business every time the going gets rough at corporate HQ.

by john_wills

I was once 68 months unemployed, including a break with a week's work for IT-MacS, a crooked firm which still has not paid me. I too, after initially being told I was over-qualified, was told I'd been out of the business too long. To keep my sanity I did as much as I could of things I had wanted to do outside work. After making maximum use of the state Job Service each day I would study for a degree upgrade, not entirely in IT-related subjects, and do a lot of reading of books I'd long wanted to read and some I'd never heard of before I saw them on the library shelves. When it looked as though I might get a job in Sa'udi Arabia I did some Arabic handwriting exercises. It was a very miserable time in principle, but I made myself as happy as I could. Of course, the Job Service and welfare benefits in Illinois are probably not as good as those in Yookeigh, so you have more of a worry factor to contend with.

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