Well, this stuff you've done in your spare time does matter as much as anything can matter. You need to talk about all this in your cover letter. Play it up. A huge percentage of employers aren't going to notice much less care. But again, you are just hoping to hit upon that one employer who does. It is sort of the flip side of the one page resume rule. First, you don't want to do anything to make that person sorting the resumes press the delete key. Secondly, if they don't press the delete key, you want to pique their interest. Personally, I would be very interested in your storiesabout what you have done in your spare time and these things you've done for fun. Partly that's because that's me too. Admittedly a lot of people won't give a flying fig. But it won't make anybody press the delete key. You can only come out ahead. On 11/04/13 10:30, Katherine Moss wrote:
I'll agree with that; but honestly. What have I done, not much but chosen to geek out on technologies because I feel like it. I help the open source community. I'm learning to code for my own enjoyment, and soon you should see some open source projects out there on Microsoft's CodePlex. But most of my experience comes from "doing it because it's cool". What good is an employer knowing that I have an active Directory environment set up at home? What good to them is it that I taught friends of mine to do the same if they want? It's all just stuff, not "work". And what good is it that I've learned about this stuff by setting it up in a live environment; I didn't go to school for it. Not to mention, since I want to learn so much and I'm making network-wide changes, my family gets the brunt of it lol. My father though, he's actually all cool with it; he wants to be a part of my setup around here. But what about the fact that the Sharepoint 2010 project I started under t he guidance of my mentor and friend down there at Gordon College? He's taken it off premises, but still, as far as I know, my ideas for the project live on and are being worked on via Office 365. Just last week, in fact, he emailed me back about an update I gave him, and at the end of it, whereas he could have just as easily asked the official support channel at the college, those who are hired to work there, he asked me about a family tech situation; what the best way to handle it would be, and I told him. I mean, how meaningful is that? Obviously not very since I've not gotten many bites lately. But like I said, I do have a conversation with a recruiter tomorrow in Boston, so that should be interesting.
-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John G. Heim Sent: Monday, November 04, 2013 11:13 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] How to sell yourself to employers as a blind, but capable technologist
I know this is hard to hear but I don't think there is anything to be gained by putting a pretty face on it. I can point you to studies that show it is harder to get a job if your name is Leroy than it is if your name is Brad. There are studies that show it is significantly harder to get a job if you are overweight than it is if you are thin. There are studies that show it is significantly harder to get a job if you are unattractive than it is if you are good looking. If you think being blind is insignificant, you are kidding yourself.
You can't gauge the problem by looking at the people on this list. We are a self-selected group. We are here in large part because we have succeeded. I would challenge the people on this list to do what I have done which is to get out there into the blind community and start asking questions. Find out what is really going on. I'll give you an example... There is a guy named Tim Cordes who got a medical degree from the University of Wisconsin. He applied to dozens of other medical schools before he happened to try the University of Wisconsin. Dozens of medical schools turned him down even though his credentials were impeccable. The admitting people at University of Wisconsin said, "Wow, look what this guy has done in spite of being blind. We have to get him." But how much different would Tim Cordes life have been had he not happened to apply at the University of Wisconsin? Would he have found another school that saw his disability that way? How many other Tim Cordes are there out there who just didn't happen to come across the one person or persons willing to take a chance on them?
Blind technologists face an additional hurdle which is a phenomna I call "getting backwatered." Mew technologies tend not to be accessible so blind people tend to not get assigned to those tasks within a company. The plum assignments go to sighted people who aren't going to have accessibility issues. Gradually, the blind person gets stuck dealing with older and older technology. And then when layoffs come, he is the one to go because, in all fairness, he truly is the least important member of the team. I will bet that nearly everybody on this list has faced that phenomena to one degree or another in their jobs. I am not the VMWare administrator in my department because it was just easier for my manager to give that job to my sighted co-worker even though, well, frankly I am way better than him. All else being equal, I'd have gotten that assignment. But it is just so easy for him to click the right button whereas I have to find a workaround for so many things that it simply wouldn't have made sense to give me that assignment.
The vast majority of blind professionals get their jobs two ways. One is through a vocational rehab agency. That is probably the majority. The second way is by happening upon someone who admires their pluck, someone who says, "Look at what this person has done in spite of being blind. Lets get him.".In very, very few cases is blindness not an issue at all.
But the fact is, that if you are on this list, you probably do have pluck. You probably are a cut above in terms of willingness to work hard and to try anything. You probably could be home right not on disability but you choose not to be. Not only that, you succeeded against all odds. You have done things that most people would indeed find pretty amazing. I think it's important to point that out in a job interview. A job interview is no time to be humble.
This is my advice to all blind people, not just aspiring technologists -- be that amazing blind person. Of course, I know on this list I'm preaching to the choir. By and large, the people on this list don't need that message. Being the amazing blind person takes a lot of hard work and determination. It also takes a good measure of luck. But mostly, it's attitude. Don't be afraid to fail. And don't let your failures stop you. If you fail, try again only harder. And if that doesn't work, try again even harder still. Or try something else. If you do that, not only will you be more likely to succeed, you'll find it far more gratifying. Some people climb mountains because they're there. Well, you don't have to go looking for a mountain, one has been dumped on you.
On 11/04/13 07:33, Scott Granados wrote:
I think this less of a problem than it used to be and again depending on the part of the world. People in big cities are more familiar with the blind now. There are more blind engineers and it's much more common. Will it always be a problem, sure, but I think it's improving, certainly since I've started my career.
On Nov 1, 2013, at 9:56 PM, John G. Heim <jheim@math.wisc.edu> wrote:
I think you are underestimating how reluctant many people are to hire a blind person, Brian. I think a lot of people would *like* to hire a blind person but they don't think they can take a chance. Employers are worried about whether you can do your job and it's up to you, as the applicant, to convince them that they needent worry.
Maybe your qualifications are so outstanding that you don't have to worry about that. But if you, as a blind person, go up against another applicant with pretty much the same qualifications, why would any employer take the risk of hiring the blind person? Even if they don't say anything, they are going to be wondering how you're going to get to work in an emergency, how you're going to read the department memos, whether you're going to sue them if it doesn't work out. I think you've got to convince them to take a chance on you.
I just don't think it is realistic to go into a job interview acting as if your blindness is not an issue. It is. It's up to you as the applicant to convince the employer that it doesn't matter because very few employers will come to that conclusion on their own.
On 11/01/2013 07:46 PM, Ryan Shugart wrote:
Hi Katherine: I have to agree with what the others on here have said for the most part. I'd keep your resume to one to perhaps one and a half pages. Remember that many times, potential employers don't even read resumes anymore, its all done by computers scanning for key words. As to the whole blindness thing, I have found its best to be honest with the employer before the interview but don't push that fact too hard unless it needs pushing. Just saying "Just so you know, I'm visually impared, so I'll be coming with a cane/dog" is all I'd say before the interview. That puts it out there, then you can see what they do.. I wouldn't send in pictures of projects I've done or anything like that, but do the obvious. Make sure you dress professionally, are there on time, basically show you can blend in as much as possible. If at that point the blindness is a problem with the employer it probably isn't a good fit anyway. Finally on blindness, let me just be blunt. Being a blind systems administrator is not easy. You will have accessibility challenges every day, and depending on what your employer has you doing there are days where you'll be confronted with some pretty steep accessibility challenges. Things are changing out there fast, and access s o
ftware is struggling to keep up. I'm not saying its not doable, but just warning you to plan on spending as much time figuring out how to do your job as you spend doing your job. The larger the company, and the more 3RD party software they run that you have to work with, the more true this is. I used to administer VMware, but got pulled off of it because there were just too many accessibility challenges. The standard VMware client is barely accessible, it can be used with a screen reader, but it takes forever. There is a commandline interface for VMWare, and I was pretty good with it, but it only managed the basic VSphere environment. VCloud Director, VCenter Heartbeat, etc. No CLI. So I got pulled off VMWare and now manage AD, where the GUI is usable, and everything is doable with Powershell. Which, by the way, if you don't know Powershell, learn it now. Make it your best friend. Know it inside and out. You will absolutely not regret it. Technically, yes, go for helpdesk positions or even internships. That's how I got started was a six month internship doing basic Windows administration. I started out in a tiny company, we only had nine servers when I started. We got bought out a few years ago by a big international company, so now I manage about 60 servers spread out around the world, a big change. Many IT jobs today are contract to hire, which means that they hire you for a few months to a year on contract to see if they like you, then if they do, keep you on. It might not hurt to contact a recruiter and talk with them about the positions available. I personally don't like contract to hire as much as direct hire because people hired through contract often don't get any benefits for a while until after they've been accepted, but all of the hires in the IT department where I work have been through recruiters and contract to hire positions. Also, look into some certs. I know this is very cont ravercia l
, but I've had employers tell me to my face that if it came down to two candidates, one with a cert and one without, everything else equal, they go for the cert. Its that paper documentation. Does a cert mean you are better technically? Of course not, but it is documentation that you can perform a basic level of skills. In an entry level career they carry weight, as you progress no one cares. I've also heard that some U.S. federal IT positions require certs even to be considered in the first place. I'd skip over basic A+ and such and go for a MCSA or whatever its called today, or Linux equivalent. You'll probably get an A+ as part of that, then start looking for internships. I hope this helps to get you started, this is what worked for me at least. Ryan
-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: Friday, November 01, 2013 2:51 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] FW: How to sell yourself to employers as a blind, but capable technologist
The only problem with including detailed descriptions of everything I've ever done technologically, is that my resume would span more than two pages, and two pages is all that an employer these days will bother to read. And aside from that, how do I know, that just because I can do something, does that mean that I can also do it in a job environment where I have people breathing down my neck? For instance, do I know how to set up an active Directory Environment? Sure I do. Do I know how to set one up in a 1000+ employee corporation? I'm not sure. I've never gotten the chance to try since no one will hire me. Could I set up a sharepoint site, sure, with a little looking things up and maybe fooling around with the SP PowerShell modules. My point is that I can't seem to get folks to look past the fact that most of my knowledge is self-taught and self-obtained, instead of being tauht to me in a college environment. In fact, I didn't know that my passion for administra tion and technology in general, at least in terms of wanting to work in IT as well, was so strong until 2011, when I met my mentor and friend, who is also the information security officer at Gordon College. He put me on a project during an internship, and from that point onward, I realized that tech was my life, my dream job, and everything else to me, pretty much. But by that time, it was too late to change my major to computer science since I was already a junior.
-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of John G. Heim Sent: Friday, November 01, 2013 4:12 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] FW: How to sell yourself to employers as a blind, but capable technologist
My totally unsubstantiated opinion is that you want to hit them hard with all the stuff you do in your personal life. It would be kind of corny for someone to attach stuff to a resume about their hobbies but, IMO, it's different if you are blind. Last time I was looking for a job, I attached pictures of the stone terraced garden I had built and pictures of my woodworking projects. I included links to an article that was written about me when I ran a marathon. I included anything like that I could think of. Quite honestly, I wanted to play into the myth of the super blind guy.
Some people think it's better to not mention that you are blind until you get an interview and let them find out when you show up. But I think that results in you going to a lot of interviews for jobs you have no chance at. I came to this conclusion after I showed up for an interview and a the person who was going to interview me said, "But you're blind. Blind people can't use computers." I talked them into going ahead with the interview but it was clear I had absolutely no chance at the job.
That was a big waste of time. Who knows how many other times the person thought it but was smart enough to say nothing. So I started attaching all the stuff about my personal life and hobbies. I even wrote a few lines in the cover letter to the effect of saying that I wouldn't normally add all this stuff about my hobbies on a resume but I feel it's important for you, the employer, to know that I can do stuff.
Hard to say if it worked. I got a job soon after but it could have been a coincidence.
On 11/01/13 13:48, Katherine Moss wrote:
-----Original Message----- From: Katherine Moss Sent: Friday, November 01, 2013 2:47 PM Subject: How to sell yourself to employers as a blind, but capable technologist
Hello all, My name is Katherine Moss, and let me tell you. Boy do I wish I had discovered this list years ago. I have been a technologist/administrator for the past ten years dabbling in everything from Windows to most recently Linux. I'm wondering what you guys have done to sell yourself to employers during interviews to get hired at your fulfilling jobs. I desire greatly to become a paid systems administrator and not just have technology as a hobby. I have a degree in English, though I'm planning on getting a certificate in network technologies and administration at Bunker Hill Community College (I am from Massachusetts). As of right now, regardless of the fact that I do have experience, employers are getting tripped up by my lack of official vender certifications, as well as my blindness. I will admit that I'm very open about my blindness, using it as a jumping off point to launch accessibility awareness campaigns rather than brooding over it. I'm wondering if my openne
ss du
ring the first interview at a job could be hurting me? I ask this because qualifications can't be the problem since I'm a member of a couple of user groups here in New England, and not many of us have computer science degrees at all. What has been your take on this? Thanks.
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
-- --- John G. Heim, 608-263-4189, jheim@math.wisc.edu
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
-- --- John G. Heim, 608-263-4189, jheim@math.wisc.edu