Scott, Thanks for that. Yes, I've seen it too. I've also had several recruiters (working for newer firms to be sure) tell me they -only- look at linkedin. Generalize that to twitter, github and similar platforms and you have the makings of a strategy for getting noticed. On Thursday, 15 October 2015, 5:51 pm +0000, Scott Granados <scott@granados-llc.net> wrote:
Will, you make a huge point here. LinkedIn is critical. I get more work now from Linkedin than anywhere and that’s the first thing a recruiter does is check your profile and send you a request.
On Oct 15, 2015, at 12:26 PM, Will Estes <westes575@gmail.com> wrote:
Look, if you're relying on HR to get you in the door, you're going to be unemployed. If human resources people had any skills at all, they'd be doing something else. I generally find that about 2/3 of the candidates that come through HR are not even worth the time it takes to interview them. When I find people on my own, I already filter them out.
I'm looking for one thing: competence.
You can contribute to open source or otherwise web-visible projects.
You can put your profile on linkedin and other social media sites. This includes blogging and commenting in forums.
You can attend local professional focused meetups.
If you want to find people who hire, you can do it.
The trick is not to worry about the people who don't want to work with you, but to find the ones who do.
On Thursday, 15 October 2015, 11:07 am -0500, John G Heim <jheim@math.wisc.edu> wrote:
Well, you're confirming one thing I said -- managers tend to hire people who they hit it off with. They will overlook all kinds of flaws on a resume if they just like the person enough. It's also good advice to try to show curiosity and initiative in an interview. Showing curiosity, initiative, and just generally having a positive attitude are just about the best things you can do in an interview to make the employer like you. And blind people wouldn't be at a disadvantage in showing those characteristics.
The thing you are missing though is that the trick is to get the interview first. While you may consider degrees and certifications useless, I doubt that opinion is common across the industry. A huge percentage of the professionals in this country have college degrees. That person doing the interview probably has a degree so they're not likely to think college degrees are less than useless. Actually, it's probably more common for an IT manager to think that not having a degree shows a lack of discipline. I'm not saying that's true. I'm saying that opinion is not particularly rare. You're more likely to be asked why you never went to college than you are to be congratulated for not having done so.
On 10/15/2015 09:44 AM, Will Estes wrote:
Katherine,
I've got a number of years experience working in and hiring for various IT positions. Here's what I've found:
* A college degree is not relevant in the slightest. If you insist on having one, I'd prefer that you get a degree in something besides a computing field. None of the knowledge I need on a day to day basis was available when I went to college, nor, so far as I can tell, is it taught today.
* Certifications have a very narrow window of usefulness. When interviewing a candidate for a position, my only interest in the certification is that I'll grill extra hard on any area you claim to know something about. In a few cases, there are customer requirements or sales needs that indicate that certifications are worth having. Otherwise, they're at best useless.
* What I am looking for comes down to a few things:
** Are you curious? Have you, in the course of performing your duties, taken opportunities to learn and grow your skills and find better solutions or at least understand the limits and edge cases of the ones you're using?
** Have you made something on your own? Have you taken a technology or idea that you're heard about and done something with it? And "something" could be small.
** Are you interested in the work you do? A lot of us find this sort of work inherently interesting and demonstrate that in the way we approach much of life. That's one indication that you'd be good at this sort of work. For some people, this is just a job. So long as you can show me that you've worked hard, that you consider solving problems and helping people a high priority and a guiding principle in your professional activities, then it's another point in your favor.
Specifically about being blind:
Your job is to convince people that you can do work for them. I come into interviews as an expert on some things, as knowledgeable and experienced in others. That speaks volumes to people who need my skills. I've had a handful of potential employers who didn't get the whole "being blind" things over the years. That being said, most places, it's either not an issue or they take the chance to probe my abilities and find that I can do a ton of stuff.
Does that speak to your questions?
--Will
On Thursday, 15 October 2015, 1:43 pm +0000, Katherine Moss <Katherine.Moss@gordon.edu> wrote:
Hey all, Opinions would be great on this ... which is more powerful in hiring decisions in the IT community these days? (Especially in Massachusetts.) I have a college degree, though it's in English, so I highly doubt it was even considered when I got my helpdesk job here. Someone I know who has no college degree, no IT or industry certifications, and he's sitting here getting all the jobs he wants, while meanwhile, I know someone more talented, not to mention, better at what he does, who's been trying for years to get a job, he's got a certification, and not getting callbacks at all, even though he'd be more than qualified for what he's applying for. You think it's the blindness VS sighted battle again? Or do you think it's college VS no college education? (though correct me if I am mistaken, though aren't certifications nearly as powerful and authoritative as college degrees, especially when you've got someone like me working in IT with a college degree in an entirely different field wi t
h zero certifications?)
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-- Will Estes westes575@gmail.com
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