With the unemployment rate hovering at or near 10% over the last year or so, I’ve been getting a lot of calls from people desperately looking to get back in the game. If there’s one thing in my career that I love to do, it’s to help people try and get back on their feet.

One call in particular I received yesterday really got me thinking. A very kind, smart gentleman got my name from a consultant, and called me to hopefully try and get some advice or tips on how to change careers/specialties within the IT industry. I commend him for calling the week before (I wrote down his number, got sidetracked, and failed to call him back), but then he called me again. Persistence, I love it! He came from an AS/400, mainframe development backgroud, and classified himself as older (55+ years old). He’s been having a heck of a time finding work, and has finally decided to change careers and move to the web with something a bit more mainstream (Java or .Net).

His main questions revolved around training, education, what skills are hot, recommendations on marketing himself, thoughts on being entry level when he’s 55+, etc. All valid questions. But the thing I see the most from people looking diligently for work is that they don’t think outside the box, they don’t do anything different from the rest of the unemployed looking for work (most of the time they just don’t know any different). They apply for the all these positions online, and their resumes go into the great unknown. They might attend some networking functions or some other formal get togethers, but not a ton more than that. Most think training and education are the key. I agree, training and education are essential, but that’s not going to be the difference maker.

I told him that 100% of the candidates that I’m looking to employ, the first thing I do is hop on google and do a simple search for their name. I look for their blog, their participation in user groups, posts on technical forums, try and find them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. In IT, online participation is pretty essential in my opinion.

I never imply I’m an expert, so nothing I say is remarkable. But I told him a few simple tips to leverage his experience, training, or education towards that new profession.

1. Start a blog. It’s free. Buy some technical books related to the new career/specialty you want to pursue, read them, review them, blog about them. Blog about a specific part of the technology you learned. Put this blog on your resume, and obviously feed it into your LinkedIn account. Blog about things you’re learning in the training courses you’re taking, the certification you earned and advice on how to become certified. This will immediately make you more experienced that your entry level counterparts, and will set you apart from other job seekers in your shoes.
2. Want to become more engaged and “younger”? Get on Twitter. Start following technologists that share your same specialty, and engage with them. Feed your blog into twitter, post articles specific to your specialty. You’re unemployed, so you have time. Now is the time to do it.
3. Use LinkedIn like crazy. Connect with recruiters, search for companies that use the technology you’re learning, engage with people. Just don’t sit back and wait for people to come to you, reach out to them. Connect your Twitter account, Blog, and your reading list to your profile.
4. Build a web app. Learning .Net or Java? Build an app. Don’t you think that proves you know what you’re doing? Point people to it, blog about what you learned, reference it on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Seriously, why not? It’s a trivial amount of money for the type of experience and personal branding you get from it.
5. Pimp out your resume. Various ways to do this, but make sure that summary on the top sparkles. Note your overall experience, but more importantly, note your recent experience and expertise with the new technology you’re learning. The summary should be perfect, and reflect what you want to do and what skills you have to do it. If you’ve been unemployed for a while, don’t just leave your last position as the first one everyone sees, that’s a gap. Put your web app you developed or your blog as your employer, and describe in detail what you’ve learned and accomplished in the time you’ve been unemployed just like any other employer in your experience section. And if you’re concerned about age discrimination, leave off your earlier years.

People are frustrated with the standard application/interview process and I don’t blame them. If you’re frustrated, do something about it. I hear people complain a lot, but I also don’t see everyone stepping up and being proactive in their job search. Please please please do not become complacent, you need to do things out of the ordinary, or else you’ll just become another applicant.

Tags: career change, it career change, tips for career change, tips for career change in it

This entry was posted by Ehren Seim on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 11:49 am and is filed under Economy/Job Market, Job Search, Social media/networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.