Need Help With Finding A Job!

CptFalcon

Hi guys,I need some help in finding a new job in this very 'hot' market.

I got fired from my last gig because I, "Issued updates to servers without approval from management." My boss and I had discussed that the patching that I'd be doing would be an ongoing process done every month on the 3rd weekend of every month. He never told me what servers to not touch and I make sure nothing went bad by taking snapshots in HyperV so I could revert if something went bad. He was on vacation between 10/20 - 10/28 and I had did this on 10/22. He didn't bring it to my attention until after he returned. I was brought into HR's office at the end of my shift at 3PM on 11/2 and was told it would be my last day because I "Had patched mission-critical servers." I didn't say a word, wasn't given anything to sign. I cleaned out my desk and was escorted out.

This is odd b/c my boss told me that I was "A diamond in the rough." He wanted me to be the face of IT and do everything for our department. I never got upset with my coworkers and fixed practically every issue without a fuss. Also, it was very rare for me to go him for help. It was mostly, "Where is this, where is that?" And then a complete 180 toward me, and then started to nitpick everything I did after the 6th month I was there. Now, I am following the advice of my lawyer and fighting for unemployment.

I've already appealed it, and based on what my coworkers have said, the HR manager and supervisor are beside themselves about me appealing it. I believe it's because they have no evidence to present to the appeal hearing and it will be my word against theirs.Anyway, I've gotten a couple interviews and so far it's lead nowhere. I thought this would be a blessing in disguise but so far I'm feeling depressed and frustrated. Mostly, because I have nothing else to do except study. I lend my car to my mother so she can go to work and I use it when I need it. But, she's gone most of the day doing two jobs.

I've managed to get two more certs to my name; Project + and Sec +. I now have four certs in total; A +, Network +, Project +, Security +.I though it would be easier to find a job, but it seems to me employers want someone with 5-10 years of experience in practically everything. I've been applying to Network Admin, Network Engineer, System Admin, System Engineer gigs with no luck so far in actually getting a job.

Anything you guys can do to help would be appreciated.

CptFalcon

MAC_Addy wrote: »

Are you willing to relocate? That's always a possibility you'll have to look into. Just so you know, you might not find something for a while. I was laid-off from my last company and couldn't find anything for nearly 4 months!! For the first 2 1/2 - 3 months I didn't even get a call back from anywhere that I applied. I know that may seem harsh, but be prepared.

Now, for the pep talk (sort of). Apply, apply, apply! Even if it's for something more Jr to what you were doing - apply for it! Sometimes it's better to just be somewhere than to not go to work. After looking at your resume, I would say that you should apply for network engineer jobs. Seems as though you have experience with ASA's. If you understand how to do ACL's, object groups and such, you'll be golden.

So I got some news. No, I haven't gotten a new job yet.

1st - The company I'm fighting for UI over has not sent me anything for evidence. It's just as I thought, they have absolutely no evidence and can't quantify anything.

2nd - I had two interview today; one very close to my house (less than 10 min away) and one next to O'hare airport.

First one I believe went really well, we actually went over the 1 hr time that we had and we ended up talking about 1 hr and 45 min. This is the guy I would be reporting to, he showed me around the office and showed me the IDF they had in the building. Their setup is pretty nice; very casual and startup like. He actually said "I will be talking the recruiter about next steps for you." So that sounds really promising, but I must realistic in this idea. The one thing I have going for me in this gig is that it's 2nd shift, so it's automatically a much smaller pool of candidates. Also, the recruiter was really pushing for me to interview and being unusually nice. Again, I must be realistic and not believe what I want to believe.

Second one; Apparently I impressed the IT Director and the Systems Engineer that they had in the same room as I. I got this interview through a contracting firm and honestly thought that I had bombed it. I answered all their questions and I knew I was right. During the interview, it felt like trying to draw blood from a rock from those two. I got no confirmation or engagement, so I said "Screw it!" and just plowed right through the awkward silence. The recruiter called me back and told me that I had impressed them a lot with my examples and explanations of the different routing protocols and whatnot. I was shocked when he told me this. So I got a second interview already lined up with the Lead Network Engineer at this company on Tuesday of next week. Supposedly, the other 5 people that they have talked were all clowns and knew jack; I was the only to actually know what the protocols did and where you would use them. (IE; MPLS, TCP/UDP, IS-IS, OSPF, EIGRP, HSRP, etc...)

It looks promising, but I'm not holding my breath. We'll see in the next few weeks what else comes my way. Back to studying!