Stumped...interviews, but no hire

okie

Well, I am exactly as I put here. Stumped.

A little background.

I have over 5 years of experience in a mid size lan administration (~450 wkstations and 12 servers) including vlans, routing, MS NT4, 2000, 2003 and limited Linux administration, GP, AD, wireless WAN, AP's, etc. etc. I won't bore you with my entire resume.

I have been job hunting in the OKC area for approx. a month and seem to have no problem getting interviews (I have had 6 so far) but just don't get called back.

I haven't had much interviewing experience, but have read many articles, sites, etc. about interviewing and don't feel that I am doing anything to kill my opportunities. I have had two instances where the HR person or the highering authority have even said that the interview went very well and they were looking forward to talking to me as soon as the interviews were wrapped up.

I don't have a degree, but I do have over 60 hours with an excellent GPA and all of the certs listed to the side.

Is the market just that competetive here in the central US (Oklahoma), or do you think I am just missing the boat in my interviews? I am wondering specifically if my lack of degree is really killing my opportunities. I would think that exp. and certs would be more telling in terms of a persons ability (not that a degree is not a great thing to have).

Also, in a couple of cases I have had to specify a salary req. I have been saying 45k/year. Any thoughts on that figure?

sprkymrk

A month is not all that long, sometimes interviews go one for 4-6 weeks, then the HR and other folks get together and discuss who they liked. A week later they make a decision who to call.

If it's only been a month, just make a follow up phone call stating that you wanted to thank them for the opportunity to interview for the job. After that, use some genuine polite inquires as to whether they might call you back or are they still in the decision making process, yada, yada, yada. If they state that they have already chosen someone else, thank them again and let them know you would like to remain on their call list should they change their mind or the selected candidate doesn't work out.

Badger95

I’m just curious are you currently enrolled? Or still considered current even though you are not taking classes. One school I went to allows you to not take a class for a year and still considered enrolled. Reason I bring this up is many collages offer job placement services. And usually offer some practice interview sessions. If that is available to you, do a session and get some feedback on what your doing. Another place you may be able to get some practice and feedback is the local county/state employment agency.
He is right though, you can go through many interviews and they all tell you oh ya you’re great and not call you back. I have a friend who has gone through the same situation. You might be over qualified for the position.

12thlevelwarrior

i have been on one interview (not called back) and am going on another in about a week. i think competition is just that fierce. during this next interview i am going to just try and relax. don't know about you, but my problem is being too aggressive and letting them know over and over that i am interested in the position. i think being slightly more relaxed would give off an image of confidence.

good luck man, hey, be happy you are getting interviews!!!!!

TechJunky

With those cert qualifications either you are overqualified, or they are just going through the process...

I applied for atleast 20 computer jobs before I landed the network admin job that I have now. Just keep with it.

okie

Thanks for the replies,

How about the degree question and salary thing? Those who do have a degree, to what extent does that degree make you able to do your job better today? How does it effect your job getting ability and job performance once you are in? I will also go back and read the old degree centric postings.

Anyone else have feedback on the salary issue in the central US (OK, KS, TX, AR, MO)?

Badger, I am not currently enrolled, but will check into the county/state agency thing.

dagger1x

Money talks, BS walks. I would assume if other candidates are requiring a smaller salary they will be given the opportunity.

bzdziagwa

Hi,
As was mentioned above, I think that you are overqualified to posiosion that you are trying to get.
For employer is sometimes not important to hire someone who can do everything and have extensive knowledge, when they are looking for someone who should do what they want to do and nothing more.
Please imagine if they want you to do a helpdesk (for example)
Probably after a month or two you will start to looking for another job because you will be totaly bored with simple helpdesk tasks.

Regards
B.

PS.
Another thing is that in Poland there is nothing like "overqualified"
Most of employers use every known IT words in job advertisment
Ridiculous and wretched if you have to be developer, database admin, security admin, network admin, system admin and so on to find the job...and in most cases you will slave away for peanuts
If you want to be called "specialist" you have to be specialist in every IT field.

Danman32

A degree is often a filtering criteria simply to decrease the number of qualified applicants.

okie

Well, I suppose we will see what happens in the next week or so. I did get two calls back saying that they are wrapping up interviews and they are very interested in me. I just need to remember that I get in a hurry and they are not. Whenever I do get it nailed down I will post an "I got it". I always think it's interesting to read about the resp. as it relates to the individuals certs and their salary.
I can't hardly believe that it really is the way you say it is in Poland bzdz... I see some excess requirements every now and then, but for the most part the postings are usually in line with the skills that they truly need.

Danman32 wrote:

A degree is often a filtering criteria simply to decrease the number of qualified applicants.

(step up on soapbox)

Okay, I understand that this is the case with some jobs, but I don't understand how they can honestly filter out a certified indvidual (with current certs) who has several years of experience and go for the person with the degree but no certs. That very degree, in some cases, is 5 or 10 years old and was built around industry certs from 5-10 years ago. How well does an MIS degree really prepare you to walk into the data room and diagnose and repair CRC errors on a Cisco 3600? How about setting up a MS CA hierarchy for IPSEC VPN? Isn't a degree going to consist of more theory and less how to?

Before anyone with a degree flames this, I am not saying that the degree is not a great thing to have. I wish I had mine. I am seriously looking at finishing it up so that I won't have to face being set aside when promotion time rolls around. I don't want to be filtered.

I have noticed that several BS MIS programs are built around a ccnp and mcse cert. I understand that the programs also include some business instruction and, often, some ethics classes.

I probably ought to move my thoughts on this to another post. Not exactly on the original topic.

12thlevelwarrior

It's not fair, but I have come to accept the fact of education (degrees) being gatekeepers in our society. They have overtaken the merit of relevant work in most instances.

I think the main reason this happens is because anyone who has a degree would like to see degrees become a gatekeeper because they are already in the degree club.

this is a very simple explanation, obviously there are more factors at play, i am just too tired to type them....

imfrom51

Here a story from my wife that should raise an eyebrow or two.

So, they are hiring for the position of a foresic Tech at the medical examiners office. They job doesn't require any degrees or cert but just medical knowledge. Tons of people apply. There are those with degrees and those without. Everyone gets a shot. We'll this one lady, who has a masters in forensics comes in for an interview. Looks promising, right? She even lectures on how to give an autopsys. Looks even better!! Turns out that she has NEVER seen a dead body, let alone performed an autopsy. Just goes to show that you might look impressive with your degree, but it's just paper. (by the way she didn't get the job)

I am working in a county IT position doing EVERYTHING. VPN , Netscreen, Cisco, servers, programming, and everything in between, and I don't have a degree. In my job it was more important to HAVE done it , that to just KNOW how to do it.

Anyways, the jobs are out there. Not everyone cares if you have a degree. Remember that. I'm not saying don't pursue the degree, just keep applying for all the jobs you can. I had to move halfway across the country for this job, but at this time it's worth it.

That my2c

rcoop

okie,

No one has really commented on the 45k salary you mentioned, and as I'm currently (and have been for the last 18 years) living and employed in southern California have a tough time relating to the current job environment in Oklahoma; but I do have family in the state and have recently begun looking (more in the Tulsa area), but also other growing mid-to-south-west cities, including Nashville, TN.

Without knowing your age or appearance (although not "officially" used to filter interviewees, it can definitely make the difference when it comes down to you and someone else), 45k for your skills and experience is extremely reasonable... don't doubt it a second, and unless you cannot afford to, don't take a job for less (be sure to include any non-monetary compensation that might bring you to that level).

Best of luck, and hope you get the job you want,
Rcoop

Danman32

Also consider the company itself may require a degree just to be working there in almost any capacity. A degree shows discipline and being well rounded since it takes time and MANY courses to get the degree, unlike a cert that only requires a few or even one test.

I wish there had been degree majors that wrapped around today's IT certs. There were no such things when I was in college. The best one could get was electrical engineering (which is what I have) or computer science. With those I still had to take courses that were outside my major such as psycology, english writing, and even some science classes that were somewhat but not completely related such as chemistry and material science. The math was a killer.

Interesting enough, I took a class that taught an overview of networking, including Arpanet (precurser to today's Internet), TCP/IP and so forth, and I had no clue as to what I was really learning. It wasn't until I started this job 8 years ago and learned TCP/IP and routing when that class's focus came to mind. I would like to take that class over now that it is relevant and see what I missed.
One thing I learned in that class that sticks out was statistically proving the max average utilization of a collision domain network.

Ah, but I digressed too much. Sorry about that.

Trailerisf

Sad thing is, a degree shows book smarts. Doesn't necessarily mean you can think outside the box....