Systems Support Specialist

rubberToe

After months of interviewing with some great prospective companies I have received an offer that I graciously accepted and will be starting on December 15.

This could have not come at a better time as I have run out of my emergency fund and might have been looking at difficult times ahead.

The job deals with working in a heterogeneous environment, Microsoft on the end user desktops with active directory, Access DBs, SQL server. BSD boxes on the back end for mail, MySQL DBs, BIND [DNS], phone switching. Also, some Debian boxes. *Nix is a big plus because I hadn't seen many opportunities for this kind of exposure. This company deals with a lot of data with data warehousing at the core of the IS.

The title is Systems Support Specialist, glorified desktop tech. We talked about me taking on some administrative duties as well, also in the future I will be working on the DBs. Great potential for growth and exposure to a multitude of technologies.

They offered me an excellent salary, 50% high than my previous position as a tech for a small to medium business consulting firm.

For me it took hard work; reinventing my resume, perfecting my cover letters, and ultimately perfecting my interview skills. Most of the companies I interviewed with were very rigorous in their approach. It has been surprising to me that in my job search I had been so successful getting interviews while the economy is experiencing a downturn and making significantly more money as well.

My advice to others, if you aren't getting responses and are applying to jobs within reach of your qualifications then you need to improve upon your cover letter and or resume. Once that beast is tackled, you need to have solid interview skills and not to let the fact that you may be desperately seeking a new job show through. It helps to have multiple companies requesting an interview, it also helps to get as much interview practice as you can even if you may not be interested in the position after all. And always, keep learning! Build yourself a test last lab at home to play around with technologies to keep sharp.

undomiel

Congratulations! I definitely know that feeling of relief of pulling out of that downward financial spiral at the very last minute. It sounds like a great place to build experience too so I wish you all the best! And I fully second that -- always keep learning.