My Hiring Experience.

thisisathrowaway

I’ve been reading this forum for a little over 2 years. There have been so many posts and discussions that have helped my job search that I wanted to return the favor and share my recent hiring experience.

Here are a few things that I learned and experienced along the way.


1. The alphabet matters


I was a college dropout and worked at a small nonprofit org for 10 years. In 2008, I went back to school, worked my butt off and earned my B.S. in Information System. I hear people say a degree doesn’t matter, but it mattered for me.
About a year and a half ago I knew I was about to start looking for a job, so after I finished my degree I spent that time working on certs. I earned my CCNA and then went on to earn my MCITP:EMA 2007. People say certs are overated.. and they may be, but they definitely helped me out.
After I signed my offer letter, I recommended a buddy of mine who is as good a sysadmin as I am. They immediately turned him down because he only had an Associates and a ccna. You have free time, make use of it.


2. Tweak your resume, tweak your resume…. Delete it and start over if you have to.


I submitted my resume to be reviewed here. You guys tore me up. I started over, read every resume critique and suggestion post and created it again. I gave it to a friend who does a lot of hiring and took her suggestions. Because of my current job, I had a wiiide variety of experience and accomplishments. One of the best things I did was editing down my resume to highlight only my relevant experience. There was a direct correlation with the quality of my resume and the number of phone calls I received.


3. The job boards worked for me.



I wasn’t desperate for a job. I had the fortune of waiting for something perfect to come along, but I still would review careerbuilder, monster and dice every night. It seemed I had much more luck with dice. In fact, my new employer found me through my dice resume. It took me 4 months to find a job that I wanted. No matter how much it sucks, do not just up and quit your job.


4. Be prepared for your interviews


I hadn’t ever had a real interview until I started looking for a job 4 months ago. I bombed my first one so bad that the guy pretended to lose his signal and hung up on me. It wasn’t that I don’t know what I’m talking about or I’m a bad communicator, it’s that I wasn’t prepared. After that humiliation I swore that would not ever happen to me again. I read every “interview” post on this forum and prepared for it like it was the bar exam. What I did on a daily basis, big projects and accomplishments, system designs,… on and on. I wrote out answers, processed m thoughts, went over my CCNA & Exchange books. It’s not that I didn’t have the knowledge, I just needed to process it all and be ready to regurgitate it. If they randomly call you and immediately want to do an ‘entry interview,’ tell it’s a bad time and schedule another. You need to know what’s coming and be ready for it.


5. Fight for your salary



After I had completed a few of my interviews, they made me an offer. It was my salary requirement based off of my dice profile (doh). When they actually sent my offer letter, it was for 3k more than that. After thinking about it and talking with my wife, I felt there was no reason for me to get in a hurry. I got on these forums and read the “fight for your salary post.” Well, I guess it inspired me because I did the unthinkable, I countered and asked for 4k more. They revised their offer and presented 6k more than that. Because I ‘fought for my salary,’ I ended up with a starting salary that was 13k more than my original salary requirements and 18k over my current salary.






I'm not saying everything here is absolute all the time. It's just what I experienced from looking for a job in the first time in over 10 years. Hope this helps someone like the numerous other posts have helped me.

Armymanis

Thanks for the awesome post! I am glad I am pursuing my bachelors after my associates

cvuong1984

In everyone's experience...

Has a company ever take a job offer back, after you request for more money?

Or is it pretty much a, worst that could happen, is a "No, we can not increase the salary any higher"

Just curious,

instant000

cvuong1984 wrote: »

In everyone's experience...

Has a company ever take a job offer back, after you request for more money?

Or is it pretty much a, worst that could happen, is a "No, we can not increase the salary any higher"

Just curious,

If they've gotten to the point where they are offering the job, they want you there.

In many companies, they are on the human resources department to get people in. That is, people will whine and moan about HR being so slow to get people in, after they've chosen the candidate.

If they can't increase any more, they'll tell you, but nothing wrong with asking for more. It's only a deal-breaker from your side at the salary negotiation point, as by offering the job, the company has already said that they want you.

(Now, if you get outrageous, and ask for twice as much as they're offering, it probably won't go too well.)

it_consultant

I definitely agree with being prepared for interviews, even phone interviews.