How did you find your job? (Just wondering)

Hi everyone,

Sometimes I know it is a frustration to find work. I have some days I cant find a darn thing others I can apply to 10 things a day (as a guy who is currently a contractor looking for perm work I am sure many of you know what I mean).

So I wanted to see how everyone has been successful. 90% of my friends quit IT so unfortunately networking isn't a great option for me so I always like to see how everyone hit where they are now.

My case:
1st IT Job - Craigslist for a little company near home (I didn't even own a button up shirt. I went to the interview in my nicest polo)
2nd Job - Saw on Careerbuilder - One of my classmates in college worked there for over 10 years. He got me an interview and was offered the job at the end of the interview.
3rd job - Indeed.com by searching Network Engineer w/in 25 miles of home - Applied and heard back a month later (forgot I applied to it)
Current job - Recruiter found me on Dice.com and I figured I'd give him a chance despite past problems with recruiters.

What is all of your stories? Maybe we can help give each other ideas on where to look to help

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Comments

QHalo

1st IT job - Knew someone
2nd IT job - Knew someone from 1st job at new company
3rd IT job - Recruiter
4th IT job - Knew someone (same person that pointed me to 2nd job)

I see a trend, at least in my career. But although I knew someone, I can still back up the positions with experience, proper skillset and work ethic.

jthunderbird

Indeed.com should pay me for how much I push them on people.

I have gotten 3 jobs from them that I didnt apply for, but they have everything combined to one site from lots of sites you wouldnt even think about (individual company sites).

1st - Found me on clearancejobs or careerbuilder
2nd - I applied through their website
3rd - Found me on Indeed
4th - Found me on Indeed (Edit: I did apply for this one, but was on Indeed)
5th and current - Found me on Indeed

NovaHax

All of my jobs, since I got out of the service, have found me

. Gotta love LinkedIn

kohr-ah

NovaHax wrote: »

All of my jobs, since I got out of the service, have found me . Gotta love LinkedIn

I have never once had luck off LinkedIn but everyone I know has. The last guy I worked with got contacted off there too.

Cert Poor

kohr-ah wrote: »

I have never once had luck off LinkedIn but everyone I know has. The last guy I worked with got contacted off there too.

Do they come as random messages, or do they first come as friend requests? i ask because I get creepy requests from people who turn out to be recruiters, so I reject them to mitigate the risk of stalking, extortion, and identity theft (all of which I have experienced).

LinkedIn allows anyone who pays $19.99 to see your FULL profile, and people 2nd or 3rd degree relation can also see private details. This is a major social engineering and stalking risk.

I've accepted some friend requests from recruiters only to have pure *silence*, which begs the question why are they asking to connect if only for the sake of connecting (reminds me of the early days of Facebook). I've since removed those contacts.

f0rgiv3n

Found mine in the newspaper.

.... just kidding

. Linkedin, craigslist and indeed!

jthunderbird

Hmmm, a few people saying LinkedIn... I have avoided that website because... well I just didnt think it would be worth having one. May be time to revisit that thought.

stryder144

Full-time job: through the efforts of the technical school I went to. They had a job fair for vets and the career advisor sent out emails telling people about the opportunity.

Part-time job: I went to the physical location, chatted up a manager, gave my resume, and then applied on the company site.

Had a job offer for a full-time position with the state that a friend worked out for me but couldn't take the position (which sucked).

cyberguypr

2 last jobs have come through Careerbuilder. I am convinced my next job will come via LinkedIn. I've been seeing very interesting stuff come my way through that lately.

the_Grinch

1. Sister worked for the company and they had a need for an IT person
2. Dice
3. University's website
4. Civil Service website

kriscamaro68

1st Local online classifieds-California
2nd Local online classifieds-Arizona
3rd Local online classifieds-Utah
4th Local online classifieds-Utah
5th Local online classifieds-Utah

Anonymouse

1st IT Job - Luck. I was hired at my first IT job doing desktop support because I applied for a job doing data entry contract for their IT department. I was doing computer repair at a retail store and they were cutting my hours so I was applying for work anywhere and everywhere. The hiring manager saw I was a computer repair tech so he instead offered me a job doing desktop support contract.

2nd IT Job - Recruiter at a temp agency found my resume on either Dice, Indeed, or Monster.

3rd IT Job - Recruiter at a temp agency found my resume on either Dice, Indeed, or Monster.

4th IT Job - I heard a few of my friends were working helpdesk at this large bank so I browsed their careers section for a few months until something came up. I applied and must have done well on the interviews.

5th IT Job - Probably luck. I moved 1.5 hours away and needed a job closer to home. I struck out with a few interviews for local jobs. I found their job listing on Craigslist and didn't think I was qualified for the job at all. I applied because their application form was too easy to fill out and I was killing time. I must have done well on the interviews 'cause I'm still here.

Concerned Water

1. Dice
2. Recruiter that landed me first job from Dice
3. Dice

Didn't really think about it until now, but Dice has been real useful to me.

yzT

1st kind of internship, so thanks to college
2nd sent my cv to their email, they replied me back telling me that there wasn't any available position at that very moment, but that they would call me when a new position was available. They kept their word and a couple of months later they called me, and this is where I am working right now.

Master Of Puppets

I got my current one through a posting on my university's website. I also went on a couple of interviews through a popular job site for my region. One of those was very interesting although I didn't start there - at some point of the interview I was successfully attacking their company

devils_haircut

I'm still pretty green when it come to IT, but here goes...

1) Craigslist ad posted by local small business owner (pc repair shop)
2) Contacted by a recruiter from TEKsystems who saw my ad on CareerBuilder
3) Applied to a job on Careerbuilder

So I guess CareerBuilder so far, which surprises me because I use to avoid it due to all the spam and junk job postings on there. Still, I think a lot of companies use it, especially non-technical people who have never heard of Dice.

Dakinggamer87

Craigslist and Dice were my main sources for all my past IT jobs. My current job via LinkedIn.

ScrawnyRonnie

1st (non-IT): Application kiosk in the front of Target - Backroom Team Member

2nd (1st IT job): Craigslist - current job

Only listed the 1st job because I have a short list

scaredoftests

I am not gooing to list all the jobs I have had. However, the last three jobs. It was a temporary job(I saw it on monster.com at a army base I used to work at.) Migrating computers to another domain. I got into contact with my old boss there and he said another job would be coming up. It did, I applied and I got it. My third job, since there was a layoff at my job, I looked at other contractors hiring on base. I applied for a database manager job, went to a couple interviews and got the job.

Nyblizzard

1 - Knew someone
2 - Knew someone
3 - University contact
4 - University contact
5 - Referred by IT Manager at 4th job

Cert Poor

1) My state has a career/employment site. Found job. Applied directly via employer website.
2) Manager at Job #1 left for different company and stole me for Job #2.
3) Promoted from within from Job #2.
4) In progress... Looking through Careerbuilder, Indeed, Dice so far. Also letting old coworkers know I'm now looking so they can refer me.

Bottom line: It's who you know. But to get your foot in the door, a lot of it is blind luck.

lsud00d

1) A friend was the manager...worked up from student worker, to intern, to full time staff at my college in undergrad
2) A friend was one of the managers...passed my resume along for an internal referral