[GRLUG] Job searches - any good tips?

Mon Mar 14 15:03:07 EDT 2011

If you're getting interviews, you meet their requirements ... often they
will have someone from inside in mind, even if they're required to do an
interview process.

Most companies aren't going to start people off as system administrators;
they'll start them in the help desk or another low-level position. Don't
discount these if they're for a good company.

One reason Lansing has more openings than GR is that Liquid Web is there;
they're a major hosting provider and often hiring Windows and Linux admins
(if you know some of both that's a bonus too for starting jobs). If you want
to get into the much-touted Grand Rapids "tech center" thing you'd better
have a medical background.

Dagny

On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 2:51 PM, Michael Mol <mikemol at gmail.com> wrote:

> "They went through a formal hiring process...and then hired the one
> they wanted from somewhere in the department" is a phrase I've heard
> more often than not.
>
> On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 2:47 PM, Bob Kline <bob.kline at gmail.com> wrote:
> > There are probably still legal reasons
> > why a job has to be advertised, even if
> > it's already been filled.  To avoid all kinds
> > of allegations.  Discrimination. Cronyism.
> > Etc.  Not clear whether the public announcement
> > has to have the same requirements. e.g.,
> > "Can you solve Maxwell's equations for a PC?"
> > might not be on the private list of requirements.
> >    -- Bob
> >
> > On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 2:37 PM, Philip J. Robar <philip.robar at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> On Mar 14, 2011, at 12:49 PM, Rob Steenwyk wrote:
> >>
> >> > I am currently employed, but in the interest of keeping my options
> open
> >> > have been looking around for any open Sys Admin position in West
> Michigan.
> >> > Haven't had much luck. I've been looking on Craigslist, Dice.com and
> the
> >> > classifieds in the GR Press.
> >>
> >> Most job seeking related articles I've read say that only about 10% of
> >> positions in any field are filled via the big sites like Monster, Dice,
> etc.
> >> In Silicon Valley, where I'm from, it's who you know (including lists
> and
> >> user groups like this one. There's been a hand full of announcements,
> you
> >> might want to check the archives.), Craig's List, jobs posted by
> companies
> >> themselves at their sites, job shops and maybe LinkedIn. (In that order,
> in
> >> rapidly diminishing order of value.)
> >>
> >> My Dice experience from a couple of years ago was that I got lots of
> calls
> >> from junior head hunters paying their dues by ploughing through piles of
> >> resumes found by Resumix. Most of them couldn't spell C and though that
> UNIX
> >> was a type of unicorn. If you don't match what they're looking for
> exactly
> >> you were unlikely to hear back from them. But, on the other hand I did
> get a
> >> couple of interesting leads this way and a couple of calls from actually
> >> hiring firms.
> >>
> >> At least in the Vally, Craig's List had lots of interesting real job
> >> openings.
> >>
> >> Newspaper ads for exempt positions like engineering are pretty much
> there
> >> only to fulfill Federal H1B visa requirements, they're not actually
> looking
> >> for U.S. applicants.
> >>
> >> My first real job in the Valley was a testing position at a start-up
> which
> >> I found on a bulletin-board at a junior college. (I'm self taught in
> >> computers and was willing to work relatively inexpensively.) When they
> had
> >> to lay me off a year later they made my job for my last few weeks to be
> >> getting a new job.* They got me three interviews which resulted in two
> >> offers, one from Intel and one from Sun. While at Sun I got an offer
> from
> >> Taligent (which I still regret not taking) from the manger who had hired
> me
> >> at Sun. After 11 years at Sun I took some time off (I thought I was well
> >> off, the 2001 tech bubble bursting informed me otherwise. ;-) My next
> job
> >> was at Postini (Pre Google buy out. :-( I was hired there by one of my
> best
> >> friends—whom I met at Sun. As I said, it's mostly who you know—and a
> little
> >> luck.
> >>
> >> My brother, who lives in Columbus, has had some luck with job shops, but
> >> you're giving away a serious amount of money by going that route. He got
> his
> >> current job via a happenstance meeting with a stranger at a
> FedEx/Kinkos.
> >> (Who you know…)
> >>
> >> Many of the big tech and development sites (Arstechnica, Dr. Dobbs,
> etc.)
> >> have job boards which seem to be listing real positions. As do many of
> the
> >> tech companies whose sites I visit—especially the smaller ones.
> >>
> >> I was under the impression (perhaps mistakenly) that Grand Rapids was
> one
> >> of Michigan's tech centers, but given the reality of Michigan's economy
> and
> >> ongoing brain drain if you really want get into system administration
> you
> >> have to be willing to move—probably out of state—or be patient. Hiring
> is
> >> definitely on the rise in Silicon Valley and other parts of the country.
> >>
> >> BTW, I take offense at your "only want to be a sys admin", as if system
> >> administration can't be high level engineering. System administration
> jobs
> >> run the gamut from extremely junior operations position like replacing
> hard
> >> drives in a server farm to running that server farm. Two of the smartest
> >> people ever at Sun where, take away the fancy titles, system
> administrators.
> >> One of them runs Netflix's engineering department now. Perhaps you
> meant,
> >> "I'm looking for an entry level or junior sys admin position." ;-)
> >>
> >> Phil
> >>
> >> *Yes, there are at least a few people in Silicon Valley with the level
> of
> >> integrity that says that even when you don't know if the company that
> you
> >> founded is going to be alive in the foreseeable future that you still
> have
> >> an obligation to make sure that your junior engineers in their first job
> >> with only a year of experience make a successful transition to a new
> job.
> >> (There's that luck thing again. :-)
> >>
> >>
> >>
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