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cruz · New User Joined: 26 Aug 2008 Posts: 8 Career Advice: +0/-0

I'm in Georgia USA, I am still employed but actively looking for work for the past 6wks. I've applied for 50 jobs online all of which I've carefully written cover letters and tweaked my resume for and I've only had 3 phone calls from recruiters/headhunters. Not even one interview yet, is this to be expected. I feel like maybe I'm doing something wrong, I don't get it. I have a BS Computer Science and doing software training and online course design/support for 4 years now. I applied to some entry level programming jobs because that's what my degree is in but I'm not too hopeful with those. I will be moving in 2 weeks and my current job already knows I'm leaving. I really need to find something soon.

I got call from recruiter yesterday about something that looks promising but it's a 3-month contract only and the hourly rate is quite low. IF I actually get an offer I'm wondering if it's even smart to take it knowing that 3 months from now I have to search again!

cv · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:40 pm Post subject: No Interviews yet!

Hi,

Are you applying in the same programming language you are working in now ?

Is there anything on the resume which looks bad ?

Are you floowing up after you send your cover letter and resume ?

Do you have friends in the same domain who are having the same problems ?

CV

cruz · New User Joined: 26 Aug 2008 Posts: 8 Career Advice: +0/-0

no, I have not been following up I guess that is something I need to do! But most of the jobs have no direct contact information.

i don't know anyone else specifically in IT so I don't know if this is common. And I'm not working in programming now so that's why I've applied only to Entry Level jobs in programming, namely Java and PHP/MySQL. But I've basically given up on applying to programming jobs since I don't have any experience in it. i only have 4 years of college in it but apparently that is useless...

I didn't get the 3-month contract job anyway they said insufficient experience but I've done technical training for 2 years and instructional design for 2 years and they required only 2 years of experience?!

The only thing that might be on my resume that is bad is that between June 2006 and August 2006 I was not working, but is that really bad? I had moved and did some odd jobs out of my field for a few weeks before finding the next job so I didn't think to include those. besides that i think my resume looks good, i started working in 2003 and had that job for two years before i was promoted to another job. i did that for a year before i moved. then the 2 month gap. then i taught but that was just for one semester - August to december, then i started the job i'm in now, it's been 2 years. does it look i change jobs too often?

cv · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 2:27 pm Post subject:

Is this right :
You are applying to programming jobs, but you do not have any commercial programming experience ?

JohnM4402 · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:20 pm Post subject:

I believe that one or more of these three are happening to you:

1) You are listing your salary requirements too early in the game. This eliminates you from consideration in more jobs than you would expect. You can price youself right out of a good job. Do you have realistic Salary requireents? (Too high is bad but coming in with a requirement that is too low is bad also!)

2) You are applying for jobs that are clearly out of your level if the average person were to look at your resume vs. the job requirements.

3) Your Cover Letter is not professional enough

4) Your Resume needs improvment

FYI,

I'm new to the forums here but I've been in IT/Software/Consulting for 15 years and got my Bachelors in Computer Science in 2000. Happily employed with a company that I love and doing work that I love.

-John

cv · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:01 pm Post subject:

I agree with John.

My opinion is that, if you do not have any job experience in programming you should try to find an internship first or some very "low level" programming job.

Managers hiring programmers, need people with experience to do the job.

Internships can bridge the gap.

CV

cruz · New User Joined: 26 Aug 2008 Posts: 8 Career Advice: +0/-0

yes, I have been applying to "entry level" programming jobs. The ones that say that they don't require any experience, usually they will say 0-2yrs of experience. but again, that is maybe only 10 of those jobs i have applied for. the other 40 are jobs that i do have experience in.

John, those are all good points, but how do i figure out which one is the problem? it could be all of those problems for all i know. just about all of the jobs require that you put your min and max salary so i am forced to do that in the application process. I've been putting a minimum of $40k, it seems reasonable to me but maybe i'm wrong... i guess i will go over to the cover letter and resume area of the forum to see if i'm doing something wrong with either of these two things.

all that being said, i finally got an interview! It is a job I applied for August 1st now I just don't want to seem too desperate because this is my only possibility right now... i really like this job and the company but they didn't list the pay so i have no idea about that.

cv · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:34 pm Post subject:

Hi,

This could also help:
http://www.cvtips.com/blog/qualified-but-not-getting-interviews-and-dont-know-why.html

CV

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