[IceFire]

I keep thinking about what kind of job I want to hold next.  I'm really at a loss to figure it out and I know its getting close to time to move on since there are no possibilities for promotion and things are just not so good anymore.  But I look and look for jobs and nothings really catching me and it strikes me that there just aren't jobs out there.

How are people feeling about the job market right now?  What kind of job do you have right now?  Pros and cons of your jobs?  Always helpful to share.

I'm currently doing technical support for learning management systems.  It has its perks and bonuses and a fair degree of freedom in some ways but its utterly maddening in others.

[Hazaanko]

I'm a waiter/entertainer at a dinner theatre called Mystique.  Probably not up your alley.... since being a server is a pain in the neck, and performing arts doesn't exactly pay well.  Make your own job man!  I'm not so sure how things are up there in Canada though.

[Inquisitor]

Currently director of corprate security for a telecommunications-like company, its mostly IT/policy stuff, with a dash of cops and robbers. If the next year pans out, I may be moving to an operational role in the game company, but thats still a future surrounded by ifs. The current job is very traditional stuff, and I had no trouble finding it even almost 3 years ago.

The IT market in the US is actually pretty strong, from what I can gather. I know its strong here in New England, more jobs that folk to staff them. My "batman" job of game dev also indicates that its a good market for developer types, with the monthly meetings of local talent with many fewer "I am looking for a job" name tags and many more "I am hiring" ones.

Tech in general, you should be able to have your pick if you are competent. And sincee i know you, I suspect you are indeed

Ping me in PM if you want me to look at your resume (I guess you canadians call it a CV ).

[Nuclear1]

I'm currently in US Air Force working on training into linguistics.

[DiabloRojo]

I'd agree with Inquisitor, the IT/tech market really can't go anywhere but up, IMO.  If you know your stuff, you're gold.  That is, unless you work for Dell.  I think 1/4 of our support staff (all good, logical thinking people) came from dell layoff cycles.   

I'm a network/data center admin, which is to say I'm a glorified support tech with rights to just about everything.  From a Microsoft business standpoint, you name it, I've probably dealt with it.  That and the 30 or so in-house applications we host.

Pros: the above; I've learned at least a few kilo-ass-tons about most of the Windows server environment.  On top of that, I could probably move into the industry for which we host the software without worry because I've learned so much about it in dealing with its software.  6 years ago, I didn't know the particular niche of the industry existed.  Learning is fun... and knowledge is power! G.I. Joe!!!

Cons:  At least once a day, one of the following crosses my mind:
1. Hang myself
2. Go postal
3. I've lost all semblance of sanity
4. Drop a steaming pile on the desks of Senators Sarbanes and Oxley.  SOX SUX.
5. The ridiculously hot chick in accounting. (con because she's a distraction! ...and because she's engaged to complete douchebag)

[Kosh]

4. Drop a steaming pile on the desks of Senators Sarbanes and Oxley.  SOX SUX.

Why?

[Hazaanko]

Uh-oh somebody offended Kosh.  Move along folks nothing to see here.

[Mefustae]

Uh-oh somebody offended Kosh.  Move along folks nothing to see here.

Yes, definitely an angry 'why?'. You can tell from the- from the... uh...

[Kosh]

Uh-oh somebody offended Kosh.  Move along folks nothing to see here.

No one offended me, just wondering why......

[Inquisitor]

Sarbanes-Oxley (sp?) is a set of laws around corporate governance, introduced after Enron imploded, ostensibly designed to prevent people from mucking about with the numbers of a publically traded company. The upshot is, there are a crapload of IT controls, things like "make sure when you fire someone you immediately remove all their access" and "don't let the marketing people in the server room."

The real problem with SOX is that auditors, not techies, are evaluating the efficacy of technical controls. So it tends to give sys admins a headache. You can't just "do things" anymore, someone has to approve it and then record that approval somewhere.

That said, things like SOX are one of the reasons there are of jobs, it complicates even small companies, which means we usually need more people to do things

[perihelion]

I'm a mechanical design engineer in "quality assurance" clothing.  My wife got a job offer we'd have been nuts to pass up, but I ended up moving out of new product development into field support as a result.  (Very few companies design their stuff in Corpus Christi.  Most of that happens up in Houston, at least in my industry.)

I work for an oil tool company.  It is the last place on earth I expected to end up.  The overall hypocrisy of being someone who constantly worries about pollution and the looming energy crisis, and then working for whom I do...  well, I've considered the old fork-in-the-ear routine more than is probably healthy.  Lately, I've been trying to tell myself that this may be a way for me to get involved with geothermal projects since they are all using the same tech as we are in the oil patch, just deeper and hotter.  There's been slowly growing interest in extremely high-temp wells down here in South Texas.  The technology for those wells hasn't seen much new development in decades, but if new ones are found to be profitable...

- All that is is me trying to convince myself I'm not just feeding the monster; that there is some good can come of my work down here.  Most of the time, I don't believe it anymore.

[DiabloRojo]

The real problem with SOX is that auditors, not techies, are evaluating the efficacy of technical controls. So it tends to give sys admins a headache. You can't just "do things" anymore, someone has to approve it and then record that approval somewhere.

Hi Mr. Nail, meet Mr. Sledgehammer.  *BAM!*

The stupid part is that more than half of the time, the people giving approval don't have a clue as to what the change means.  It just gets approved by someone with "V.P." in their title.  The REALLY stupid part comes in when the original change is wrong in the first place, and something gets hosed.  Guess who gets blamed?  I'll give you a hint: it's not the person that approved it.  This hasn't happened to me (yet) but two colleagues in other areas of the corporation have been canned from situations like that, as pathetic as that is.
Because there's too much money being wasted on controls as it is, smaller to medium sized businesses can't afford to have the technical oversight in place to review the changes before they happen.  Or if they can, it delays the process so much that they may as well not bother.

Sorry that's way off topic... but I guess it could be considered info on the market and a 'con' for a tech job.   

[Inquisitor]

I'll give you a hint: it's not the person that approved it.

Ouch, that is NOT the way its supposed to work. I'd point that out to the auditors, your SOX manager, and/or HR (not necessarily in that order), you can force it to work in your favor

The whole point of hte approval is those VP's taking responsibility. Yes yes, I digress as well... Apologies, humble apologies...

[colecampbell666]

We've got jobs in NS...move East.

[Roanoke]

seems in the UK if you're over 25 and want to learn a vocational trade you've left it too late.....

[Dynamo]

With the right kind of qualifications, finding a job is easier than ever with stuff like Monster and CareerBuilder around. If it looks decent, post your resume online on any of those sites and in a few months you'll probably get a few calls. There are companies out there that do nothing but scour the internet for resumes and match people up with companies looking to fill a position. That's how I got my current job as an Application Admin for an automotive part manufacturer.

Personally, I'd go for a smaller sized company with no more than 600-700 employees mainly because I think the smaller companies are less likely to pull your job out from underneath you and ship it down to India or Russia. Jobs that are less technical but more communication oriented seem to be the ones that aren't getting outsourced, so keep that in mind if you're concerned about that. Programming and technical support seem to be the fastest outsourced professions based on my purely anecdotal evidence. Project management positions seem to be better paying with better job security in my experience.

And actually, I think that all the outsourcing paranoia has made it easier to find a position. IIRC, the amount of IT and IS graduates (at least in the US) have gone down in recent years because I think a lot of college students are worried about outsourcing. There's still plenty of positions that need filled. Just be aware of what fields have the most risk of being eliminated and shipped overseas and you'll do fine.


also this

SOX SUX.

[IceFire]

Thanks Inquisitor about my CV/resume (we call them both ...CV is the more formal).  I don't need it to be looked at right now but I will let you know if I do need someone else to have a look.  Nice of you to make the offer either way so I do appreciate it!

The trick for me is that I don't know what I want to do.  I'm a generalist which some may know as "master of none".  I'm generally good at most things (with a few weak points) and I'm sure I've blathered on about this but its to the point where I might be able to fit the requirements for plenty of different positions but I don't know if I'd be happy.  I enjoy part of where I work because the academic environment means that you can get away with certain things but not others and in some ways that suits me just fine.  I enjoy being somewhat immersed in academia...part of my personality thats inside my head somewhere appreciates the academic pursuits and methodologies.  I understand them.  I don't really want to be a PHD or anything like that although some people think I could do that...but other people tell me I could be good at this and that and the other.

Its very confusing to be in a position like this with no clear goals or directions.  I like to have a plan and be passionate about that plan and thats what got me through university and believe me that I fought every minute to make it happen.  And three years later I haven't figured out where the next step is but given recent events I think that I'll be making some hard decisions soon.  So I want to know what other people do and how they feel about it and try and find the spot where I will fit in and be happy and above all have something that I'm really interested in doing.  Still hanging on to some idealism yet...I'm still young

[CP5670]

How are people feeling about the job market right now?  What kind of job do you have right now?  Pros and cons of your jobs?  Always helpful to share.

I'm a math graduate student. I guess I am technically employed, since I have to pay taxes on my fellowship income.

As for the job market, in my case, the options after I'm done here are basically the academic professor track, research jobs in various government agencies and private companies that do a lot of R&D, and the quantitative analyst positions in the financial sector. The academic job market is always pretty bad as a general rule, with the tenure track jobs being extremely competitive at reasonably good schools, while it's fairly easy for mathematicians to get good employment in the other areas (partly due to low supply, as the vast majority want to get into the academic track). At this point, I am leaning towards the latter options for this and several other reasons, although it will still be quite some time before I have to start seriously thinking about it.

There are companies out there that do nothing but scour the internet for resumes and match people up with companies looking to fill a position.

Some companies apparently do this internally. I don't know how common such practices are, but I got an email from an investment company/hedge fund a few weeks ago inviting me to apply there, without any action on my part. It seems that they picked up my contact information from some award I got as an undergraduate. I obviously don't want to work full time right now and they didn't have any summer internships available, but it's something I'm keeping in mind for the future.

[Inquisitor]

I find I often have to set my own goals. So you may never get that out of the job without intervention on your part.

Maybe what you really want to be is a consultant, travel around, do different things for different kinds of companies. When you are young, it can be a great job, lots of "free" travel and expenses paid. The travel does get old after a while, and the older you get the more you want to just have a home, but some folks I knew didn't even maintain a residence, just had their stuff in storage and went from project to project for years. Very nomadic.

IBM Global Services, Accenture, folks like that.

CP: Yeah, that's very common, mostly they use search engines and match jobs to resumes without understanding either

[Nuke]

ive been working with a professional assembally company for awhile. we build things for retail stores. i specialize in bicycles, but they have me to other stuff like furnature and bbq grills. it pays well, but its hard work. my locale prohibits me from doing anything technical theres just no tech jobs here that apeal to me or pay well enough to cover my expenses. im actually thinking of going back to phoenix and getting a tech job there. i do some tech stuff on the side.

lately noones been buying bikes, mainly thanks to the a walmart selling them about 50 bucks cheaper. my boss is a liberal prick who thinks walmart is evil, and wont sign a contract with them. sence this is killing my earnings im thinking of calling it quits.

pros: about 35 an hour on average. i get payed by item assembled, but do it fast enough to make some good cash. also i can work at any hours of my choosing, and only have to send out a payroll report and a couple invoices every couple weeks. and they dont mine me listening to black metal while i work.

cons: its dull, boring, and its manual labor. while i get payed per hour, i dont work that many hours. i usually work 6-8 hours a day in the summer. durring the off season i usually can barely scrape together a couple 4 hour days in a week. also now that theres some competition in town im not making much of anything.