May 1, 2003
New York Metro Computer User
On Point Feedback
Send non-anonymous reader letters to James!Regarding "Giving Up On IT" (Feedback, March)
It may not be good for the future business of Computer User to encourage techies to move away from high tech, but there are thousands of us that need to move on. Workforce centers are fine, if you're a receptionist, machinist or construction laborer. They offer nothing, but inaccurate or misleading information, if you're any type of professional (especially in high tech). We need to advertise ourselves as hard-working, self-reliant technicians available for work. We have a lot to offer employers in areas other, than high tech.
I have been a UNIX administrator and IT professional for 10 years, self-taught in UNIX/IT from DNS and e-mail to Apache, PHP and security. I also have a certificate in electronics from a technical college and five years experience repairing electronics down to the component level. Yet I cannot even get an interview these days for low-level soldering jobs, let alone an IT job. There are two ways to approach this problem.
1) Take issue with human resources departments and try to avoid them (hard these days with blind box e-mail addresses, which leave you no choice, but to deal with HR) or
2) move on. Let's get on with moving on!
Get Used To the System
To Joel Phillip ("Giving Up On IT", March), who rails at getting "sucked in" to the MCSE program: Experience is a very good thing. And I agree that the MCSE curriculum does not teach anything resembling real world problems. However, it does one thing very well: It is a form of proof of knowledge. It may be limited, but it's still proof. I know more about system admin, than my current employer's official sys admin, but it's not my job, therefore it's not real experience. Not to the HR person doing the filtering. It used to be that one could lie on a résumé with impunity, if one could back it up with good work. Today HR people check. If what you say does not match what your current or previous employers say, you're outta there. No matter how good you are. Yes, there are exceptions, but that's exactly what they are, exceptions to the rule.
The bottom line is this: If you can get a job with what you have, you need nothing else. If you cannot - and in this job market many of us cannot -, then you take whatever avenues are offered to get your foot in the door. If the MCSE cert or any other cert gets me past the HR department and into the realm of the real decision maker, then I'll get that cert.
Daniel Lin