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I am getting ready to graduate with an IT degree this December. Somebody said Dallas is great for IT work. I have sent my resume to many places in Dallas and have yet to recieve one callback. Its probably because I don't live in the area right now. Unfortunately I live in an extremely rural area where there isn't any IT jobs. I desperately want to relocate, but I wont be able to get a job unless I currently live in the area. I can't afford to relocate without getting a job first, so its a catch 22. I currently have one job prospect in Little Rock (not my first choice but I have to take what I can get). If it falls through, I will be back to square one.
That said, from my experience, while IT may be the best it has been since the dot com bust, it still is an extremely dismal market. I would STRONGLY advise young people starting out to consider majoring in something else. There are too many people in IT and thats why it is extremely tough to even get an entry-level job. I am scared to death about my future.
1 - You don't live in the same city you're looking for work in. It's VERY difficult to find a job in a different city, especially if you don't have much experience. Unless you have some very unique job skills that can't be found among the local candidates, hiring managers are going to ignore you. The problem is that there are IT people coming out of the woodwork in D/FW. If a hiring manager posts a job, they're probably going to get 100 resumes from people with the required qualifications. If 99 of those resumes are from local D/FW candidates, they're not going to fool with calling the guy in Arkansas.
2 - You're fresh out of school, and probably don't have much experience. IT is still a great field to be in, and there are probably more IT jobs than any other type of job out there, with the exception of maybe the medical industry. But it can be really tough to break into the IT field. I think you'll find that the first job is the hardest to get...but this is probably true for any recent college grad, regardless of what field they're in.
However, once you get that first job, if you work hard and are good at what you do, you can move up very quickly. Like Sassberto said, "you have to be good, there's no more room for bottom-feeders in this business". But don't let this scare you, this is actually a good thing. Like you said, there are too many people in IT, but the spares get washed out quickly, making it easy for those who work hard to get ahead. Don't worry about not having experience...as long as you are not lazy, it won't take long before you're better than most of the "experienced" people in IT.
My advice would be to find a way to move to Dallas. Once you are here, you'll have a much easier time. Most entry level IT people don't have a degree, so you have a leg up on the competition. Also, there tends to be a hiring boom shortly after the first of the year.
If you can't move to Dallas, you could always change your cell phone number to a Dallas area number, and put a friends address on your resume. Hell, if you don't know anyone in Dallas, just make up an address! Yes, I know, not honest, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get that first job. They're going to call you for an interview, not write you a letter, so it's the local phone number that is key here. Arkansas is close enough that you can drive here in a day to take an interview.
I am getting ready to graduate with an IT degree this December. Somebody said Dallas is great for IT work. I have sent my resume to many places in Dallas and have yet to recieve one callback. Its probably because I don't live in the area right now. Unfortunately I live in an extremely rural area where there isn't any IT jobs. I desperately want to relocate, but I wont be able to get a job unless I currently live in the area. I can't afford to relocate without getting a job first, so its a catch 22. I currently have one job prospect in Little Rock (not my first choice but I have to take what I can get). If it falls through, I will be back to square one.
That said, from my experience, while IT may be the best it has been since the dot com bust, it still is an extremely dismal market. I would STRONGLY advise young people starting out to consider majoring in something else. There are too many people in IT and thats why it is extremely tough to even get an entry-level job. I am scared to death about my future.
I live in Dallas and have 10 years of experience in IT, and I get recruitment e-mails and/or calls pretty much every day. My BF is a SQL DBA with 10 years of experience and he gets calls at least once a day. However, it took me 8 months of papering Dallas with resumes to get my first real IT job during the dot.com boom.
You have two strikes against you: you don't have a lot of experience from the sound of it, and you don't actually live in Dallas. Be patient.
I work in IT now, and besides the fact that I'm burnt out on it (and the job hopping). I re enrolled at college with a plan on getting out of IT eventually.
....As far as the over 40 crowd goes; I hope I'm not touching a nerve here, but I have seen this many times over the years, so here's my two cents worth... It seems like alot of people by the age of 40, kind of decide that they're not looking to learn anything new. As a result, their skills become out of date. In the IT world, this is the kiss of death. You have to keep your skills updated if you want to survive in this business, and as we all know, the technologies we work with can change on almost a yearly basis. So you may need to ask yourself, is the problem really that you are old, or is the problem that your skillset is old?
As a business owner in IT - you are absolutely right. Reminds me of the guys who only knew mainframes and didn't want to learn anything but COBOL ... yipes!! Keeping your skills updated is critical. Technology is one of those fields you have to have a passion for and a on-going desire to learn, because you want to. It's more than just a career choice. If you don't have a passion for technology, regardless of age, then you need to find another field.
I know people in their 60's who are as relevant or more than those half their age. They are educated and they remain current in their field - no, not just by reading, also by doing. Plus they expand beyond their radar which is really important.
As a business owner in IT - you are absolutely right. Reminds me of the guys who only knew mainframes and didn't want to learn anything but COBOL ... yipes!! Keeping your skills updated is critical. Technology is one of those fields you have to have a passion for and a on-going desire to learn, because you want to. It's more than just a career choice. If you don't have a passion for technology, regardless of age, then you need to find another field.
I know people in their 60's who are as relevant or more than those half their age. They are educated and they remain current in their field - no, not just by reading, also by doing. Plus they expand beyond their radar which is really important.
Amen to that. And I've seen a lot of times that mainframers are territorial about their technology and look down their noses at "those client server people" (which in itself is a 10 year old skillset, IMO).
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