Career Changes - Insights? (employee, interview, job, companies)

[unplugme71]

I'm currently in the IT field for a small company. I basically perform all tasks related to their technology and while it pays decent, I'm not satisified. So I started to look at other opportunities. Went ahead and contacted a large recruiting firm for another job in IT. Haven't had any luck yet and the few that did interview me say because I don't have "enough experience" they won't hire me. By lack of experience, they mean not being focused in one specific IT field since I do everything from planning, purchasing, implementing, and supporting. They are looking for specifics like Sys Admins, Net Admins, Data Specialists, etc.

Then I started to think what makes me unhappy at my current position, and its a few factors:

1. Environment - Because I handle all tasks, the one thing I dislike the most is help-desk support. I also feel like no one appreciates what I do and accomplish. I did a lot since I joined - making the systems run faster, implemented new software that makes the job easier, implemented WiFi access in the building, ability to use iOS devices like iPhone or iPad to connect to servers to read Excel/Word/PDF documents when in the manufacturing department, etc.

2. Pay - While the pay isn't too bad, it only works out good because of the OT I get. Without it, it'd feel like pennies to me. I make about 52-55k a year.

3. Desk - I like to be more active, social, etc. Sitting at a desk, remote desktop into anyone's systems, gets pretty dull and boring. Would like something more lively.

So taking these three things into account, I decided to look into another career path. This seems to be the hardest choice to make.

I thought one thing that may help and not sure if anyone would be willing to do this at their company's would be to offer myself 1 day a week for 4-8 hours, preferably on a Saturday, to intern for free to learn the in's and out's of the company in hopes for landing a position within that company. Do you know of any company's that do that?

[jaypee]

I doubt any company will expose their internal IT processes, no matter how limited, just to get 4-8 hours of work from you. If they do, your 4-8 hours will be limited to doing menial or data entry type of work.

If that's the objection you are getting from recruiters, you should consider customizing your resume to focus on the technical aspects (sysadmin, network admin, storage admin, etc) and downplay all the other stuff.

[unplugme71]

Well I wasn't referring to the 1 day a week for IT stuff. That was more for a career change decision - to see if I would like it and go from there. It will also help during interviews of similar positions that I have some experience already.

As for the recruiters, they were the ones who put me with interviews at company's. It was them who told me they wanted someone who was more focused. They felt because I wasn't doing Sys Admin work 100% of the time, I wouldn't have enough 'experience'. I think its an excuse they use to not hire me. Later found out they filled the position within.

It seems a lot of companies do that. They interview and ask for salary requirements. Use that data to promote someone within. This way they can pay the person who got a promotion less but that employee still thinks he's doing well because he got a promotion with a modest pay raise.

[berkeleylake]

What things outside of IT would you like to do? You describe your current job and background with good detail, but not what you would like to do. You probably have a lot possibilities with other work as you gain skill sets, but what do think you prefer?