<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,0,51)">Rick,<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,0,51)">My advice would be to consider your goals for your next job above and beyond just what the job title and company on the top left of the pay stub is. Think about more than just getting your foot in to the door, through the rounds of interviews, and to day one -- but look beyond, and to what will this job mean to you in 3 years, 5 years, or better yet, for as long as you anticipate this step in your career to last. That thought can steer you towards - but equally steer you away from certain companies, roles, and offers. <br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,0,51)">Questions you might consider as you think through this: Are you interested in being the smartest guy on a group of junior admins? Do you want to be the team lead? Maybe take a position as manager, or stay as an individual contributor? And what is important to you about the culture of the company? For example, I've seen companies that are dead set on being a global operation, workforce anywhere, follow the sun, all that, but yet they were butt-in-chairs.... a complete contradiction. Then, I've seen companies that literally let you show up wearing shorts and flip flops, WFH whenever you want. No right or wrong answers, but just food for thought.<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,0,51)">As for résumés and other such administrivia, your goal is to get TO and THROUGH HR to the hiring manager. Research which companies are hiring, look for their job postings on places like Indeed / Glassdoor / LinkedIn. Use your network to see who you know, find a personal connection to get in. Once you crack the outer shell, be prepared with good supporting document. Times New Roman and the generic MSWord template is almost an automatic delete for me. I've seen so many resumes where the moron making it doesn't even bother to change the placeholder for the ending date of an assignment, and turns it in saying something like "Feb 2010 - Til Date" -- what the fxxx is a "Til Date"? "Oh -- it's a date on which I will be deleting or trashing your résumé..." Sorry -- Don't use a template and not change the placeholders.<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,0,51)">My suggestion here is to find some examples that look visually appealing to YOU -- put yourself in the hiring manager's shoes, and ask yourself what would be important to you. If you have a degree, usually you'll list that first. But if you've been at work for more than 10 years, maybe not, because your recent topical related work experience is more relevant than your degree from 10+ years ago. <br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,0,51)">I personally use a slight off-color (like light navy blue) accent color, in case they print it out in color, but in b/w nothing gets lost.<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,0,51)">Cover letters -- use if you want, again, find examples and go with it.<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,0,51)">Angelo<br></div><br><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,0,51)"><br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,0,51)"><br><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 6:29 PM, Rick Hornsby <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:richardjhornsby@gmail.com" target="_blank">richardjhornsby@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">OT: This is not a solicitation for job offers, but rather a solicitation for suggestions and thoughts on conducting a technical job search.<br>
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When you decide it is time to move on from your current job, what are you doing these days in terms of searching for something new? (For the sake of argument, there’s nowhere to go in your current company, it’s time to move on.) Are job websites like Dice still something technical people use? Are you guys who have been around the field for a while still using sites like Dice, or have you found that you’ve done enough networking Dice is the type of place you’ll leave to the entry-mid level career folks? If not, are there sites besides Dice (that’s the most tech-centric one I know) that you might use?<br>
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If you want to relocate to another specific city (or another state), how do you approach that in your correspondence? On a related note, do you do anything to make your cover letter/resume stand out visually? I know we’re not graphic designers, but a boring Times New Roman 12pt font is well, boring and looks just like every other resume out there.<br>
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The more devops-minded I’ve gotten (i.e. the more code I’m writing as a Linux admin), the more difficult (and frustrating) it is to be forced to use Windows as a desktop+development platform. It makes sense to me - but does it make sense to talk about this during the interview process? That is, does it make sense to ask about EUC device choice? Mac for desktop use is preferred (kind of best of both worlds thing), Linux second, but not Windows. Is that an unreasonable criteria when considering a job these days?<br>
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thanks!<br>
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