Job searching in IT industry

jawooga

Hi, bit of advice needed. Where do IT peeps look for job vacancies?

I'm a database developer in just-about gainful employment. But I'd like to be gaining more. If I Google e.g. Oracle, pl/sql jobs in my area, I just get pages of job site results, which I guess is expected. But it makes it quite difficult to focus efforts -also advertisements through agencies ask for the moon on a stick, with no indication of what the core business may be. And all the results seem to re-occur through all job sites, which is frustrating.

Is there a less scatter gun approach than this? How do you IT people target your job searches?

Thanks

p.s. if any of you guys are recruiting in the Exeter area, I also have experience with C, Linux (shell scripting etc.) and various analytic languages (IDL,R)

grizedaleforest

I'm on the other side, needing to recruit developers (but sorry not in your area of expertise ). We don't recruit from job boards at all - too much dross. I'd suggest that you find yourself a good agency (just one - preferably that specialises in your skill area) and talk to them. They'll do the hard work for you if they're good and it's the employer who pays the bill rather than the recruit.

Alternatively invest the time in going to companies that are potential employers, check their vacancies or phone them. I'm always more receptive to applicants who've made that effort and especially when they present me with a carefully crafted CV and letter. You would not believe the number of bad CVs I get without any covering letter to suggest why I should employ them (sorry, hobby horse rant!).

Good luck!

jawooga

Thanks for your comments gdf. That is good advice to go to a specialist agency.

I've never struggled for permanent employment, having previously worked in science/engineering jobs as well. It is just that now, I'm settling in the IT industry (and loving it) and wondering what the next step is given a bit of experience, especially when you know there is a lot of money swilling around - I know because I work with contractors In fact they may be a source of knowledge to tap.

AchillesLeftKnee

Uploading a CV to http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/ might be a start - not for a specific job, but as something that's searchable by agents (and that one's used by an awful lot of agents). It may well be An Experience. It was when I tried it. I didn't move in the end, but it was definitely An Experience. Just remember to keep your mobile on silent.

thistle_

Finding a good agency is the difficult part.

When I was out of work I registered with maybe a dozen agencies, all of them were offering me jobs nowhere near where I live and not related to my experience and didn't understand why I was turning them down. There was only one agency who managed to find me decent jobs (which fell through before I could start for various genuine reasons!), they were quite a small outfit and they were really good.

In the end I got myself a decent job through word of mouth and talking to people I knew. Your contract colleagues might be a good place to start asking around.

My current job I heard about through a friend who saw it on an email from an agency they were registered with. I worked out who the end company was and gave them a ring and it was all sorted within a couple of weeks.

jawooga

Cheers guys. Ha, I don't think I'll be registering with an online agency like cwjobs . To be fair my current job is very good, just doesn't pay enough. What is really cheering me up though is The Apprentice on TV in the background (my wife watching) which makes you realise how lucky you are.

VTech

We use agencies with the prospective applicants on a 3 month contract with the option to extend. So far we have only had to end a couple after the initial 3 months, the applicants have all been of high quality.

goonz

Try Badenoch and Clark...
Or perhaps Spring IT

sungod

take multiple approaches, a good agency is certainly a help, best is one that actually understands your sector of the industry, but you can lay groundwork now...

set up a linkedin profile, use your current position to establish contacts, keep it ticking over, be discreet, no need to make it look like you're looking for a job, you can always update the profile if/when things change

join linkedin groups related to your specific area(s) of expertise, if you've got any industry/other accreditation, ccie, rcsp, mbcs, etc. join the primary forum(s) for them, participate enough to establish some presence

think of every post as a potential reference, avoid using the same id to get involved in anything stupid/obnoxious/contentious

these days hr departments try to save money, they'll have a go with monster.com etc., but they'll also use linkedin and industry forums to identify candidates, especially for more exotic skillsets

guinea

Get a well present linkedin profile and search on jobserve.com.

All the recruiters that are advertising the positions.

Make a decent CV and tailor it to include everything they've asked for in the job description.

Search every day.

markhewitt1978

jawooga wrote:

Hi, bit of advice needed. Where do IT peeps look for job vacancies?

I'm a database developer in just-about gainful employment. But I'd like to be gaining more. If I Google e.g. Oracle, pl/sql jobs in my area, I just get pages of job site results, which I guess is expected. But it makes it quite difficult to focus efforts -also advertisements through agencies ask for the moon on a stick, with no indication of what the core business may be. And all the results seem to re-occur through all job sites, which is frustrating.

Is there a less scatter gun approach than this? How do you IT people target your job searches?

Thanks

p.s. if any of you guys are recruiting in the Exeter area, I also have experience with C, Linux (shell scripting etc.) and various analytic languages (IDL,R)

CW Jobs is a good site. Just have to search for specific keywords, e.g. I search for 'Linux'.

You're certainly right about them asking for the moon on a stick, 10 years experience in all sorts of things you couldn't manage in two lifetimes, and then a crappy wage to top it off!

CiB

I signed up to a job search site - might have been Monster but it was a long while ago so not sure now, but it worked - within a few days a steady stream of jobs were flagged up to me, some suitable, some v tenuously linked to my skillset, but this here job and me were soon linked up. I was a bit concerned about it when I signed up but it took away all the luck & hassle of finding the right job. The only minor downside is the steady drip-drip of emails that still come my way offering me jobs for the skills I put up there nearly 7 years ago - I've moved on a bit.

markhewitt1978

+1 on Monster. They're pretty good for just getting offers on spec. When I put my CV up I must have clicked a box for 'willing to relocate', I literally got at least one phone call a day asking if I was interested in jobs in the London area - I wasn't. Still took 4 months to find a job in NE England

BigJimmyB

The IT Job Board is one I've used, apart from those already mentioned.

Are you on LinkedIn? My profile on there is basically my CV, plus I've highlighted my experience in certain areas.

Hope that helps
BJB

jawooga

Thanks again for the further replies. I am on LinkedIn, and have had a couple of unsolicited approaches in fact, but as I'm not about to jump from my current job just yet, I ignored them. It is interesting to hear that as a recommendation from so many of you though.

It sounds like signing up for targeted approaches is a good way forward and ensures the recruitment company are doing their fair share of work, while making it less likely they will ignore an applicants approach.

AchillesLeftKnee

markhewitt1978 wrote:

You're certainly right about them asking for the moon on a stick, 10 years experience in all sorts of things you couldn't manage in two lifetimes, and then a crappy wage to top it off!

A good friend of mine was an IT recruitment agent, and when this one's come up in conversation, his opinion is more or less...

Ignore long lists of technologies and focus on the core skills as that's what most employers are actually looking for. Yes, in some cases and apparently obscure item in a list of tech might be utterly critical, but in most cases it's not. Half the reason the ads end up the way they do is because honest ads (e.g. "We want a stats bod who's got some commercial C++ and MATLAB experience", "Computing grad wanted, mustn't drool, we'll train them anyway", "One of the many ASP.NET + SQL Server people, please") just wouldn't look as "cool".

Mr_Cellophane

sungod wrote:

think of every post as a potential reference, avoid using the same id to get involved in anything stupid/obnoxious/contentious

or in other words, don't use Facebook or Twitter. :?
I am registered with the 4 main job boards and get email alerts every day. I respond to the ones I can do and follow up with a phone call for the ones I want to do. I also have a couple of agencies who keep me to the front of anything that comes up.