Famille Du Pentium

I’ve added a new category – Job Search – where I plan to post some of my experiences of finding a job career in the worst job market in thirty years.

A few basic ground rules before we get started:

• I’m an IT guy.  This shouldn’t matter much; an unemployed IT guy has the same basic challenges as an unemployed marketing person or an unemployed burger flipper.  But my stories and advice will be framed in an IT job reference, just so you know.
• I have worked primarily in financial services.  This includes proprietary trading, hedge funds, investment banking, and retail.
• Prior to my recent extended period of unemployment, I was pretty much continuously employed since I was 15 1/2 years old.
• I’m generally not touchy feel-ie.  I don’t do well in group therapy sessions.  In my experience, networking meetings are group therapy sessions.  But more on that later.  The importance of this will become clear as I tell stories and give advice.

Here’s what I’m going to cover, in no particular order, subject to change:

• Networking
• Job Boards
• Resumes
• Cover Letters
• Presentation
• Attitude

One more thing about me: I have a job now.  I was unemployed from November, 2009 until April 2011 with a couple of short-term contracts during that period.  I have since found a job I like doing at a place I like.  I’m not going to tell you how to get a job, I’m simply going to tell you how I coped, applied, and survived during my extended unemployment leading up to getting my new job.