[olug] Finally, geek for a living

[John Dickson]

First,
  elevate yourself above  "schmuck" in your own mind. Live with the idea that you are the one for the job as no one else has your skillset. The weeding part of a resume or pre-interview detects the inner schmuck and puts it in the do not disturb pile.

Then say a prayer, and follow some of Bill's advice. Put yourself in the seat to hire. Provide honest and succinct answers, don't stray in the interview unless taken there. Who would you want as an employee?

Cale Lewis <dlazlo at fbx.com> wrote ..
> 
> On 1969-12-31 at 18:00:00 [-0600], you wrote:
> 
> > >From a hiring standpoint I'd be more likely to hire a fresh-face
> > know-nothing newbie right out of school who has been actively working
> with
> > computers recently than a guy with several years of experience which
> all
> 
> 
> So how would a poor schmuck like me go about trying to impress someone
> enough 
> to even get an interview?
> 
> I've only been in 2 classes, both of which I quit after 3 weeks, BUT I
> was 
> going to early morning classes and working late evening shift, driving
> 50 
> miles a day for class, and the 'computer internals' class was taught by
> a 
> very nice lady who unfortunately used a Mac for several years and was rushed
> through a crash course over the summer because they needed another body
> to 
> stand in front of a class and try and teach it with a textbook that was
> 2 
> months shy of 4 years old. If I'm smart enough to work with computers,
> I 
> should be smart enough to know when I'm wasting my money!
> 
> On the other hand, I started about 5 years ago with a hand-me-down 286,
> was 
> spured to study shortly after by a Compaq Presario 5200 series craputer
> running Win98 First Edition, and now build, customize, and repair in my
> spare 
> time, do volunteer tech support for BeOS related issues, and am currently
> running MacOS 7.x thru 9.x, NeXTstep, OS/2, Linux(x86, SPARC, Alpha, PPC),
> FreeBSD(x86 & Alpha), Solaris9 SPARC, IRIX 5.2 thru 6.5.18, QNX, 
> AtheOS/Syllable, 5 variation of BeOS(x86 & PPC< booted on DreamCast once),
> and 2 varients of BeIA. There's about a half dozen others I've tried for
> a 
> while just to push myself to learn more than the world of Windows. Oh yea,
> I've got 98Lite on an IA I hacked around here somewhere.
> 
> The problem now is that without that piece of paper from a college or 
> university no one will even let you get your foot in the door. No other
> field 
> has ever 'locked up' so fast. It's great to see the cracks forming in the
> Micro$oft wall and Opensource stepping forward into the public view, but
> I'm 
> still going to work 2 or 3 times as hard or do something to really stand
> out 
> and be noticed to get anywhere.
> 
> Cale Lewis 
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