Mortgage protection - been turned down!

Emmzi

Sammy,

haven't seen you for a bit, just a hug from me!

sammy115

Hi Emzi

Thanks for the hug! Well needed at the moment. Not been posting for a while, just lurking, but I haven't seen a post from you for ages. How are you doing? Did you manage to find work?

nrsql

Jobserve and monster are probably the best IT job boards.
Post your cv on monster and you will probably get lots of calls, jobserve is better for looking for jobs.

Around now is an especially good time as companies want cover for christmas. That will be short term probably but once you are there you have a chance to show how valuable you are.

When looking at job sites most of the ads will be from agents - beware, a lot of jobs won't really exist and the agent (maybe a new startup) is just trying to get cv's.
Other jobs will be posted by agents that just know that another agent is looking for those skills - make sure you ask whether the agent is a prime agent for the job otherwise you will have multiple fees being taken and also the agent in contact with the client isn't going to work as hard to get you the job. You can tell by asking the agent about the client - if they are very vague then they probably don't have contact.
Beware of blitzing a lot of agents with cv's or they will be forever calling you.

It's very unlikely that the agent will know much about the job so it's always worth asking for a telephone interview to save wasting time.
They will also ask for a rate - say you don't know without knowing what the job is - they will say they have to send in a rate with the cv so give a wide range.

Decide what you are marketing yourself as. Technical expertise is easiest as it fits into nice holes - remember to stress it.
It sounds a lot like you might be going for project manager type jobs though - might be worth contacting a few consultancies, say you are willing to do almost anything short term to develop skills.

Probably need to redo your cv. Have a front page with qualifications, brief description of the type of work you have done and want to do and your skills - then go on to list (latest first) with dates what you have done in the past.
Be honest but there's nothing wrong with a little embelishment (you'll find you are up against a lot of people who do lie on cv's and it's pretty serious when they get found out).

pusscat

well said nrsql - agree with it all

Agents can be a nightmare - my OH was cold called by an agency last week who had a 4 year old CV (they called his parents house from when he lived there!). He has also had calls from agnecies telling him that they have the perfect job for him - only problem was it was the job he had just given notice on (two seperate agencies did the same thing!) bless them, they obviously read his CV well didn't they!

One other thing that has just occured to me from OH's last experience of changing contract, there is usually a filter to get your CV past the first stage for an agent, this usually includes the latest industry buzzword(s). For PM's at the moment it is matrix management, leveraged environments, data driven project management, Six Sigma etc. If you do not show some or all of these skills your CV does not move anywhere. Make sure your OH finds out the buzzwords in his area and includes them, even if it is "knowledge of" or "experience of" these areas rather than a formal qualification..

My OH was having real trouble getting to the interview stage for the first few weeks until we asked a friend who is in the agency business, she put us right and the change was amazing.