Lack of Interest despite 20 years experience

DKLS

OP do you have any SAP/Salesforce experience?, they seems to be plenty of contract and pemie SAP/Salesforce roles about with some very decent levels of pay.

Print_Screen

I would also add in "keyword searches".
Remember in this market employers have loads of people out of work they need to filter to interview so a lot of CV's are just scanned online by agencies and employers for keywords in formal certifications.

So in your case even though you have plenty of Cisco experience you will miss out on showing up as you don't have a CCNA, CCNP, etc.

As you are not working now use your free time to get your CCNA. You have the practical knowledge already which is a large step. Just brush up on your VLSM, general subnetting and binary as no calculators are allowed in the exam, as I assume you don't manually convert binary to decimal for fun on a regular basis

This will at least get you more interviews and perhaps a job.

Esoog

Great advice from gypsy, but if you don't fanc it;

Have you thought about taking a job at a lower level (perhaps editing your cv to risk chance of looking over qualified) and then demonstrating your worth/skills/experience in that role and attempting to climb the ladder internally?

Any money coming in is better than none and sometimes you have to take a hit to come out on top.

shinyahashimoto

Gooner, have you ever thought of having 2 or 3 versions of your CV? The one you have for your dream job, and others tailored further down the market, perhaps focusing on technical skills you have and not the experience, and perhaps another going on about the experience, but removing anything too technical?

Perhaps you're being turned down for some regular support/maintenance jobs as your CV is tailored to creating things from scratch? I also know my old company would turn people down for basic 1st line phone support, if they had a half-decent IT job before, especially anything with Servers, as they felt they would be for the off ASAP(they would be correct too).

It might be worth tuning up your linkedin, or dare I say it, asking on Facebook if anyone has seen any oppertunities lately, as perhaps some old colleagues can get you in somewhere in the interim.

hcb42

LinkedIn can be powerful, worth a tweak ESP key skills section and connect to people. Hubby just got job after one month, to a company he used to work with and had lots of contacts with. He also found he needd to update professional memberships quite a bit and show CPD as was getting that as a basic requirement.

dizzyrascal

I would get yourself on LinkedIn and add all your skills and your work history.
You can begin to follow the companies you are interested in and you can make it clear you are looking for work. Start networking through LinkedIn or in person.
I'm not looking for work at the moment but it is amazing how many people look at my profile each week.
You can contribute to group discussions, recommend people you know and join as many groups as you like. You can also follow companies on twitter too.

It can't do any harm and it does seem to be the future of recruitment for many companies now. Not a bad idea to have an online presence when looking for work and you already have the impressive CV to post up there.