its been 10 months now, i was made redundant when the company i worked for went bust, tried to get by without signing on but have now done my 6 months. Im degree educated with 5 years senior management experience in IT, over 12 years IT experience.

I registered with as many agencies as i can and would say some of them would probably sue me for harrassment if they could. Am trying permanent, contract and interim and getting nowhere. I was told that my project management experience wasnt worth anything without the qualification so did prince2 and miss out as other candidates had 10 years PM experience.

im running out of ideas and am open to suggestions, am dying of boredom in the house!!

help! :)

What exactly is it that you can you do? Senior mgmt expereince in IT is a bit non-specific, a bit too broad.

For example I know someone who has Prince2 and was a European IT director for a major global company - and can't set up email in Outlook. Now nothing wrong with that, but it's what we assume people can do, without realising what this guy could do, wasn't actually IT as we see it, it was around cost management of IT resources, so not techy at all!

Are you specificying exactly what you literally can do, to these agencies?

Have you thought of doing a bit of self employed work with whatever experience and skills you have?

hmm. ive got a broad range, didnt want to go into too much detail. have done everything from strategy, managing development and infrastructure, network architecture, email system management, disaster recovery, managing teams, down to turn it off and back on!!!

specifying in great detail. literally there are no jobs according to the agencies unless i want to move to london.

have tried that too, i just cant seem to find anyone who is hiring!!

sorry for vagueness, didnt want to put my life story up!

its alright, was just wondering how specific your skills were but it sounds like you are conveying them well enough. Are you perhaps over qualified?

By s/e I meant starting your own business, rather than subbing/freelancing.

I agree with Sandra, apply your experience and background to starting your own IT consultancy...what have you got to lose?

Remember:

1. You can work from home to keep your overheads to an absolute minimum...which will give you a cost advantage over other organisations
2. Setting up a website and doing the SEO (particularly as your IT work would be locally based) should be relatively straight forward for you (buy SEO for Dummies, it will teach you all you will need to know)
3. You will have specialist skills you could turn into a competitive advantage
4. You will have a list of past customers that your ex company did business with which might like to see you doing their support as you know their businesses and their IT needs (as the company went bust, there is no conflict of interest and no legal restriction on you going back to them)

Good luck

If you're prepared to look at contract work and to work in London then there should be plenty of roles to apply for.
The first thing to do though (I found when I looked for contracts in London) was to remove my address from my CV and not to mention it if at all possible.

If you're getting interviews but failing at this stage, then maybe see if the jobcentre can arrange a course on interview technique. It's a skill like anything else and selling yourself in the right way takes a bit of practice.

The book "Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions" by Martin John Yate, available in many bookshops, helped me a lot finding a job, and more importantly negotiating pay, even though I was a newly arrived immigrant back then. I've since recommended the book to many friends, each of them found a job shortly after!

thanks for the advice..

had thought about self employed, but the market seems awash with people who do IT support type ventures for small companies and designing websites just isnt me!! my experience is in delivering it projects and turning round failing teams/projects and im not sure where to start as in my experience either people dont realise their IT isnt up to it, or are too embarrassed to admit it..

given me a few things to think about though so thanks!!

Why would you have to design websites, that's nothing to do with your skill set from what you've said.

http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/Results.aspx?Keywords=project+manager&JobType1=20

Try looking through these.

Just as an example

Applications Project Manager


Location:
Nottingham , Nottinghamshire
Salary:
£350 - £400 per day
Date posted:
17/06/2010 15:50
Job type:
Contract
Company:
Spring Technology
Contact:
Michelle Rathbone
Ref:
CWJobs/Apps PM/Nottingham
Job ID:
47735363


Spring IT have an urgent vacancies for APPLICATIONS DELIVERY PROJECT MANAGER X 2 BASED IN NOTTINGHAM FOR A LARGE BLUE CHIP CLIENT.

Essential skills:

Application Development Delivery PMs - please no infrastructure or business change PMs Budget Management/commercial awareness. specific budgets managed against specific projects.candidate should have had specific budgetary responsibility
Risk management - (processes, techniques or approach). They expect risk management to be a key part of a CV
Stakeholder management - seniority of engagement or alignment to governance process re reporting.
Client delivery experience - details such as managing 3rd parties (suppliers or clients). Contractors need to demonstrate that they have managed 3rd parties, suppliers or senior internal stakeholders (ideally at Board Level)
Experience in managing projects in matrix and / or offshore environment
Financial services background strongly preferred
Details:
Based in Nottingham

http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/JobSearch/Results.aspx?Keywords=%22project+manager%22+AND+it&JobType1=20&LTxt=Sheffield%2c+South+Yorkshire&Radius=50&LIds1=Ck_,HY,M0,N6,Oi&LIds2=dI,U,g,k,z,5,BC,B_3,CAC&LIds3=Z6,C&LIds6=D_r,B,j&clid=2051&cltypeid=1&clName=Sheffield

And there are more where that's advertised.

if you not sorted anything out learn this line "would you like fries with that" because the jobcentre will tell you that you will have to look at alternative work :hihi: ( this is only in jest btw) good luck in the future

mentioned websites because thats what small support companies seem to offer in addition.. thanks for link cyclone

yeah ricgem, had that conversation with them already!

well some IT comopanies add web design on as a side thing just because as a result of visiting these companies and seeing the IT people there, they soon click they cna pick up web orders. But they will more than likely just have a web design company as their partner. We do this for someone but the downside for us is that we can never disclose who they are, show the work off, use testimonials from their clients, etc.

I wouldn't say that the majority of IT companies do offer web design but even if half of them do, that does not stop you offering your IT skills, as on their own they are sufficient as a service and from what is sounds like, to the corporate sector, not the smaller end of businesses. Still, the contracting work should be out there, just Google loads of keywords around IT contracting, management, etc and it will bring up jobs with those keywords being advertised by the various job boards or agencies.

i hear asda are looking for night shift staff

if you not sorted anything out learn this line "would you like fries with that" because the jobcentre will tell you that you will have to look at alternative work :hihi: ( this is only in jest btw) good luck in the future

Many a true word spoken in jest.

Downsizing, one step back two steps forward, call it what you want.

If you're prepared to look at contract work and to work in London then there should be plenty of roles to apply for.
The first thing to do though (I found when I looked for contracts in London) was to remove my address from my CV and not to mention it if at all possible.



Out of interest Cyc. where do you live and how much does it cost when you work in London?

Hello Mate,
Exactly the same problem as yourself. Computer graduate with 18+ years experience in IT. Can't get a job of any kind. Got so hacked off with it I qualified as a gas engineer, oil engineer and now an air con engineer.
IT jobs have had it. When it comes down to it you can't do anything really.
At least with the skills I have I can now employ myself.
Problem is IT are simply unwilling to train anyone and want experience in exactly what they want. Catch 22.
I went for a job interview down the road last week for office administrator doing order processing but didn't get it. What? I was easily the best qualified but over qualified for the job. Are these people stupid! I would rather have had that job than have to travel 1 hour into sheffield for a call centre.
PS If you are after a temporary job william hill are looking for 16hours at the call centre in sheffield. I currently do that now as well as the gas work. So much for IT.
Things are better now than they were May 2009 wasn't getting any interviews for jobs then so economy is improving.

Hello Mate,
Exactly the same problem as yourself. Computer graduate with 18+ years experience in IT. Can't get a job of any kind. Got so hacked off with it I qualified as a gas engineer, oil engineer and now an air con engineer.
IT jobs have had it. When it comes down to it you can't do anything really.
At least with the skills I have I can now employ myself.
Problem is IT are simply unwilling to train anyone and want experience in exactly what they want. Catch 22.
I went for a job interview down the road last week for office administrator doing order processing but didn't get it. What? I was easily the best qualified but over qualified for the job. Are these people stupid! I would rather have had that job than have to travel 1 hour into sheffield for a call centre.
PS If you are after a temporary job william hill are looking for 16hours at the call centre in sheffield. I currently do that now as well as the gas work. So much for IT.
Things are better now than they were May 2009 wasn't getting any interviews for jobs then so economy is improving.

That's the whole problem mate - you were TOO qualified for the job.
Sounds daft I know, but you may have been more qualified than people that they already had in there and that means they cant look to be 'rocking the boat' so to speak.

thanks for the replies. reworked the CV last week after some feedback and have had a few calls since. its amazing the way a couple of words make a big difference.

applied for a job at HSBC (theyre recruiting quite heavily for quite a few different non-it jobs) and so far have had 2 critical reasoning tests, 1 psychometric test (online) and one phone interview, got another on wednesday. its crackers, 5 tests and i havent even seen a human being!!

onwards and upwards eh.

I'd just like to wish you best of luck for Wednesday. You have a good upbeat attitude and I'm sure you'll be offered something pretty soon.

Out of interest Cyc. where do you live and how much does it cost when you work in London?

I live in S6.

How much does it cost? I was lucky in that my brother in law had a spare room, so accommodation cost me a good steak dinner every few weeks in Canary Wharf. Train averaged at £120 a week, tube at £20, subsidence at £30 ish. So that's £170 a week in expenses. A room on top of that, even a cheap one would have been another £100 a week.
If I only look at the financials I'd be working in Uxbridge right now, even with expenses I think I'd be about 35% better off. But you have a much lower quality of life when you spend most of the week away from home. It's completely worth the difference to be home every evening.
That said, if I couldn't find a contract again locally when one finished, I'd be back in London within a few weeks until something else came up.

I think you'd do well starting your own IT business. It sounds like you're highly qualified :-)

I seriously think reworking the CV does help. Since you have extensive PM experience, then mention the following on your CV - your KPIs, what £ size projects, how many people were working on the project, what level of reporting - board, snr management e.t.c,

Metrics as well. What £ size projects, how many people working on them. What level reporting to (board, snr management, change board etc), any qualifications you have (Prince2, PMP, MSP) e.t.c

Also there are lots of Project Management related groups in LinkedIn, signing them up and networking with fellow professionals will help.

I'm not sure what is going on here, but I work in IT (.NET developer, 6 years experience) and as soon as I put my CV on CWJobs I'm inundated with calls from agencies.

Maybe you should look at your CV and see if it could be improved?

Paul, im not a developer..

feedback from agencies on the Cv is good, there just isnt the jobs!

I posted two PM jobs. Did you bother to investigate the job board they came from?

bother? its all i do most days is trawl job boards..

thanks

as a lesson to others about not giving up, i got that HSBC job i went for and started today.. :D

thanks for all your comments!

well done :)