The Painted Pony Goes Up and Down

The Circle Game - I've begun to notice them in my weeks.  Mondays, nothing.  No emails from recruiters, no calls, and I can't really remember the last time I had a scheduled interview on Monday.

All the activity begins on Tuesdays.  That's when the emails from the various head hunters (my friends not in the IT / telecomm industry do not experience this), the phone calls, the follow ups to begin scheduling interviews or phone screens.  Everything seems to happen Tuesday - Thursday.  Yes, I had a pop-up phone screen this morning, from which I've got an interview with a recruiter on Tuesday. (This time I did ask if the recruiter had a signed contract with the company they were representing for that specific job.  They said yes.  I'm taking the interview.)

Scheduling my interviews 

or

a philosophy in displacement

One of the things I try to do is work my interview schedules for the following week.  I give the most active companies a two day choice, usually a Tu/Th option.  When I have a 2nd company call in, I give them a Wed/Fri.  If a third comes in and I haven't heard from the first served recruiters, I send emails to the effect that my availability has changed.  I give them either morning blocks or afternoon blocks and plan to have a two hour window in between.  Bottom line, when HR / recruiters / schedulers don't get back to you, you need to plan on balancing your schedule with an eye to commute times between locations.  About all you can do is send the email update to the various balls still in the air and let them know that there are fewer and fewer time slots available.

This practice is also good because it keeps you in the habit of reaching out to potential employers for follow-ups.  Anxiety decreases as habit increases.


What I should have done before I got started with all these job submissions... spent time on the site Payscale.

Payscale is my new current favorite for understanding how job titles, job descriptions, and pay relate to rank.  For example, by looking up the following titles, it is clearly evident that one begins a career as an analyst, moves on to a developer role, and then into architecture.  Uhm... I've done a lot of applying for the analyst roles.  hmmmmmmm..... Okay, so I'm an idiot.  No wonder I didn't get a call.

$66k avg salary  BusinessIntelligence (BI) Analyst

$46,061 - $100,577           Business intelligence (BI) analysts help guide and improve the way that businesses' management staff foster collaboration within and between departments. Minimum educational requirements generally include a bachelor's degree in business administration or computer engineering. Additionally, individuals should have at least 1-2 years experience in a supervisory or administrative role within an organization.

$77,286 average salary   Business Intelligence (BI) Developer

$52,288 - $114,228           Business intelligence developers must be data experts, as they work primarily with databases and different types of software. Often abbreviated as BI developer, this job involves developing and fine tuning IT solutions. That can include anything from coding to testing to debugging to designing to implementing newly developed tools. A BI developer spends a lot of time researching and planning solutions for existing problems within the company. BI developers also are responsible for building OLAP, or online analytical processing. They also work with databases, both relational and multidimensional. BI developers are often responsible for managing others in the IT department or in the company.

104,531Kavg salary         Business Intelligence (BI) Architect

$76,005 - $150,217           Business intelligence (BI) architects are in charge of analyzing and implementing business intelligence for their organization. They are responsible for determining platforms and correct functioning for the central data warehouse. They process large amounts of information to draw conclusions based on their intelligence findings, interact with a variety of business professionals, and communicate critical project requirements within their organization. These architects also manage developers, directing their efforts to reach organizational goals in a timely manner. They utilize a personal computer with analytical tools to calculate business data and interpret results. They generally report their progress to the business intelligence director in their organization.

So now, I can say, that if I'd known better I would work on the following in the following order:

1. Get a good LinkedIn picture - one without family or friends or musical instruments.
2. Update the LinkedIn profile & your resume.  Plan on updating these frequently.  
3. Get some good cover letter templates going.
4. Set up a professional Twitter feed.  Make sure your email address is something other than your SexyLion99@hotmail.  Kay?  Use adult names.
5. Get your business cards made.  
6. Ask for references to be added to your LinkedIn profile.  
7. Add contacts to LinkedIn.
8. Begin to daydream
9. Investigate modern job titles and average salaries from Payscale.
10. Begin investigating companies.  When you're investigating a company in LinkedIn, your contacts will show up as shared connections.  You will have much, Much, MUCH better luck reaching through your connections to get your resume forwarded to their HR folks.  Believe me when I say this though, it's easier said than done.  That said, here's a good article to help develop your "ask" and to give you the confidence to ask.

11. Sign up for a series of Meetups & conventions in your area of interest.  You really need to plan on getting out there.  No, you don't have to do it all the time.  I cancel those weeks where I've been heavily interviewing.  It's been a while since I've been out there.  I stopped going after one particularly horrific rooftop networking event.  I began having flashbacks to the cocktail parties of my Southern Ivy League University frat house experience.  ugh.  I can do tech talks for a while, but even that gets tiresome for all the beer and pizza.  Done with that.  There's so much out there, it's been overwhelming.  I'm refocusing on just a few events now.
12. Start adding your profile to other sites like Indeed.  I've given a list of a few other locations as well.  

And a few articles about social media and hiring as an FYI that I tracked down after reading the Jobvite 2015 Recruiter Survey and the sources recruiters use to find candidates.

At Monster, we’ve prioritized social hiring through Twitter,
How Recruiters Creepily Troll Social Media for Job Candidates (Infographic)
Building an effective social network