Job search

After being forced out last October I went on the search for a new job. I decided that I wanted to get back into mainframe programming, something I had done with great skill for 25+ years. I created 2 resumes, one chronological which went back 32 years and one functional which summarized my skills and listed months of experience. Resume coaches suggest after you get past a certain age you just use a functional one because it doesn't directly say how old you are. My experience was that recruiters hated that one because they couldn't determine how old your experience was. So I created a composite and just blasted all my experience into one long time period. You hear from the unemployment agency that 85% of all jobs are found by word-of-mouth. In my profession internet job boards are the only way to apply for jobs and you hope that the search firm thinks well enough of your resume to pass it onto the hiring company. I also heard that employers won't hire men with beards. My resume seemed to do the job, I got lots of calls on it but lots fewer references to the hiring managers. I think this was because I only had 8 out of the 10 requirements needed. I didn't get to use  the response I used 32 years ago when I was asked why they should hire me, ' Because I'm the smartest person they will hire'. God I'm arrogant. In February I had a contingent offer from Lockheed-Martin in West Virginia if they got a contract from the government, they didn't get it. Went through three interviews for a MN state colleges job, I think I blew the answer to the question,'Why do you want to work for us?' I had initial interviews for contracts in Bloomington IL, Madison, Omaha and Eveleth,MN. Three phone interviews for an IBM job in East Lansing MI, received and accepted an offer from them. I start there June 20, getting a furnished apt. I get to work on really old school programming language of Assembler, which I actually love doing and am very good at it.


The hiring world has changed. Gone are the days when you walked into a business and applied for a job in person.

"Email your resume," they say. "Go to our website." "Apply online."

Is it easy? Maybe. Is it frustrating? YES.
The internet makes it too easy for employers to hide. Too easy for them to brush off a simple response. And too hard for you to take that next critical step and follow up with the decision-makers after applying for a job.

Contact me if  you would like to get together in Lansing.
Some coding;
PRODPAGE NOP continue
MVI PRODPAGE+1,x'f0'
Continue DS 0h
  Who can tell me what that set of instructions does? I may not have remembered it quite correctly.

I'll leave you with an old programming joke.
There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't. Think about it. This statement is completely true, you are making an incorrect assumption of what 10 stands for.
And a cartoon that hung on my wall for years.