It takes a network...

Over the weekend, while my kids laid in the backyard hammock, I finally finished my IT resume. I started sending it out to friends and contacts. I'm planning to attend today's healthcare career fair in Boston. One or two of the dozen companies scheduled to be there have some kind of IT position I'm interested in. But fro the stories I'm hearing about career fairs, I'm not holding my breath. And I'm planning to arrive a bit early. Long lines await me, I fear.

Here's an interesting statistic from my outplacement counselor. Last week she had sixteen clients find jobs. One of them got their job via a career fair. The remaining fifteen got theirs via networking. Amazing.

It's equally amazing how many friends and colleagues have reached out to me with thoughts, ideas, and in some cases, potential leads. I'm feeling the love :-). At the same time I am still able to offer some advice and such to some of them. That feels good, too...

Next I have to tweak my resume towards a teaching position. And I have to keep working my network! Meanwhile, I found a really neat, free Word to PDF online service, PDF Online. Was able to convert my resume to PDF. Don't know how to post it here, though.

Went to my first career fair today. Healthcare. At the Radisson Hotel in Boston. I'm glad I arrived half an hour early. The lines were getting pretty long. One company I met sounded very interesting. Electronic health records IT consulting. We'll see if I get any callbacks.

The US Postal Service was there! They're looking for temporary motor vehicle operators (MVOs). They need drivers but they can't hire full-timers. Merrill Lynch was there, too, to offer advice on transferring 401(k) accounts from old company to new. US Army recruiters were there. I can enlist but I have only until September, when I turn 42; that's the cutoff age. Take a test and the results dictate what opportunities you can shoot for. No pun intended. There was a resume-writing professional there, who gave free critiques. The line to see him was long...

Afterwards I visited the old office. Everyone seemed busy. Busy is good. But not always a guarantee ;-). Still it was really nice seeing them. I also got a haircut. The scalp massage was nice...