Job search tools
You could approach your previous employer, for your old job or a different one. That employer knows your skills and experience, and you have done work in exactly the area they operate in. You also have (hopefully) good relationships with your ex-colleagues there. Going back to your old employer might be the way to re-enter your tech field.
Who Can Act as a Reference for a Re-Entrant?
Although it may have been years since you last worked in a tech job, you can still have great references. References from non-technical work are fine, since the referrer can attest to your strong work ethic, organization, leadership, teamwork, and project management. References from volunteer work (coworkers, managers, or clients there) are great for the same reasons, and wanting references can be a good reason to start doing some volunteer work. If you go back to school (even for one class), your teacher could be an excellent reference - wanting teacher references is another reason to make sure to do well in the class and to talk to your teacher. Your contacts from career networking could be great references, especially from people you worked on a project with (for instance, on a programming project or setting up a website).You might be able to contact previous employers, colleagues, managers from your old company for references. LinkedIn and Google searches could help you find them, or you might already have their contact information stored in your email contacts or phone contacts.
Social media
Use social media for help finding a job. For example, on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Meetup.com at some point mention you are looking for work, and the type of job you hope to get. Keep the comment positive and professional, and someone in your network may connect you to a job.
Start your own business, and create your own job. Good resources for information about starting your own business from the SBA.
Apply for a research grant
Create a research project proposal and submit it for grants. Places to look for grants include the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and this large compilation of links to grants for technical projects. If you get a grant, you create your own job. You might approach tech companies to partner with them on a grant proposal, and condition getting hired on getting the grant to work on the project.
Resume and cover letter writing
A functional resume may be the best option for re-entry workers. Functional resumes put skills and career highlights on top, followed by relevant job experience, education, publications. This order can help so the first things noticed are skills, not a timeline hole in the resume. Re-entry workers also need to make sure they use a currently accepted professional style for resumes in their field, since styles change over time.
Functional resume top sections should list specific skills. For instance, for a software engineer: Programming languages, technical skills, software experience, OS platforms.
For all types of resumes (not just functional resumes): Have a 'Career Highlights' section towards the top, to highlight technical skills from various jobs and times
Useful resume creation advice online. And a resume reviewer's story that is useful, but scary (see #5) for re-entry job seekers.
Have friends and trusted old colleagues review your resume draft. They may give you valuable advice, like correcting grammar errors, changing from an outdated style, or adding important sections.
Many websites give cover letter advice that is badly outdated. Are there any companies that still accept mailed-in cover letters and resumes? Old-style cover paper letter assumption, but transferable advice here. Some modern advice on cover letters, here. More advice on cover letters, in resume advice links above.
Volunteer jobs
Volunteer jobs can get recent tech work on the top of your resume, and can be an opportunity to modernize skills and network. Strategies to find volunteer jobs include:
Example places to volunteer include SourceForge projects and online volunteering.
Local organizations may offer opportunities to do hands-on technical volunteering.
"Another avenue for 'strategic volunteering', is to volunteer with your professional organization. If your professional organization does not offer programming for people coming off of career break, then offer to create it for them. Or offer to organize other professional updating and networking events.This role will enable you to come in contact with employers interested in hiring from the pool of talent on career break and with universities interested in updating this pool." (irelaunch.org)
Your previous employer
For instance, job fairs for people with security clearances, job fair search engines, location-specific job fairs such as this Chicago Job Fairs listing, virtual job fairs at GD, and a location-based job fair search engine. Google searches and pointers from the local municipal or state employment office can help you to find nearby job fairs. Networking
Networking can greatly increase your chances of getting hired, partly by increasing your chances of finding out about job openings.
Online presence
Make an online presence, and make sure it is all a good reflection on you professionally. Do a search on yourself - hiring staff will, too. Use a Google Alert to automatically be updated about content on the web - set one up to find info about yourself, a company or a technology.
Be prepared to answer THIS question
Prepare a brief response for a question about why you left the field, and why you are returning. Keep it positive, not too personal, and brief. Hopefully it was because you were enthusiastically exploring other areas, and now you are enthusiastically returning to a tech career. What do you like about working in your field, what specific aspects do you think are cool? Mention them. It is especially important for re-entry candidates to convey to interviewers that you like your field, because in the past you left it. Hiring managers want positive, fired-up workers. So, convey that you will be one!
Entrepreneurship
Most of the job search tools below are the same for re-entry and continuing tech workers. Targeted re-entry strategies include online job websites, resume format, entrepreneurship, grant-writing, and volunteering advice. Re-entry applicants have special challenges with online job websites, since their algorithms may automatically give a low rating to applicants without recent work history.
Online job websites
Online job sites are now the norm for mid-sized and large tech companies, so strategies to make your online job application pass the automated applicant-sorting algorithm are important. Not having recent technical work experience can hurt the re-entry applicant, even with no human eyes ever taking a look at your resume. Listing recent technical volunteer work, personal technical projects, and technical classes will help your application to get a better rating from the automated systems.
Types of job websites:
Corporate, such as jobsites for Cisco, LLNL (Livermore), and GM.
Look for 'careers', 'jobs', or 'corporate' section of main website. In your technical field, you will know a lot of the main companies, and can Google for similar companies.
Finance websites such as Yahoo! finance can help you to find additional corporations in the same field. For example, the ALU (Alcatel-Lucent) page on Yahoo! finance, then select 'Industry' hyperlink on left. It will show more companies in the same technology space, and you can dig down further from that information to get a different list of related companies in industry.
USA Jobs is the centralized website for all US government jobs (DoD, DoH, DoJ, DoT, IRS, the Fed, NHS, IRS, HHS, etc.). Can be great benefits and job security with government jobs. And since often only U.S. citizens accepted, is an area where there is less competition for jobs.
Aggregated sites (Indeed.com, Dice.com, LinkedIn, and Craigslist jobs) are useful. Monster not so good these days. LinkedIn is a special kind of aggregated site, since it integrates career networking as well as job searching.
Freelance / flexible workplace sites:
LinkedIn job search:
Post a professional profile using keywords for your industry. Recruiters may contact you based on automated keyword searches.
Try to LinkedIn connect with as many professional and academic colleagues as possible, in your field. When you connect with them they can find out you are looking for a job, and help with leads if they have any.
Join LinkedIn groups in your field. One benefit of their groups are the jobs listings. Particularly with women- and minority- focused groups, company recruiters list jobs on the group websites.
Do search both ways: direct from 'Jobs' menu option on your home page, as well as from within the jobs listings in groups.
Helpful LinkedIn functionality tells if you have a contact at company with job you are interested in, which can be helpful to get an introduction to the hiring manager.
Recruiters post jobs to LinkedIn technology groups for women and minorities, looking for qualified workers to improve company diversity.
Tips for efficient handling of all your online job profiles:
You will need to create a profile at each job website. Most sites ask for the same information.
Gather all information that will be used for profiles in one folder on computer, for easier profile entry:
resume (standard format accepted seems to be Microsoft Word .doc)
PDFs of letters of recommendation (most sites accept 3).
For each reference: Name, title, company, email address, phone #, street address
cover letter (non-specific to company name)
Keep spreadsheet with columns labelled: company, website, date last applied. Each row a different jobs website, and use date to make sure periodically check new jobs listings at each. It also helps when you update your resume, for tracking which profiles still need to be updated with the new resume.
Career centers
Look for assistance at municipal, state, university, alumni, community college career centers. They may offer access to jobs listings, career networking, resume and cover letter-writing assistance, and other job-seeking assistance. University career centers often focused on students and recent grads (not alumni), and sometimes an alumni fee is required for limited services. Municipal and state career/employment centers are accommodating to all phases of career and to re-entry workers, but generally have less technical job listings.
Additional jobs listings
You may have access to job listings in the following places, if you join or visit them. Some have an online presence, as well as physical location or in-person meetings.
Professional Societies
Local economic development councils
Career development workshops
Women in technology organizations
Alumni Associations
Job fairs
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