Not sure what to do...

[MrP]

Been reading lots of great advice on this forum so thought I would join and see what advice I can get.

I have worked for 2 consultancy companies over the last 12 years and worked for just two large blue chip companies in retail and manufacturing. I started of as a junior Cobol/DB2 developer and over the years have worked as a Business and Systems analyst, Development team leader, Production Support Team Leader and Project Support Lead. So my skillset is varied and widespread. Basically I liked the diversity and new challenges and thought that it would be beneficial on my CV. Having been made redundant last March it would seem that my 'jack of all trades' experience is now haunting me as I'm just not getting a sniff anywhere.

My technical experience in Cobol/DB2 is pretty much worthless as I have only seen about 6 roles advertised in that time and each one of them requires additional skills like Java or .Net that I don't have. So it became evident that I will need to move into a management role. I studied and became Prince2 qualified and am currently working towards ITIL certification. I naively thought that the Prince2 would give me a shout - wrong again! I realise the market is bad and many people scrambling for roles. My CV has had more tweaks than Sharon Osbournes face. I know quite a few senior people in various companies (hoping they would have something for me) and they have all said that the CV is strong and well presented. So the CV is not letting me down and is as good as it can be. Despite that and applying for dozens and dozens of specifically targeted roles I have not even had a single interview. I'm registered on every jobsite and loads of agencies too but nowt.

I could spend some more time and money doing another course but feel it would be a waste of time as companies want experience. I will keep plugging away and be patient but I want to give myself a fighting chance so any tips or advice greatly received.

Thanks

[singhr]

I would advocate having 2-3 flavours of CV each one playing up a different role/aspect of your expereince and send a more targeted CV rather than Jack of all trades. Chop the COBOL out of your CV too, it makes you sound ancient (harsh I know) and just keep banging away while working on a plan B. - good luck

[MrP]

I would advocate having 2-3 flavours of CV each one playing up a different role/aspect of your expereince and send a more targeted CV rather than Jack of all trades.

Done that. Got a CV as a Business Analyst, Developer (no call for that one yet!), Junior PM, Project Support and Tester

Chop the COBOL out of your CV too, it makes you sound ancient (harsh I know)

First time anyone has said that - I'm not ancient but I see where you're coming from.

and just keep banging away while working on a plan B. - good luck

It's the plan B bit I'm struggling with!

[Jeebo72]

Hard times so difficult to judge.

My skills are current and in demand, so as such I’ve not spent a day out of work. But my rate is still £100 a day less than last year!

Last year, if I sent my CV to an agent at 830, I’d get a call by 9, telephone interview at 11 and a job offer at 12. I kid ye not. At most renewals I had 3 offers on the table and was able to play them off each other.

This year is a very different story. As I took a 3 month break at xmas, I had to start aplying on my return. After sending in CVs I got emails stating I wasn’t qualified for the job. I assume it was automated and they never even looked at all because they’d ploughed through 100s already, because I was most certainly qualified. Not saying best, but matched their criteria. I spoke with agents (whom I know and trust -small demographic I know) who said they had 500+ cvs submitted etc…

Oh and the cobol comment might well be true. I took Fortran 77 off my CV a long time ago. Thought it made me look experienced, but prob not ;-)

Best of luck...

[northernladuk]

So it became evident that I will need to move into a management role. I studied and became Prince2 qualified and am currently working towards ITIL certification

You are forgetting why people get contractors in. They are buying in skilled guys with many years in the industry who can hit the ground running and implement best practice blah blah... just getting a qualification then applying for a management role is just useless. You will be going up against Service Delivery/PM's with 10 to 15 years in the industry. You cannot just study for a role and expect to be able to contract off the back of that. It 'may' add to your case to have this but no way will a certificate and a lifetime on DB2 get you a PM or SDM role.

You are selling a skill not a piece of paper. If you aint got the skills then you need to be looking elsewhere.

Oh and to get on my soapbox again...

Done that. Got a CV as a Business Analyst, Developer (no call for that one yet!), Junior PM, Project Support and Tester

I guess you are being 'creative' to make it look like you have many years doing each of these roles and forget to mention the other ones. I just hope your 'creativity' does start to border on bare face lie... cause thats dumb. At least keep some semblance of truth on your cv. If you haven't got the skills to cut it doctoring your CV beyond comprehension really isn't the way.

[darmstadt]

Chop the COBOL out of your CV too, it makes you sound ancient (harsh I know) and just keep banging away while working on a plan B. - good luck

Really! Daily via e-mail I get at least 3 COBOL/DB2 jobs and at least 1 phone call a week for COBOL/DB2. For example this weeks call was for a COBOL/DB2 mainframe expert for a 12 month contract in insurance. Admittedly most of them are in Europe (such as the one today for Holland which I suspect is the EPO.) I have to explain that I'm not a COBOL developer but know it from a systems side.

Even though they ask for other skills I would still apply for them. I often apply for contracts which ask for numerous skills yet I may only have a couple.

[singhr]

Really! Daily via e-mail I get at least 3 COBOL/DB2 jobs and at least 1 phone call a week for COBOL/DB2. For example this weeks call was for a COBOL/DB2 mainframe expert for a 12 month contract in insurance. Admittedly most of them are in Europe (such as the one today for Holland which I suspect is the EPO.) I have to explain that I'm not a COBOL developer but know it from a systems side.

Even though they ask for other skills I would still apply for them. I often apply for contracts which ask for numerous skills yet I may only have a couple.

You are right - there are indeed a few COBOL jobs in far flung places featuring on jobserve today - perhaps I was too hasty

[MrP]

You are forgetting why people get contractors in. They are buying in skilled guys with many years in the industry who can hit the ground running and implement best practice blah blah... just getting a qualification then applying for a management role is just useless. You will be going up against Service Delivery/PM's with 10 to 15 years in the industry. You cannot just study for a role and expect to be able to contract off the back of that. It 'may' add to your case to have this but no way will a certificate and a lifetime on DB2 get you a PM or SDM role.

You are selling a skill not a piece of paper. If you aint got the skills then you need to be looking elsewhere.

I agree. I do have some management experience though and have done a junior PM role. Likewise I have worked with many project managers too and I would say that 80% didn't have a clue and needed people like myself to bail them out! I am not pitching for a fully fledged PM role as like you say I do not have years of direct experience so I am looking at more project support roles which are thin on the ground!

I guess you are being 'creative' to make it look like you have many years doing each of these roles and forget to mention the other ones. I just hope your 'creativity' does start to border on bare face lie... cause thats dumb. At least keep some semblance of truth on your cv. If you haven't got the skills to cut it doctoring your CV beyond comprehension really isn't the way.

Not at all. I have more integrity than that. My CV is pretty much the same with the same skills in it but dependent on the role that I am applying for I bring the relevant skills to the front and make sure they're highlighted. In truth I have many years experience in each of the roles I have mentioned which is the point of my post - jack of all trades and master of some but those skills are out of favour at the moment. So do I persevere with applying for team lead/PS roles or acquire some more technical skills - seriously I want to do something positive about it rather than sit on my backside and just hope for an upturn in the market.