I think by now, most of my friends and family know that I am finally working again. It’s been a very long haul of more than a year. I sent out thousands of resumes, spoke to countless recruiters and went to many interviews. A number of the interviews were very positive but nothing came from there. Yesterday I read an article in the New York Times that talks about the fact that many companies are not only discriminating against unemployed people by not hiring them, but they are actually advertising this. Ads on job boards specifically state that the applicants need to be currently (or recently) employed! It’s pretty crazy and I think clearly unfair (and hopefully illegal!)
I am not sure why employers are doing this. It is possible that for some, they believe that people out of work will have lost skills or missed the opportunities to leran new or updated skills. This is possible, but I know that when I was not working I was doing my best to keep up with new technologies and keep myself ready for an eventual new job. Plus many of these jobs were lower-skilled where this excuse makes little sense.
I also wonder (based on a column by the same author of the aforementioned article) if this is bad for the employers. Jobs lost last year were mostly due to the recession. Those people are highly skilled but lost their jobs due to financial issues. Today (when layoffs are low) people loosing a job are probably doing so because they were incompetent in their job. Those are the people who employers will look at when searching!
Well, now that that is off of my chest, I will say that I am very happy to be working and I think I have found a good job. I am working for Tek Systems, a very large IT consulting firm. My permanent placement is at FDNY and my job title is Lead Platforms Engineer. My job is to work on different server and network projects for the New York Fire Department. I have a few big projects now so I am sure the job will not be boring.
FDNY headquaters is in Brooklyn, but just over the river from Manhattan. The complex here is called MetroTech and it is a very nice office complex. Lots of park space and tons of places to eat.
Now that things are more stable, I hope to start blogging again (I know I have said that many times, but this time I am going to try). In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a great summer, and please let me hear from you!
Enjoy!