Why dont I get hired ?

[Amn]

Hello all ;)

I dont get hired you see,
I have only one certificate which is not world-popular or especially recogniseable by any means, and only general and high education from Russia...

I have quite a lot of areas in which i always turn out better than those folks that already posess the appropriate positions in a company. Yet those folks have a job (sometimes they really suck at it) and i don't. I never said i am a perfect employee, but i have some relevant years of experience. Also i talk fluent English, always give my fellowmen and kollegues at work creative inspirations, and some times i even have to overtake for them when they simply are stuck. And when i do get the job, it turns out my boss digs me, and really is interested in keeping me.But still...

Lately i finally grew up to the thought that having as many schools and fancy certifications on my resumee would probably improve the matter, but i d like to hear your opinion ;)

Is it the way industry has become to be ?

I really want to look out good in my job search, and not like some guy from suburbans programming at home (which i did also ;).
So in even shorter line: I seek to be potential employee.

Thanks in advance and have a nice day all !

[Simon666]

Also i talk fluent English, always give my fellowmen and kollegues at work creative inspirations Small mistake, maybe? :D Now seriously, I think diplomas are a problem all over Europe and instead of making it better, Bologna/Sorbonne just might make confusion bigger. :( Lousy politicians. :mad: I have no experience myself though, but I think that when you go to another country your diploma is not considered anyway because it simply has no meaning in that other country, there is no way of telling what it is worth. Except maybe if you're from Cambridge or Oxford I don't know.

If you want to be "on the safe side", I think you'll have to search for a job with the government, the jackpot is in this case working for the European Union. If you want to be highly paid, I'ld say bad luck, the economic situation is against you.

[Yves M]

The thing with diplomas is that you have to look at the situation from the employer's point of view. Luxembourg is particularly messy in this respect since we go study in France, Belgium, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Austria... Each country has its diplomas and what can an employer do when he interviews a candidate ?

The obvious thing they do first is to check whether you have a diploma that they know. Say they have been at university in France and know that system and you have been in France too. They will know what your education is worth. But when it's from a country they have no knowledge about then it's not obvious to them whether you have a good education or just spent some time playing around with forms in VB.

When he has a choice between two seemingly similar candidates one of whose background he is more familiar with, the employer will probably chose that one. That's no mystery.

So what can you do ? There are a few options. The best one would be to get a job with a company where they are open for people of different backgrounds. Maybe there is a company which is actually working with Russian and then you would be an extra asset. But you'd have to be lucky and looking hard for that particular company.

The next thing you can do is get the "papers" that say black on white that you know such and such things. This is always useful, since that will outlive the time you work for one company.

And get a nice list of all the different things you have worked on and put together a CV targeted at your skills and experience rather than formal education.

Of course, since you are still young, you could also follow a university course. This does make a big difference in employability.

[Amn]

Originally posted by Simon666
Small mistake, maybe? :D

hehe, forgot to mention i also am fluent in Norwegian, which spells 'collegues' with 'k'. Like in: 'kollegaer'

[Amn]

Hei Yves,
thanks for babbling ;) !


The next thing you can do is get the "papers" that say black on white that you know such and such things. This is always useful, since that will outlive the time you work for one company.

And get a nice list of all the different things you have worked on and put together a CV targeted at your skills and experience rather than formal education.


Well , funny enough THAT part is more than alive and kicking ;) I have them black on white old-skool on paper, and also on Internet which i am proud of. 5-6 pages really. Seems that either folks are too lazy to go type in the URL or just dont care about my CV altogether ;)

yes i am currently a road-runner for higher education. I think Art And Design or CS would do great ;)

[Yves M]

Well, they say that a good CV is one maybe two pages long at most ;)

[Yves M]

Originally posted by Amn
Well , funny enough THAT part is more than alive and kicking ;) I have them black on white old-skool on paper, and also on Internet which i am proud of. 5-6 pages really.

Writing a good CV is really hard, but I guess you know that. The thing is that the human resource office at a company will usually look at most five minutes at a CV. And that's quite a long time. So you really have to condense it.
Seems that either folks are too lazy to go type in the URL or just dont care about my CV altogether ;)

Well, you want something from them (work) and so you should make it easy for them. It's not about them being lazy, it's about you selling yourself while there may be hundreds of other people trying to sell themselves to the same company.

It's a cruel world ;)

[Amn]

Well the core is indeed 2 pages long, its the accessories that add to it a bit. Recommendations, examples of work etc.

Yeah i know, i used to go nuts while writing it (CV), but when it was done, i thought "well now its all about updates baby" ;)

Its relly hard to say whether one wants work more than those who hire him want to give him that work (position). I guess its all about market state. In Norway everybody babbles about need for professionals in IT industry but yet it seems everybody has them hired already when i come into picture... strange really.
But you are right, one should make it really easy for a potential employer to read your CV... perhaps like a warm knife slides into butter, or ... ;)

Cheers..

[Yves M]

Originally posted by Amn
perhaps like a warm knife slides into butter, or ... ;)

Well, if you ever want work to for the russian mafia, just give me a call ;)