Still have my current job, but there are so many red flags (with the company as a whole) that I want to jump ship. Been here 1.5 years so far.

All the job listings I’m interested in either require 5+ years of experience, a lot of IT certifications or would be a step down in my opinion.

Be a math tutor

It's difficult because all they have to judge you on is the resume you send them. They have no idea about how good or bad you are at your job. So they ask for things that don't really matter thinking it will help them figure out if you know what you're doing or not.

Anyway it ****ing sucks but it is what it is, hiring is broken, finding jobs is ****ty. All you can do is apply to everything in sight. Shotgun approach, aim to apply to 200 jobs a week (40 jobs a day) and you should be able to find something in a couple weeks.

I know some people apply to like 10 jobs dont get a call and then mope about it, it's insane... they put in 0 effort.

Now imagine how easy it would have been if you had some bigshot uncle and politician references. Or you were a member of the tribe.

I rememver applying for a job and being offered a position some 1+ year after. Uwotm8. Wasn't even in the same city anymore.

How long have you been working in the industry? You mention being in the current job for 1.5 years, haven't you earned any certifications or some credits towards a degree or something throughout? It's ideal to try and keep "leveling up" in the certs/degrees area over time, even when you're comfortable at your job, just to stay marketable. Never know if you'll encounter some bogus job loss or, as you've already self-identified from the OP, have a crisis mode desperation to leave.

From the word choice you use in OP, it sounds like it's something that has been building up overtime. I mean it's not like you'd just randomly wake up one day and have a colossal shift of opinion and suddenly want to dip lol.

How much have you got in savings/non-retirement-investments/liquid? If it's enough to cover CoL for a couple of years, and you're literally feeling some extreme situations, you might just want to put in your 2 weeks and spend some time focusing on yourself (bare in mind gaps in work suck and make employers inquisitive if the gaps are long).

If you're just annoyed and can put up with it, I'd stay in the job, and try to focus more of your free time towards what you've already been doing... job hunting... mixed with studying for a certification. Try not to allow yourself to place too much emotion at work, since you're actively trying to leave anyways. Once you get an actual offer you're happy with, that's when I'd probably quit (again, unless there's some extreme situations).

Last thoughts, leverage connections. Literally every single job I've had in my life (and, coincidentally, including the one I'm currently interviewing for) so far has involved a friend, former coworker, or similar, vetting for me to the recruiter/manager that I'm a good worker and dependable. Ask yourself who from your industry has landed a good gig you might be interested in, and hit them up, perhaps even through LinkedIn if you don't have them added on your normal social media / phone.

Lol similar thing happened to me. Applied to a german translator position on 2019 and then received a phonecall from them 2020 December.

This need a good resume

just put down you worked at google or some other big name company.

Then when they ask for references you give them the number of your burner phone and answer it in a fake voice and say oh yeah he worked for me and was the best employee ever.

I did this and now make 500k a year managing these nerds doing IT crap. They probably realize i have no idea what im doing but theyre too beta to call me out on it. I just yell at them and say finish faster

I do agree that leveraging connections can work... but I will say this, every single job I've ever had in last 10 years I've got by applying to it and going through normal process. That includes my current one where I make 180k a year.

I just want to point that out because lots of people think you can't find a job through normal means.. you absolutely can but I literally applied to probably over 1000 jobs before I got that one.

I am currently looking again and I've applied to probably 150 jobs and I've gotten 4 phone/zoom interviews so far. I'll probably have to apply to another couple hundred before I find something that is a mutual match... but some people just don't put in the work and don't apply to enough jobs.

Not to the point where I feel like I need to quit ASAP, just some big company changes and rumors of layoffs (it’s a big company so there’s still a good chance I won’t even be impacted), but other reasons as well.

I have a bachelors in the field and could probably get my CCNA if I studied, but I’m not really looking for a networking job but rather system/cloud engineering. I plan on working towards my Security+ (should be fairly simple) just because that seems like a standard requirement for jobs that require a a S/TS security clearance.

Probably legit would work. Last job I applied to I interviewed with CFO for a technical position because they outsourced their IT they had 0 subject matter experts in house. I literally could have done what you said and still got hired.

Most jobs I’m applying for require a security clearance so this would never work, nor would I stoop to this on a moral level.

There was literally a woman in Britain's NHS who apparently lied her way into some senior Hospital manager role. It took a long time to bust her because managers don't do anything except "supervise", lol.


Other times a common fraud is people buying fake Degrees, putting them on resumes and employers not even checking if they're legit schools or not. They busted Professors at colleges teaching with fake Master's / fake PhDs.

Tell me about it. Been at the same company for over 10 years now. I am half-heartedly looking for other, more fulfilling jobs, but they all seem to require experience I don't have and cannot prove (unless you are a very good bullchitter, you will get found out if you fib).

Sure, there are more basic jobs for a more basic wage, but I don't want to leave a cruiser to step onto a yacht.

At least I have a employment currently, which is better than a lot of people.

It's not the most fun thing. Thankfully I haven't even had to interview for my last 4 IT jobs SRS

I've never had anyone verify any of my degrees or certifications. I have spent 150k on them... could have just lied. I do know some employers will verify them though.

What do you do and what jobs are you looking for?

I have lots of IT certs/experience and can maybe give some guidance

Oh, I read above. I’m a sys engineer. Sec+ is a huge fukin waste unless you specifically want to work under a govt contract (can pay okay, but mostly chit jobs).

I’d recommend CCNA, VMware VCP, AWS, Splunk, Puppet, Terraform, RedHat etc certs. Much more valuable skills. Even MCSA or Azure certs are good if you want to narrow your focus to Microsoft shops (for some reason).

So get the experience and certs...

Putting in 200 jobs a week is the sign of a desperate ******* with a WEAK resume. And Im not talking about experience or certs. I get callbacks on jobs I apply for 70% of the time. If you have a decent resume and somewhat decent skillset you shouldnt have to do this.

chit is chit on my end. I'm mostly bumming the system until I finish school (few more months) and a connection I had at my previous employer told me they are likely going to be hiring around that time. Applying for chit jobs I'm unqualified for so I can collect unemployment in the meantime because whytf not. Most of the openings around here are the ones you see week after week for the same jobs that require 4 year degree + specialized certs and pay a whopping $45k/year. OK cool so I need more experience to make less money. Nice.

If you really are getting callbacks at 70% rate you aren't applying to advanced enough positions. You are applying to jobs below where you should be. Why not set your sights a little higher? Are you afraid of the rejection? You will never get any growth. If you aren't getting rejected at a high enough rate it's because you're aiming too low.

And seriously I don't mean that as an insult.. but you probably are too qualified for what you are applying for, you should try to get something that pays better, you probably would get it.

plan on being a otr trucker, minimum requirements, job security rest of my life pretty much lol. and no way it's going to be FULLY automated any time soon look at how far regular self driving is now. could careless about the loneliness aspect

Yeah sec+ seems like a waste of money but should be quick and easy to get and it seems Baseline for a lot of jobs. I want to get the AWS cert next as I feel that one has the most value, then maybe the RHEL certs long term.I’m a chit driver so could never drive a big truck regularly without wrecking it.