CABL Forum - Re: I just have a question for the old In House Da

Hi frame relay,
I know how you feel. I have been in cable for over 20 years, mostly as chief tech or headend tech. From 99-03 I ran a couple small systems up in Washington. My group of systems (w/3 other techs, 2 systems per) was put up for sale because they were too far from the core area. My boss quit right away. His replacement was a total prick and I got fired for chicken s*** reasons.

So I was in the job market. I worked for a friend that was starting a woodworking bussiness for a while. It is not what I want to do but I did it to help him out. I tryed to get back into cable last May-June. I sent out resume's and applied on line for over 150 positions. I applied for just about any job I would be willing to do, even some rather low level positions. Out of all of them I only got like 3 phone interviews. None of them panned out. They were not that great of positions anyway. So I gave up for a while. I felt dissapointed that with all of my experience and training (I have tons of certificates) I was being looked over.

Then last December after Christmas I decided to start trying to get back into cable again. I initialy hit all the cable web sites and filled out on line applications (including my resume on them). I only applied for about 50 positions. Within a week my phone was ringing off the hook, unlike June. In less than a month later I had a new job as Chief Engineer / General Manager for a single system operator. It's kind of a small system with only 4500 subs, but we do have fiber and cable modems for internet access. I have 16 people under me and they are a great crew. I couldn't have asked for a better job. My boss (system owner) gives me total controll of system operations and is a real supportive and nice guy.

I can't understand why I got virtually no response in May-June and got a lot of responses in Dec-Jan. I didn't do anything different. Perhaps God just wanted it that way. So I would say just be patient. Just after I accepted this position I got Two other very good offers. And remember it all happened in one months time, this time.

One thing I must say about job hunting these days is the internet make it so much easier and cheaper. Just to send out 150 applications the old way would cost almost a hundred bucks. Now you can do it for free (99.5% of the time,some still want snail-mail apps.). Some are real easy (Cox,Comcast,Time Warner) and you only have to fill out an app. once, then you just select whitch jobs you want to apply for as they are posted. I would hit all the sites twice a week. Others are kind of a pain in the neck like Charter where you have to fill out each app. individually, sometimes taking 20min. each. Then there are the few remaining small companys where you are better off e-mailing resume's. I also signed on to americas job bank and career builders.com. I would do sorts for cable and technical jobs. There are quite a few listed nationwide. And the site I got this job at was Broadband Career Builders Net. or Broadband Career Seekers Net, I can't remember exactly.

A little bit of advice too. Use cover letters customized for each job, not generic ones. Nothing fancy but let the potential employers know you are interested in that specific job.

Anyway, be patient. Eventually you will find a good job again.

Good luck,
Chad

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Re: I just have a question for the old In House Da