I want to help put IT professionals in touch, enhance skills, critique resumes, and ultimately find a job. My question to you is "How can you help"?
I have only been here for about 3 years and in the job market for 6 months. It was tough for me to find a job and I've talked to others who went through the same thing.
If you have any "positive" input or guidance for IT Professionals please send it to me. I want to help others and I need your help to be successful. So if you know of any employers hiring for "IT" jobs please send them along. Also, if you have any expertise in writing resumes, critiquing them that would be very helpful.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Free Time
In my free time I like to spend time outdoors, play football with my son, play dolls with my daughter, and go shopping with my wife (seriously it's fun). My all-time-favorite sport is surfing or boogie boarding. Now that I live here in the Ozarks I've had to change my weekend activities. Most weekends I get together with a few Christian guys and we go running, biking, hiking, or even kayaking.
One of the guys from church took me out Jeeping last year to Disney Oklahoma, and now I'm hooked on that too. I'm hoping to buy a Jeep in the near future, but first I need to finish my degree.
We are also part of an awesome church so we spend lots of time being involved there too. We attend services, and help out in the early childhood grade school areas.
Ultimately, the Ozarks is a great place to live, raise kids, and have fun. We are blessed!
One of the guys from church took me out Jeeping last year to Disney Oklahoma, and now I'm hooked on that too. I'm hoping to buy a Jeep in the near future, but first I need to finish my degree.
We are also part of an awesome church so we spend lots of time being involved there too. We attend services, and help out in the early childhood grade school areas.
Ultimately, the Ozarks is a great place to live, raise kids, and have fun. We are blessed!
My Story
Hello,
My name is Nathan Barnes. I am IT Manager with about 15 years experience. I've been in IT management for most of the 15 years and have worked for several different industries: Retail Clothing, Auto Finance, Insurance, Logistics, and Outsourcing. Most of my experience is with the hardware, operations, networking, and help desk support areas.
I started this blog as part of a project at Evangel in the Degree Completion program. As I created the site name it reminded me of hard it was for me to find an IT job here in the Ozarks. So I figured why not set up a site that allows IT professionals help each other: put people in touch, enhance skills, critique resumes, and ultimately find a job.
I'm happily married with 2 wonderful kids. We moved to the Ozarks about 3 years ago to raise our kids. Before moving here we lived in Chicago and San Diego. Both locations had plenty of IT opportunities, both technical and in management. Job posting were more accessible than they are in the Ozarks and recruiters were very common. When we moved here to the Ozarks I worked as an IT Account Manager for a global Outsourcing company. Our customers paid us to be their IT. I figured my job was safe as long as the customers were happy.
Well, back in March of 2008 I was laid off, along with about 300 others. It took my several months of earnestly searching, visiting the career center, applying for all sorts of jobs, and then finally I landed a job with a local health care company. The hardest part was that there just didn't seem to be any jobs. The job I accepted is much more technical than I've been in years, and the pay is far less than I was accustomed to. I am living proof that you can make it on much less than you think, and you can learn to be technical again.
There a some great companies here in the Ozarks, great schools and plenty of talent. The wages are lower, but so is the cost of living. One would think that there is business opportunity in there somewhere...
Please feel free to comment.
My name is Nathan Barnes. I am IT Manager with about 15 years experience. I've been in IT management for most of the 15 years and have worked for several different industries: Retail Clothing, Auto Finance, Insurance, Logistics, and Outsourcing. Most of my experience is with the hardware, operations, networking, and help desk support areas.
I started this blog as part of a project at Evangel in the Degree Completion program. As I created the site name it reminded me of hard it was for me to find an IT job here in the Ozarks. So I figured why not set up a site that allows IT professionals help each other: put people in touch, enhance skills, critique resumes, and ultimately find a job.
I'm happily married with 2 wonderful kids. We moved to the Ozarks about 3 years ago to raise our kids. Before moving here we lived in Chicago and San Diego. Both locations had plenty of IT opportunities, both technical and in management. Job posting were more accessible than they are in the Ozarks and recruiters were very common. When we moved here to the Ozarks I worked as an IT Account Manager for a global Outsourcing company. Our customers paid us to be their IT. I figured my job was safe as long as the customers were happy.
Well, back in March of 2008 I was laid off, along with about 300 others. It took my several months of earnestly searching, visiting the career center, applying for all sorts of jobs, and then finally I landed a job with a local health care company. The hardest part was that there just didn't seem to be any jobs. The job I accepted is much more technical than I've been in years, and the pay is far less than I was accustomed to. I am living proof that you can make it on much less than you think, and you can learn to be technical again.
There a some great companies here in the Ozarks, great schools and plenty of talent. The wages are lower, but so is the cost of living. One would think that there is business opportunity in there somewhere...
Please feel free to comment.
Job Search Links
I have found that there are very few IT jobs published for the Ozarks areas, specifically in Springfield and the surrounding area. The newspaper generally has a couple listings, but they're generally just entry level programmer type jobs. It seems like most IT jobs are placed internally or by word of mouth.
There are several local companies with a fairly large IT staff, but opportunities don't seem to open up very often. I also found a few decent job search sites, but I have never received any (valid) calls after posting my resume. I received better response when going directly to an employers web site and applying from there. The links below are ones I've used, but not all of them have been fruitful.
Job search engines:
www.indeed.com
www.news-leader.com
www.dice.com
www.careerbuilder.com
Local employers:
St. John's: http://www.stjohns.com/jobs/default.aspx
Jack Henry: https://jackhenry.ats.hrsmart.com/cgi-bin/a/searchjobs_quick.cgi
McKesson: http://www.mckesson.com/en_us/McKesson.com/Careers/Careers.html
There are several local companies with a fairly large IT staff, but opportunities don't seem to open up very often. I also found a few decent job search sites, but I have never received any (valid) calls after posting my resume. I received better response when going directly to an employers web site and applying from there. The links below are ones I've used, but not all of them have been fruitful.
Job search engines:
www.indeed.com
www.news-leader.com
www.dice.com
www.careerbuilder.com
Local employers:
St. John's: http://www.stjohns.com/jobs/default.aspx
Jack Henry: https://jackhenry.ats.hrsmart.com/cgi-bin/a/searchjobs_quick.cgi
McKesson: http://www.mckesson.com/en_us/McKesson.com/Careers/Careers.html
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Me with the dog
This is me with our cockier spaniel. She is the best dog we've ever had. She was given to us by someone who moved out of town. Her personality and demeanor are a perfect fit for your family.
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