[AusNOG] How can I make myself more employable? What do you, as an employer, want?

[Robert Brockway]

On Wed, 23 Aug 2017, Rory Jones wrote:

> Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I’m going around in 
> circles, and it’s driving me nuts.
>
> I sincerely thank you for your reading, tolerance, and in advance, for 
> any advice.

Hi Rory.  Have you ever looked at taking on ad hoc consulting jobs?  A lot 
of people in IT do this at some point in their career either to get some 
additional experience or to make some extra cash.

The barriers to entry are low.  Register a business name or company, 
domain, etc, so the operation looks professional.  Check out options for 
insurance to see what works for you.  Start looking for work.  I got work 
through a variety of avenues:

* Free listings on FOSS project websites for companies offering commercial 
support for the appm distro, etc.  I'm a Linux/FOSS geek so this was 
natural.

* Networking with people.  Attend events.  Get to know people.  Make sure 
they know you are doing ad hoc consulting and what areas you are working 
in.  Print cards.  Seems like there is always someone wanting to offload a 
client so they can move on to other stuff.

* Hang out in online forums, IRC channels, etc.  I picked up work this way 
many times.  I also handed some out.

* Lots of other ways I've probably forgotten now.

Once you get some happy clients they'll start referring you, and coming 
back to you for more work.

If you start going for bigger projects you can spend a lot of time writing 
quotes and SOWs.  I did.  And you'll either need to outsource bookkeeping 
or do it yourself.  You'll also need to understand business and maketting 
concepts.

You end up acquiring a lot of incidental skills and knowledge that can be 
useful down the road.

For most people this is not a path to riches but it is a good way to get 
experience if other avenues are closed to you and it does bring in some $ 
while you look for a full-time job.

Don't do what some people do and drop their clients suddenly when they 
land their dream job.  If you've made a committment to them, see it 
through, at least to the extent that you properly hand them over to 
another consultant.

Cheers,

Rob