Week 3 still unemployed

Still no offers

Elon still hasn’t called me yet, or neither has RGNext but I did get contacted from the ByLight recruiter. This person was extremely helpful and gave me a few great pointers. Some of the pointers suggested to me are s follows the resume shouldn’t be some fancy design, the resumes shouldn’t have crazy fonts stick to the basics and also the resume shouldn’t be colored. The reason for these suggestion is that many companies have a program that researches the resumes and if the resume has any of the above items in it the program may just discard the resume.

So to ByLight

After the above suggestions, she wanted me to fix my resume and resubmit it to her so she could pass it on the Hiring director. I was then contacted by their Security Officer who sent me instruction and forms to fill out. The forms are to conduct a background check, this position is for a Help Desk Specialist position. The great part about this position is they will get me experience and also grant me Top Secret Security Clearance, so I’m am interested.

The security forms she needed me to send back were my basic information like history, social security, driver license number and other questions. The strange part about this process was she wanted me to zip and encrypt the files then send two emails. The 1st is the encrypted files and the other was the password to decrypt the file. I submitted both of them now I will wait and see again…..

Another Interesting Suggestion

When I was talking to the recruiter I made a comment about putting a suit on for an interview. She suggested that many companies would prefer if I didn’t show up to interviews in a suit and attend the interview in a more business casual attire.

Week 1

Civilian Applications

Now that I had I had put together both types of my resumes I can start filling out applications. I have an end goal of getting into cyber security. After reading the requirements for the jobs I would like to apply to, they want experience. Here lies the problem, how am I suppose to have experience in a new career field when its a new career field.

I do have one thing going for me, my wife is a in the Air Force and we are located at Vandenberg Space Force base.I get preference for jobs on base due to being a spouse of an Active Duty military member. This base has a lot of positions for people with Computer Science degrees but many of the positions here are looking for people who have had experience. My current landlord works on base and told me to just apply even though I don’t have experience or haven’t graduated yet.

So this is where I am and I have started to apply for positions. I applied to two jobs at SpaceX, Elon doesn’t know it yet but we are destined to become besties, the position I applied to was a IT Sys Admin and Sys Analyst. I’ve also applied to RGNext to their Pre-Flight Analyst position which designs the screens for the rocket launches, this would be pretty cool. There was a new grad position I did find that was for Software Engineer at L3 Harris Technologies. The last job I applied to on LinkedIn was a Help-Desk Specialist at ByLight. My ideal job would be a GS position on base, to get a GS position you would need to apply for jobs through the USAJOBS site.

Government Applications

I searched through the USAJOBS site and found a few positions that I meet the basic requirements for. The application process on this site is a lot different then applying for civilian jobs. USAJOBS‘s application process is a few more steps. Along with the submission of a lengthy government resume, you are required to fill of a questionnaire and submit transcripts. If you fail to meet all the requirement your application will just be thrown out. You application will never get pulled to move to the next step of the process. Before you hit the submit button make sure you have everything needed to apply. If you are rejected you wont be allowed a second chance to try again.

The one position that I wanted to apply to required a Computer Science degree and technically I have not graduated yet. I’ll apply after the fall quarter, the other position I did find required a degree and needed 20 credit hours of Computer Science classes, I did meet these requirements.The positions title is Information Technology Specialist and is located at many military bases. This is a good start now we wait and see if we get any response, if not I’ll keep applying. The saying goes shooters shoot and I’ll just keep shooting .

Now We Wait

So I guess the first step in trying to get a new career field has been taken. This blog may be all about how not to try to get a job or how to get a job. I guess the ending will right itself in due time. Wish me luck.