Comment Re:Generalists Not Wanted (Score 1) 499
I'm a generalist too and having trouble getting anyone to even talk to me.
In my case it's because I've been around long enough (30+ years) to have a lot of different things in my background. This means I'm over qualified to say run a system admin operation but underqualified for some of the rifle-shot very narrow and extremely deep specialized jobs that are available now (e.g. design verification specialist at a semiconductor company).
I quit a geeky boring job at Motorola doing design automation software support to become the VP of Info Systems for a friend's dot com. I got a 30% pay increase but the job only lasted 18 months - the last 6 of which my pay was cut back my old rate.
Even though my old boss at Motorola would love to have me back they have a strict hiring freeze.
Meanwhile my 18 months in dot com land toasted my credibility to do engineering software. BUT... the fact that we didn't actually do any multi-tier enterprise setups and never used Java means I cannot get in the door with the remaining e-commerce operations here!
FWIW... We made our sites work with Perl, Cold Fusion, ASP, and whatever else it took without spending millions on enterprise software - but that means we (and I) were not appropriately buzzword compliant to get past the HR people guarding the gates everywhere now. Strangely if I *had* wasted millions of dollars on Commerce One, Arriba, Vignette or whatever, I would actually be more employable now!
So... now I am living on savings and I'll probably end up starting a new company since at 53 I seem to be too old to get hired by anyone!
In my case it's because I've been around long enough (30+ years) to have a lot of different things in my background. This means I'm over qualified to say run a system admin operation but underqualified for some of the rifle-shot very narrow and extremely deep specialized jobs that are available now (e.g. design verification specialist at a semiconductor company).
I quit a geeky boring job at Motorola doing design automation software support to become the VP of Info Systems for a friend's dot com. I got a 30% pay increase but the job only lasted 18 months - the last 6 of which my pay was cut back my old rate.
Even though my old boss at Motorola would love to have me back they have a strict hiring freeze.
Meanwhile my 18 months in dot com land toasted my credibility to do engineering software. BUT... the fact that we didn't actually do any multi-tier enterprise setups and never used Java means I cannot get in the door with the remaining e-commerce operations here!
FWIW... We made our sites work with Perl, Cold Fusion, ASP, and whatever else it took without spending millions on enterprise software - but that means we (and I) were not appropriately buzzword compliant to get past the HR people guarding the gates everywhere now. Strangely if I *had* wasted millions of dollars on Commerce One, Arriba, Vignette or whatever, I would actually be more employable now!
So... now I am living on savings and I'll probably end up starting a new company since at 53 I seem to be too old to get hired by anyone!
