As I read the letter from Bob Justice on the difficulties he has faced finding an IT job (Join the job club, letters.computing.co.uk), my first thought was: “I could have written that.”
I was made redundant in June 2008 but, unlike the letter writer, had a little bit of luck when my local university gave me a one-year, part-time contract. The people I work with have been great, but my year is almost at an end and the university does not have the budget to renew my contract. Being part time gave me a chance to secure the full-time job I was after – or so I thought. But here I am, two weeks from the end of my contract and how many interviews have I had in the year? Absolutely none. I have applied for more than 100 jobs, had plenty of phone calls from agencies, but after the initial call, I have heard nothing. The agent disappears off the face of the earth, they are never able to speak to me when I call about progress and no one ever answers my emails.
I have two theories about this problem. The first is that a recruitment agent submits my CV and the potential employer looks at my experience and guesses I am older than they are.
If they employed me, I would become a threat, undermine their authority and expect a salary larger than they want to pay. So they throw away my CV and employ someone younger and cheaper, who has less experience.
Theory two: the agent looks at my CV and it is not an exact match so it is thrown away. Because the agent only provides people and is not an IT expert (although some I have spoken to in the past year think they are), they work on the exact-match theory. If they knew what they were doing, they would know that an experienced programmer adapts to their circumstances and picks up new skills easily because their experience gives them the basic building blocks necessary to do so.
I am in this industry because I enjoy the work. I am not in it for the money. Provided I can pay my bills at the end of the month with a little to spare, I am happy. So give me a chance.
Patrick Hobb-Chambers
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