[SunRescue] Leasing Employees

[Mike Hebel]

>>You know, I wouldn't mind trying a traveling job for a while, if for any
>>reason just to burn the travel bug out of me (constant yearning to drive
>>from Knoxville to Minneapolis...again...the third time...)

My friends and I used to drive Chicago to St. Paul every Easter for the
honor of attending a large alcohol-filled Sci-Fi convention.  It was
actually a treat to travel with friends.  The one that killed the travel bug
for a while was driving to Winnipeg with my wife and my best friend.  Great
trip but _long_, and we only had a day to get up there otherwise we wouldn't
have a place to stay.  95mph on open highway anyone? ;-)

>>My only problem with finding any job, _anywhere_ is that it's hard to even
>>get my foot in the door for an interview when I have nothing to stick on a
>>resume.

Been there and helping a friend get past it.  I was in college for
"Electronics" but was working Pizza and Auto Parts. (No not at the same
store. ;-)  I was lucky enough to get a referral from the head of the
Electronics department at the local college where I was taking the classes.

>>I can build a PC from parts in 15 minutes flat....but no A+
>>got basic networking skills, some say advanced.....no certification
>>got digital logic design training, college level......no degree
>>I can change head gaskets and rebuild trannys....no ASE cert
>>thought myself basic, C, FORTRAN, perl, Unix script, lalala...no proof

A friend of mine is a long-time ASE (almost fully certified) Chrysler Silver
Cert mechanic.  For lots of reasons of his own he doesn't want to do that
any more and is more than passingly interested in computer - he set up his
own Windows/Mac network at home with a little help from me.  (We'll be
putting in a Linux gateway as soon as we can get one built up. ;-)

Anyway he's got similar problems - we don't know where to start him off.
He's good with hardware and because his diagnostic process is so good he can
almost smell hardware problems.  He just doesn't have enough experience or
formal training in anything to allow him to change jobs without losing a lot
of money.

The solution so far is that we're doing home training with him and working
to get him up to speed so that he can either take advanced classes at the
local college or pass things like the A+ certification which will give him
something to get him started working in the field.  I'd appreciate
suggestions though as he wants to be a Network Admin.  (Don't laugh - he
said he wanted to do it because it was a job he thinks he can do and doesn't
involve him having to deal with people a lot. LOL!  I haven't disabused him
of this yet but I may point out to him that Network Support is one of the
fastest roads to Network Admin and indeed are a "horse a piece".)

>>I'm stuck :)

No you're not.  My suggestion is since you know your stuff - take the A+
test to start and then take any other tests you can pass towards
certification.  You might be able to get some good certifications through
just passing the appropriate tests.  There are always options even if we
don't like some of them.

>>hrmm....maybe the 3.5's and 4.0's in the college English courses
>>are trying
>>to tell me I'm attempting the wrong professions.... or I need to
>>clean up my
>>emails :)

I hadn't written a thing in years since being "forced" to write in High
School and College.  Then I had to find a simple stress relief valve.  The
one that presented itself was writing in a Journal about what's going on.
That was several weeks ago and I'm on my third 5 x 3 leather journal and
actually spent $70 for a Rotring 600 model fountain pen to write with.  The
thoughts just keep flowing onto the paper with the ink.

Mike Hebel