How to obtain employment across state lines or international lines (as the case may be)?

Guys and gals this is a perpetual question that comes up a lot. I've had lots of friends internationally who have faced this challenge internationally and have overcome all barriers (culture, language, and others) to obtain meaningful worthwhile employment internationally.

Lately, something else has come up. One of my online friends reported that that he has had trouble obtaining employment across state lines and apparently the he was told outright on at least one occasion that the local candidate would always be selected over the out of state candidate...

Ouch!

Well, I'm here to tell you that this is not always the case. Yes - it is nearly always the case with local recruiters with smaller companies. However, there are many awesome national and international companies that really don't mind and actually seem to thrive on selecting the absolute best available candidate for the job.

I can say I've interviewed and been selected in more than one case. So I know this to be true. I have friends who have overcome insurmountable odds to become the best candidate for the job internationally to obtain the job.

This is reality and not fiction.

How?

First, you'll need a good C.V. aka the resume. Second, you'll need an excellent employment history with verifiable employment skills. Third, you need the skill set that is in demand for the job you are seeking. Let's call this the 3-step winning combo - hey fast food restaurants use a similar combo with a sandwich, fried, and drink. I.T. Works...

1. The resume and interview - I recommend getting as many qualified eyes and opinions as possible. Learn to interview. Yes... LEARN TO INTERVIEW (do it twice if you need to). It's that important.

2. The references - learn to work with your boss. With bosses we need to do a few things - model the good, learn from the bad, and use the boss as a sounding board... Why? He/She is the "Boss" and got there for one good reason or another and the best bosses have several good things to learn from and take with us. Get in early and find out what they are. You need to learn to read the boss. It's a skill that is more of an art. It's very important and key to your own success. Ask yourself what do you like about the boss and what don't you like... Be fair. And if you need improvement in one or more areas what is your boss doing to help you with these areas? Think about it. Most are trying in one way or another. Their success depends on you. And good references come from excellent relationships with your boss. It's called "karma".

3. The skills that kill. Well for this, you should learn what you want to do and then learn to do it and do it well. I once saw some recent CCIE's on Twitter.com chatting and discussing whether they needed to learn Visio... I kid you not... It's for real. However, look at the bright side, at least they were asking. Some folks don't know. Others may not know how to read a schematic or a full set of blueprints for example - anyone think that's not the job of a CCIE? Hmm... Even after I just told you it could be and probably is? Kewl. Mechanical Drawing 101 - and get to it. Project Management and Excel spreadsheets? Yep! It's all there. We are in communications and it is all about protocols - do you read RFC's for fun yet? Have you started comparing the RFC to any given vendor's implementation (aka interpretation) of an RFC yet? Have you found... um... discrepancies yet? If not, maybe you should. I once wrote an article I called "Definition of a CCIE Lab Rat" and if you read it, you might have noticed I referenced an issue I notice on the job whereby a Network Engineer may not spend 110% of his/her time on the CLI. Yep... Imagine that. How many people take courses on Robert's Rules of Order for meetings... and yet how much of our time is consumed in meetings... How about how to organize one's own time... starting with E-mail for example? Hmm... Yep. There's a book on it too. Lots of skills that come to mind. How many of us are familiar with the term "Managing Up? And then live by it too? See there are a lot of skills and not all are on the CLI.

Ok - You have some insight and at least my vantage on the matter at this moment; contact me if you need to discuss things on a more personal level. I help when I can but I work a lot too. :)

Hope this helps.

Darby Weaver