Re: Had a lot of jobs how do I avert that negative aspect

Hi Aaron,
IFFFF you are ever asked this question, simply bring up the fact that as you were job hopping you were skill building to get your resume up to speed; that you were meeting your career objectives you had set for yourself a long time ago (this is also an opportune time to talk about your career goals and how they could fit with this company).

Now that you have meet some of those goals (make sure you enumerate them here), state you are looking for an opp with a stable company were you can put your new-found skills to use. Point out that the last position you were in, if possible, was a long-term FT position w/a company that simply ran out of funding.

The economy is out of YOUR realm of control and no *reasonable* interviewer should hold it against you.

And, yes, during the interview ask the person across from you about where they see their company in five years!

Happy Hunting,
Erik

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Aaron Whyte" <aaronwhyte@hotmail.com> To: securityjobs@securityfocus.com
Subject: Had a lot of jobs – how do I avert that negative aspect Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2003 17:29:32 -0800

Hi,

I am on the job market again.

Do you need help?

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I have been in the security space for a while, and have unfortunately, had a lot of jobs. In my early years, I admit it, I was a jumper. I stayed at a company about 1-2 years, and then moved on to bigger and better opportunities.

As to my last 5 years in the industry, I have had 4 jobs. Two with software companies that both went belly up (not a rarity in the infosec space) and the other 2 with consulting companies that also ran out of money.

Now when I go on interviews, they all say, we like your experience but view my job hoping as a negative.

I have not found a good way to answer that questions. Any ideas?

I just tell them that yes, early on, I was a jumper. But in the last 5 years I had some bad luck. But then again, this is a volatile sector.

Can anyone assist me (and I am sure there are others in the exact same boat) in how I can answer the questions of ‘why have you had so many jobs?’ in a positive manner?

Thanx!

Aaron
aaronwhyte@hotmail.com

Do you need more help?

In addition to our free technical library, Pantek provides professional IT services to companies who utilize Open Source software: Learn more about Pantek's Technical Support offerings Place an order for 24/7/365 Technical Support here Learn more about Pantek, who we are, and what we do Chat with a Live Operator Related securityfocus.com Links bugtraq certification focus-bsd focus-ids focus-ih focus-linux focus-ms focus-sun focus-unix-other focus-virus forensics incidents libnet linux-secnews ms-secnews pen-test secpapers secprog sectools secureshell security-basics securityjobs sf-news vuln-dev webappsec Request more information about Pantek