My dad was a CS professor

[freebanana]

But he didn't get the tenure and he ended up going to a tech company in a high position getting like 120k, but then that only lasted about 8 months before there was a mass lay off so he's searching for a job. He said he was lucky getting into the job because the person who hired him wasn't bright, hiring him based on IQ test and the fact that he had a PhD. Anyways he doesn't have much programming experience besides C a long time ago when he worked at a company before he went to graduate school, so he doesn't have much hope being hired as a programmer any time soon, although he is learning.

I suggested getting a truck driver job while preparing himself, but he said if he had trucking on his resume work experience, he would never get hired to the computer jobs. Is this true?

Also do you have any tips on job search for my dad?

[Rashakil Fol]

What kind of company does he want to work at?

> Anyways he doesn't have much programming experience besides C a long time ago

So he should get programming experience by writing some software. (He had 8 months to do it?) The exact specifics of what to do depend on what field he wants to work in.

> I suggested getting a truck driver job while preparing himself,

That would be really lonely.

[freebanana]

Anyway, can anybody answer for this?:

but he said if he had trucking on his resume work experience, he would never get hired to the computer jobs. Is this true?

[freebanana]

What kind of company does he want to work at?

> Anyways he doesn't have much programming experience besides C a long time ago

So he should get programming experience by writing some software. (He had 8 months to do it?) The exact specifics of what to do depend on what field he wants to work in.

> I suggested getting a truck driver job while preparing himself,

That would be really lonely.

The job that he had didn't involve programming, just researching. It was a high position, Technological Architect I think.

[leo002000]

Find more academic work or other teaching all the way.

[freebanana]

Anyway do you think it's true that if you have 'truck driver' on your resume IT people will not hire you? That's my dad's logic but I think it's absurd, you gotta feed the family. Also my dad isn't doing anything while looking for a job. Don't you think it would be more sensible if he got a job as a truck driver (since it's easy to get)first to feed the family and while working, continue to study programming and eventually get a job?

One thing that is subpar about this would be that trucking is one year contract so if he gets a job before the contract is over although he can get out he would not be able to go back because of a bad record in case he had to go back if he's out of work again. I heard that if you get hired as a SE in Cali you don't have to worry about being out of work because if you are fired from one company you can immediately jump to another one nearby.

[Narue]

>Anyway do you think it's true that if you have 'truck driver' on your resume IT people will not hire you?
No, it's not true.

>That's my dad's logic but I think it's absurd
Yes, it is absurd. A gap in one's employment history would be far worse than a job in another field in terms of raising red flags. The former could cause your resume to be automatically rejected. In fact, a job in another field can be a good thing if the employer is smart enough to recognize transferable skills. If you spent two years working the cash register at Wendy's I'd rather know and assume you have people skills than assume you were sitting on your laurels for two years watching The Price is Right.

>I heard that if you get hired as a SE in Cali you don't have to worry about being out of
>work because if you are fired from one company you can immediately jump to another one nearby.
Not taking into account the saturation of the market and competition for jobs in a weak economy? I'm very confident in my abilities, but getting canned right now would make me sweat a little.

[jon.kiparsky]

Which story would he rather tell? "I needed work, so I found work I could do while I studied up to do this" or "I wanted to be in this, so I took the time off and took classes and worked on coding in these various ways so I could be prepared to do this". Either is a good story to tell, if it's true. If I were interviewing him, I would be listening to what he had to say about this period, and what it tells me about the way he handles a difficult position. He might impress me, but the only way he'd do it would be by telling me a story that I thought was a true one.
So should he take a trucking job? If he needs the money to get by, and that's the way to get it, it certainly won't keep someone from hiring him - if he can also show that he's developing himself as a programmer at the same time.

I wouldn't think it's a great idea to take a fixed-term position, though. If he's willing to lie to his current boss - "Sure, boss, I'll stick around for a year" - then he's willing to lie to me. I don't like that a whole lot. I may be wrong, I don't hire people, but that would be a red flag for me.