IT career women - presenting myself

Author

presenting myself

lillian40

2002-01-02, 12:27 pm

Any opinions from you all will be appreciatied. How should I go about presenting myself in such a way to where I can suggest someone or a business hire or work with me as a interin in gaining real world experience in the computer industry. I have my associate degree but no job in this field and this is what I am hoping for...I am thinking about going to some of the small computer shops in my city as asking them to work with me, but I don'tknow how to present myself..any suggestions?
thanks

Crutch

2002-01-02, 2:12 pm

Approach them like a job interview. Tell them your desires and that you are willing to work as an intern.

lillian40

2002-01-02, 3:41 pm

sounds good enough, but who do I ask concerning this "interview". Do I speak with the first person at the desk or do I ask to speak with a certain person???
Just wandering, I have never done anything like this before, so I am nervous..
any ideas or information will be appreciated.
thanks

Crutch

2002-01-03, 10:19 am

You need to do a little investigating up front. Call and find out who does the hiring and then address your needs to that person. You could do something else. It's called an information interview. You go in and ask lots of questions about the type of work they do and what they look for in hiring a person. You could use this strategy to your advantage. Do the information interview, and if you like what you are hearing, ask how a person could fulfill an intern position.

Pavlov

2002-01-04, 9:55 am

Another great way to get some info is to talk to some of the employees that work there. Cold call the company and tell them you're doing a school project (I find most people want to help someone who has an educational reason behind the cold call). If you get lucky they will transfer you to someone in the company and you can ask them about the folks that provide computer/technical support to them. How do they like them? Are they friendly? Do you find them technically competent? What are some of the most recents problems that led you to call your tech?

You will genuinely be surprised at how much information you can get about a company and the happiness overall with its IT dept. I did this and found out that the primary reason people were calling tech support was software related. Once I knew that when I got the opportunity to talk to someone that does the hiring in IT I sold my software skills as something that they really could capitalize on while teaching me more of the hardware stuff. That's how I got into IT

Now 4 and half years later I am contracting out setting up small start-up business networks and wondering who the hell I think I am?!?

What made me think I could set up a network?

It's all fun!

MensaBoy

2002-01-24, 7:57 pm

quote:
Originally posted by lillian40
I have my associate degree but no job in this field

That's how I started actually with not quite the AA degree, and I found a small business owner who needed an application written in Access. I charged him $1000 (1/3 of his lowest offer) and probably only earned $2/hr working on it ;-). once that was finished I used that as my portfolio and landed an entry level job, and the rest as they say is history.

My advice on landing that first customer:
Do NOT ask for anything especially
a chance
a break
a job
an opportunity

Why? you're asking for someone to GIVE you something. Instead offer your time to solve a problem, reduce costs, save time, eliminate risks, improve their business. If they act like your medication is a little off, tell them you're busting out of this I can't get a job with out experience treadmill, and if they don't want someone who knows what to do who'll work for icewater, then it's their loss. And the next time they see you it'll be $50/hr.

Too shy to bang on doors - your college should help. There are also a trillion charities out there who are dying for volunteers.

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