When I was going through a career shift from engineering to banking, I started contacting recruiters. I cold called them. I literally Googled the names of local recruiting firms. I would call the main phone number and just talk to the person that answered the phone. I was desperate. I was uninformed. I had a junky resume. I was taking bad advice from friends instead of experts.
I didn’t know how to talk to recruiters. I told them the truth. I told my story the way I saw it. I’m an engineer. I’m smart. I work hard. I learn fast. They didn’t care. I told them I needed to find a job. I asked for their help. I didn’t understand who paid the recruiters (news flash: not me). I was a fool.
I have a mechanical engineering degree. I’ve coded in six different development languages and built systems end to end including the design through testing. I’ve been a software programming trainer.
I met with a recruiter who couldn’t have been more than 25 years old. He was just as desperate as me. He was new on the job (as so many recruiters are) and wanted to make a sale. He listened to my story then stopped answering my calls. After much persistence, he finally talked to me again. He abruptly told me that I wasn’t technical enough for these banking jobs. What?!
Thankfully that didn’t stop me. When I finally got into banking, I found most of my colleagues weren’t technical at all. My boss had a history degree. I was plenty technical. I just didn’t know how to sell myself properly with my resume and my story. I was going to the recruiters instead of them coming to me.
I had so much to learn in the world of recruiters and contract work.
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