Mid-career telecom/managed services pro in PNW here, looking to grow but struggling to get interviews.

Haven't job hunted in years, so feeling out of the loop (DICE.com seems dead!).

What are the most effective job search strategies and platforms for our industry right now?

Any tips for landing interviews and understanding current salary benchmarks are welcome!

 

Current salary benchmarks:

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification makes an average of $105,000 to $112,000 annually in the United States. Salaries typically range between $91,000 and $127,000, depending heavily on experience, specific job title, and geographic location. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
For the Bedford Heights and greater Cleveland/Columbus, Ohio region, the median salary is roughly $103,000 to $104,000, with senior roles climbing above $120,000. [1, 2, 3]

I just happen to be in the Cleveland area.

As to finding a position? Personally I retired 14 years ago but have friends who use assortedhead hunter services. Start with a Google search of "job hunter services". That alone brings up about a dozen job placement services.

Ron

 

You could try one of the more industry-focused job boards instead of LinkedIn and Indeed where you're just going to get lost in pile of random resumes hiring managers get.

Try https://www.dice.com/ or https://mspproven.com/

 

Thank you! I've heard of Dice and I do have MSP experience. I'll try those. Indeed and LinkedIn have become soul crushing.

 

Mid-career telecom/managed services pro in PNW here, looking to grow but struggling to get interviews.

Haven't job hunted in years, so feeling out of the loop (DICE.com seems dead!).

What are the most effective job search strategies and platforms for our industry right now?

Any tips for landing interviews and understanding current salary benchmarks are welcome!

1. Aproach firms directly, search for firms in your locality, visit their website and see if they have a "open positions" or "careers" page then explore that. Create a bookmark section in your browser like "Jobs" so you can accumulate all those firms that are interesting.

2. Depending on what they have, tweak resume to better fit the advertised position, for example you might have some experience of X but rarely use it, but an open position might call for X, elaborate on that experience as opposed to skipping or glossing over it in your resume. Not suggesting dishonesty here either, always be 100% truthful but don't short change yourself.

3. Consider dropping a physically mailed application, cover letter, resume etc, ideally put a name on that, HR head if you can find that out. If you do that you will be like the 1% of applicants that stand out, rather than just another dreary emailer.

4. Don't worry too much about salary initially, get the face to face, you can talk or negotiate later, getting the face to face interview is the goal.

5. You didn't ask for interview advice but I will add, during interview find out their problems, their challenges, what do they struggle with, what keeps them awake at night, if you get them to talk about their problems you are already halfway there and demonstrate an awareness of context and an ability to listen.

By all means throw stuff at Dice and so on, but do not rely on that, consider this a project that must be pursued and Dice are just one tool.