[ChainsawSurgery]

Hm, well I'm not going to try and divine the source of your woes here since I'm obviously a stranger who has little context about your life and can only offer broad, general advice, but I will leave you with two thoughts:

> I interview well and am quite easy to deal with on an interpersonal level.

I think most of us know when an interview goes really poorly, but my personal stance towards most interviews is that if I wasn't offered a position after an interview it's because I didn't interview well enough.

Now it may be the case that they had some ridiculous or completely arbitrary standards for the interview, and I may be fine with the fact that the interview didn't go well, but I wouldn't necessarily say I interviewed well if I wasn't offered the position.

I say 'most' because that might happen (I interviewed amazingly well and they didn't pick me for some stupid reason) once or twice, but if it's a consistent pattern than I would start looking at the common denominator.

> It has much less to do with 'me' than it does with a combination of my geographical location, and being a semi-self employed consultant/contractor/whatever they call it anymore, as opposed to having had a regular day job for the last few years.

Again I can't speak for your personal situation or pretend to understand, so take this with a huge grain of salt, but my experience with professional employment (even outside of tech) has been that these are things many companies are willing to overlook for the right candidate.

If it was something they were truly unwilling to budge on, they wouldn't have wasted the time to interview you. You would've been screened out before anyone even picked up the phone to talk to you.

[tfg4k]

I have considered all of this.

Most likely, what few interviews or solicitations for resumes, then interviews that I have had have been from companies who are willing to overlook my crappy resume (again, I made it this far and never had to really write one before) to interview me. What happens after that is anyone's guess. I just do my best, follow the processes the company has in place and just haven't had any luck as of late. Thank you again for all of your input. I realize I need to update my format and rewrite it. Maybe I have been using an unusual style? I'll have to look in to this tonight. [edit: because I didn't know how I accidentally formatted that text.] Oops.

[hluska]

With all due respect, Chainsaw gave you some wonderful advice about your interview ability that you have seemingly chosen to ignore, instead choosing to focus on your resume's shortcomings. Two things:

- first, if this is indicative of how you usually behave, you may in fact be more guilty of smartest-man-in-the-room syndrome than you realize. - second, if you do get interviews, your resume is likely not the problem, but I would still consider how you come across to others. In what I've read of you, I'm sorry, but you're not coming across very well.

[tfg4k]

Again, I appreciate you taking the time to comment. It seems though that some of the "tough love" comments are just beating up on me for whatever reason. It's really not necessary or helpful to anyone.

Yes, Chainsaw did give me some good advice. I thanked him for his candor immediately as well.

Why do you assume his advice was ignored and assume that I am one of those "I'm awesome, why won't people hire me?" types?

I understand that, after getting responses assuming I still did low level end user technical support work for example, I should have been more clear about my little back-story.

That's on me. Maybe I am not coming across well. Even so, comments like these that are full of assumptions are making you come across just as badly.

[hluska]

Here's some more feedback. Your description on your profile here isn't so good. It reads:

about: 31 year old unemployed with 13 years experience. Trying (unsuccessfully) to break in to the IT Sec field. Been hacking and learning security in my free time since I was about sixteen. An enthusiast..

First, remove your age. I can't begin to tell you how unprofessional that makes you look. Second, the entire second sentence makes you look bad - like others have screened you and passed. The fourth sentence doesn't add anything. And finally, you should put in some contact info.

Sorry if I'm coming across a little strong, but I know where you are, I know it sucks and I want to help.

[sanityinc]

Rewritten, not knowing anything more about you than the above:

- Enthusiastic self-taught hacker with 13 years of experience. Currently seeking work in the IT Sec field: drop me an email at xxx@xxx to find out how I can help you.

[tfg4k]

Thank you

[tfg4k]

It's alright. I don't mean to come across as ungrateful for the advice, I have just never posted here before. I slapped that in there just because I had to put something in. I didn't give it any thought.

Not because I am careless or think that I am somehow the "smartest man in the room". I was really intimidated when writing the OP. I have a lot of respect for this site and the people who are regular contributors.

That being said, I think that those of you who have been critical without being constructive have done so, albeit unintentionally, due to your own preconceived ideas and assumptions. Perhaps due to your own negative experiences in the past with people you didn't like in your own careers.

All I can really say when responding to negative comments: "first time caller, long time listener. Sorry about the sloppy OP. I had no idea that it would get noticed, much less be this active."

My description on the profile doesn't look good because I didn't know what to put in it as I have been lurking here for a long time but never posted.

I appreciate you all taking time from your lives to try to contribute. Had I known this OP was going to generate this kind of activity, I would have actually put some thought in to this stuff. Please, don't take that the wrong way. I mean all of this with respect.