It is difficult but not impossible to make non-documented experience
and skills count for you.
You need to try smaller companies as you say, where you will speak
with an engineer and not just a form filling robot. Definitely avoid
any general purpose recruitment agents, they are only wasting your
time.
Someone has to take a risk to employ you despite the missing
paperwork, you must make them confident that it is worth it.
Demand reasonable pay, you can't expect to get as much as someone with
a degree, but if you bring more to the job than your paperwork says
you deserve more in return.
Anyway for you personally this advise is useless now, since you will
have all the paperwork an employer can dream of ;-)
I don't know when you want to retire, but it will probably be longer
than most young employees seem to stay in one company these days. Your
potential employer ought to consider that.
ST
On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 5:20 PM, Steve <alienrelics@...> wrote:
> From the perspective of someone who has been looking/working without
> a degree, all the HR departments I've interacted with are not
> interested in even considering someone without that official
> paperwork. With few exceptions, I've ended up working in one-man TV
> shops, because then the person interviewing me can do the job, and so
> can tell if I know what I'm talking about.
>
> Two exceptions, I had a personal recommendation from a friend who
> worked there. The third exception, I was hired into a very low-skill
> level position with the intention to move me into R&D after about 9
> months, and I'm sure they were checking me out to make sure I was
> what I seemed. Unfortunately the corporation that had bought it out
> three years before had other plans and they closed the factory.
>
> Fortunately, that made me eligible for Displaced Worker Retraining,
> which I hadn't even known existed, so I get up to 2 years of
> schooling paid for, with a bit extra to help pay for books and
> supplies. Thank the great spaghetti monster for Amazon's used book
> sellers!
>
> I'm pushing 50. It is my intention to get as much as I can out of
> school and get good scores from all my instructors. So I'm often
> there an hour before class starts, I am taking additional classes not
> required in my course (microcontrollers in assembler and C, for
> example), finally getting a CET Associate and Journeyman (preferably
> at least two) and the GROL, and I started a club that is building a
> CNC mill that I'm designing.
>
> I want to be impressive enough that potential employers won't even be
> thinking about my age.
>
> Steve Greenfield
>
>
>