Career suggestions

I used to program industrial applications on DEC machines. I moved to a rural area with limited opportunities, so I worked as a financial consultant and taught MS Office programs part time at the local Community College for about 6 years. I want to get back into development, either as a programmer or as an analyst documenting system requirements. I am willing to move whereever there is work, but my resume isn't attracting any attention.

I am working on a MCAD in VB.NET, but I am wondering if that is the best door opener I can use. I wrote a desktop application in VB 6 last year that used an Access database and SQL, and I am current on Excel, Access. I have a bachelors in business admin.

Any suggestions for what I can do to get my foot back in the door? (Actual money-earning pros respond, please).

Tom

I've still got a Digital VAX 3400 in my server room!

MS SQL Server is much more stronger on a resume. You can get MS SQL Express for free and it already sounds like you are doing .Net - put those two together and you are state-of-the-art as far as MS products.

How about finding a head-hunter (employment agency) that is willing to push you in contract-for-hire type positions? This will help you find out more about where your skills are strongest.

If you are willing to move to CT there could be a position opening at one of my customers sites in the next couple of weeks :)

Actually we have a partner JM site called http://dice.com. I got my first job off of it and it has many many listings throughout the country.

Since your already familiar with VB6, VB.NET is a good choice as compared to C# which positions pay more but is a bit harder to make the transition from VB6, unless you know C++ already.

I used work for one pretty large "head-hunting" company as a consultant so I can tell first hand: these nova days certifications and even BS/MS degree don't help much (many would disagree but I don't care - this is the reality). Although job requirements may show "BS/MS in Computer Science,..." employeers really want exprerienced personal in oppose to PHD holders. Education of course doesn't hurt but also (as I said) doesn't help as much as it used to (unfortunately).
You seems to have good understanding of business plus you have hands on programming experience so if I was you I would try to get business analyst position that requires some programming. Salary range will vary and will depend on location. North East would probably offer somewhere in the mid 80K while Mid West in the mid 50K.
Monster.com, DICE.com, HotJobs.com are one of the best search engines. NY Times is pretty good too but localized so you need to decide where you want to go first I guess.

In any case GOOD LUCK to you.

ps, job market in the North East is very good at this time so you may give it the shot (before summer starts and everybody's on vacation). :)

Szlamany - I have a copy of SQL Server 2000 running on my desktop. I wrote VB6 test programs to open a connection and execute SQL commands, and I used Query Analyzer to poke around with it. It is on my resume as such.

I talked with a headhunter in Tampa this week, and he said his clients want fresh experience so the MCAD might not help much. Regardless, I plan to attempt test 70-306 in a week or two.

Anyway, if there is something in CT I might go if I can make it work. Let me know.

Rhino - I would be happy with an Analyst position, but again, I have no recent experience. Most companies want use case and UML experts, but there are only three UML experts in the world (Jacobson, Booch, Rumbaugh), and they keep changing it so it stays that way. I have read some excellent books on it. I used DFD's, structure charts, and data dictionary specifications before.

Hmm, if you familiar with data dictionary concepts you may want to look at Business Object product for building data warehousing. They also own Crystal Reports now. Both products are very hot in the North East especially BO. And it's not just manufacturing industry that traditionally employed it but also Hedge funds, Brokerage houses, Insurances, Law firms... Everybody wants it.

I agree - this data warehousing thing is getting huge. Even school districts, with the federal NCLB act, must make "data-driven decisions". I'm on committees that help school districts select these product and I gotta say the amount of fledgling companies doing this stuff is surprising - many crossing over from industry...

@Tom951 - if I can get my hands on the job specs I'll forward them to you - and an address/e-mail you can send a resume to. I'm not sure how long they are going to take to move or what they are exactly looking for...