Hacking in a Slow Job Market

by Kamonra

Hacking in all its forms is a passion.  It takes a thirst for knowledge, the capability to think outside the box, and the ability to persevere regardless of the roadblocks that you come across on your path.  Many have made careers out of their passion for hacking - contracted security auditing, web developers, coders, programmers, software engineers, experts in telephony, etc.  Many that had a chance to build their careers and succeed are also older - beyond their early-to-mid 20s, tipping towards 30, 40, or perhaps even 50.  They're established - they got into the market early and found themselves in stable careers.

So what does the newest generation of hackers do with their passions in a mostly stagnant job market?  Many find jobs in fields they aren't exuberant about - perhaps you work physical labor when you'd rather be compiling code, or waiting tables when you'd prefer to be taking systems apart and putting them back together.  A lot of us are working jobs below our skill level - just to get by.

However, even if you're not in your dream job, you can make the best of a bad situation by finding work in an area you are at least not miserable in, one that can give you skills that will assist you (and your resume) as you move towards your dream career.

For example, let's say you have an exceptional talent for social engineering and you have the capability of leaving your soul at the coat rack when you clock into work (and trust me, these two skills aren't as common as you would expect).  It may not be your career of choice, but you could certainly be employed (and probably excel) as a telemarketer, skip tracer, or first- or third-party collections.  Most companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Dish, DirecTV, Frontier, and Sprint offer these jobs in-house as well as through outsourced American call centers across the country.  Often these jobs offer a full time position, a living wage, benefits, and a bit of reading time between calls.  And since the companies are often competitive over warm bodies (er, I mean agents), they'll try very hard to keep morale up and pander to agents of quality.  You also get access to corporate handbooks, which can help you further your education on the systems you may end up using as your career advances.

Or let's say you love to tinker with computers, machinery, or anything else you can take apart and put back together.  You probably would enjoy working or shadowing at a small mom-and-pop computer store, motor shop, or lawnmower repair business.  Open up the phone book, look up "repair," and flip through the stores.  If they're not a chain, there's a good chance they'd be happy to show you around, let you shadow them, or even learn as an apprentice.  When I was a teen, I had the opportunity to shadow at a motor shop with a plumber and an electrician, so I've had the luck to collect valuable skills regarding large and small machinery, electrical repair, and fixing the shower and toilet!  If it's not a career choice, shadowing can still pay off (even if it's only due to not having to call a repairman to fix the motor in your washing machine).

If you're just a general knowledge collector - one of the few who reads nonfiction books for fun and finds joy in aimlessly surfing Wikipedia - you may find your happiness in a secondhand store or an auction house.  Often, the proprietors of these stores and businesses have a passion for the items they sell - from art pieces, dishware, antique furniture and jewelry - each piece has a history and some fun facts to go along with them.  I enjoyed a few years at an auction house and it gave me valuable information on the things that came through.  (Case in point: don't ever purchase classic Fiestaware in the shade of burnt orange unless you're a collector.  It's mildly radioactive.)  It's also always helpful to have someone around who knows their way around a computer system - and that makes you doubly useful in these businesses.

You may not be making 80k a year as an independent consultant or own your own security auditing company... but in this down-trodden economy, not everyone will.  The least we can do, however, is follow our passion and find a job that makes us happy and challenges us every day - even if our skills are being used in an unorthodox way.