Job help required

[gab1982]

Hi all
I am new here, glad I came across this forum, I am in a bit of a pickle, I have petit-mal and had convulsions when I was younger, I am a web developer by trade however my problem is in my work we mostly have to stay behind until its done unless i get in the right company and in the past that has affected me, i have had to work weekends, nights etc in addition to the 8hrs of a normal work day, i start shaking though and last year 2 of my closest relatives died after i lost my job, it put me in a traumatic state and when i finally found a job in yet another design agency i couldn't concentrate.

I have done web development for 10 years so know it pretty well and I used to like it but now I hate it because of what it keeps doing to me, i cannot drive either so cannot really freelance as business has dried up on that front for me although i used to it never brought in enough money, prior to working at the last design agency i worked at a college on a contract here in the UK, it was great for my epilepsy the times where do your core hours and go home although i tend to push myself to do that bit more because i feel it should be achieved and it shows loyalty.

Another issue is that companies don't care about loyalty not even if i put my health at risk and i find myself jobless, been jobless in this recession has made me come home for the 3rd time now to my parents but this time i searched loads and waited it out and as such i have a pain in my side due to lack of nutrition, i can't let it happen again, it was a terrifying time for me to go through.

I have a degree in computer science and have a background in computers right back to when i was at college in 2001. My GCSE's aren't great so i pushed myself at college and did A level IT and was proud of my achievement (my family where too as they didn't think I would get this far, as I am a little slower at processing information), i have aspergers syndrome too and i like being around people, i pretty much don't want a dead end job but im 27 and 28 in december and have been unemployed for a year now, i live in a rural area, IT jobs i can do in other areas other than web require a car due to their rural location so i get put to the bottom of the pile, surely i cannot be the only one in this situation and what do others do in the same situation?

Any jobs i do try and take even in IT but not web based i am told im over qualified too which is annoying. I really want to grow in a job which won't cause me to blink, shake or worse (I am sure others feel the same way I do).

thanks
Graham

[RobinN]

My oldest son has no health issues (other than being diagnosed at 16 with high functioning aspergers), but he does a lot of his IT work from home remotely. Could you set up a business from home? He still interacts with his clients, usually via skype or phone. He charges by the hour, so I see that this is limited, however, with a creative mind it always leaves room for alternative ideas.

[Rae1889]

Try signing on with google. They are always looking for web development from home.

[douglas]

Any jobs i do try and take even in IT but not web based i am told im over qualified too which is annoying. I really want to grow in a job which won't cause me to blink, shake or worse (I am sure others feel the same way I do).

No such thing as being over qualified. Everyone wants a good deal. its just a excuse they are giving you because they don't want to hire you. some of it is out of your control and you dont need to concern yourself about it. some of it is within your control. maybe they dont want to pay you what you want? maybe they need specific skills you dont have? maybe you led on that you have a condition?

I am a senior IT guy. will try to help a bit.

you should be aware of this. the IT services industry (you are in services -- not in new technologies!!) is going through a very fast paced consolidation and becoming a commodity. remote working, virtualization and mass ISP hardware upgrades are the main catalysis for that. what that means is mass scale job role consolidations. meaning the job roles are becoming fuzzy and multiple hat roles unless you are very specialized in what you do. web design, tech support and sysadmin are all services and not specialzied functions. they are dime a dozen roles.

so, if you are a web designer, you could also expect to be the required to be the A/V web multi media role, know database technology (especially web based db's) and so on. even level 1 / 2 tech support in some cases,

the reat thing about the WWW and the competition amongst the vendors is that they give away alot of product training away for free on their sites. same goes for rapidshare sites and so on. instead of downloading movies and music, you also have a slew of training that has been dumped on the torrent sites. more than enough to get you prepared. pm me if you have some specific questions.

but, because of your condition, you need to be very selective of the employer you attach yourself to. you need to find one with a strong, powerful and established HR depart and strong policies protecting staff with medical conditions. you dont want to get into a company where they will drop you like the hot potato the moment they get a hint of your condition. (it happens!)

even if it means taking a pay cut and job role cut. you need the protection more than the pay.

hope that helps.

[gab1982]

Thanks for the other peoples comments, Douglas yours was usefull, yeah I have seen that for a while, the only place where i loved to work was a college and so i have tried to get in other colleges where they have a good HR department it seems no one is hiring here where i live in the public sector and the colleges i did try told me i was over qualified and they didn't want me to go elsewhere if they trained me up, saying i have a condition is a hard issue as if i don't and i have a fit at work then the company won't know what to do and so im usually upfront (some say too much), i abide by good ethics under the DDA they cannot employ me because I have a condition though, although they won't tell me that of course.

What kindoff role do you suggest I do which isn't fuzzy, i used to be really good at what i did but like you say roles get merged designer has to do development work, even seo work. I know some XHTML/ CSS, Adobe Suite, MySQL some PHP but not to commercial standards as i have built my own, my xhtml/ css is good, i desperately want to change so im never going to be in this issue again as i have to keep coming home, companies have never asked me if im willing to when they get hit hard they seem to just say goodbye which is frustrating.

[douglas]

the first thing is regarding your condition. it's not good to be upfront with employers who dont know you.

next time you are out, look around you sometimes. you dont know what conditions other people around have. they might have a heart condition and they take meds for it. they might have a blood preassure condition and they takes meds for it. whatever it is, they have no obligation to reveal to you what their condition is and you have no right to ask them what they have.

as far as employers go, they only have a right to ask if it's directly related to the job scope and description. so, unless your job is to climb on roofs or skyscrapers or drive planes -- your seizure condition has nothing to do with the job you are doing. i am sure there are other examples and my analogy is not the best, but i think you get my drift. but keep that in mind.

regarding technology jobs. its a hard market and its not getting easier. i am not a web expert, but from what i have been seeing, there are a lot of CMS migrations going on all over the place. maybe focus on CMS and the underlying technologies. php, sql variants, drupal, plone e.t.c.

it's also good to keep an open mind. just because you are a web guy does not mean that you have to focus on web jobs. the skills are transferable to other areas. user computer training. web training. HR recuiter agent for HR agencies looking for web designers. documentaion writing. website interface testing.

if you adjust your perspective, you open up the breadth of jobs you can apply for.