Here's the deal...

I have been on multiple interviews for Crystal Reports jobs and even provided powerful samples of my work in CR10, but since I was not certified in Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server or MCSD the answer has been "Thanks, but NO Thanks!" Athough I know I could do the job and do it well.

It's a strange job market out there. I can have 90% of what a company wants and needs and yet they won't take a chance on me. I am figuring that any certifications will at least help me get my foot in more doors.

And maybe, just maybe, if I am really lucky my foot will get caught in someone's door! Or I could always try wearing bigger shoes?

It appears to me that the whole world is either going .NET or PHP/MySQL and Java. Of course there is also a big Oracle contingent out there.

I'd like to focus on Crystal Reports as the primary job, but so far everyone wants me to have more than just Crystal Reports. And for me my years of experience in Visual FoxPro, ASP, VBScript, JavaScript, HTML, and Access doesn't cut it. I don't get it, but my next battle plan is to get certified in one-to-many areas.

Sometimes I don't understand this job market. I was in the top 3 out of 40 programmers at GE, I used to write machine language code and firmware and really heavy duty nuclear physics kinds of scientific programs for the government, but yet I sit here with no job. Go figure.

It does work to have my resume posted on Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder, and Dice, but all I have to show for it is names and contacts and a few interviews from a couple dozen recruiters.

I do have an interview this Friday for a part-time Crystal Reports job in downtown St. Pete so that is better than nothing. And I have another company that calls me as needed to do customer Crystal Reports for them.

I'll keep plugging away. Like the movie, "Something's Gotta' Give!"