>For the past year, I have been working for a small company in Nashville, TN that produces vertical market accounting software based on FoxPro. My resume was found on the internet by a recruiter, I was offered a job, and my family relocated to this area. I have enjoyed working for this company. Unfortunately, about six months ago they started to show signs of financial troubles. For the last two months, paychecks have been delayed for several days after the scheduled date. Perhaps I am being naïve to think that most other companies don’t have the same problem of living “check-to-check”. I would be content to ride things out, but although sales appear to be picking up, in reality, the company could fold any day now. So, about a month ago, I thought it would be prudent to at least put my resume on the internet and consider what’s out there.
>
>Surprisingly, I found almost ten postings on the various job sites with either primary or complete emphasis on FoxPro skills. I applied to most of the positions. One month later, I am dumbfounded that very little interest has been shown in my applications and resume by recruiters. For an indication of my skill level, you can see my resume at http://resumes.dice.com/joelleach (I would appreciate any recommendations). For example, I have applied to two positions and spoken directly to a recruiter with RHIC about my skills. For one of the jobs, I already possess the necessary skills, and the other requests some skills I would need to learn, but is still primarily based in VFP. His latest response was “At this time we are still assessing the market and when opportunities that involve your skillset come up, I will be in touch with you.” In the meantime, both jobs remain posted on the web.
>
>I just don’t get it. I feel like I am missing something. I know I qualify for these positions, but am not getting any requests for interviews, and barely any interest from recruiters. Maybe I am being too impatient since it has been only a month. I have also heard that sometimes recruiters will post “fake” job listings in order to get your resume into their database. Supposedly, the rule used to be that for each posting on the internet, there were several positions available that are not posted. I don’t know if the rule applies anymore.
>
>I must admit that I do not have a college degree, but only vocational/technical education. However, I rarely see a job posting mentioning this as a requirement, and usually has “or equivalent experience” beside it.
>
>At this point, I have three options:
>1) Stay with my current job and hope that they will still be there tomorrow.
>2) Concentrate my studies on other technologies (VB, ASP, Java, Oracle) in order to widen my potential opportunities
>3) Become an independent consultant. I am seriously considering this option, although I will have to learn the ropes. There are several contract positions posted on the web, provided they aren’t fake as well.
>
> I would very much appreciate any thoughts or suggestions that you have, especially in regards to contract work. Is this a good or bad time to become an independent consultant? Is there room in the market for another one? Does this require a lot of travel resulting in time away from the family?
>
>Thanks in advance for your responses. If you happen to know of any job leads in the Nashville area, please feel free to respond to my email address: joel-leach@home.com

Another thing to add to this is that alot of consulting companies just 'fish' for canidates for 'potential' contracts. I have come across this alot in different parts of the country. The consulting firms will get the idea that a client 'might' want to hire and then the consulting firm will put out a general call for a skill set with no real requirement pending from the client. You are then on hold until the actual requirement comes in. It is all a game you have to play.