Anyone had any luck finding jobs requiring general computer knowledge

might want to post your list of skills (or better yet a resume), but generally employers will look for some sort of certification rather than take the time to train you themselves, or perhaps just sell yourself as a web designer (do you have a website to show off your skills? link to it?)

where is your location ? state, city ?

Quote from slapshot136 : might want to post your list of skills (or better yet a resume), but generally employers will look for some sort of certification rather than take the time to train you themselves, or perhaps just sell yourself as a web designer (do you have a website to show off your skills? link to it?)

I wasn't sure this was the right place to post a resume. I reserved a domain name and made a web site once to show off my skills, using at different times Drupal and then Wordpress, but it did not result in any job offers, and after a year I took it down to save money. It was just a typical web site with nothing fancy like Flash. I had scans of recommendation letters, my resume, and several pages of introduction. It probably didn't hurt, but I didn't feel it was a worthwhile investment, as no one ever mentioned it when they called me. Probably, people assumed I paid someone to do all the work for me. Just because one has a web site does not mean one did all the work, after all.

I'm in a small Southern town which does not have much in the way of opportunity for people with computer skills. However, I worked as a senior application programmer for the better part of a decade. It seems as though no one is impressed by that sort of thing. What is needed to get any type of job these days is recent verifiable corporate experience in an in-demand language or niche. That is why I am looking for work via the Internet. I know that there are a lot of web site admins that want to throw content up on the web, but need the content proofread, altered in some way or converted from one format to another. That is the sort of thing I've done for years using various tools.

I would look into healthcare. Contact some local hospitals and ask them if they need computer help.

Computer knowledge is crying need for finding a job.some times some job has not related to computer and pay a good salary.Now-a-days most of the work is computer based so we should be a general knowledge about computer.

A lot of people are decent with computers, I dont know how much 'programming' you know or how well you can code a site, but I would suggest getting certifications on anything you can. For example A+, easy cert to get and pretty cheap- with just an A+ and decent hardware/software knowledge you can become a computer technician for a repair shop or free lance through the newspaper.

Offer a local service for teaching older people how to use computers, smart phones, tablets, etc. Trust me, people fork over $1000 bucks for a new device and dont know where to begin or how to get the most out of their purchase.

The computer industry has suffered from the same disease that many industries have in the past 2 decades, namely outsourcing. General computer knowledge is not worth a whole lot when larger corps can go to Bombay and hire people who work for $10 an hour and not have to pay any benefits to boot. Sure you usually get what you pay for, but you basically can't compete against the corporate mind set of putting all programmers in the same bucket just like you might do with all paper delivery kids.

You often hear how there are not enough computer skilled people to fill all the jobs. What they really mean is there are not enough who are willing to work for next to nothing. Oh we want a developer with 10 years experience, knows MSVS, C++, VB, SQL, has a masters degree and are offering $45000 a year to start. Sure in the major population areas there are high paying jobs, but the competiition for those is fierce. And often they require management skills, specialize bsiness knowledge and\or connections. it is not like we are building anything in this county anymore outside of debt, so there are no new manufacturing jobs being created which create wealth nor a need for more developers as such to control production equipment or product sales, inventory, invoicing or the like.

There is a reason you do not usually see 60+ year old developers. Most either move on to management or are forced out. Companies will not openly admit it, but it is effectively wage and age discrimination as they hire 5+ offshore guys to replace person X and save some money from their bottom line. Of course it does not really work out that way in reality as you can hire 100 fools to replace one guy that really knows his stuff and will still get less done, but upper management tends to be bean counters and simply does not care.

Your best bet imo is to consult to small outfits on the side. If you have the skills and can market yourself, you can try to make ends meat that way. I would not recommend going for any training or certification on your own dime. Not worth the cost and there are better areas to get training in with better job prospects or start a business on your own and go take some business courses imo.

How are your Drupal skills? We are always looking for GOOD Drupal people. Shit Drupal people are a dime a dozen. So if you once went to GoDaddy and built a basic website with Drupal, you are probably not going to work out. We are looking for advanced skills with module development and total integration with social networking type stuff and template development. You MUST have a college degree though (any 4 year or better will suffice). How about Cloud experience? Drupal people that know the product soup to nuts are in pretty high demand right now. If you had what we are looking for you'd probably start at least $80k plus. You'd need to relocate of course. Move to where the jobs are.

get some IT certifications and get into IT. You probably won't get in without certifications. You mentioned html and CSS, with creativity you can build websites, that's about it.

What other languages do you know? Software engineering is in demand in some places, my employer in particular.

Post a list of your skills, and experience.

Setup a complete profile on Linkedin. Make sure the main profile splash page would sell your talents to a stranger. Then join groups within your expertise, post information, and answer questions. Been active in the group threads will get you noticed by HR people and recruiters. At the same time you can connect with recruiters specific to your field.
Doing all the above you should have good response and inquires within in a month.

I think the real issue is that 'generalized knowledge' today is much more widespread than it used to be. Way too many people now know how to use computers, and there are more computer geeks than people that actually work in IT. So unless you have something more than "I'm really good at using computers," you're going to have a tough time finding work.

You could probably go for help desk work, especially if you're patient and you can communicate clearly. Hands-on tech support would also be something good to look at, and as others have said a certification will definitely help. You could probably get an A+ certification with a few weeks of studying, and other certs (Network+, security+, etc) shouldn't be too difficult.

I would recommend going for CCNA if you don't mind networking. CCNA is always in demand, and employers are willing to pay a decent amount for someone that knows networking. Get a book and study, or get a help desk job for now and study in your down time.

You could also look for a programming job, but you might need to learn a modern programming language.. Java is a good option, and isn't too terribly difficult. If you've never done OOP, you definitely need to learn an OOP language to find a programming job.

Good luck .

I have read all of the replies carefully. Thanks for the feedback. In large part, you all have confirmed some of my own impressions. The job market is definitely a reversal of what it was in the booming 1990's, when I was getting raises every year without fail, sometimes double-digit. Does anyone remember those years? I don't think they're coming back, but it's nice to have memories.

I have two college degrees, which are worthless, because college is not of value anymore, but has proven for me to be a poor investment. I am skeptical of investing in any training, because I know that without recent verifiable corporate experience, the training is really worthless. So it is a catch-22 situation, as one of the posters above aptly observed. Companies may hire some Americans, but they are cherry-picking among the most highly qualified for scarce roles that happen to be domestic. So many jobs go overseas. Most jobs are indeed in health care or else minimum wage and that sort of thing.

Right now, I am working for a little bit above minimum wage, with my two college degrees and ten years of experience. I know several computer languages, graduated summa cum laude, and have glowing letters of recommendation from former bosses. But that doesn't seem to mean anything in today's economy.

On the bright side, I do actually like my work and the people I work with, although the money isn't good and there are no benefits. I have discovered new skills that I didn't know I had--people skills. I find that people like me. In fact I get good reviews from strangers. As for money, I am able to pay my bills, because I manage my money well, although I certainly regret taking money out of my IRA's to pay for nursing school, because that ended badly. My back is not in good enough shape to handle the lifting, straining and bending of clinical work at the hospital, and I had to bail out of nursing school, leaving me several thousands of dollars poorer. The eleven thousand I took out of my IRA, I now must pay $3000 in taxes for, and by my reckoning, only a small fraction of that will be mitigated by the education loophole. At any rate, my abortive journey in nursing school may help to explain my reluctance to go back to school, because school is costly both in terms of time and money (there is no assistance available) and seems to be quite a gamble. I doubt seriously that any schooling will pay for itself. School represents debt, debt that takes a long time for me to pay off with my modest salary.