Heather Gillbanks ⋅ Houston , TX General Electric ⋅ 26 years experience

I also cannot view your Profile (though I am happy to connect on LinkedIn hgillbanks @ gmail . com - without the spaces, obviously). A couple of other ideas, which I am sure you are already doing:
* make sure that you are regularly attending any user groups you can, locally; these are great networking opportunities, often with the right people attending them ... if there aren't any, START one!
* are there any local job fairs that might generate leads for you?
* do you subscribe to your local business journal, to keep an eye out for which companies resonate with you (i.e., where do you WANT to work), and which are growing?
* when you have a target company, consider sending them a "pain letter" http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130725040624-52594-forget-the-cover-letter-send-a-pain-letter-instead

Hope this helps - feel free to reach out!

Joyce Stein ⋅ Santa Clarita , CA Bank of America ⋅ 25 years experience

Hi Corey,
I think Craig's idea is very good one as well as your pursuit of network and Cisco certifications and of course the CISSP. Sometimes volunteering can provide an opportunity to practice skills you may not do on a day-to-day basis. Also community colleges in your area may also provide opportunities to volunteer and educate your self. One more idea is to consider a specific industry focus. Mine for example started in Tech companies and then Defense Industry and is now in Financial services...

On another note: your linkedIn profile does not show for me. I think you can specify your profile - here's mine for example: www.linkedin.com/in/jdrs1818/ and is open to the public.

Craig Bush ⋅ Boston , MA IBM ⋅ 11 years experience

Cory,

You could try job placement with Accenture as a manager for the offshore tier 1/2 tech support. I've worked with guys like that before. It might be an option.

Craig

Cory Stuard ⋅ Cedar Hill , TN U.S. Marine Corps, Corporal ⋅ 5 years served

Tom,
I am taking the Network + next week and will be following it with Sec. +, Cisco Interconnecting devices 1&2, CISSP. And certainly others to follow long term.

Tom Cal, CFA ⋅ San Francisco , CA Army Veteran, Investment Manager ⋅ 25 years experience

Cory,
What certifications relevant to your career goals have you earned, researched and/or considered earning?