At times, Todd Erickson’s search for a tech job felt more like an odyssey. But after five months, about 100 job applications and more than two dozen interviews with recruiters and companies — including a final series of eight interviews that began in December — Erickson accepted a new job as a technical writer at Vantage Data Centers on Feb. 22. He starts on Feb. 28.
“It’s been a total emotional roller coaster. False starts and promises. Jobs that didn’t materialize. A lot of waiting and anxiety,” said Erickson, who was laid off in September after six years at his previous employer, Phase Change Software, a software-development startup in Golden, Colo. Erickson, 56, is a former lawyer who started working in the technology sector in 1997. “It has been wild,” he said of his job search. “I went two-plus months with very little contact from potential employers and recruiters, and then [had] multiple interviews in one week.” Adding to his challenges was that at his last job, Erickson had what he calls a “do whatever needs to be done” role and did not develop an area of expertise that was particularly “helpful in this job market,” he s …