All the letters about how hard it is to find a job in IT because a person is the wrong age, doesn't have the right qualifications or does not have enough experience seem to have a common denominator: a lack of initiative (Letters blog, letters.computing.co.uk/skills).

If you find the going tough, don't rely on job adverts or recruitment agencies. Go through the phone book and put together a database of local companies. Write a letter in Word and have Word mailmerge using the database. Sign each letter, add a CV and send it. If you do 50 of these a week, you'll get interviews and you'll get a job.

So stop moaning. Stop blaming everyone else. Get off your backside and do something about it.

Bob Wilkins