[TriLUG] Looking for jobs... any ideas?

[Tim Jowers]

Hi Michael,

  only think about what you want to do. Then find a company in that area.
Then work on getting in there. That's a good career start.

  The market is decent right now. The American youth shunned tech and now
companies are having a really hard time finding solid American programmers.
The pay rates I've heard for fresh MSCS is around $50K to $75K depending on
focus/expertise. So, say you'd like to do some Java in the Banking industry
then you can download whatever tools are int eh job description from the
Internet and whip out some basic program related to that. Then you have
experience and something to talk about in the Interview. PUT YOUR PROJECTS
ON YOUR RESUME. This is your experience line. Nothing is more frustrating
than trying to interview a programmer than for them to tell me they have
never done any side projects for fun. This tells me they really don't enjoy
programming and probably really don't know much about it. In those cases, I
recommend focusing on another area! Many companies hire based on keywords so
read the job description and try out the tools and technologies mentioned.

   BTW, the market is heavily dominated by contract placement companies.
This is a buddy-system where some exec sends all of the work through a
head-hunter. You may/probably have to go that route to get in the door. E.g.
many large companies do not really hire directly. Alot of the jobs you see
posted are posted according to process or law (e.g. state jobs promoting a
current worker might have to post the job anyways and companies hiring a
foreign labor visa worker are required to post the job even though they have
no intention of really considering other applicants); so, you have to play
the game. The companies have various incentives to hire contract workers
such as the potential cost to fire a worker if he/she is bad; but, really,
the government-required costs to pay for health insurance and to pay lay-off
packages if they lay off over 1/3 of a dept or shut down a plant etc. Plus,
they can pad various stock investor metrics such as revenue per
*employee*by using contractors so their productivity numbers look
higher.

    So, don't get caught up in the politics. Decide what you like and try to
meet some programmers who work there. Then you can be in good shape. E.g. if
you look a the local game companies you will see they are always hiring. (If
you like C/C++ etc.). You might have to relocate as well because the job
openings are not always in sync with the people who are looking. In fact, by
nature are out of sync. E.g. if Motricity lays off  a lot of Java
programmers then the market could be over-supplied for a few months.

    Finally, you do raise out one big problem in our industry - fraud. It is
common for people from other countries to claim their 2 year or 3 year
degrees are equivalent to your 4 year degree, common for them to exaggerate
their resumes, and not unheard of them to even have others do their cert
tests and even phone interviews! But, people are creating systems in the
style of LinkedIn to better track their real qualifications and managers
have started to wise up to these things. Our industry chose not to use
licensing (like Professional Engineers, Doctors, and Lawyers) which gives us
the flexibility to grow but also means you will occasionally run into
turkeys. Don't worry about that though, once you get into a good company,
they will figure out if you are good or not and reward you accordingly (if
its a decent company).

Best,
Tim Jowers
Master of Computer Science and Engineering
P.s> The price of something is what the market is willing to pay. So, you
can always get a job if you are will to work for less money. I remember a
chemist who talked to my history class. He'd worked as a janitor for two
years for Koday after emigrating from Germany and then finally helped some
engineers solve an equation and got a job as a chemist again. Not saying to
be a janitor but you get the idea. Alot of people start in QA or ancillary
groups.
On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 10:31 PM, Michael Ham <michael at bakedhamgames.net>
wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> I am a TriLUG lurker, and I am about to finish up my degree in CIS
> (Programming focus) in a few weeks.  I am trying to get a development job,
> but all the ones I see out there want experienced developers.  The problem
> is that I can't get any experience unless someone hires me.
>
> I am sure many of you have been in my shoes before, and I would really
> like
> your opinion(s).
>
> Specifically, my main strength is in Java programming, but that probably
> has
> little bearing on the actual results of this e-mail.
>
> So, any help you guys can give me on how I can get myself out there and
> ready to go by next month when I graduate, please let me know!
>
> Thanks,
> Michael
>
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