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Comment by devs1010 | Hacker News Reader

Do you have any coworkers that you got along with at your previous jobs? If so, go on LinkedIn, look them up, ask them to connect, leave a positive review for them, ask them to do the same for you. If this process is completed successfully, send a personal message to them, "hey, I just figured I'd check in.. enjoyed working with you blah blah blah... hey, I'd be happy to give you a reference anytime, would you mind if I used you as a reference in the future, if so, could you give me your phone number just so I can keep it for when I may need it"?

That's all you need, I have used co-workers for references before and it works just fine most of the time, you don't necessarily have to have your superior give you a reference

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I could get good coworker references from about 3-4 coworkers at my last programming job. I had one coworker even recommend me for a job at their current company, but I didn't pass their interview process, though they were only hiring for one position and said they wanted someone that was a perfect fit.

I guess I feel the gap in employment in tech is the bigger problem now (almost a year at this point).

That is reassuring to hear that not every employer is interested in a supervisor reference.

I had become almost completely out of touch with my already thin network, and was in essentially your same financial and employment situation. I got my current job because a recruiter was trawling LinkedIn.

Use it, it costs you nothing, and works while you're asleep.

You might try CraigsList, I've heard of people getting decent jobs that way.

Follow through on your unemployment, and any other benefits program you run across. Your job is to keep breathing until your job becomes a job.

Thanks. Your advice is really helpful. I'll see what I can do about making sure my LinkedIn is up-to-date and such.

Craigslist also sounds like a good possibility too!

I don't think I qualified at any point for unemployment since I resigned, or at least that's my understanding. I'll see what I can do about benefits programs, but a lot seem based on income alone, or need paperwork that takes a while to acquire (record of monthly expenses? not sure what would count as a valid record, or birth certificate, which I don't currently have a copy of). Wish there was someone I could meet with in person to work through these things, but I don't know of any walk-in clinics or anything to help people like this.

"I don't think I qualified at any point for unemployment since I resigned"

Maybe. Apply anyway.

As for the paper work and all ... it's your job. Do it.

There's probably web sites for every agency that you want to deal with, start there.

Work on some open source projects, start your own, etc. They can be small, it doesn't really matter, but these are great for explaining gaps. I actually got a job where I spent a lot of time talking about an open source project I was working on (really just a personal project), one of the guys interviewing me seemed really interested in it so we spent our entire portion of the interview just talking about that.

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