Finding signs of intelligent life might be hard, but finding signs of life would be relatively easy. When exoplanets transit in front of their star, it's possible to get a spectrum of their atmosphere and determine its composition (though with large error bars at the moment).

One of the key signs of life would be an oxygen-rich atmosphere, which should be detectable (if it exists) in the near future. Of course, this is only a sign of life, not a guarantee of its existence, but it's very encouraging that such a discovery is perhaps only ~5 years away.