In general I find the whole handwaving "I'm looking for work" approach not very effective. You really need to actively contact companies/potential clients.
With that said, here's a list of resources I resort to when looking for a next thing:
freelance
remote
http://hnhiring.me/
https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job/
http://www.lancelist.com/
https://gun.io/dash/
http://www.10xmanagement.com/
https://theworkmob.com/
http://workingnotworking.com
https://authenticjobs.com
https://www.upwork.com
http://www.happyfuncorp.com
on-site
http://getlambda.com/
full-time
remote
https://weworkremotely.com/
https://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/remote
https://www.wfh.io/categories/1/jobs
https://remotecoder.io/
http://www.workingnomads.co/jobs
on-site
https://angel.co/jobs
https://hired.com/
https://jobs.github.com/positions
https://www.themuse.com/
http://startupjob.me/
http://www.insidestartups.org/For people looking for a new job it is basically a common app to apply to over 140 startups in NYC/SF.
Edit: Disclosure: I work for underdog.io
Great list of resources, thanks for sharing!
Disclosure: I'm part of the Vettery team.
There's a prominent developer in a community I follow who recently found his company to fold, and posted that he was looking on his blog. At the time, I was pitching for a project; I set aside a place for him and had I won the project, would have contacted him asking if he wanted the job.
In another case, someone's failure became a blog post, which I shared with management of my then employer, who authorized me to get in touch and offer the person a no-questions-asked job (she didn't take it).
I don't think any boss that notices the "I don't like my work/I am looking to leave" would be happy
Edit: My bad, thought you were talking about the Freelancer / Seeking Freelancer threads
Initial discussion by email went well. Moved onto a telephone conversation, which also went well. Although the deadline was tight, the project appeared to be well-managed and they seemed to know what they were doing. Unfortunately, the person on the phone appeared to be absolutely horrified upon hearing my daily rate (which was the standard daily rate for iOS development in London at the time – I wasn’t trying to take the piss). I followed up by email highlighting my experience and track record in the specific field they were targeting as well as the value I would bring to the project but never heard anything back.
I got an excellent offer from a person in my own network a few days later so I didn’t give the HN thread another try.
Incidentally, I’m now looking for my next gig. Anyone looking for a talented Lead .NET developer / Architect in London (UK), with both startup and Fortune 100 experience, feel free to contact me: http://mehdi.me
Where I live (Australia), plumbers and electricians often have a higher rate than quite senior developers ($200 call out rate with minimum hour charge and then $200 or so each hour on top etc), yet companies look aghast when you ask a similar rate, despite it being quite an intensive game to wrap your head around.
Then they hire someone that thinks node.js is a sensible idea, and end up paying double to have things fixed up when that ends in disaster, so perhaps it works itself out in the end.
Most of my experience has been on the .NET platform and primarily on the backend / distributed systems side of things.
However, between 2010 and 2013, I was co-founder and CTO of a tech startup where our main product was a fairly sophisticated native iOS app. Being a bootstrapped startup, I had to do all the tech work myself. So I got a lot of experience with Objective-C / Cocoa that way. On the back of that, I got a contract to develop a native iPad app for the BBC, providing me with some additional experience building an app for an external client.
When I landed on the job market in January last year, I was therefore happy to take either an iOS contract or a .NET one.
I ended up taking a .NET contract. And to be completely honest, large-scale software systems / distributed systems is really where my heart lies. So I'm now pitching myself as a .NET developer only as this is the type of role I'm most keen on.
I'd actually be really happy to take on a role that uses another stack as well. But as a contractor, it's not really realistic to expect a client to pay you to learn a new language / stack :)
It's a language-learning app for the Scottish Gaelic language, which includes both a full 30 hour course, including native speaker audio and role-plays, and several mini-games to test yourself.
It's a really beautiful app (thanks to the immensely talented illustrator Julie-Anne Graham who worked with us on this). A lot of time and effort was also spent on the instructional design side of it, making it really easy for complete beginners to acquire a solid basic fluency in Scottish Gaelic. I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in the language (it's completely free).
The best thing about this app though is the invisible part: it wasn't built as a one-off app with hardcoded content. I won't go into the details but here is for example an Irish Gaelic version of it (with more screenshots): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learn-irish-gaelic-buntus/id...
(and anyone interested in the Irish language should give it a try :) )
I didn't have to do anything for the Irish version of the app despite the fact that it's got completely different content: different graphics, text, audio, game questions and lesson structure. The content team (instructional designer, illustrator, translator, proof-reader, audio producer) worked on putting together the content for that other app. When the content was ready, all I had to do was hit "Build". Same codebase - two completely different apps.
Sure seems like the BBC is always at the forefront of everything they do.
I tried one, and I've seen it since, which is a challenge i.e. they'll present you with a basic page saying "Try JSON", or something of a similar ilk. Then you have to follow the rabbit hole (automating a solution in a scripting language generally) until eventually you're met with a page with actually how to apply to the real job.
I like companies that do that.
The one I saw the other day was a grid of dots (say 300 or so), with some filled in. They gave you one second to count the dots and submit the form, so the trick is parsing the HTML in < 1 second and responding within the session.
Edit: You'll have to switch up the game now hehe.
If you have the common worry that your current employer will see "I want a new job!!!!" on your LinkedIn, then say something like "I'm always open to interesting opportunities."
The last straw was the one where they requested your email login details, and proceeded to spam your contacts with join requests. What kind of a prick of a company does that?
I guess they factored in the people that'd pay attention to that kind of scumbaggery, and those that wouldn't and figured they'd end up on top. Guess they did too. You're a product, not a customer, when you're on LinkedIn, much the same as Facebook.
The nail in the coffin for me has been recruitment agencies stressing I should be on it - any advice from the vampires like that is a good sign you should be doing the polar opposite.
That last straw has been active for probably as long as they existed. I didn't fall for it, but a lot of people who know me did, and I used to get a lot of linkedin spam because of it. Either they've refined their practices, or people have wised up, or we've passed peak LinkedIn.
In any case, I ignore most email from LinkedIn, I don't play the endorsement game in either direction, and anyone who receives spam from LinkedIn related to me are themselves LinkedIn products, so they made the choice.
I've figured out how to exist peacefully with them, and other than this thread it doesn't take any time out of my day. :)
Still quite a strong, what I would call, "shill" force out there though.
It seems that if two people communicate on the internet, a third person will be interested in it.
As far as recruiter emails go, it was not very good. Just a generic "we are hiring developers".
If there was a viable alternative I'd jump on it, but for now it seems to serve its purpose very effectively.
Not always. They are not all out for your blood.
There are some places where recruiters will constantly look for candidates: LinkedIn, XING (not sure if it's worthwhile outside Germany), Github, maybe SO (not sure), possibly FB. Having a polished appearance there will yield plenty of contacts even without indication that you're currently looking for work (assuming hard skills that are in demand somewhere).
disclaimer, I'm the founder ofc.
Good luck.
1) They refused to set the rate I asked for. It was "too much for someone from Eastern Europe", so they set it to half that.
2) Despite going along with that, I never managed to get any contract through them - probably because they don't focus on C# that much. Even when I find something interesting and apply, I usually don't hear back for at least a couple of weeks.
It is extremely possible that I'm just not a good fit for the jobs, or that I am indeed asking for too much, but so far my experience with the site has been... underwhelming.
The best part of it is that it has a sprawling community of freelancers all over the globe who are happy to help whenever you need it and if by any chance you happen to end up having holidays somewhere, there is a huge chance that there are some Toptalers right around the corner happy to take you out for drinks and give you some insider tips on the location.
Full disclaimer: I work with Toptal at the moment and am pretty happy to be there :)