toexitthedonut

How do you leverage word of mouth when the people you know don't even know the right people for your kind of work? I have plenty of time- I don't have a job but my network is disappointing for the time I've spent in the field (web developer, 7 years).

So how do you get word of mouth going when nobody I know, not even 2nd degree connections, know anyone that is hiring? It really sucks to be in this position.

Hi philip1209, I just applied to your Moonlight site as a software developer. With that said, my experience has all been in web development, and have some personal experience writing native desktop apps. Would I have a problem finding work in your platform as a web developer? I also like the idea of working for more technical clients. I believe that finding high-rated clients is one of the bigger problems that freelancers have in using most common freelancing websites.

Don't think about what will happen to Bitcoin in that situation, because its hashing algorithm is nothing particularly unique. Think of what will happen to SHA-1, -2, etc. The NSA is likely already thinking well ahead about this possibility.

Well it's interesting then, that I have come across more situations like that, working as a software engineer, than when I was doing typical retail jobs. The software industry sure is great, isn't it.

The CTH offers I have taken in the past paid less per hour than a salaried employee would. They lasted over a year. Also for one of those employers, they wanted to hire me as a sort of consultant role (it was never formally called 'consultant' they just have me on an on-project basis) that paid $2/hr more than the CTH jobs.

Something more popular than PHP.

I got into web development in the last 2000's doing PHP backend development and CMS work, and now everyone seems to have gotten into more opinionated dev environments that really involve anything but PHP.

I already have held four different jobs as a web developer and still have no good network. See my reply to "developer2" for more details.

First things first: You talk as if I am just starting out my career. I don't know how you arrived to that conclusion about my job experience from my my last comment- I didn't even state my experience there. I simply stated that my network is lackluster.

I have worked in multiple small (~20 employee) companies, most for over a year and a half. I have 8 years of total experience as a web developer. During that time I have not made any reliable long term contacts that can refer me to any relevant work.

Second, ALL of my past jobs have paid 40-50% of the local market rate. Each one I have earned more money, but it's still well below average for the large Midwest city that I'm in.

Every few months I return to Facebook, post to my feed so friends can see, announcing that I'm still looking for work and if anyone knows someone looking for a web developer. Usually I get no replies.

So you see, even with my years of experience, I have been unable to rely on a network for jobs, and recruiters have also been ineffective.

Now, with this new information I have given you, I am more curious to see what you would suggest, as something more tailor-made to my career experience.

Two kinds of bad crowdfunding projects come to mind: One where the product is in the realm of possibility with today's engineering and can be reproduced in mass quantity, but the creator dropped the ball in terms of logistics and communication.

The other kind is the one where the product is very pie-in-the-sky, requires multiple breakthroughs in the process of making said product, and the creator shows a clear lack of expertise or reputation in the disciplines for making the product.

Often, the people that take the bait in the second group are an extreme case of wishful thinking of wanting their past vision of the future (which is today) to be full of wonderful tech products, and they see something remotely futuristic and throw their money at it.

This can actually require less overhead than Coolest Cooler, due to its particular usage of materials. The only big logistical issues will be shipping super heavy blankets and sourcing those materials. That said, adding more early bird backers is another sort of over-promising, and where you're gonna end up biting off more than you can chew.

That is the issue that needs to be looked at more closely. And in a fantasy world the consumer is a separate entity from the worker. But a weak workforce means weak consumers.

Companies can talk about cost reducing by cutting their workforce all they want, but I wonder how many stop and think how that would negatively impact the purchasing power of their former employees.

I tend to use the .doc format and edit locally on my computer, and only export to PDF when I'm ready to send out the resume. I'm not certain if .doc would be much easier format to share changes on a resume.

>Whether engineers are self-taught or not, is that networking and personal connections really matter.

As someone who has no good network, is there any other good way? I tend to read "X really matters" as "X is essential" in that without X you're nothing. I don't believe in essential ingredients- I believe that, as professional life is very open-ended, there is a multitude of good recipes for success in which there is no common ingredient.

I'm self taught by most accounts, but I have a 4-year degree. I think it's a curious predicament I'm in, because part of the curriculum is "web programming but not really Computer Science". The major I took doesn't even exist in that college anymore- it had a name change and major curriculum overhaul. I think it felt the throes of trying to teach by the tool, which is a big problem in a fast-paced field like web development.

In short, my degree was very "bootcamp-y" in nature, in a decade before coding bootcamps became very popular. Even worse, I think bootcamps have made a lot of my 4-year degree obsolete.

I got a few jobs at mom & pop places, I've consulted for a media agency, and yes, most were indeed contract jobs. But these jobs are not stable as working for a major tech corporation. And these are not places that allow me to really refine my engineering skills and learn how things are developed to a large scale. Building websites for clients that do not intend to grow on a national level are what you'd be limited to if you don't learn the theory behind programming.

However, I have no interest in building my own agency business. I'm a very technical guy through and through. I am an autodidact with a dilemma in which I want to follow the mainstream career path of a CS graduate. One that is marked by working as an engineer reputable companies and connections in these companies. But trying to do that with a self-taught background and with no friends that know me well enough to refer me in a professional capacity, it's been a very rough road.

That is how my experience was. If you don't go the often traveled route of getting a CS degree, you're a lesser known quantity. By that I mean, you are more uncertain from the eyes of an employer. You also can't easily measure yourself against CS graduates, nor can you leverage the kind of network you may have had if you had, say if you took that major.

Out of my 100-ish Facebook friends that I consider to know to some reasonable degree in person, only one is a software engineer, like me, and he lives very far away. Being self-taught is really hard, especially if you do not have any peers that you can learn from.

>These are small companies not looking to scale

And this also separates what people call "startups" from small companies. All startups start out as small companies, but they don't comprise all small companies. They look and follow the value that will require them to grow.

I think, indeed, that a company must value engineering if they want to grow really big. If they don't, then engineering/tech is not made a priority.

Long-time resident of Chicago here. What do you suggest as a good plan to move out to another city to seek a greater diversity? How to filter out companies in other cities that cannot pay relocation?

The problem I see with Chicago is that there are no unicorns/tech co's that make many people outside of the area say "I really want to move to Chicago to work there!" Doesn't have the same pull as the west coast hubs.

I've had an interviewer suggest to me that I open a Github account, to improve my chances of getting an offer. After the interview was already over and was already rejected. But I already had an active Github account, and nobody ever asked me in the interview if I had one. So I was confused by the suggestion.

False sense of security of your job.

I worked for more companies that had problems with their budget or even payroll after stepping into the programming career, than I have when I was working jobs with a lower entry barrier like cashier or workshop assistant. I never had an employer burn me money-wise before becoming a programmer.

Personally I would like a Slack that works on older Mac operating systems. I had to leave the groups I was in since Slack made updates last month, and now I need Mavericks or newer to continue using it.

I'm bullish to Austin. Also into the Denver/Boulder, CO area. Of course, paid relocation needs to exist but those that do tend to be the better companies already.

Precisely. When giving career advice, remember to put your HR hat on. Most of the front lines receiving your resume don't think very much like an engineer. That's why names of languages make for such popular keywords.

And far as this particular model goes, There really aren't any pieces that stand out as being very uncommon anyways. It has a ton of common curved and round shaped pieces I've seen many times, and that's just because rockets tend to be cylindrical. Standout pieces are usually stickered/decal pieces.

I'd get it not just because I'm a space travel buff but because of the scale- it's a meter tall! Great job bringing out the immense size of the Saturn V, in Lego form.

I go in and out of work. The only time I've applied for jobs is when I currently don't have one. And I do also feel like it has gotten more difficult.

First job out of college took about three months of applying.

Second job, six month.

Third job was a wash, went 8 months freelancing for bits of cash before I went to company at job no. 1 to consult for them. But the pay was terrible.

Fourth job I took after 6 months of applying. Then I got laid off late 2014.

And I couldn't get a full time job since.

I am not so naive to think I'm the only one like this. But for at least a few, the job market has gotten less forgiving. My experience is not helping balance that out.

What kind of job(s) did you hold while you were going to school in your late 30s? I'm single so I pretty much can't rely on someone else's income like I could when I took college in my 20's.

>The best, most difficult, most time-consuming way is, of course, to meet lots of people.

It really is true that networking is a high cost (in time) but high payoff approach. That is also why, when time is of the essence, networking is not a realistic option.

The longer you go without a job, the faster you want to get hired. But networking, you can't rush that. I know at least that much.

That's mostly why I posted this question- to at least get some rough idea of how much of my competition is entering "cold". I've talked to people on LinkedIn, where I'm from (Chicago) I talk to people in the immediate area. They don't answer back much, they probably have busy lives, but I wear my job search on my sleeve.

Could be useful for a headless computer system, to relay the information to someone working on it via terminal.

Location: Chicago, IL

Remote: yes (have 18 months prior experience)

Willing to relocate: open to discussion

Technologies:

* Back-end: LAMP stack, MySQL and MongoDB, CodeIgniter MVC, Node.js

* Front-end: vanilla JS, jQuery, React, Vue, D3.js, CSS/SASS, NPM, Grunt

* Misc: Personal graphics and game projects in .NET (XNA and MonoGame), C++ (SDL, DirectX), HLSL, WebGL

Resume: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uruhj23kxr30g3/Chris_Cajas_resume...

Email: chris.cajas.m [gmail] [dot] com

Several years of web dev experience in smaller teams, including startup and agency environments. Open to work at larger companies. Graduated with a BFA in New Media in fall 2007. In addition to web dev, I also have an interest in computer graphics, embedded programming (Arduino/AVR), game programming and data viz.

I do like how these landings are becoming more routine. They're making it seem like a piece of cake now. I don't think I'll get as excited again until the Falcon Heavy maiden launch.

SEEKING WORK - Chicago, IL | remote or local |

I'm a web developer with several years of experience. Mostly back-end web development, but have gotten more front-end experience more recently. I've worked on and off since 2007, and have 18 months of remote experience as a contractor.

Graduated with a BFA in New Media in fall 2007. In addition to web dev, I also have an interest in computer graphics, game programming and data viz.

I'm mostly experienced working in very small teams in startup and agency environments. For some perspective, the largest codebase I have used is Magento for an e-commerce client. But I'm open to larger companies as well.

* Back-end: LAMP stack, MySQL and MongoDB, CodeIgniter MVC, Node.js

* Front-end: vanilla JS, jQuery, React, Vue, D3.js, CSS/SASS, NPM, Grunt

* Create MVP's for small startups and non-profit orgs, including some high level design/planning

* Maintenance of legacy apps and refactoring for new features

* Misc: Graphics and game projects in .NET (XNA and MonoGame), C++ (SDL, DirectX), HLSL, WebGL

Contact info / websites

* Github: http://github.com/ccajas

* Codepen: http://codepen.io/ccajas

* Sample project: http://ccajas.github.io/JS-TinyRenderer

* GameDev Stack Exchange: https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/users/9789/chrisc (top 8%)

* Mailto: chris.cajas.m [gmail] [dot] com