The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

Job hunting *success* story

So, on Monday I was unemployed, going through the JOS forums, and I was mostly reading all of these stories of horrible working conditions, Machiavellian managers, and THE DOOM OF OUTSOURCING and how no one in the US will ever get another job again, ever, no matter what they do for a living. I managed to work myself up into a real depressive funk, at which point I said to myself, "In a mood like this, I might as well check the job postings on Monster.com! My mood is a reflection of the hopelessness of my actions!"

Of course, it was the usual round of postings needing impossible qualifications, or experience in extremely obscure languages, or Java, which I have no experience with. I made a decision to start learning C# and .NET about six months ago, and every time I saw a job posting for a java developer I kicked myself for it.

Oh, but what is this? Entry level developer position, some knowledge of C# and .NET preferred, immediate opening. It's a very long commute... but Company Confidential means I don't have to write a cover letter! It's only a mouse click to apply and I've got plenty to spare. *Click*

At 4:30 I got a call from the founder of the company. Brief pre-phone interview screening call. We hit it off okay, and she said she'd get the technical guy to call me. He calls me at 6:00, and that call went pretty good too.

Tuesday, got a call saying to come in for an interview, Wednesday I came in for the interview. I got the job offer Thursday. I start Tuesday. I'm still in shock.

Tiny software company (I'm employee number four, and there's only one other programmer), business casual environment, working on a C# business app for a niche market. Exactly the job I was looking for.

I had heard people say that there are tons and tons of unexplored niche markets, and while I wanted to believe them, I never really did. Now I think that while larger companies are moving big projects to India, there is a largely unrecognized market for small-niche custom software applications. I've got some ideas about how to go about finding those niche markets; but that's the subject of another post.

So, don't lose heart all you job seekers out there! Take Philo's advice, get up early in the morning and check monster and dice.com and all of those other job search sites. Small companies do advertise on there, and from the impression I got, they want to fill their positions fast. So they post the job, and start calling qualified people as the resumes come in. Some of the larger organizations I applied to would wait for two months to collect all of the resumes and then start sifting them and so on. If that's the kind of place you want to work at, then by all means, only check monster.com once every few days. But if you want to work for a smaller company, then you need to be checking more frequently than that. Good luck!

John Wilson
Friday, February 20, 2004

Congrats. After working for small software companies, I don't every want to work in a big company or IT dept. again. I hope you enjoy it.

Dan Brown
Friday, February 20, 2004

Congrats John! God/Jehovah/Allah/deity-of-your-choice be praised!

The Original Anonymous Coward
Friday, February 20, 2004

Mate, one story doesn't prove anything.

Friday, February 20, 2004

True, but one story does *disprove* something: that it's simply impossible to find a decent tech job anymore.

Greg Hurlman
Friday, February 20, 2004

Oh yeah, nearly forgot... congrats!

Greg Hurlman
Friday, February 20, 2004

I had luck with Monster too! I don't understand what is so hard about filtering the serious adds. If the add has a company listed (i.e. send resume to hr@somecompany.nul), then look up http : / / somecompany . nul and see if the job is posted there. If so, then apply and see what happens. Ignore the other adds from recruiters and who knows what.

I got three interviews, two offers and my current job this way.

m
Friday, February 20, 2004

finding a job is kind of like dating. You only have to be sucessful once. The odds don't matter.

pdq
Friday, February 20, 2004

John are you an employee of monster.com (just kidding)?

Congrats on your're new position.

Cletus
Friday, February 20, 2004

Grats.

At the risk of sounding like a Tony Robbins drone, I've never paid my heed to the naysayers and doom glooms. It's one thing to be realistic about the market; it's quite another to sit around and convince yourself that the sky is falling.

It's tough. But it ain't as bad as many people are saying. It's just easier to sit around and moan and convince yourself the situation is worse than it really is.

Mark Hoffman
Friday, February 20, 2004

I bet you he (or the company) lasts a month, tops...

GuyIncognito
Saturday, February 21, 2004

"I bet you he (or the company) lasts a month, tops..."
Let the naysaying begin....

Guy,
Sounds like a bit of the green-eyed monster developing in you.

Cletus
Saturday, February 21, 2004

Cletus: Haha, no, I'm not a monster.com employee. I don't even think that online job hunting is the best way to find a job if you're looking. That would be good old fashioned networking. I even got a few job offers from networking but they all would require me to move, and for various reasons that's not an option right now.

GuyIncognito: If you send me an e-mail I promise to let you know how it's going a month from now.

John Wilson
Saturday, February 21, 2004

PDQ :

> finding a job is kind of like dating. You only have to be
> sucessful once. The odds don't matter.

WHAT ? It's all about the numbers baby.....

:)

braid_ged
Sunday, February 22, 2004