Job Market Advice

Have any folks found new software jobs in the last year? If so, can you offer advice on how to find jobs in this tough job market? Almost everyone I talk to in the U.S. says companies are not hiring, and many are laying off. Is the only way to get a software job these days to create your own?

Most job postings that I see now require highly specialized skills. If you've written optimizing compilers and designed microprocessors for the last twenty years, you can probably still hire on somewhere pretty easily. The jobs that seem a lot more scarce are your typical infrastructure-for-business jobs that so many of us have built our careers upon.

-- SteveHowell

See AskTheHeadhunter for some good unconventional advice.

On developing specialized skills

There is probably a lesson in this for somebody building a career now. Mainstream programming jobs over the last decade or so have represented pretty good money for fairly undemanding entry requirements (e.g. B.Sc in CS or some bit of experience). However, if whatever job you have is essentially similar to 2 million other jobs, you are *always* going to be insecure in a cold market. I can remember young people 5 years ago saying essentially: 'I can get $60k for java-c++-vb-gui-web-foo, why should I bust my butt getting more specialized skills for no more money (or sometimes even less)? I think many of them know the answer to that question now. On the other hand, I probably still get 1 or 2 unsolicited offers per month now, due to specialized skills.

Which skills?

Mostly algorithm design and numerical programming, also image processing. I have several degrees, and years of experience --- often someone is missing one or the other. If you are just optimizing for job stability, I wouldn't advise the same route I took as I end up classified as 'overqualified' (whatever that means) for some positions. On the other hand, if you find something you like anyways, spend a few years (and a few hundred kilobucks) studying it, and have a clear path to real-world employment afterwards that can't be bad. I took small contracts all through undergrad, and some after I went back to graduate school. I didn't need the money (and probably undercharged most of the time). However, this kept my coding current (for real-world problems) and meant that when I came out of graduate studies people didn't say 'oh look, another Ph.D who doesn't know anything'....

Good advice, thanks.

A general advice: ChangeYourCareerExpectations

A good page for CategoryEmployment