[wplug] is there a market for linux in the US?

[Petrucci, Joseph]

you might also want to look at http:\\www.scguild.com It costs $20.00/year to post your information but a lot of companies seem to use it. I get 10 -20 contacts per month off it.

-----Original Message-----
From: wplug-bounces+joseph.petrucci=ddiworld.com at wplug.org
[mailto:wplug-bounces+joseph.petrucci=ddiworld.com at wplug.org]On Behalf
Of Rob Knapp
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 8:57 AM
To: wplug at wplug.org
Subject: RE: [wplug] is there a market for linux in the US?


On Thu, 2005-05-12 at 08:15 -0400, Petrucci, Joseph wrote:
> There is a slump in the job market right now for IT in general, but lately I have noticed 
> an increase in the number of head-hunters who call me for Linux positions. Granted most of 
> them are for companies outside the Pittsburgh area. 

Having just concluded my job search, I definitely have seen an increase
in jobs in general...especially since March 1. [ I ended up
telecommuting (mostly) for a company out of Bethesda. ]

What most of the people who contacted me were either interested in
either for maintaining "legacy" MS apps (mostly VB + MS-SQL) or
interested in someone how knew _both_ MS and linux...this was both for 
server-side and client-side development.

The job market has changed drasitically even from my last job search
(2002).  You have to go out of your way to get people's attention.

What I found (and I've been meaning to share this) is:
1) Monster, Dice and Yahoo are unlikely to be much help.  Any jobs
posted there are going to be slammed by thousands of un-/semi-/fully-
qualified candidates...chances are that your resume will not be read
unless you happen to send it immediately after it is posted.
	-- and don't get excited because one of these companies 
writes back to you asking a few questions.  Alot of the companies 
you autoresponders.

2) Stick to smaller job boards like the python job board,
jobsforprogrammers.com, guru.com, and pghtech.org.

3) ABSOLUTELY post your resume(in HTML or PDF...something that google
can index) on your website along with some sample code and perhaps a
blog with some technical articles. This gives potential interviewers a
chance to preview your programming and communication skills.
	-- Participating in an open source project is definately hepful,
especially if you can point to documentation/code that you are solely
responsible for....ie "I added the hyperbolic super hydrosnobin support
to project Foo."

4) Be persistent:  If someone contacts you and then disappears, drop
them a line asking them about progress.  (However, if they don't
respond, let it go... if you pester them too much your resume will end
up in the trash.)

5) Be patient:  I must have sent out about 500 resumes from Nov-May.  I
only had about 6 phone interviews and 2 in person interviews.

6) Don't put your all eggs in one basket.  If you think you have a solid
lead/interview, keep applying for new positions! 

7) Consider running Google ads...seriously.  I was running them for a
while under python, software engineer and a few other keywords.  For a
month, it cost me about $10, and I got a lead from it.

Just so you all know where I'm coming from:

I got laid off in Nov.  I just started(this week) at my new position.

In that time, I got exactly 0 phone/in-person interviews from posting on
monster/dice/hotjobs.  

I went on one on-site interview (in SF) in December, and through Jan/Feb
sent out lots of resumes...but it felt like I was yelling into the void.
Little or no response.

Starting in march, I was up for a position in Baltimore.  A recruiter
had contacted me, after seeing my google ad.  That company kept dragging
its feet, and I kept looking for other positions.  I had my finally
interviewed  Apr 22nd, and while they were
"thinking about it", I was contacted about a position that I'd found on
the python job board, interviewed and got it.


So that's my advice for a job search in the current market.

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