6 months ago, I had what was by many accounts a great job. I made good money, had a flexible schedule and had a certain amount of technical freedom.
The problem was that the environment was toxic. The monkeys running the zoo with a lot of low-intelligence, high-ego, middle management running the show. I was unhappy all day and my work stress bled into my home life, like it never had before.
Despite my “cushy” position, I needed to make a move.
The more senior you are, the longer the sales cycle of finding your next job. I was not interested in a short term contract or J.A.C.J (just another coding job) that show up by the hundreds on Dice. I had that already. I wanted something interesting and intellectually challenging.
Recruiters are useless. I turned down several recruiters who were pushing vague programming jobs that they knew nothing about, except that it was in “Java” or “.NET” and was located in X part of town.
Recruiter: You know, you may want to consider taking a pay cut “in this economy”.
Me: Well, maybe.
Recruiter: Sometimes it can be worth it to take a pay cut to be able to work under a great manager where you can learn a lot.
Me: Oh, can you tell me about the manager for this position?
Recruiter: Uh… no, well I don’t really know but I could speak to my colleague and find out?
Not interested.
I only applied to a small percentage of the job posts I saw. With a full time job and a toddler, I knew I only had enough time to spend on a few of them. I targeted jobs that looked challenging and matched my past experience well. Anything that talked about giving a technical test was in. Anything that talked about investing in their employees was in. I was in the interview stages with a handful of companies and things looked promising, but nothing concrete.
Back at work, things were boiling over. My frustration culminated to my breaking point and I quit – with no safety net.
I contacted a company that I had done interviews with but had been biding their time. I let them know that I needed to make a decision NOW and I really wanted to work them, and so pretty please hurry up, thankyouverymuch. Thankfully, they made an offer and I accepted before my 2 weeks notice were up.
The most surprising thing was the surprise that I faced from a few people. Mostly acquaintances that I hadn’t worked with closely.
“It’s so good that you were able to find a job in this economy.”
“You’re lucky to have found a job. I know a lot of IT people who can’t find a job these days.”
I don’t think it was meant as a personal insult, and I didn’t take it that way. It did seem as though they attributed my decision to switch jobs “in this economy” as an unnecessary risk and that my success was due to luck.
When I think back on those people: they were professionals who were good at their job, but not great. They didn’t have any big wins or contributions and hadn’t advanced far in their careers.
On the other hand, one person in particular told me he wasn’t surprised at all that I had found a job so quickly. He knew that I was extremely valuable there and would continue to be extremely valuable somewhere else.
He was the CEO.
Now, I have a fantastic job that I love and more opportunity to grow than I ever would have had at the other place.
I went against the “rules” of job hunting, but I was still successful. I didn’t mass email every single job post on every single job board. I didn’t pay a professional resume service. I didn’t network or even let my network of past colleagues know I was looking. I certainly didn’t customize my resume for every job and I did a 1-sentence custom line per cover letter. I quit my job “in this economy” before having an offer lined up.
So what did I do right? I have an entire career of win after win. I have experience managing teams and bringing my projects to successful delivery. I have proven experience keeping clients happy. I diversified my development skills to learn multiple languages. I have honed my technical skill to be able to pass every single technical test or coding challenge an employer has ever thrown at me.
How do you find a job “in this economy”?
By being great, not good.
A perfect post!
It’s turn the last line into “By not being a crappy programmer like 80% of the people who think they know what they are doing”
I get so sick and tired of hearing “in this economy” as the main excuse for people not to try. Some people are lucky to have jobs, but that’s more for the unskilled worker bees. There are tons of jobs out here.
The problem we have is most of the unemployed we have been interviewing are senior devs who’ve done the same job just getting by until they were let go with no applicable skills. These same devs then think because they have X number of years in the field that makes them a senior. As a result we are struggling to hire but only one in a dozen can pass the technical questions. Writing a for loop through and array is not supposed to be difficult!
Anyway, thank you for breaking out from the sheeople. I hope your career is as rich and rewarding as it possibly can be!
Glad you were able to take the leap. I think THAT is tougher than finding a job for most people, even people with ability like you.
I have not really looked for a new position because the rates have been too low and none of the jobs were anything more than a job.
But just yesterday i got called by a buddy about a position where he works. It is only because of my ability and skills.
[...] How to Get a (Programmer) Job In This Economy – I actually went through almost exactly this same thing two years ago, at the start of the recession [...]
Development jobs are indeed hard to find. Period. But here is something more disturbing. I heard some young people having a hard time finding any work this summer. I’m talking about not being able to find a fast food worker job. Ouch. This is in upstate New York. You mileage may vary in other parts of the country. Still, I am disturbed.
[...] Excerpt from: How To Get A (Programmer) Job "In This Economy" [...]
No risk, no fun
Those only whom able to take the risk, are the great ones
The great ones are great, not only good
I agree with Coderrob. The “in this economy” excuse is so overused, it’s in every part of our lives. It’s like a gushing well of apathy that is polluting our motivation to do great work!
I love that the CEO knew a good employee when he saw one. Of course, if I was a CEO, and I watched a great asset voluntarily leave the company, especially before the great employee had a safety net, I would be seriously concerned about my company.
The other interesting undertone in this post is the fact that most of the job market focuses on how employers filter job applicants, and you discussed how you filtered future employers. I love it!
Great post!
For anybody who’s actually any good at this kind of work, finding a new job has never, ever been a problem. Even in “this economy”, the few decent developers still get constant requests from recruiters and colleagues elsewhere asking if and when they are available. Simply letting people know you are actually available tends to open the floodgates completely.
Most companies still have a very hard time finding good developers. The shortage is still there, and it’s global. The only difference is that companies take less risks in hiring, they won’t just hire a few programmers hoping one of them will pan out. And yes, they do take their time to decide, so having the balls to exercise some pressure does help.
However, if you keep your skills up to date and stay in touch with your preferred developer/business community (the latter is even more important) you shouldn’t have an problem finding a job.
There will always be great jobs for great people.
There is no mention of Indian recruiters who use the Caste System when hiring and only hire “their kind”. Despite top quality skills thousands of Americans have been displaced by cheap/docile foreign labor on H-1B visas and there’s no mention here of that. Its a fact and well documented. Furthermore WashTech & Programmers Guild a hundred or more stories EACH by Americans who have lost jobs to cheap foreign labor. And for those over 50 its completely hopeless because age discrimination is so rampant, especially with Indian body shops (i.e. Wipro, Cognizant, etc) that notoriously transfer people from offshore to America on temporary/non-immigrant L1 visas, and meanwhile won’t hire American citizens, here in America, in our own country.
WHERE is any mention of rampant discrimination? According to Professor Norman Matloff it begins as early as age 35. Back in 2001 I read a Time Magazine article about a guy in his early 30s who was shaving years off his resume to look younger, and thus hoping to avoid age related discrimination. Again – what chance does the 50 year-old programmer have?
What is the age of the author of this story?
He talks about being “great” but in reality what are his skills?
What languages does he program in and what kind of work has he actually done?
Does this guy have any real substance? Or just attitude?
BTW no one, and I mean NO ONE here on planet earth quits their job in THIS economy with unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression. That’s just completely cocky. Furthermore it ignores a story out lately in the media (Associate Press) about people being turned away from job consideration because they are currently unemployed. This is the reality of today’s economy, not some guy quitting his job because he’s got an attitude thing going.
WHO is this author? Is this a real story? Or just globalist propaganda by corporate front groups designed to shoot down programmer complaints?
“BTW no one, and I mean NO ONE here on planet earth quits their job in THIS economy with unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression. That’s just completely cocky.”
@AccuracyIT Way to illustrate my point. Yes, it’s a true story. I think the substance is self-evident from the result of the story, but based on your overall skepticism, I’m not sure there’s anything I could say to convince you.
Amber,
I think you’ve nailed it. Since you landed a job, you are a great programmer, unlike those who cannot find jobs, and since you’re a great programmer, of course you landed a job. Sounds a bit circular to me.
Samples of size one are SO underrated — and I used to scoff at engineers who relied on samples of size two and three to establish propositions (like the celebrated engineers’ “proof” that all odd numbers are prime)!
As AccuracyIT notes, it’s easier to find a job if you have a job. From your dismissive reply, I infer that your age, gender, and physical condition haven’t hurt you either.
Is it your planted premise that as long as great programmers can find jobs, there’s no problem? or do you just feel slighted that others haven’t recognized your greatness, preferring to attribute your success to luck? Do only the great deserve to work? Or are you only tired of hearing belly-aching comments and excuses? Can you imagine that your comment is as self-justifying of your situation as those of the incompetent — not the good — programmers?
Yes, there’s always room at the top, but the top only accounts for a few of a society’s people — unless you’re from Lake Woebegone, where all the children are above average. Your attitude is useful until you find that you can no longer find a job, and then I guess you’ll recognize that you’re no longer great and don’t deserve the ability to earn a living.
PS: I’m neither a programmer nor an engineer, but I’ve seen the same attitude you expressed among a lot of people who deny there is a moral problem with a country that allows businessmen to glut its labor market, dispossessing even those “good” at their jobs with cheaper workers.
I guess I must be a bum. At the beginning of the ought decade, I commanded a rate of $1/min. Except for the very occasional, very small gig, I have basically been unemployed since 2003 and have recently finished filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy, where I wiped away 6 figures of debt to the same banks that have destroyed the hiring market for software engineers by outsourcing and H1B-ing. I guess I should consider that as my severance package, HA HA.
My next move is to go abroad to a BRIC type of country and teach English and engineering (in English), so I can help to train engineers to take down the jobs of even the great Miss Cupcake’s job.
Amber’s example just fits the old adage of “experience is relative”.
Like AccuracyIT, I have found it difficult to move from one job to another over the last 30 years when less experienced and more docile labor was available at greatly reduced rates; even when the economy was perfect. This applies to any field and since I have probably held more jobs in more industries than any ten(10) engineers out there, I can make this statement without reservation. I code in seven(7) different languages on multiple platforms and OS’es and have done so in several different industries. I don’t like cry-babies when it comes to trying to get a job, but when you compete in an uneven playing field you can expect major difficulties in attaining gainful employment.
For people who think “in this economy” is being used as an excuse, I guess you must be under 30 years of age or close to it. The economic situation we are in currently is quite extreme but not out of the ordinary over the last 100 years. Boomers came up during a growth period that has had its ebbs and flows, but nothing like what their grandparents or parents went through during the great depression, which was the other great transfer of wealth from the general populace to the ultra rich. The only reason this economic meltdown is not called a “Depression” is that the government bailed out the banks.
To Amber – Your experience is relatively unique within this field for how it has played out. Since in the last 15 years when they started shipping in foreign labor for the technology fields the rules have changed drastically. It has become worse since the bubble burst and for those of us with serious experience in our respective STEM fields; we have taken the brunt of the affect.
To Rick, Xain and CodeRob – Blow it out your asses, try spending some time living in the shoes of any worker who now calls the street their home, you dispassionate twerps. If you are so sick and tired, then put a bullet in your head and give your spot to a more deserving and enlightened soul.
There is an old saying about the working class world, “it’s a dog eat dog world out there and the big dog gets the bone” and as long as you play the game based upon those rules there will always be a starving dog; which is exactly where the economic royalists and power elite want us, fighting over a bone.
What is really sad is that I actually believed at one point that this country was becoming more enlightened about how this type of attitude was inconsistent with proper human compassion, however I have been greatly disappointed with my generation and those coming after us; they are uber-failures when it comes to changing the face of Capitalism.
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Doc Savage, Ray and Accuracy:
You are all my heroes!!! I was an EXCELLENT programmer but as a woman it was more difficult to get work and to advance in a career…then the age thing hit and the importing of the $10/hour programmers really destroyed the field of programming. Anyone who hasn’t lost their job or career is really very lucky and should be humbly grateful that career death hasn’t happened yet to them.
I’m widely considered the best programmer ever. Probably the smartest person to ever post here. You should thank me.
Change the face of capitalism. To what? Capitalism is all about open-market competition, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Either take capitalism for what it is, or admit that what you want isn’t capitalism after all.
There are two ways to compete in the job market.
You can compete on price. That means start cutting your rates, and applying for jobs. Eventually you may find a company that sees the value-proposition you present as something they can buy into. Yes, this means being willing to compete with the outsourced labour force.
Or you can compete on quality. That means you start finding ways to prove to your employer that you are an employee who produces high-quality work. You need to make it evident that your work is so good that it’s worth paying your rates because the price is still a steal for what you’re getting.
You can even combine the two! Prove you’re high-quality while cutting your rates slightly and see if that makes you more employable.
Or we could skip the “capitalist” system completely. There are other economic systems less prone to these particular complaints, but as long as we subscribe to capitalism this is what we get.
There seem to be two disparate groups of readers. One that immediately gets it and is either in the same position or understands how to get there.
The other group is convinced that things do, in fact, suck, and that we are all helpless to improve them. They are so ingrained in that world view that their reactions were that my experience was a coincedence, a lie or even a conspiracy.
At first, I feel bad for them. It’s sort of a generic I-don’t-want-anyone-to-suffer reaction. And they are suffering, both financially and emotionally. That is clear from how harshly they are lashing out at strangers (myself and fellow commentors) who disagree with them. And so I can forgive the inappropriate name calling and even the suggestion to kill ourselves.
But do you know what I found startlingly absent from their comments? Any attempt to learn from what I’ve done or ask the other commentors how they do it. You struggle from descrimination and outsourcing and here you stumble across a group of people who are (seemingly) immune to it. And your first reaction is to heckle, to insult and to dismiss it.
I know that if I were struggling to feed my family and found a group of people who could do what I could not (and were willing to talk about it) I’d be trying to learn from them. Is it my skill level or my ability to market myself? What can I do differently? Maybe that tunnel vision has a lot to do with why those people are struggling with finding or keeping jobs in the first place.
Nearing the same point in life that you just hit so I totally understand what happened. Glad you were able to find a job quickly. I have been offered a couple of jobs but for less money. For the other jobs they have had the old “not enough experience in X”. I will not quit no matter how annoyed I get, just can’t handle that risk with an handicapped child.
I agree, if they don’t have a solid technical test forget them. I don’t want to work where they will hire just about anyone. I have authored the technical test at various places I have worked and you would be amazed at how many you can weed out early with a few simple questions.
And I agree on recruiters, they want a paycheck from placing you and don’t really care if you really fit or not as long as you stay a few months. Once they get paid you were a week long annoyance to them that lead to dollars. The only help they have been is feeling out the market. What are places paying? Most appear to want senior folks for mid-level pay. Many have told me that numerous jobs are staying open for months on end as they are sent people who are willing to work in the price range given only to find they stink. Instead of raising the salary the interview more idiots.
There are jobs out there for the right people. Places are bringing new folks on board. A lot of places are using the economy to low ball the positions figuring people must be begging for jobs. Skilled folks are not begging, people who were not so hot at programming to start with and were the easiest to lay off are looking and looking and looking. The economy has hosed the starting salary they are willing to offer. I still find places that are willing to pay for talent but I have not found the one that will accept my skill set. Just means I have to brush up on my SQL and present that skill better at each interview. I don’t lie on my resume with a pile of buzz words and I don’t lie in interviews.
I would like my next job to be my last job. The place I am at now had a small company feel and the start and I hoped they would grow when they added people but they did not. I took a risk to be done with contracting and it did not pay off. Total lack of communication is the worst part of the place. Hire straight from college, no mentoring and no coding standards are killing the product.
So, those acquaintances that you hadn’t worked with closely are good. But you are great, and that’s how you found your job. Good for you. And you have “an entire career of win after win”? Good for you too.
You being great is the point of this post?
@Pablo The point of this post is advice wrapped in a story. I think most of my readers get that but if you missed it, there you go.
Wow after reading your article and then the comments, I can say I now want to hold on to my job for dear life. Yes, I’ve been there for 12 years and I’m pretty burnt out, but the pay is there for myself and my family. I was considering looking around, but for now I think I’ll be happy with what I’ve got. So, while the article had the opposite effect, an effect it still had.
As for the “economy” thing – Sorry, but whatever you want to call it or however you want to describe it, there’s a plain and simple fact – Some years back there were 5x more jobs that were paying at least 2x more money than there are currently. So, you may still get a high paying job, but that high paying pool is definitely much more shallow than it used to be.
I think you can effectively test for a junior position, and any simple skill in general.
On the contrary, (advanced) programming is such a complex activity that requires so many different abilities that I doubt any reasonable test can shed light on.
Not just writing code, but solving problems, mastering clockworks, linking intuitions, learning things, assuming risks, building knowledge, sharing life.
At the current job they didn’t test me. I got in three years ago and was a great bet, I think. A year ago I started looking for a new job, out of boredom. No interesting projects, no interesting people, anymore.
Still searching.
I read this article with a bit of disbelief. Not in the fact that the author got another job, but that she was so full of herself! I mean, really…the whole tone of the article was that she was somehow superior to all the other peons out there who simply weren’t good enough or smart enough to get a job or know how to get a job and were simply full of whining excuses at their misfortune.
I personally am not an engineer or a programmer, I am a nurse and the wife of an engineer who currently has a job and is very good at it. He has no reason to leave his job as it is very well-paid, flexible, he loves his co-workers, etc. However, we want to relocate, simple as that. We have two young children and we have both always wanted to raise our children somewhere besides southern california. So he has been looking. And he has done all the “right things”, is very smart, well-respected, good at his job, experienced, has a very good skill set in his field (which is granted, rather specialized), is young, good-looking, a people person, advanced degrees, pretty much everything any employer would look for and he is still not having much luck. Most places are offering less money for sure…
Obviously we don’t need to move, so he keeps looking at his own pace. But I find it very hard to believe that somehow Amber is so much smarter, or better qualified, or a harder worker, or knows some sort of secret on how to get a job that the rest of us don’t know. It just smacks of self-righteousness and an over-inflated ego. If she really “knows something” that the rest of us idiots don’t, then I dare her to post it. Somehow I don’t think that post is coming anytime soon…
Engineering Recruitment in todays market are difficult to come by and this is made even more compounded by the fact that future managers are becoming increasingly difficult to satisfy. Personally, I think that the global economy should see vast improvements within the next fiveyears and this should make the situation easier to manage.
@Laura If you are so sure that your husband has “everything” an employer wants, then it is more likely you who are arrogant than myself. That’s an impossible feat and the attitude that he is helpless to improve his situation is the opposite of what I advocate here.
Excuse me…I never said he was helpless to improve his situation. In fact we are in a very good situation right now, we just want a ‘different’ situation. And one day I am absolutely confident that we will find our ‘different’ situation. And of course he doesn’t have “everything” every employer would want, but my point was that he is a desirable employee for most employers. There is nothing arrogant about that, simply objective. I see a lot of deflecting in your response and not much substance. I am still waiting for your post on the “secrets” to finding a job…ha ha…
Interesting post. I wouldn’t say you “went against the rules” in job hunting. Targeting interesting, skill-matched jobs is the only way to go. Otherwise you’re just wasting time. And I agree, recruiters are useless; they don’t seem to specifically know what the hiring situation is, and exactly what skills are needed. A sad joke.
I’m glad things worked out for you. But what if that company hadn’t made you an offer, after you had already quit? You rolled the dice, and you won. But that’s not how it always works out. Especially if you’re a software engineer/manager over 40 yrs old.
I find it interesting that many commenters think you are not humble enough. As a woman in a male dominated field, part of managing your career/personal brand is tooting your own horn. There is nothing to be gained by being submissive. Gratz on your new job.