{"id":130,"date":"2009-03-06T18:56:24","date_gmt":"2009-03-07T02:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/?p=130"},"modified":"2009-03-06T18:56:24","modified_gmt":"2009-03-07T02:56:24","slug":"searching-for-a-job-during-the-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/searching-for-a-job-during-the-apocalypse\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching for a job during the Apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether “Apocalypse” is the right word or not is certainly up for discussion.\u00a0 Certainly David Sirota at Salon thinks so in his article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What I can say is that Oregon is sliding in to whatever this is (recession, depression, economic event, End Times) at a rate in excess of the nation as a whole.\u00a0 Oregon unemployment exceeds 10% now, which hasn’t been seen since the early 80s, I understand.<\/p>\n

Many seem convinced that our new president is badly misjudging the necessary correction necessary, though since that judgment comes from the very people at the rudder for the last eight years and who bear a great deal of the responsibility for letting the greed of the market run roughshod over the country for much of the last eight years, I’m inclined to take it with a grain of salt and to remain hopeful.<\/p>\n

It certainly is distressing when even a room full of economists cannot seem to agree on the necessary course for the very economy they are presumed to be experts in.<\/p>\n

Going in to this, back in mid-November, I posited that my job search would be at worst a three to six month experience.\u00a0 Sadly, it appears that events in the economy and world seek to prove me quite wrong.<\/p>\n

After three months I am still looking and could not, in good conscience, tell anyone that I have a clue when this will be over for me or the country.<\/p>\n

I am an engineer by temperament and by training.\u00a0 In my experience what distinguishes an engineer is a critical mind that loves a problem, loves to take it apart and solve it.\u00a0 What separates a good engineer from the pack is that their solutions are well thought out and stand the test of time.\u00a0 I believe I am a good engineer.<\/p>\n

With that comes a confidence that I can be successful in any position requiring software engineering.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, when a hiring manager looks at my resume, what they see on the engineering and development side is that my time actively developing software was something like eight years ago as I’ve moved in to management.<\/p>\n

A staffing expert at a local agency stated that software skills more than eight months out of date are considered to be obsolete.\u00a0 Such is the rate of change in software development, tools and practices.<\/p>\n

Now, I don’t actually buy that.\u00a0 I believe that I and any software engineer worth their pay can pick up the necessary language and specifics of a problem quickly.\u00a0 What you are paying for, especially in an experieneed engineer, is not whether they were coding in that specific environment yesterday, it’s their ability to problem solve.<\/p>\n

I’ve long believed that another characteristic that separates a good engineer from the pack is not that they can keep all of the details of the dozen or more languages they may be able to work in in their head at one time.\u00a0 It’s that they know where to find the answers quickly and how to apply them efficiently and with a high level of quality.<\/p>\n

When I was just out of college, I could work on a problem for 60 hours a week and generate a great deal of code.\u00a0 Today I can create better, higher quality code in 30 hours because I know what *not* to do.\u00a0 Energy does not equal productivity.\u00a0 Time spent at a keyboard banging on the keys does not equate to quality code.<\/p>\n

But, all that is moot if you cannot get in front of a hiring manager to seal the deal.<\/p>\n

“People hire people they know or are comfortable with”<\/p>\n

This is something I am hearing over and over again these last few months.\u00a0 And, as I reflect on my own career, in all cases each job I took or moved to was made easier by the network of people I know and who can vouch for me and that I’m worth talking to.\u00a0 So, networking is clearly critical, especially during a time when the market is saturated with people and resumes that all look much the same.<\/p>\n

The other path I’ve been pursuing and will likely move to be my focus is to find a job managing.\u00a0 This takes on several facets.\u00a0 Apparently there is a hierarchy of management that goes something like this, from more to less difficult:<\/p>\n