On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 7:11 PM, Gerald Guido <gerald.gu...@gmail.com> wrote: > Not to start a flame war But there are 14 million ppl out of work in the US. > Many who have been out of a job for over a year.
There are a lot of job openings for developers all over the country. If a programmer is out of work for over a year, the reason might be them, not the economy... If someone gets no interest in their resume after submitting it to dozens (or hundreds) of job openings, there's a problem with their resume - most resumes I see are pretty awful: they don't communicate why I should hire you - and the cover letters rarely communicate why you'd want to work for me / my company. If someone goes to countless interviews and gets turned down, there's a problem with how they interview (or their basic skills). Many candidates I've interviewed either cannot communicate their ideas and experience clearly or trip over on really basic technical stuff. Resume writing and interviewing are both skills folks can learn to do well - there's no real excuse for a poor resume or a poor interview. There are a lot of jobs out there but there is also a lot of competition. This is why I always emphasize how important it is to keep your skills up to date, to invest in yourself and your career. When I hear "I can't afford to go to a conference / take training", my response is "You can't afford not to". Apart from the learning experience, the networking opportunity alone can make a world of difference. Neither mine nor Matt's resumes got the way they are by sitting on our thumbs - and they didn't get that way thru being fortunate (at least, not primarily). This year I spoke at four (CFML) conferences and by the end of the year I will have attended seven other (non-CFML) conferences. I just got back from The Strange Loop which cost me, personally, about $1,300 but was worth every penny. I'm "fortunate" that my employer is funding Clojure Conj later this year but four of the other five non-CFML conferences all came out of my pocket (I only attended JAXconf because I won a ticket - by attending a *Java* User Group). Yes, I'm "fortunate" that many of those events are local because I'm in the Bay Area but that carries a huge penalty in cost of living terms. I attend a lot of non-CFML user groups - to both expand my skills and to spread the CFML love - and I try to attend as many non-CFML conferences as I reasonably can - again, to expand my skills and spread the CFML love. I consider that activity to be an investment in myself. -- Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ World Singles, LLC. -- http://worldsingles.com/ Railo Technologies, Inc. -- http://www.getrailo.com/ "Perfection is the enemy of the good." -- Gustave Flaubert, French realist novelist (1821-1880) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:347628 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
