Day 4

So its day 4, or "fo" as the kids call it.

I had an interesting phonecall yesterday with a "consulting" company that basically from what I see provides contract employees to companies. This seems more like a staffing agency than a consulting company. Anyways, they offered me a few different options for contracts, so I am going to meet with them tomorrow. This also is a reminder I need to start preparing for technical interviews. So, for about an hour a day I will start preparing for technical interviews, and probably post some info about that here.
Preparing for an interview, especially phone interviews, involves studying and memorizing specific details. This is not that different from studying for some exams, for example I remember my networks course asked very detailed questions from each of the different network layers. So preparing for these interviews involves taking a specific language and learning how to answer the way they want. Most of these interviewers tend to not be overly technical themselves and have a sheet of keywords in front of them. Also, most of these questions are very low level, and I would normally give a quick google search for them if I wasn't entirely sure of the answer.
Anyways, day fo, interview one coming up tomorrow.

Day 3

A few interesting jobs have popped up that are "work for this startup for free, and we give you a share of the company." The problem with this sort of job is that less than 1/4 of startups are actually successful, and those are companies that go through a tough venture capital process. So if this is just some "idea" that someone has, and they are like "lets get a free programmer", that's really not going to work out.
From previous experiences, I know that on any small company it is really important to be able to trust the other people involved, you are relying on them to keep the company afloat! I have no problem applying to these positions, I will just have to be careful pursuing them. One position seems very similar to a project I have worked on previously independently - so I am considering what possible benefits working with someone else on this could have. It could either result in me doing the same amount of work and getting less of the company, or it could be advantageous to work with someone else who can contribute a fair bit.

Day 2

The resume is updated, now its time to start sending off resumes. Is it just me, or is Monster a monstrous atrocity of a website? I have no idea how such a popular website can be so cluttered and confusing, even for a technical guy like myself. When updating your resume it forces you to enter many things that are already in your profile, and forces you to view horrible ads between things. Why would they have such obnoxious ads, I had some sort of full page ad for a sketchy online school that I had to find the "No thanks, next" tiny button at the bottom of the page just to skip.
Anyways, applying to jobs is always a difficult task. There are so many jobs, it is very difficult to determine which you are qualified for and which would actually interest you. I am going to do as I usually do and apply to lots of jobs and figure out after an interview whether the position is right for me.
So far I have been looking into contract positions, since its what I would like to do next. There was an interesting position that was a 3-4 month contract where you work from home and write an interface between a party and some 3rd party software. That sounds really interesting so I hope I hear back from that company.
Finally, I need to begin preparing for the interviews. I believe I have strong technical knowledge, however the interviewers love to ask questions that are very specific and usually things I would quickly lookup if I forgot the answers. So, I will have to do the standard review and preperation for the interviews.

Day 1 - part 2

So a brief introduction to the reason for this blog, and my current situation. I graduated university in 2006, with a fair bit of work experience from my co-op employment. I interviewed around a bit, which can be a tedious process, but ended up going back to a company I enjoyed working at previously. That company decided to "restructure" and fire a fair portion of their workforce including myself. Mid-November, and I am looking for employment while everyone is planning their Christmas holidays. I am currently trying to decide where to aim my career after some brief fulltime exposure.
Currently consulting or doing contract work looks like it would suit me better than most fulltime 9-5 jobs I have seen. I enjoy solving problems and working on systems from scratch so I have much more in-depth knowledge of the system. This is basically the time (I think) to learn as much as I can and focus on getting quality work experience while I have the time and motivation to throw myself at work.
So after a brief lunch with some ex-coworkers I am going to update my resume and start sorting out which positions look worthwhile. A quick look on monster and craigslist turned up a ton of results, so I think the job market is as strong as I thought it was.
I still have a strong desire to start my own company or work on contract jobs, perhaps this the opportunity to do just that.

Day 1

Day 1 begins with an early start.
I just got back from Boston, what better way to begin the job search than to go on vacation. Networking and resume writing are the priorities today, but the first software contract could be in the works.

This could be a great opportunity to actually put some time into the projects I have been wanting to work on - so I am going to put the majority of my time in the next month towards that. I think there is a lot more potential to improve my skills and knowledge by starting things from scratch.

Short first post, but I am a busy man!