<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title><style type="text/css">p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;">On Fri, Feb 14, 2020, at 5:49 PM, paulz@ieee.org wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite" id="qt"><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;" class="qt-ydp4d18dcd6yahoo-style-wrap"><div><br></div><div dir="ltr">There is definitely a generational change in the tech work force. Those of us who entered Silicon Valley long ago were fortunate that many companies were looking for trained workers. In my case, I thought it was fun to mess around with Amateur Radio and related stuff. When I graduated from college, I was fortunate to get a job offer from HP. That was then.<br></div></div></blockquote><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">When I started (1975), my community college had three classes in CS: one each in Basic programming, Fortran, and Assembly (I took all three). You could also take the business classes in Cobol, which I declined to do.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><blockquote type="cite" id="qt"><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;" class="qt-ydp4d18dcd6yahoo-style-wrap"><div dir="ltr">For someone currently looking for a software position, the questions are <br></div><ol><li>What languages and applications are currently in demand? dice.com has a number of articles about languages and wages and who is hiring. <br></li><li>Which of those languages / applications do you know and can put on your resume?<br></li></ol></div></blockquote><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">I'd argue against DICE in the current era. I don't believe they give an accurate picture of the market any more. I have seen the same job listed by at least six companies and it's *clearly* the same job because of some of the specifics. I think this gives an inflated sense of how many jobs are in X. I also think that there are a lot of agencies where they are trying to undercut locals and get bids and then blow them out of the water. So.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">I haven't gotten a phone call from a DICE prospect that was worth the bits it was written in since at least 2008. Maybe longer.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><blockquote type="cite" id="qt"><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;" class="qt-ydp4d18dcd6yahoo-style-wrap"><div dir="ltr">One company screens potential
applicants by sending a "challenge" software problem. You are given a
limited time to send in your solution. Someone I know was potentially a
good fit, but he blew his chance. He didn't see the email until 2 days
later. Then he discovered that he didn't have a compiler installed on
his computer. The clock ran out before he got started.<br></div></div></blockquote><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Always have a compiler (even if you're a web developer, srsly). Always have it current. Always have your build chain current. Always have a project you can run unit and functional tests against.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Always have your major languages current, even the ones that may not be your primary (for me, that's python as I consider ruby my primary scripting language). Keep all your packages up to date.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Get on github (or equivalent). Learn how to fork (seriously, people will not take offense, or should not) and do a pull request. <br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-a-pull-request-on-github">https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-a-pull-request-on-github</a><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Read the currently open issues. If there are untagged issues, see if that's something you can help with if you're so inclined. If there's a project you're interested in, see if there are "help-wanted" tags or "starter-bugs" kind of tags.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Those kinds of projects show that *you know how to collaborate with other engineers in the modern era.* That is far, far, far more useful than DICE for a hiring *manager* (but not a recruiter).<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Deirdre</div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div></body></html>