<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><title class=""></title><style type="text/css" class="">p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style><div class=""><div style="font-family:Arial;" class="">If others have useful input specific to the field generally (as well as the bay area in particular), I'm all ears.</div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class="">The sad state for developers with significant experience who haven't been doing it for a while professionally (e.g., me):<br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class="">1. There are more CS grads than ever before.<br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class="">2. They are better prepared than ever before.<br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class="">3. They are prepared on skills that didn't exist when we entered the workforce.<br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class="">Your resume needs to really communicate that you're as prepared and dedicated to doing the job as they are.<br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class="">Please tune *every* resume if possible. Why? The volume of resumes has dramatically increased over the years, and so essentially it's a search engine optimization type of problem. Alas. <a href="https://www.jobscan.co/" class="">https://www.jobscan.co</a> has helped me get interviews. (I will note they don't help for Apple's applicant tracking system, which is internally written.)<br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class="">I recommend grinding on Hacker Rank or Leetcode if you haven't. IMHO, they're not important (or even particularly interesting) problems for the most part, but they do help flex the brain muscles and keep the algorithm knowledge swapped in.<br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><a href="https://www.hackerrank.com/" class="">https://www.hackerrank.com/</a><br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><a href="https://leetcode.com" class="">https://leetcode.com</a></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class="">Interview Cake has the most interesting questions, but the least breadth of languages to work in afaik:</div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><font face="Arial" class=""><a href="https://www.interviewcake.com" class="">https://www.interviewcake.com</a></font></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div id="sig13506521" class=""><div class="signature">-- <br class=""></div><div class="signature"> Deirdre Saoirse Moen<br class=""></div><div class="signature"> <a href="mailto:deirdre@deirdre.net" class="">deirdre@deirdre.net</a><br class=""></div><div class="signature"><br class=""></div></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">On Thu, Feb 13, 2020, at 7:28 AM, Elise Scher wrote:<br class=""></div><blockquote type="cite" id="qt" class=""><div dir="auto" class=""><div class="">Hi People,<br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class=""> I just need a job. Please help. I used to program for a living for 16 years.<br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">Thanks,<br class=""></div><div dir="auto" class="">Elise Scher<br class=""></div></div></blockquote><div style="font-family:Arial;" class=""><br class=""></div></div></body></html>