Thoughts on pro-actively seeking employment

It can't harm... its one of the most pushed ways when your at school, college, unemployed, etc. for finding a job but the reality is it doesn't really work.

You may get lucky if you have something outstanding on your CV or happen to have experience/qualifications for an opening they have, but 999/1000 your CV will end up in the bin.

I had a little more results than some people with that method but mostly it was along the lines of "we liked what we saw on your CV but have no openings at the moment, try again in a few months".
 
MikeHiow said:
Yes, there is absolutely no mention of any skills in design - I'm terrible at design, if I'm honest.
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I just realised I actually have your C.V on my desk. It looks decent, If you have time on your hands try to learn some Drupal, Joomla and WP. Those technologies are a golden ticket to development jobs at the moment.
 
RickST said:
I just realised I actually have your C.V on my desk. It looks decent, If you have time on your hands try to learn some Drupal, Joomla and WP. Those technologies are a golden ticket to development jobs at the moment.
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You do? how?

I have to say, I despise these bloaty CMS', which is why I've spent so much time developing my own framework/CMS. But I guess if that is how the industry is going, I have little choice :/
 
MikeHiow said:
Yes, there is absolutely no mention of any skills in design - I'm terrible at design, if I'm honest.
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Cool - so on the back-end then, which your going to have to be pretty good at to make up for the design side, what do you do?

.net/ruby/php/mod_perl? Know about developing against different CMS's? Do you have experience with setting up Apache/IIS etc? It pays better when you specialise - so how are you pitching yourself?
 
MikeHiow said:
What are people's thoughts on pro-actively sending CVs to local employers even though they are not advertising a position?
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Back in the late 90's to early 00's it seemed to be quite normal to be able to send your CV out and be offered a job. Many larger companies used to just suck up talent whether they were recruiting or not.

I don't think this is the case any more, especially with the recession and current bad times. I certainly didn't have any success.

I also share your pain with recruitment agencies. It seemed that every job they advertised was too good to be true and didn't actually exist when I enquired. What a bunch of ball-lickers. I hate recruitment agencies.
 
MikeHiow said:
You do? how?

I have to say, I despise these bloaty CMS', which is why I've spent so much time developing my own framework/CMS. But I guess if that is how the industry is going, I have little choice :/
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You must have posted it on here a while ago i guess, or perhaps a recruiter? I'm not sure.

The industry is moving towards rapid builds using massive open-source communities. The reality is that with complex builds there is no point writing every line of code yourself when someone has already done the work for you.

Bloat is certainly a problem though, a big one. Technologies such as APC, Memcache and varnish hide the problem but its still there, lurking.

If you are interested I am sure I could at least get you an interview here, [email protected]
 
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UncleBensSauce said:
Cool - so on the back-end then, which your going to have to be pretty good at to make up for the design side, what do you do?

.net/ruby/php/mod_perl? Know about developing against different CMS's? Do you have experience with setting up Apache/IIS etc? It pays better when you specialise - so how are you pitching yourself?
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It's easier to show you: http://portfolio.mike-hughes.net/MikeHughesCV.pdf

RickST said:
You must have posted it on here a while ago i guess, or perhaps a recruiter? I'm not sure.

The industry is moving towards rapid builds using massive open-source communities. The reality is that with complex builds there is no point writing every line of course yourself when someone has already done the work for you.

Bloat is certainly a problem though, a big one. Technologies such as APC, Memcache and varnish hide the problem but its still there, lurking.
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I don't know what your project manager is like, but where I am currently everything has to function exactly as per spec, which wouldn't be a problem, but it often isn't mindful of the tools being used - this makes using open source frameworks a nightmare if they do something slightly differently.

I wrote my framework and CMS mostly in my own time for this very reason, and I'm currently in the process of re-writing it so I can take it with me to a new employer without fear of issues with my existing one (and to address those inevitable "should have done that differently" parts).

Ps. You have trust :)
 
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just don't stop. and don't give up i got one response out of 70 odd and i got that job ^^
 
It's not a fun task, currently doing the same myself and trying transition to different industries.

Keep at it.

Next for me is utilising contacts :D
 
I'm not having much fun with the job hunt at the moment.

Finally got some interviews for some big companies lined up, but one is 250 miles away which I'm not too keen about (but will probably go for the experience, and if the package they would offer is very good then I could be tempted) and the other would mean about £500 a month in travel costs :( But least I can still live at our home for that one.
 
Ev0 said:
I'm not having much fun with the job hunt at the moment.

Finally got some interviews for some big companies lined up, but one is 250 miles away which I'm not too keen about (but will probably go for the experience, and if the package they would offer is very good then I could be tempted) and the other would mean about £500 a month in travel costs :( But least I can still live at our home for that one.
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250 miles!?!? You would relocate right?
 
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