Particularly in the IT (software development) field. Obviously the No. 1 thing is “never give up”. I started looking about 9 months ago when I felt “the need to look”: both for defense (fear of lay off) and offense (opportunities better matching my interest and skill). I had to admit finding a job is not an easy thing in this environment. Why look for another job while one still has a job (besides the main reason behind the change)? The simple answer is, only when a person still has a job or other sources of income, he/she will have the space to look for something better.
(Source: Brandies U.)
Strategy and Job search sites I used
Work on Resume and Cover Letter: fortunately my brother (who have more experience on this topic) helped me quite a bit. It does make a difference.
joelOnSoftware: this web site from best selling software engineering book “Joel On Software” author also features a very unique job board.
Craigslist: I found my current position via this. I added local IT job RSS feed to My Yahoo (to save the clicks).
All the leads of phone interviews (2 last year, 2 this year) are from those two sites.
LinkedIn and Glassdoor: not big in terms of number of jobs, but mostly are relevant leads.
The good old Monster.com
Use recruiter: IT recruiter is fairly common in the field. There are a lot pro and cons discussed on the web. I think we don’t need to be religious about this. Recruiters need to feed their families too. As long as we know who is the “boss” in the “search” process, we will be fine (similar arguments goes to real estate brokers). Here I also want to thank a gentleman who shared his thoughts on “job security” with me.
Remote test
Besides initial screen questions (both HR and technical via phone, and written questions from HR), remote programming tests are becoming more common. I lost two weekends on those, but in the process I re-discovered what I liked to do.
Last but not least, a new job is just the new beginning. However, as an old saying goes, “a good beginning is half the work”, so let’s not forget perform on the new job 😀