[vox-jobs] Lots of places to talk to; little response, so far

[Bill Kendrick]

[ Warning:  I'm doing a big brain dump / update, for those curious as to
  how it's going for me, or just interested in what the market looks like
  from my skewed point of view.  Hopefully it's not too much babble, and not
  too much personal information. ;^)  Crud... I need to go to bed now, too! ]


That subject sounds negative (the "little response" part), but I'm
actually kind of hopeful, based on the sheer number of companies I've found
that look like I might be a suitable fit for.

Of course, right now, my aim is all over the place:  web development,
game development, embedded software development.  (That list might sound
impressive, but trust me, I've gone for the 'wide and shallow' versus the
'narrow and deep', so I'm almost positive I'm not "the best candidate" for
a lot of places, but I'm definitely /well rounded/!)


Anyway, I just sent off a cover-letter-like introduction of myself over
to MontaVista.  (I was catching up with news at LinuxDevices.com and
saw them mentioned as being behind a new Linux-based mobile phone from
Moto-"Hello, Moto"-rola.)


So so far, I've posted my resume at 13 job/resume sites
(e.g., Dice, Monster, etc.).  Three of them have been local
(sacjobs, sacbee, sacramento.craigslist), and three of them have been
specific to Linux (mojolin, hotlinuxjobs, linuxdevices).


I've had some degree of contact with 6 recruiting agencies
(including TekSystems, where I was contracting for Worldcom).
Two or three have actively tried to get ahold of me for more info.,
but honestly, I've been steering away from them; for the moment, at least.

For the most part, I feel they're "vulturing" after me, after having seen
my post on (or having it sold to them by) one of those 13 job/resume sites.



I've contacted 38 game development companies.  (I went through a big list
of developers/publishers on some 'game development search engine' website,
as well as wandering around Fry's looking at the backs of boxes in the
"PalmOS & PocketPC Games" aisle.)

Of the actual responses I've gotten, I've received 4 "Not hiring right now"
responses.  One company's response was "Only hiring unpaid interns,"
although after getting a closer look at my work, they sent me an NDA and
said they might have a project for me.  Sadly, their first choice for the
job got back to them, so I didn't get whatever job it would have been.
(It sounded Linux-related, I think, actually;  they were previously
incontacted with Ryan "Icculus" Gordon, apparently!)



For what I call "Linux" jobs (e.g., 'not game' and 'not web'), I contacted
Google, Nokia, Sharp, IBM and another place that was hiring for Texas Inst.
(In most of these cases, "Contacted" really means "Entered my resume into
their web form and hit [Submit]")

Google responded negatively (I guess I wasn't qualified :^) )



Finally, I contacted 4 places (including 2 smaller, local ones) for
web development jobs.  The only response I got was from one of the local
ones looking for a Perl programmer, and while she did get back to me
(apparently I've done 'cool' work, in their eyes), since I admitted I was
nothing close to a Perl expert, I didn't get that one.



In the meantime, I've been accepted as one of 8 developers to form a new
Linux game development company under the wing of Linux Game Publishing.
This isn't a Salary job, though; it's a "we pay you XYZ% of revenue,
then you split it amongst yourselves."

That means:  Probably not much money, and definitely no time soon.
(OTOH, it's fun, hugely fame-generating -- we were on Slashdot yesterday! --
and only "requires" 10hrs a week to not piss people off.)


I've also got a very slowly-moving and not-much-paying web job I'm doing
for a friend (most of the work was done, it just needs integration and
some nifty magic automation... he's even moved it from Windows IIS server
to Unix, and is now going to move it to an even better Un*x: Linux servers
at Sonic.net... to make the job as easy as possible for me.  Kudos to him!)



And, well, that's about it!  I've kept myself busy with the LGP game dev. co.
stuff, blasting my resume out to at least one new place every one or two
days, and working on a proof-of-concept demo game, which I doubt I'll
have much time to work on
( http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/cts/ ).


Oh yeah, then there's LUGOD and Tux Paint.  And I need to clean the house,
and I want to get more exercise, and... and damn!... being unemployed sure
seems busier than being employed!

;^)


-- 
bill@newbreedsoftware.com                                            Hire me!
http://newbreedsoftware.com/bill/    http://newbreedsoftware.com/bill/resume/