I have a weird situation and if you don't mind, I would like to ask for your advice.
I'm having hard time getting hired, both onsite and remotely.
To be honest with you, I really suck at marketing myself.
I'm a Computer Scientist and I had worked in IT for 11 years and currently I'm unemployed for 3.
So far I have been in Tech Support my whole career life with an exception of 2 years as Web Developer.
Every time I would attempt to start as a developer, I would get either rejected or labeled as overqualified.
One possible interpretation could be my age; I'm 36 years old.
What confuses me the most is that when I interview for an opened position, they would let know that I'm a senior developer on a personal level.
To answer your possible question as of why they would reply in this way, let me tell you what (I think) I know and what I like doing during my free time:
Others enjoy solving crossword puzzles and sudoku, playing MMORPG games, and go out for a beer; I love playing with programming languages, libraries, and frameworks.
What languages do I like fooling around?
* shell scripting - automations, automations, automations!
* C - One day I will acquire Fabrice Bellard's 1 millionth of expertise and start doing incredible things like him. I'm looking at you Tiny C Compiler!
* C++ - I can't wait to see modules in actual use with C++ in combination with Concepts. It's a hard language to fully understand, but it worths the effort.
* PHP - For WordPress, its fork [ClassicPress], and Laravel. I did not like Laravel for some reason; it's alright though, but I prefer Django and Flask.
* Python - Cython language, Django, Flask, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, web scraping...so many things to list here that I find interesting!
* Perl - don't ask me why, but I LOVE this language's syntax. I don't use it that much though, but one day I will build a project to keep my head spinning.
* Nim - If you like Python's elegance, LISP's macros, and C's performance...well, there you have it!
* Lua - I haven't played a lot with this language, but it's so easy to use. I keep my eyes on Titan and Pallene programming languages which are AOT compiled sister languages to Lua.
* Ocaml - I want to learn a functional programming language to keep my head active. I plan to play with Haskell too for the sake of mental "physique".
There are so many things to list here that I'm really interested in.
What I lack is specialization and I'm doing my best to remedy this.
I can't stay unemployed forever and be forced to depend on my family at this age.
Can anyone help me figure out ways to stand on my feet?
Go BS your way into a Wordpress job, and find side gigs. Alternatively, rely on your family for a bit longer, and build a product. You have the knowledge necessary, so get in gear, do what you have to, and kick some ass.
Are you applying for junior, mid-level, or senior positions?
If I were in your shoes, I'd definitely be targeting mid-level plus. Your experience plus age makes your decision making more valuable. It's possible you are undershooting the mark.
As others have said, maybe aim for some low hanging fruit dev jobs. Wordpress is everywhere, with your skills, you should be able to get one of those easy. Also, don't bother listing all that other stuff on a Wordpress application, just put that you have 11 years of experience and put a few Wordpress projects. You can replace "wordpress" with any other low hanging fruit.
I don't know you, so don't take this personally, but you should also consider it may not be your tech chops, but some other soft skill that's holding you back...
You could try quantifying the number of jobs available for different technologies. Then match up one of your existing skills with a large portion of the market (I would guess PHP + Python would be easiest because the others are either niche or have more difficult hiring processes). Settle on getting one particular type of job (e.g. Magento PHP developer), study a bit, and try practice interviews online while you apply.
Worst case scenario the companies won't like you and you'll be turned down.
It sounds like the hiring managers are getting mixed up by your resume. If you aren't already doing this, you should focus your resume for the specific job and leave out years of experience in other non-applicable technologies. It wouldn't hurt to include a few links to your open source work in the resume if you've been coding in X language for years (you could try contributing to a popular open source project too but that might be tough). There are likely resume review processes you could use that could give you advice (btw, feel free to post a link if you already have it in digital format and I'd check it out).
For getting in the door with a junior/mid level job you should try using a recruiter. They get a bad rap but their interests mostly align with yours at this point. They get paid when you land a job so they'll hound employers pretty aggressively and fight to bump up your hourly rate. Try updating your LinkedIn profile with a format tailored to the type of job you want to get and they'll probably reach out to you. Already having 2 years of development experience is good.
People have varying opinions on whether to multi-task during your job search so you could hold down a side job or do freelance work. Since you haven't been in the industry for a few years I would probably suggest just going all in on prepping. Focus on what technology you want to hone, tailor your profiles for that, practice interviewing/project building with that, and put applications out.
6 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 13.9 ms ] threadI have a weird situation and if you don't mind, I would like to ask for your advice.
I'm having hard time getting hired, both onsite and remotely.
To be honest with you, I really suck at marketing myself.
I'm a Computer Scientist and I had worked in IT for 11 years and currently I'm unemployed for 3.
So far I have been in Tech Support my whole career life with an exception of 2 years as Web Developer.
Every time I would attempt to start as a developer, I would get either rejected or labeled as overqualified.
One possible interpretation could be my age; I'm 36 years old.
What confuses me the most is that when I interview for an opened position, they would let know that I'm a senior developer on a personal level.
To answer your possible question as of why they would reply in this way, let me tell you what (I think) I know and what I like doing during my free time:
Others enjoy solving crossword puzzles and sudoku, playing MMORPG games, and go out for a beer; I love playing with programming languages, libraries, and frameworks.
What languages do I like fooling around?
There are so many things to list here that I'm really interested in.What I lack is specialization and I'm doing my best to remedy this.
I can't stay unemployed forever and be forced to depend on my family at this age.
Can anyone help me figure out ways to stand on my feet?
Cheers.
If I were in your shoes, I'd definitely be targeting mid-level plus. Your experience plus age makes your decision making more valuable. It's possible you are undershooting the mark.
As others have said, maybe aim for some low hanging fruit dev jobs. Wordpress is everywhere, with your skills, you should be able to get one of those easy. Also, don't bother listing all that other stuff on a Wordpress application, just put that you have 11 years of experience and put a few Wordpress projects. You can replace "wordpress" with any other low hanging fruit.
You may want to try some practice interviews like on https://interviewing.io/
Worst case scenario the companies won't like you and you'll be turned down.
It sounds like the hiring managers are getting mixed up by your resume. If you aren't already doing this, you should focus your resume for the specific job and leave out years of experience in other non-applicable technologies. It wouldn't hurt to include a few links to your open source work in the resume if you've been coding in X language for years (you could try contributing to a popular open source project too but that might be tough). There are likely resume review processes you could use that could give you advice (btw, feel free to post a link if you already have it in digital format and I'd check it out).
For getting in the door with a junior/mid level job you should try using a recruiter. They get a bad rap but their interests mostly align with yours at this point. They get paid when you land a job so they'll hound employers pretty aggressively and fight to bump up your hourly rate. Try updating your LinkedIn profile with a format tailored to the type of job you want to get and they'll probably reach out to you. Already having 2 years of development experience is good.
People have varying opinions on whether to multi-task during your job search so you could hold down a side job or do freelance work. Since you haven't been in the industry for a few years I would probably suggest just going all in on prepping. Focus on what technology you want to hone, tailor your profiles for that, practice interviewing/project building with that, and put applications out.