I’ve already talked about this on Twitter, but that doesn’t have much use nor context if you don’t follow me on Twitter, or if you’re not on it because you don’t see any value in it.  Twitter is a lonely place without friends to talk to and/or follow, so it can have a perceived higher barrier of entry if you don’t feel like you have much incentive to invest time in it.  I’m here to tell you it’s my primary way of making my living now through networking.

Networking has always been at the core of how I’ve obtained new opportunities in my career.  Knowing the right people is the #1 thing you can do to improve your career and get the best opportunities.  You should strive to NOT have a resume, and good networking is one way to do it.  The good opportunities don’t always specifically seek you out, and increasing your exposure increases your ability to potentially spot them.  Twitter is just another form of networking.  The lines between personal life and professional are unfortunately very blurred there, but suffice it to say being myself has not negatively affected my career options as I perceive it.

I was talking to a recruiter yesterday, and the conversation went how it always goes: Hey, interested, wrong work style & too low pay, here I’ll refer you.  The longer version is:

“Hey, are you interested in this gig?”

“Possibly, what do they want?”

“Contract to W2, on-site only with no remote working, for half of what you are making on consulting.”

“No thank you.  Since you’re a nice sounding recruiter, send me an email and I’ll send you a list of potential contractors with notes on who is probably appropriate.”

The change yesterday in this oft repeated conversation for the past 4 years is:

“If I may ask, how do you obtain most of your opportunities nowadays?”

When I answered Twitter, I thought back to the history and relayed it to him.  Friends at college, then Monster.com, then email in code, then Google indexing my blog, and now Twitter.  Things that haven’t worked for me are LinkedIn.com and Facebook.  LinkedIn usually just forwards me more recruiter emails.  Recruiter emails and phone calls, assuming they speak good English, are worth my time because sometimes an opportunity I forward actually does get acted upon.  What goes around comes around, and in turn those contractors/consultants/W2 devs I network with will in turn send me opportunities.  So I technically do get paid by being a part time recruiter, just in a different fashion.

In conclusion, I just wanted to point out on the place where I used to get all of my work, my blog, where I now get most of my work, on Twitter.  Currently this blog appears to have a larger, and more prolonged audience, so hopefully this’ll spark new opportunities for those of you who are either not on Twitter for this sole purpose, or are but just haven’t realized you can obtain employment in this fashion.  I felt it was interesting now that I had some time to reflect, and am curious if it is just a fad, or perhaps a trend.  If it IS a trend, how are traditional avenues going to react?

The following are some tips that have worked for me and may help you maximize your potential in getting employment on Twitter:

Follow People in Your Industry

They may have opportunities they’ll actually post about.  Alternatively, if you post you are looking, they are usually most apt to know where to point you for potential opportunities.  Remember, people cannot direct message you  (which also sends you an email) unless you follow them, so if you refuse to follow them back, at least provide a way for people to contact you.  Having an email on your website seems brainless, but I unfortunately see many blogs and portfolio sites with NO way to contact the owner.  “Hey, I have a check for $10 million dollars with your name on it… hello?  I guess I’ll just give it to someone else, then?”.  If you are worried about spam, utilize gmail.com.  You don’t have to change your email address; Gmail supports routing your existing email address through their POP servers so you can utilize their pimp Spam blocking.

State Simply You Want Work

If you are looking for an opportunity, state simply what you are looking for, and that you are looking for work.  It should be short enough that others can retweet it (your message with an RT in front of it).  This means give room in Twitter’s allotted 114 characters for your message + your name + RT plus a space.  The more the better because it can then be re-tweeted by multiple people.

Proof Read Your Message

Make sure it has correct spelling, and states clearly your intent.  You only get 1 shot at this.

Have a Clean History

Make sure your previous messages (4 minimum) have something that isn’t aversive to your potential employment.  If you cuss, make sure to make some tweets without curse words.  Link to industry relevant articles and/or talk about pertinent things in your industry.  Space your tweets out at least an hour or so in case the reader see’s your frequency and decides to go back to find less savory tweets.  Remember, there is no such thing as “delete” on the web.

Post during the Height of Activity

For me, this is around 10:00 AM EST GMT-5.  The hardcore east coast twitterers have already broken new news, and the international crowd is either turning in for the evening, or just winding down their work day.  The early risers in the west coast are just waking up, and checking Twitter just like they check their email.  This will maximize your exposure.

Use Twitter’s Email Marketing “Spam Feature”

If are pointed to someone who may have an opportunity, follow them on Twitter.  This’ll usually spawn Twitter to email them.  They’ll get a link in their inbox to your profile on Twitter.  If they click it, your employment request message will be at the top, and the first thing they see next to your Twitter icon and hopefully relevant profile information.  This is a cheap form of email marketing.  I, like the majority of people, hate Spam… but it works, hence why it still occurs.

Keep Your Job Tweet Around

Leave your tweet up awhile without making new ones.  You want to ensure it stays around awhile for those to read it.

Say Thank You

Finally, say thank you to your network afterwords.

Good luck!

Overall responsibilities

• Contribute to the design, architecture, development, and deployment of all web/server development projects.
• Ensure that a best-practices approach is taken regarding all stages and aspects of technology projects.
• Assist in making high-level, technology decisions, with a keen eye towards innovation and scalability.

Qualifications

• Seven plus years experience in software development (with at least five years in web/lamp server application development), with exposure to the full development life-cycle required.
• Expert-level proficiency in object-oriented LAMP-stack environment. Specific expertise in Python is desired. Experience with Django is a strong plus.
• Experience with FLASH / FLEX desired.
• Experience setting up web based storefront desired. Experience with Satchmo a plus.
• Experience contributing to enterprise class software projects a must.
• Proficiency in AJAX and Web 2.0 development methodologies.
• Demonstrable working knowledge of Javascript.
• Development experience with the MySQL and/or Postgres database. Historical use of federated databases a plus.
• Solid understanding of Apache 1.3.x and 2.x operations and integration in a Linux/Unix environment.
• Experience working with open source tools and applications, with prior participation and contribution in open source projects a plus.
• Experience with MPEG 4, h.264, and open source video manipulation tools a plus.
• Ability to work independently with no hand-holding.
• Ability to work in a rapidly changing environment and exhibit grace under pressure.
• Experience with cloud computing a plus.
• Experience with the entire software life-cycle – analysis, design, implementation, quality assurance, deployment, and maintenance.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving and communications skills (must be able to do basic technical writing in English).

While the ideal candidate will be located in the the South Bay Area, working remotely will be considered if skills and experience and location warrant it.

Instructions

To apply for this position, submit your resume, in plain text, HTML, Doc or PDF (PDF preferred), to staffing@viaas.com.
VIAAS is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of any status or condition protected by applicable federal or state law.

My main qualitative metric is simple; how many job offers I get in the month of March.  Traditionally, March has been the month where I get the largest amount of job/contract/consulting/startup opportunities.  Therefore, it’s become my metric for the past 5 years or so.  Other qualitative metrics I use is the ratio of employers asking me for candidates vs. the amount of candidates asking me for opportunities.

Last year’s was positive.  This year’s is negative.  This is one of the worst March’s I’ve seen since 2002.  Granted, back then we we’re still reeling from the dot-com-bomb as well as 9/11 and no one knew me back then.  Many of us on Twitter were mocking the “recession” back in December, countering “What recession?” and citing tech blogs that mentioned how the tech sector won’t be as badly affected as other industries as well as the continued influx of work.

Slowly, but surely, I started seeing business slow for people in December.  I still got a trickle of recruiter positions, all on-site.  As January hit, the opposite of what usually happens, happened.  First, I started getting my list of contractors and others emailing me asking for work.  Others who often had a surplus of work no longer had a surplus.  Some have panicked and lowered their rates, hoping to compete on price.  Those who have succeeded to continually get work appear to have strong sales skills, or access to existing client relationships.

Broadly speaking, a lot of contractors/consultants were reporting false starts to projects from December onwards.  My assumption is the fact that a lot of banks (successful & failing) weren’t giving loans to the companies who funded the projects.  In turn, those companies had to extend the start date out of those projects until they could determine the project funding source.  This in turn caused consulting firms and contractors to have to wait longer than normal to start a new gig.  A lot of times the projects would just never happen because of this.  Worse, this happened not just to 1 client in the queue, but all of them.  This in turn lead to firms not making payroll, or contractors just not having work for awhile.

On the flip-side, I’ve seen employers taking advantage of the situation.  Whether searching for lower prices knowing they are out there or seeking top talent from those companies shedding them.

While I typically use February & March as a metric for the year, things have picked up here in April.  The typical percentage, for me personally, on where I get my project offers are (this isn’t indicative of projects I actively do):

• 60% networking
• 35% my internet presence
• 5% recruiters

This has held true even in the bad times.  Twitter, LinkedIn, and my blog have led to more gigs than my actively searching online.  The only difference now compared to last year is that its been more active vs. passive.  Meaning, I’ve actively searched on Twitter, my blog, and LinkedIn including asking my networking contacts for gigs vs. just deciding amongst the stream of offers that was 2006, 2007, and 2008.

For context, things were horrible for me, and my friends, in 2001 & 2002.  Additionally, I do not consider the “global economic recession” as the BBC calls it too huge a deal for white collar jobs because I’ve seen the bad parts of Detroit in a good economic time.  Things are not that bad.  To put it another way, they could be SOO much worse.  Regardless, history repeats itself, and February & March have always been good indicators of the year.

There are plenty of blog postings I’ve seen on AXNA and others that discuss what you can do to weather this recession if you’re in the web technology field.  I agree with some, disagree with others.  What I do know is based on the work I still get:

• Flash Developers are still in need; knowledge of creating video players and dynamic Flash content from XML a plus
• Flex Developers who can write custom components or are capable of doing consulting around frameworks (lolz Yakov!) are also still in need.  Many existing software development teams are still transitioning to Flex and need help getting over the humps.
• if you’re willing to travel and do on-site work, you’ll have a lot of opportunities vs. being strictly remote
• if you compete on price, people will gladly accept your lower rates (I recommend the opposite)

Like some have predicated, things aren’t great, but they certainly aren’t as bad as they were back in 2002.  If you do Flash or Flex, keep your chin up.  While slow, things are pretty decent all things considered.  Good luck the rest of the year.

The differences compared to the late summer of 2006 are as follows.

First, some of the start ups have money now. Instead of “We’re so awesome, you’ll want to work for equity because you’ll be so cool in 6 months to have even been associated with us” it’s now, “We’re still cool, and now we can pay you a salary, and company benefits if that’s your thing.”

Second, the recruiters are finally giving in to referral bonuses. This apparently was usually in the realm of bigger companies, placing management type positions, etc. That, or you just had to ask to imply it, and thus get it. I’m somewhat selective on who I send out my contractor list to. If I get 5 emails from various recruiters for the exact same job opportunity, typically the “first in, best English” email gets the list. If the recruiter is really cool, and like… actually cares, I’ll even give my spiel on those contractors I know stuff about. I’ve even seen the same particular jobs pop-up for the past 8 months. While this could be for a number of reasons (talent shortage, toxic client, etc.), the bottom line is that the recruiters are using leverage in the form of referral bonuses to draw out more contacts from people since there aren’t many like me who throw around a pre-sorted list with optional commentary.

Third, the work is still unpredictable. I was hoping for some common themes 5 years into this, but apparently not. Who am I kidding, I love it. While it is challenging to summarize the the type of work since some of the recruiters are not in this country, do not accept incoming phone calls, or simply don’t know enough about the position they are placing candidates for, I have a pretty good idea. That said, the work in the Flash realm is pretty predictable:
– Custom/branded video players. People want something that accentuates their entertainment budget they’ve already spent millions on. Having a YouTube or Brightcove branded player detracts from that.
– Widgets

The interesting thing about widgets is that it’s currently about half and half with Flex. Some of the widgets are design driven; those use Flash. The others are multi-purpose, used inside existing websites or on other platforms; those use Flex. Really random.

The Flex stuff is impossible to categorize. While debates still rage about when to use what technology, when, and where, a lot of companies already know, and are hiring talent for those endeavors. For those that don’t, they hire competent Flash Developers, and they then morph into full-time Flex Developers, usually by accident.

Fourth, remote work is offered without having to ask. Y-gen‘s like me who are all about living the Digital Bedouin work style lifestyle, this is a must. It’s pretty easy to end conversations with recruiters over the phone/email:

“Do they support remote work / telecommuting?”

“No, they do not.”

“Not interested. Thanks! Bye.” :: click ::

Now, I’m getting emails, more so from employers directly, offering remote work for projects if it’s needed. Not encouraged, but accepted. Awesome.

Just because the Flex momentum has died down now that 2 has been out awhile, everyone is enamored with Flex 3 beta & AIR, and Flash CS3 has allowed the Flash Developers to start using AS3 the employment scene in this industry is still strong. Talent is still in short supply. Existing programmers are still picking up and running with Flex very easily. Sometimes (not all unfortunately) this results in them needing help on the design front, usually resulting in trying to find Flash Developers or Flex peeps with a Flash / Design background.

If you have a job, it sucks, and you know how to code in Flash or Flex, it’s not too late to jet for greener pastures with opportunity. If you are not on my contractor list, and want to be, lemme know what type of work you like and send me an email. I send this list to employers and recruiters who are looking for Flash / Flex talent.

Location: Phoenix, Arizona area. Telecommuting OK.

Compensation: Mutually agreeable project fee. Immediate opportunity

Email: mlipsky@gabsight.com