Job opportunities?

[Lowell Hamilton]

I have had decent success in the past 4 months picking up short term
contracts and maintenance agreements - enough to pay the bills which is
the important thing.  Phoenix is a lousy place to find a job right now
and about the only jobs are all found through word of mouth and not via
job postings.  

If you can find long term, consider yourself one of the lucky few.  If
not, try and take on some short term contracts or quick-fix jobs for
small companies.  They may only be a couple of days or weeks, but they
are experience .. plus, if you work for one company they might recommend
you to another, which recommends you again, and finally you get hired. 

Go in, make an excellent impression, and get the work done right.  You
might even want to make up business cards. (even if you are just an
individual, it gives your clients/employers something to hand to their
friends).  Don't expect the magic salaries of a couple of years ago, but
as an independent you can still charge quite a bit. (Make sure to stash
away about 40% of your checks from 1099 and independent work into a
savings account for taxes next year).  

If all that fails, get a job doing anything you can and spend your
nights burried in an O'Reilly book or on Safari and challenge yourself
to learn and build things you havn't done before.  You can never know
enough, and unfortunately one little app you are unfamiliar with can be
the difference between getting a job and being passed over.

Join the geek-jobs if you havn't already (http://www.geekjobs.org ) - go
to socials and events, meet people, etc .. It may take a month or two,
but you will find something.  One of my most pleasurable work
experiences was referred to me by a bagger at the grocery store that saw
my Linux bumper sticker.  

Lowell


-- 
: Lowell Hamilton     syz@b r o k e n - b i t . c o m :
: Linux  OpenBSD  IDS/firewall  Security  QMail  Perl :


On Tue, 2002-02-12 at 23:20, Kevin Brown wrote:
> I know I'm not the only one in this situation, but thought I'd ask you guys. 
> I'm wondering if anyone might have some pointers on part-time work.
> 
> I guess I could always get a job flipping burgers or renting movies out, but I'm
> hoping for a job that needs a little more brains and uses more of my skills.
> 
> I have experience with Linux (RedHat 4.2 - 7.2 Alpha and X86), Solaris (7/8 on
> Sparc), Windows (9x, NT, 2K), Networking (wiring, switches/hubs [unmanaged
> type], software configuration) and a small host of various applications.
> 
> If it helps others (and doesn't offend anyone in this group) maybe the pointers
> could be posted to the group so that others could also take advantage of them.
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