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[Andrew Nisbet]

Hi, I am in serious need of some career advice, and I hope posting this will get me some. I was laid-off a little over 5 months ago, and have had zero luck finding a new job. It seams that I submit resumes to a black hole never to be seen or heard from again. I have a BS in Computer science, about a years worth of solid experience(mostly VB, ASP, and PHP, but some Java) and I am taking the SCJP exam today. The Town I currently live in is pretty small college town , but I have been applying for jobs in most of the major metroplitan areas of the US. with no luck. I am thinking I should just move to one of these cites, but I am hesitiant to just pick a city and move thier without any prospects. I am really having a hard time figuring out what to do next, so any feedback would be much appreciated.
Thanks All

[Vladan Radovanovic]

There are a number of answers to posts similar to yours already here. Search the forum a little bit to get an answer. Personally, I don't believe your resume will be even looked at unless you live in that metropolitan area where you are applying. If I were You, I would pick an area with the most jobs or the one closest to you, get a cell phone with that area code and just make up an address to put on your resume. That way you really don't have to move until you get a job and you will save yourself from all the expenses that moving can incur.

[Rufus BugleWeed]

I just did two job searches on dice.com
search word was java
posts for last seven days
Washington DC 189 hits
My metro area 31 hits
DC is brighter if you have a top secret clearance.

[John King]

Rufus: Which part of the world are you at?

[Rufus BugleWeed]

Gateway to the West, St. Louis, MO
Now that I think about it 31 is probably high number for my market. There's a guy who updates his posts everyday. He's only looking for the perfect candidate, IMHO. I've seen him post the same position for months. He flys under the flag of Pace Staffing.
[ September 13, 2002: Message edited by: Rufus Bugleweed ]

[Charlie Sturman]

prepare for the worm to turn
Stay where you are at and work on advancing your skills.
Once the IT market picks up and it will,you will not have free time or energy to make yourself a better programmer.
There really is a ton of new technology to learn.

[Rufus BugleWeed]

It's true you won't need certificates, exact credentials, and 8 years of experience in Java.
Just a pulse will do.
A person could starve between now and then.

[Jim Baiter]

How do you really know the "worm will turn"? The IT buzzword now is integration - buy and assemble, not build. This means IT development jobs will decrease significantly. Granted, there will be dev jobs for the vendors but the overall numbers will be cut significantly should this integration strategy prevail. I would say the admin role could experience increased demand with integration. It might not be a bad strategy to pick up some credentials in that area along with development.
[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: Jim Baiter ]

[Charlie Sturman]

Originally posted by Jim Baiter:
How do you really know the "worm will turn"? The IT buzzword now is integration - buy and assemble, not build. This means IT development jobs will decrease significantly. Granted, there will be dev jobs for the vendors but the overall numbers will be cut significantly should this integration strategy prevail. I would say the admin role could experience increased demand with integration. It might not be a bad strategy to pick up some credentials in that area along with development.
[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: Jim Baiter ]

Can you think of any interesting applications that are technically and financially possible today but were not 10 years ago?

[Jim Baiter]

Sure but the direction is to have these produced by the vendor, not the IT dept. Whereas there have been IT development depts hiring developers this will decrease. The risk it that there will be an increase of demand to the vendor but not enough to compensate the decrease in demand for IT development personnel.

[Christophe Lee]

Originally posted by Andrew Nisbet:
Hi, I am in serious need of some career advice, and I hope posting this will get me some. I was laid-off a little over 5 months ago, and have had zero luck finding a new job. It seams that I submit resumes to a black hole never to be seen or heard from again. I have a BS in Computer science, about a years worth of solid experience(mostly VB, ASP, and PHP, but some Java) and I am taking the SCJP exam today. The Town I currently live in is pretty small college town , but I have been applying for jobs in most of the major metroplitan areas of the US. with no luck. I am thinking I should just move to one of these cites, but I am hesitiant to just pick a city and move thier without any prospects. I am really having a hard time figuring out what to do next, so any feedback would be much appreciated.
Thanks All

Go get a master's degree...be sure to get some internship experience while there...if you still can't get a job, get a phD.