Time of the year for new jobs?

[Nathan Milota]

I'm not really ready yet to start applying, as there is a bit more reviewing I need to do over the course of about a few more months, but I've been looking every day, and what seemed like regular openings throughout the spring, if I can find one open job that I would likely apply to now seems scarce.  

Most of what is there seems like scams or cattle calls (Revature, wanting you to sign a two year contract, willingness to relocate wherever they want to put you, etc.).  Has the demand for new developers just taken a hit, or is the summer/early fall just bad timing?

[Junilu Lacar]

At this time of year, you'll be competing with a lot of fresh graduates and people who got laid off (this is the time of year many companies tend to lay off a lot of people, at the end of the 2019 fiscal year and start of FY2020)

[Campbell Ritchie]

That sort of problem varies from place to place. Here (England) most fresh graduates get jobs in the Winter and start the work in Summer when their degree results come out.

[Nathan Milota]

I have two degrees that are not related to computer science, and five graduate classes in software engineering.  I dropped the program to learn on my own and I'm trying to get in without the related degree and then finish it later.  

[Campbell Ritchie]

In which case you will probably either finish the degree or get a job. You probably won't complete the degree if you get a job; indeed after a few years' experience you probably won't feel the need to complete that degree. It is possible your employer will however send you to get an MSc.
On the other hand, you might find it difficult to proceed towards jobs with an incomplete degree. Have you got a good explanation for not completing your course?

[Nathan Milota]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:In which case you will probably either finish the degree or get a job. You probably won't complete the degree if you get a job; indeed after a few years' experience you probably won't feel the need to complete that degree. It is possible your employer will however send you to get an MSc.
On the other hand, you might find it difficult to proceed towards jobs with an incomplete degree. Have you got a good explanation for not completing your course?

I have an associate's in Business Management and a Bachelor's in Education.  

I was working on my 5th course of the degree after I had moved and was living with friends until I secured a place to live.  

The class was only 3 credit hours and I was taking only 1, and they loaded it projects the length of term projects every week, and I was spending over 20 hours per week on only 1 course, and they weren't giving us time to learn the principles before making a program on them.  I was pretty much just doing enough work just to get enough points to pass and looking up other people's codes on similar projects while copying and tweaking some things.  This really was doing nothing to teach me how to program, so I withdrew and learned on my own and my GitHub profile has all projects I learned to do myself without help from a school utilizing Apache POI tools as well as MySQL.  

I also needed to work more hours to make ends meet, and only one class shouldn't have taken up that much time.   Other courses had only 1 or 2 projects the entire semester, and this one had one every week.  My philosophy is you learn the principles and practice them before doing a project on them.  Not just do one reading, one short quizlet, and a unit project all in less than a week.  


I will finish the degree regardless, because I already have over 10 years of college on my transcript, so what's 5 more classes?  

If I have to finish the degree just to get a job, that's fine,  but I'm willing to bet I know more about java than most computer science graduates.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Nathan Milota wrote:. . . I'm willing to bet I know more about java than most computer science graduates.

But you need to convey that knowledge to your prospective employers.

[Nathan Milota]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:

Nathan Milota wrote:. . . I'm willing to bet I know more about java than most computer science graduates.

But you need to convey that knowledge to your prospective employers.

My GitHub at www.github.com/kenm66 shows a few different programs I made using java.  
I got a 47% on the IZ0-808 exam, which I'm retaking soon, but plan to have a passing score and certification by then to demonstrate understanding of the core language.

If they want to argue semantics, I have two other degrees in addition to five graduate IT courses, so I took all the general education courses that CS graduates took, plus IT courses, and even more courses in classes like business and finance, as well as education which may be relevant depending on the types of applications that company makes.  

[Campbell Ritchie]

Nathan Milota wrote:. . . I got a 47% on the IZ0-808 exam, . . .

Make sure to keep quiet about that on resumés and CVs.

If they want to argue semantics, . . . .

The only semantics they will argue about will be program semantics. What I think you should consider is that a recruiter will be faced with 100 applications for two jobs and will want to exclude at least eighty applicants before considering telephone interviews. They will start going through the applicants at 3:00pm and will have whittled the list down to fifteen by 5 o'clock. 60 seconds each. Anything less than perfect in the application will make it join the eighty‑five rejects.

[Nathan Milota]

I'm not going to tell them that in interviews, because by then I hope to have a passing score.  

That's rather disappointing that there's that many people applying for jobs that are supposed to be in high demand.  Where's the demand if so many people are looking for work?

[Tim Holloway]

In the US, the fourth quarter of the year is typically a rotten time to find a job. From Halloween on until New Years, companies typically lock down systems for year-processing and thus new development slows. Plus new year, new hiring budget.

And of course, it being party season, getting even existing staff to be productive can be a challenge.