One interesting part about looking for a job is that you end up talking to lots of people and companies. As I’ve been doing this, I’ve noticed some interesting patterns.
Companies
“Services” are more interesting than “pure software”. Many of the companies that I found most interesting were not creating software for distribution, but were creating or modifying software in the course of providing some other service. This is a trend that has been going on for some time, arguably since the arrival of the web, but for some reason, this stood out to me in a way that it hadn’t before.
Open Source
Open source has won, at least for the companies that I’ve talked to. Most of them were using infrastructure mostly based on open source software. Many had people contributing changes back to various open source projects. A few were looking to open source their internal software as a way of defraying development costs, increasing adoption, and/or many of the other known benefits of open source software.
There’s still some ways left to in terms of people understanding the world of open source software. Several interviewers thought that I worked for (as in got paid by) Apache. That’s probably partially LinkedIn’s fault, but it also shows that while people are eager to use open source software, they do so without an understanding of the nature and role of open source foundations.
Nonetheless, I’m happy to see evidence that open source software is coming closer to being standard operating procedure.
Technologies
Of course it is always interesting to hear about the technologies that people are working with, especially if they have put them into production. Here are some technologies or areas which appeared often enough to be notable: Cassandra, Redis, Hadoop, mobile devices, good analytics, machine learning / prediction, and “cloud computing”.
Peopleware
I was definitely surprised by the number of companies, particularly startup companies, that were willing to take on a remote employee, especially given the state of the economy.
Process
I’ve accepted an offer for a job, and I’ll be writing about that tomorrow. For now, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who contacted me with a job opportunity. It’s nice to know that there are jobs out there, since much of what we hear about the economy is quite negative. Even more than that, I am grateful that people extended themselves to help someone (in this case me) in need.
Congrats on the new job, whatever it is! I hope you and yours are all doing well. I still feel that Oracle made a huge mistake letting you go, though it was theirs to make.
I’m really happy to hear that you’ve got a place to land and that you’re starting in on a new page. I can’t wait to hear about it!
Didn’t even know you were looking, but glad to hear the search is wrapped up!
I foresee a job with Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG) working out of the Seattle office in your future.
You will travel to Burbank and Visit the Studio Lot to get a badge, maybe get a tour, most likely work a couple days maybe at the Disney Interactive Office in North Hollywood, or Burbank maybe, anyway, you will be doing great things for a company that needs someone with your skills to do the things that make our sites and other tech doo-dads as magical as our theme parks, rides, attractions, programming, cruises, insurance, banking, video games,MMORPG’s for kids, and a whole lot more. Disney really does have it’s hands in everything, so don’t be too disappointed if your not immediately immersed in what you might consider, cutting edge tech. You have a lot to learn about the ways of the mouse, mostly that is indeed still, jut a big rat race.