The Brazen Careerist has an interesting perspective about work-life balance and career advancement for the 21st century. Much of what she writes might be considered appalling from a hiring manager’s perspective, but a lot of information is right on. Here’s her take on how to get a job you’re not qualified for.

This issue comes up all the time with software jobs. Almost by definition, anyone working in software development or similar technology is “unqualified” for their current job, because they would never make the cut if the current job was formally searched. Likewise, companies would like to hire people who are on the cutting edge of the latest technology; it is not uncommon to see jobs for, say AJAX or Voice over IP with five years experience…even though AJAX or VoIP have barely been mainstream for two years. What the hiring manager may not know is that a good candidate for AJAX might be someone who knows Javascript, CSS, XML and backend databases, and a good potential VoIP person would be someone who is all over local area networking, DNS, DHCP, and telephony. If they don’t know it, it incumbant on the job-seeker to convince the hiring manager.

Update: Video Here
The Vermont Software Developer’s Alliance is a trade organization of 60 companies that create software applications, shrinkwrapped programs and software tools. As part of a consortium with Seven Days, Burlington CEDO and our state and local colleges we created a creative/tech career fair for job-seekers who were looking for positions in the green technology, scientific, software development and creative arts.

It is really a kick when you can Make Stuff Happen, and it was evident right from the start that the event would be a success. But then on Saturday I was overwhelmed… I started talking to people at 9:30 and didn’t stop until 4:30 with a brief lunch break. I was at the vtSDA table the whole time wearing my vtSDA hat.

I think it is great from the other comments that people did think that there were a lot of qualified attendees. I was encouraged by the number of companies participating, but wasn’t sure about the people I was talking to. I found a mix:

1. C++/C#/Java programmers, often seniors or recent graduates

2. “Web Developers” – lots of people calling themselves this, a few who could cite more substantial accomplishments (work with database back-ends) and others who clearly were fishing around. A couple cited experience with ASP.NET

3. “Project Managers” – former programmers who may have failed to make the next leap to current development technologies. (?)

4. Some “Career Changers” – I explained to several folks that all of our vtSDA companies weren’t just looking for hard-core techies but will need account managers, financial folks etc.

5. I had several folks were were IT/Network Managers, and interestingly, I wasn’t sure who to send them to except to suggest larger companies, and the colleges.

6. Lots of comments that started with “I had no idea…”

• I had no idea there were so many cool companies in Vermont
• I had no idea that I could actually get a technical job here, I thought I’d have to go to Boston, or Silicon Valley. (the two places most mentioned…)
• I had no idea what I need to know to have a career in software development
• I had no idea that company XYZ had done animation for Lord of the Rings

I think there are some challenges and opportunities for us on the “low end” and entry-level. I talked to several folks about Vermont HiTec. Several wanted to know how to get started or how to improve their situation or how to transition. Some were discouraged to find out that a B.A. was considered a minimum qualification for many of our companies. Most were short on specifics…. nobody mentioned that they knew much about software engineering, source-code control, ECLIPSE, RUBY. “Web Programmers” didn’t mention XML or CSS. Lots who identified themselves as programmers mentioned VB6….and were interested in taking the free Visual Studio CDs. (This I find a little worrisome.) Nobody complained that the CDs were from VS 2005 (!) If I was hiring a “Microsoft” programmer, I’d sure like to hear that they had been using Orcas (the VS2008 beta versions) for the past six months.

There were enough take-aways here for another discussion about career planning. In the meantime, here is a link to the Stuck in Vermont vBlog which has a video showing Dealer.com‘s new offices. Can’t get any more innovative than their digs.

http://vermont3.com/webads/medrect-VT31207.swf
It’s happening this Saturday!

Writing on the eve of the New Hampshire primaries and after the Saturday evening debates:

I was really interested to hear from the Republican candidates (all white guys pushing or over 60) that the Republican party was looking to continue the legacy of either George Bush or Ronald Reagan. How is that going to improve things?

I thought Obama really nailed it when he replied to a hostile question about Iraq, (and I’m paraphrasing) “Unlike the Bush administration, We will actually go after the people who were responsible for 9/11, and we will withdraw from Iraq, a nation that was not responsible for 9/11.” What a concept.

I thought Hilary Clinton, citing “35 years of experience in Washington” was a little over the top. Being first lady? Taking a run at health care reform, but ultimately failing? Carpet-bagging to be a Senator in New York? And what about the 13 years before she came with Bill to Washington….how does that count as Washington experience?

More than one Republican candidate called Islamic terrorism the existential threat of our age. Um…guys….how about climate change and peak oil? Neither party seemed to place this at the top of their priority list. (Maybe they are still mad at Al Gore). (And maybe they don’t make any connection about our insatiable thirst for oil and our relationship with the middle east…) Nor did they place the health care crisis at the the top of the list. Republicans are mostly concerned about illegal immigration, even as they hire firms who employ undocumented immigrants to do their landscaping.

The republican party is decamped to Planet Bunny. Look to Ronald Reagan. Stay cozy with all their business buddies. (Let’s bail out the banks while we’re at it). Build a wall across the Mexican border. Stay in Iraq…forever. No change for the health-care system…it is working fine.