Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Job Hunting - Trial By Fire
I've recently had to start searching for a job and the skill everyone wants the most is the one I've had the least on the job experience with. Actually, I've had no on the job experience with .NET! I picked up a copy of Visual Studio 2005 in the last part of 2006 for the purpose of learning the new development tools that everyone is loving so much. Its great and coupled with the very awesome C# language I just had to give it a look. I never realized that in 2007 it would be the center of my world and the focus of all my attention.
.NET Mania
Since I posted my resume on Monster.com and Dice.com I've had about 15 contacts concerning .NET and 2 out of state contacts concerning my other history which was primarily *NIX based databasing coupled with custom PHP, PERL and Javascript applications. Nobody local is doing anything not .NET. I can't move so what do you do?
Learn .NET, C#.NET, ADO.NET and ASP.NET
I'm a professional and I know that if you need something you get it and learn it ASAP. Luckily I'd already familiarized myself with C# and using Visual Studio 2005. This was fairly easy because I had a background in Visual Studio 6, Visual Basic, C and Java from college. I can also read SQL like its plain english. However the use of the .NET framework and the subtleties of the environment are taking some getting used to. Unfortunately this is going to likely cost me some of my first opportunities since I'm still somewhat in the transition phase. No worries since I likely need the interview experience and I may get lucky with someone realizing what an adaptive guy I am.
Blessing in Disguise
This change of career occurance likely couldn't have come at a better time. All of these companies are making the transition to .NET using the newer versions of the language and they've got to scramble to train or hire people. I'm doing self training with 5 recent purchases from Amazon on .NET, ASP and C# and at least a month of daily rigorous study and practice in using the environment. I'm hoping to develop a website and an application as my tests to gauge my experience. There are a ton of communities out there and help is available. I just can't wait to get a chance to mix it up and contribute to a company!
Exciting times! ¶ 10:17 PM
.NET Mania
Since I posted my resume on Monster.com and Dice.com I've had about 15 contacts concerning .NET and 2 out of state contacts concerning my other history which was primarily *NIX based databasing coupled with custom PHP, PERL and Javascript applications. Nobody local is doing anything not .NET. I can't move so what do you do?
Learn .NET, C#.NET, ADO.NET and ASP.NET
I'm a professional and I know that if you need something you get it and learn it ASAP. Luckily I'd already familiarized myself with C# and using Visual Studio 2005. This was fairly easy because I had a background in Visual Studio 6, Visual Basic, C and Java from college. I can also read SQL like its plain english. However the use of the .NET framework and the subtleties of the environment are taking some getting used to. Unfortunately this is going to likely cost me some of my first opportunities since I'm still somewhat in the transition phase. No worries since I likely need the interview experience and I may get lucky with someone realizing what an adaptive guy I am.
Blessing in Disguise
This change of career occurance likely couldn't have come at a better time. All of these companies are making the transition to .NET using the newer versions of the language and they've got to scramble to train or hire people. I'm doing self training with 5 recent purchases from Amazon on .NET, ASP and C# and at least a month of daily rigorous study and practice in using the environment. I'm hoping to develop a website and an application as my tests to gauge my experience. There are a ton of communities out there and help is available. I just can't wait to get a chance to mix it up and contribute to a company!
Exciting times! ¶ 10:17 PM
