Conversation: Job searching?

[StoneCrow]

Recently I entered a situation where my self employed work was no longer enough and have had to look for part-time work. Since I was last searching for a job though ( one and a half years ago ) the job market seems so empty, anyone got any advice or some great agencies for web development work?

Maybe your just in a similar situation and want to pitch in?

Anyway this being the general forum I figure this post is good here.

[DaedalusYoung]

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be much. At least in the UK. I've been looking for a year.

[kikito]

First, a disclaimer: I earn my keep as a web developer, not a game developer. So I will speak about that. If you are specifically looking for game dev job, this post might also apply, but it's not my expertise.

I recently got a new job from a guy in another city that happened to stumble upon my projects on github. It turns out that they are doing lots of Lua now (with nginx) and they where actually using one of my libs already (inspect.lua). I'm working in Lua full time now, which is kind of interesting.

So that's my first advice: for the long term, just make as much as you can in public places (github).

For the shorter term: try to reach your nearest local community of developers, in whatever technology you want to work. Get to know them and socialize. Not only you will have a good time. For instance: I manage the local ruby community in my city (madrid-rb in Madrid, Spain) and just yesterday someone contacted me to ask me if I knew someone willing to do ruby here. Naturally, I spread that info amongst the freelancers that came to the group. The ones that didn't come, missed the that one.

I've heard that conferences are also a great place to pick jobs. I have personally never done that (I rely on my network of people in my city for those things), but apparently it works for some people. Some conferences even have specially designated zones where prospective employees/contractors and employers meet. Speaking in conferences is also said to help. But that might be a long-term thing, not a short-term one.

I would leave the headhunters and the like for the last resource - only go to them if you are not able to find anything on your own.

That's all I could think of. Good luck!

[StoneCrow]

Previously I have used people per hour to find bits of extra work, but after a few negative experiences I wouldn't recommend it anymore. The 15% fee the website takes is a joke and lots of the work available is for people without a clear idea of what exactly they want.

try to reach your nearest local community of developers

Wish there was one here in mid wales!

[raidho36]

I have a full time employment. God bless oil companies.

[kikito]

Wish there was one here in mid wales!

That could be an opportunity - you can start it yourself then! It's a bit of work at the beginning (finding sponsors, a venue, a community, etc), but now I rarely dedicate more than 8 hours per month to the group. And I have more job offers than I can handle.

By the way - wales is great, and welsh is an awesome language. You could create the rhuddem defnyddiwr twr

But you will need some months to get it rolling. For a shorter-term job, I recommend going to conferences.