Very gratefully, I have good news. I have survived the great industry tech disruption 2023.
I started a brand new role at Solirius Consulting LTD as a Principal Engineer.
Solirius are an independent technology consultancy that supply advanced solution architectures to clients in the private and public sector.
The last few months have been, shall we say, challenging and I want to thank the many people who personally helped me out in a moment of need. In no particular order, shout outs:
Ryan Cuprak
John Davies
Hitesh Mistry
Mark Heckler
Edward Beckett
Pieter Humphrey
Kelly Baldwin
Alex Todd
Lewis Cowles
Suleiman Leadbetter
Parul Singh
Matthew Quinn
Alannah McIntyre
Jonathan Lewis
Patrick Boome
Scott Shepherd
There were scores of other folk that I met from previous technology conferences who actually got in touch with me via social media offered up best wishes. I will explicitly name folk like Lisa Crispin, Andy Clarke, Dan Ormisher, John A De Goes, Dana White and Suelyn Jane Wright, because they offered REAL-TALK advice.
MY ADVICE
I will give some advice to those of you still under pressure from searching for the next gig. You might be unlucky in that the axe might fall tomorrow, or next week or next month. I’ve seen past roles on LinkedIn with over 2000 applications. JobServe Uk up until May 2023 was a big ground hole. I had no hits when I posted my CV over there.
I had better luck with CW Jobs and Total Jobs the alternatives.
Somebody on Linked In suggested the online agent-less platforms: Otto, Cord and Hired. I did use those in the Spring months. I recorded my analysis here.
Let me give some home truths: if you only apply for jobs advertised online, you probably have less than a 1% chance or less of getting an interview. The brutal truth is that for many IT contractors, consultants, there are hundreds or thousands of other contractors just like you. You need a differentiator. Please think about how you can maximise your chances of getting in front of a hiring manager and applying online is not the way. The first thing is a clean and easy to read CV. The second thing is a list of achievements. The third thing is a TRACK RECORD, pointer to success, which you can definitely back up in the Vetting, Verification Stage when the job offer comes through.
For 2023 if you haven’t done this yet then it will be very hard. You should have started blogging, vlogging and creating a portfolio at least 18 months ago. IMHO you must develop multiple ‘routes to market’ to get in front of potential clients. Easier said than done, but developing a network of new contacts, speaking to known agents and new ones, speaking to past clients, marketing yourself etc. Past clients and colleagues can be a great way to get referrals.
GOING FORWARD
Post the pandemic 2020, because we are all online, human beings do want face-to-face contact at some stage. It makes networking much harder. Yet if you look at the success of Linux open source project in the late 1990s and in Java world, the explosion of Struts web framework 2002 and beyond, this is before the broadband fast Internet and social media, I met people from the USA and Europe online first. Only when I started travelling conferences like JavaOne (San Francisco, USA) and Devoxx (Antwerp, Belgium) did actual put a real face to an electronic username identity. Conferences do work.
My success as a Java Champion came from networking, starting a Java User Group and contributing to open source. It was Expresso Framework (Sandra Cann, she actually sent be a cheque for work 1000.00USD or something.)
You don’t have to build a brand new user group, yet there are lots of different ways to network in the IT sector. Visiting a conference, a user group meeting, getting involve with mentorship volunteering, extra cirricula activities and code camps are great places to improve your chops.
I am now busy again and I will be super busy in one months time. I promise myself that I will myself get out to tech conferences as soon as personal finances recover. I want to network with the wider technology community, not necessarily Java though. However, my next tech conf probably won’t be happening this year though 2023. It’s been so tough, especially in the last 3 months or less. I am hearing from folk who had it really tougher lived experiences like 7-8 months out of contractor. (Yes! This is since January 2023. What the actuall flipping heck is going on out there in the market?) All I can do is to tell you to keep your head up and keep jabbing, fighting the good fight.
Best.
Peter Pilgrim
Principal Engineer
Solirius Consulting