First of all, Underground Elephant is hiring… :-) Underground Elephant has been

gracious enough to offer this meeting space for a while now. Please consider them early on in your job search.

Get in touch with Aaron <aaron@undergroundelephant.com> or others here (please raise your hands, y'all) to find out more about U.E.

Second of all, we've got a Job Listings Page: http://www.sdphp.org/job-listings/

Who am I?

Dennis Slade Jr. >> tennisbear@gmail.com 19+ years experience implementing and

supporting critical web and desktop business systems

10+ years hands-on experience with *AMP web development projects (PHP on Linux & OS X)

11+ years experience in software support and training

Intensive training in resume, job searching, and networking techniques

So how do you landyour next PHP job?

Before You Begin…

Prepare yourself!“Luck is the intersection of opportunity and

preparation”

Know your story!How have you come to this point in your

career?What's the next chapter you'd like to write in

the story of your career?

Before You Begin…

Line up your referencesInform your mentors

Know your target salary / hourly rate Have code samples ready

Typical Steps in Getting a Development Job Contact made with a hiring manager or

HR person Phone interview Skills test / coding project In-person or video interview Job offer

The Resume

How long does a typical resume reader spend on your resume?

The Resume

How long does a typical resume reader spend on your resume?Between 6-30 seconds.

The Resume

How long does a typical resume reader spend on your resume?Between 6-30 seconds.

How long should your resume be?

The Resume

How long does a typical resume reader spend on your resume?Between 6-30 seconds.

How long should your resume be?At most two pages. The vast majority of the

readers of your resume won't get past the top half of the first page.

The Resume

What should be in your resume?Accomplishments and awards first, then

duties○ If a position's duties are obvious, or if the duties

have been mentioned in a more recent position, then there's no need to list those duties again.

Tailor your resume as much as possible to the specific position you're applying for.○ Specific objective○ Consider preparing different resumes for

different types of positions

The Resume

Be succinct (precise and tidy) with your language.

Use keywords but don't be a slave to them.

Put your name in the filename of any resumes you send. Also suggested: your contact info in the header of each page.

Format: PDF or Word doc

Your Job Search Email Address NEVER use your current job's email

account. Please. Consider giving out a separate email

address just for your online resumes and LinkedIn.

Try not to use email accounts where:The Inbox has thousands of unread messagesSpam filters catch all messages from people not

in your contact list/address book

Your Job Search Email Address Be as professional as possible with job

search email address.Bad: spank-me@spankfriendfinder.comStill Bad: spank-me@gmail.com Good:

Joseph.Schmoe@gmail.comhire-me@JosephSchmoe.com

Samples of your work

GitHub, Google Code, SourceForge…

Samples of your work

Linking to live sitesIf a web page using your PHP code is live

and accessible, put it out there!Make sure all real customer data has been

scrubbed clean from your samplesDon't ever give a potential employer a

username/password to use in a live system

Do-It-Yourself (DYI) Hosting More control, more work to maintain

Getting to the hiring manager Through a friend/ex-colleague From contact on LinkedIn or similar site Through a recruiter By direct submission

To a company's careers pageOn a job boardOn Craigslist: possible but be carefulIf contacting directly via email, send a

succinct cover letter in the body of the email.

Using LinkedIn

You should be using LinkedIn. And you should be connecting with as many friends and former colleagues as possible.

98% network building, 2% using the network Who are you looking for? Who's looking for

you? Ask for endorsements and

recommendations (and give some too!) Surfing connections' connections

Other Social Media

Make sure your Facebook/G+ profile is clean and secure.Don't put anything into Facebook that you

wouldn't want your grandma to see.Lock down your privacy settings, but don't

count on them.

Should you use Facebook to network? What about Facebook job-networking

apps?

Recruiters

Recruiters are not the devil.Potential employers would prefer to find you

without a recruiter involved, but often a connection can't be made without them.

The employer is paying the recruiter, not the job seeker.

Most likely the recruiter won't be paid by the hiring employer until you've been at the company for 3-6 months. Leaving before this period will leave you in the bad graces of both the company and the recruiter.

Recruiters

Know the etiquette of working with recruitersBe mindful of the “who showed you to the

company first” ruleWhen to just say no – and you can say no!

Link to multiple recruiters in LinkedIn to maximize your chances of success.

Recruiters

Looking for a good recruiter? Lonnie Brown is a group sponsor, and he's a good guy.http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lonnie-brown/0/

6bb/b89

Interviewing

Be up-to-date in your PHP/tech knowledge Do research on the company

What technologies do they use besides PHP? Are they using PHP on their main website?

Who are their customers?What's cool and/or impressive about their site or

what they do?

Interviewing

Be ready to ask at least one intelligent question

When you don't know something asked of you, be upfront about it

You're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you

Expect technical questions…

Interviewing

Example tech interview questionsWhat are some of your strongest technical skills? 

What technologies do you prefer working with and why?

Briefly explain one of the most difficult technical problems you've ever faced and how you solved it. How did you come up with the solution?

What skills would you like to improve and which technologies would you like to learn more about, and why?

Interviewing

Example tech interview questionsDescribe your experience working with a large

software project. How did you collaborate with team mates, how did you check in and check out code, etc.  What were some of the challenges specific to working with a larger project?

Describe any experience working with larger databases.  How many tables, how many rows of data (order of magnitude), how many gigabytes of data (roughly). Explain some of the challenges you faced and approaches that worked.

Interviewing

After your in-person or video interview, be sure to send a “thank you” emailBe specific about what you enjoyed about

the company and the people you met.Literally ask for the job (if you still want it)

Other Things…

Never trust that an email submission has actually made it (spam filters, folder filtering, Inbox overload)

If you're not near the beginning of a queue, you may as well skip that queue

Following through with a phone call can make a big difference

Consider actually delivering a copy of your resume in person

Other Things…

A lot of the hiring process is proving you can develop in PHP and other required technologies. So don't freak out about being tested a few times, or when having your code evaluated by potential employers.

The more “at peace” you are telling why your previous positions ended, the better. Know your story!

Other Things…

Understand your valueIf you can write software, if you truly

understand the development lifecycle, and if you can work well with others then employers want you as much as you want them.

“But I've never had a PHP job!!!” Don't panic! Code something!

Do your own thing >> GitHubVolunteer projects for non-profitsOpen source contributionsHackathons

Network using Meetup.com groups and other user groups (http://sdtechscene.org/groups/)

Consider contract-to-perm or temp positions

In college? Just out of college?

Use your college employment site/office Internships are your friends (if you can find

one) Find a mentor

SDPHP has a mentoring program!

Resources

Lifehack :: Work

Dice Newsletters

Links

SDPHP Job Listings:http://www.sdphp.org/job-listings/

SD Tech Scene:http://sdtechscene.org/ http://sdtechscene.org/groups/

March Mingle:http://marchmingle.com/

LinkedIn:http://linkedin.com/

Links

Dice:http://www.dice.com/

Lifehack :: Workhttp://www.lifehack.org/work

A post with all the links from this presentation - plus a few which didn’t make it - will be posted on http://www.sdphp.org/(I think. )

My Contact Info

Dennis Slade Jr.tennisbear@gmail.comdennissladejr@gmail.com@DennisSladeJrhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/dennissladejrhttp://dennisslade.com/hire-me.html