I have a weird background also. I was a self taught software engineer. I learned very fast and aggressively. Then I did a lot of contracting, random attempted side projects and failed startups, short stints here and there. The net result is my resume didn’t look too good. I noticed my colleagues who had well regarded 4 year CS degrees were always inundated in recruiters. It really bothered me because I knew I could work much harder and outlearn them, I was willing to take jobs they weren’t. However, I feel that despite engineering being “in high demand,” there is significant pickiness, they really do want easily identifiable “talent” and would rather fight over that then look at oddballs.
I think front end is a bit of a sewer. It’s why I got out of mobile development. You are competing with boot camp grads, outsourcing and the never ending churn of frameworks.
No one can tell who “is good” at front end development and in fact they don’t actually care. In a recession environment, whatever you are doing, it pays to head in the direction of rarer and harder skills.
Another thought is you might want to look at startups or medium sized companies in general. The reality is that a disordinate amount of focus goes to the top end companies. There are huge numbers of startups and middle tier companies who don’t get the same level of applications or attention.
Startups actually do care who is really good because they have to survive, at least the good ones do.
I also worked on so-called “high profile projects for Fortune 500 clients.” I found that no one actually really cared. Engineers are looked at as cogs. They have a checklist, will you fix my exact situation. No? Next.
You would be smart to look carefully at the resumes and do a realistic assessment. Do you have the exact skills that these companies want? Recruiters use checklists. It’s stupid. But they will just go - do your ten skills match the ten on my req…
Anyways, you may also find many jobs are stale. Just because it’s on LinkedIn or whatever doesn’t mean it’s active. Lot of dead postings out there.
You may have better luck doing informational calls with VPs of Engineering. Just say: “hey, I’m thinking about making a change and haven’t decided what’s next. I really found your tech interesting, do you have 15 minutes for a chat?
Direct outreach works, keep it casual, not depeserate, or needy. Make it clear it’s informational. If a VP engineering or CTO tells the recruiter to look at you, they have to.
Skip the recruiter checklists.
I think front end is a bit of a sewer. It’s why I got out of mobile development. You are competing with boot camp grads, outsourcing and the never ending churn of frameworks.
No one can tell who “is good” at front end development and in fact they don’t actually care. In a recession environment, whatever you are doing, it pays to head in the direction of rarer and harder skills.
Another thought is you might want to look at startups or medium sized companies in general. The reality is that a disordinate amount of focus goes to the top end companies. There are huge numbers of startups and middle tier companies who don’t get the same level of applications or attention.
Startups actually do care who is really good because they have to survive, at least the good ones do.
I also worked on so-called “high profile projects for Fortune 500 clients.” I found that no one actually really cared. Engineers are looked at as cogs. They have a checklist, will you fix my exact situation. No? Next.
You would be smart to look carefully at the resumes and do a realistic assessment. Do you have the exact skills that these companies want? Recruiters use checklists. It’s stupid. But they will just go - do your ten skills match the ten on my req…
Anyways, you may also find many jobs are stale. Just because it’s on LinkedIn or whatever doesn’t mean it’s active. Lot of dead postings out there.
You may have better luck doing informational calls with VPs of Engineering. Just say: “hey, I’m thinking about making a change and haven’t decided what’s next. I really found your tech interesting, do you have 15 minutes for a chat?
Direct outreach works, keep it casual, not depeserate, or needy. Make it clear it’s informational. If a VP engineering or CTO tells the recruiter to look at you, they have to.
Skip the recruiter checklists.