Finding a job

It has been a few days since I got laid off, I have had some time to relax and clear my head. I am now ready to put together my battle plan and get started on it. Some parts of the plan I have already put in place and others I am just writing now.



The first step was to write a new and up to date CV. I thought long and hard about what kind of job I want and what technologies I want to work with and have written a CV that complements this future direction.




However before I send off my CV to agencies, load it up on job boards etc I need to do two things.



* I have a little personal project, a little computer program I wrote, that helps me analyse database performance. The existing tools are visual so I wrote one that outputs screenreader friendly HTML. In my line of work owning or contributing to open source projects is a big deal. Open source means that the code is hosted somewhere publically and that other coders can contribute to the code. People who are interested in using the program can download the code, compile it and have their own working copy of the program.

* Send the CV off to family and friends in the tech industry for feedback.



Once the project is open sourced and the CV is ready I will create accounts in various job boards and upload the CV there.



I will update my profile on LinkedIn and see if there are any groups that I think would be useful to join.



I also have contacts in the tech industry so my CV will go to those people.



There are meet up groups in the tech industry called usergroups. They are usually targeting a single technology or area of technology and have events every few weeks or months. These groups are great for learning more about specifictechnologies but more importantly they are a great way of networking. Attending events and talking to other software developers and companies that attend has the potential for finding a job. I will join a few of these usergroups and start attending events.



I will start applying to jobs on job boards. This could land me interviews and also make more job agencies aware of me.



Once I have got all these actions going I will continue to improve my open source project. I have a few ideas of different accessible interfaces that I would like to implement. This will help me by giving me a more powerful tool, it will help me learn new technologies and will also make the project more interesting to other coders and any potential employer that reads the code after seeing the link to the project in my CV. I will also search for other open source projects that look interesting to me and see if I can contribute code to them. This will help me learn further and I can also add to my CV that I am a contributor to a project as well as having my own.



There are also technologies that I have identified that would better suit a screenreader so I will be spending time learning these technologies better so I can improve my chances of gaining a job where these technologies are used. Part of this self development will be listening to software development podcasts. There are a bunch of podcasts I haven't listened to regarding technologies I think may be important for me. I will not learn the details of how to develop software with these podcasts but I will learn more about the current direction of the technologies, key components and get an idea of the culture around them.



So essentially there are three main threads of action: searching for work, showing off my skills in open source software projects and self development.



Below I summarise my battle plan.



* Open source my database performance tool.

* Write my CV.

* Send off my CV to key contacts for feedback.

* Create accounts on job boards and upload my CV.

* Update my LinkedIn profile

* Send off my CV to key contacts in the tech industry so they might forward it on.

* Start attending technology usergroups

* Apply for jobs on job boards.

* Continue to work on my open source project

* Find another open source project that I can contribute to.

* Spend time on self development.



Finally I would like to talk about prior disclosure of my disability. I am not planning on disclosing my visual impairment before any interviews; I don't want to be discounted before I even get the chance to sell myself in an interview. One of my strengths is that I am pretty confident and generally do well in interviews. I will disclose my disability during my interviews at the point I feel is most suitable. It is not obvious when meeting me that I have any visual problems so it will be up to me to actively disclose it during the interview. How I do this I don't know, I think it will depend on the interview and I don't need to have a specific plan for how I will do this. Whatever seems most appropriate in the interview.



I have already published my software project to an open source host and have a first draft of my CV. I have joined three usergroups and already attended one meeting. The meeting was fun, I learned a little but didn't find any choice contacts. These events will probably not be my most promising job seeking activity but there is the chance still and I need to cast my net as wide as possible.



Looking at the above I think this battle plan would work for anyone who works or wants to work in software development. For those who have not yet worked in the software industry and who have little personal experience programming then the open source software aspect of the plan will be the most challenging but also the most important. Open source is a big deal in this industry and is a great place to learn. If anyone is looking at this battle plan and thinking it would help them too but are not sure about open source then feel free to email me and I would be happy to help you get on your feet.



I will update the blog soon with progress and any interviews that come along.
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