How can I find a development job that does not require long experience in a particular technlogy?

Question

I'm facing a strange problem that I hadn't thought about before. I have been working professionally since September 2005, yet I don't have a particularly long experience in a certain technology. I have worked with Java EE for about a year, Business Intelligence for 1.5 years, Data Warehousing for another year, and MATLAB & C#/.NET for another year. I have worked in both telecommunication and stock market sectors. I used to think that my exposure to multiple technologies and sectors would enhance my chances for finding jobs later, but apparently it's the other way around!

I used to think that good companies would look for talent, hard work and high quality. But I currently find it difficult to find a job, as most job requirements are stated in years of experience. While I don't have those many years of experience in any particular technology, I've made very good things with those that I used, and I'm willing to learn new tools and technologies as required.

So my question is, how can I find development jobs where overall years of experience matter more than experience in a particular technology?

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P.S: I'm mainly targeting the European market, preferably UK. However, general answers that are not related to a particular market are probably more useful to the community.

Thank you.

Answer 1

You might want to consider going for a less demanding job in a big company. If you're hard working and talented, it won't be long before get more challenging assignments. Besides, working for a big company usually looks good on your CV.

Answer 2

Are you looking for positions via an agency or one of the large online job sites?

If so, the problem with positions advertised through agencies/online job sites, is often that years of experience is given far too much importance in filtering propsective candidates. This is possibly what you are coming up against.

This happens because our field (programming) is not only complex, but changes so rapidly and most agents have no hope keeping up. It's also why they rely on industry buzz words etc, so heavily.

So, if you have not already, I would try searching online for software companies and contacting the best options, directly. Even if positions are not currently advertised, sending a targeted resume as well as a cover email can only be positive.

Good luck, I hope this helps at least a little.

Answer 3

Perhaps the problem is not you but how you look for the job. I guess you look at a listing and see that you formally don't match it and move to the next one. Try a career fair instead - you can talk to real people there and there's a chance you can find a technical person who will quickly see the need for a person like you.

Answer 4

In addition to searching for advertised jobs you should use your contacts.

Chase down everyone you've worked with who you got along with and tell them you're looking for work, something may come up. If you chase enough people there's a good chance one of them will get back to you with something, maybe after a few days.

I've been in the industry for about 14 years and these days almost all my work comes through contacts. Of course I still use the agencies and job boards, but the contacts do seem to work better. It also means you get to work with your mates.

Answer 5

I think you're running into multiple problems at the same time, which doesn't help.

• You (like me) are in the UK, so 99% of the work goes via agents. The majority of agents are salespeople and not techies, so their main "matching algorithm" is buzzword compliance coupled with the candidate having used buzzword 'X' for longer than it existed. They're in a sense a very coarse filter. You are better off looking for smaller companies that recruit directly as it might be easier to get a foot in the door. Once you've got the foothold, you're in a much better position. It might also help to find a good agent or two who understands your needs and skills and might do a better job at marketing you. At the end of the day, you have to give them all the tools they need to market you, otherwise you won't get any results.
• The job market (in the UK) doesn't seem to be that good at the moment, which might be a slight understatement, so people are looking for closer matches to their spec list/requirements. This makes it harder to find a job or contract as a generalist as people seem to want someone to fill their exact niche (at least on paper). Also keep in mind that agents are getting flooded with CVs for open positions so if you don't stand out you're going right on the pile. Not to mention that not a lot of companies are hiring in the first place at the moment.

I would suggest that you rework your CV to basically get the best CV you can, showing your experience etc (keep in mind it's old cynical duffers like me who you will have to convince that you're up to the job, so don't overdo it), network like crazy (as Chris suggests above) - join something like linkedin if you haven't already - and unfortunately prepare yourself for a long uphill battle to find that new job. In the meantime if you happen to be out of a job, try to work with those technologies that you consider your main strength at home to improve your chances.

Answer 6

I actually have the opposite view to tehvan: working for a small company - if you're any good - it's much easier to get noticed, and can be much easier to move upwards if the company is doing well.

It's true that the name of the company probably isn't going to be that great for your CV but the immediate ramping in skills and remuneration should make up for that.

Generally, everyone's having problems these days though, especially the graduates and juniors you'll be competing with. Best of luck.