<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>I thought I might comment from the hiring perspective, if people are interested.</div><div><br></div><div>At <a href="http://vzaar.com">vzaar.com</a> the three main things I look for are </div><div><ul class="MailOutline"><li>Aptitude</li><li>Passion</li><li>Drive</li></ul><div><br></div></div><div>If you have that you can learn A,B,C or X,Y,Z. If you don't, then it does;'t really matter if you know A,B,C because things change, and todays A is next year M. (If I haven't tortured this to death and that makes sense). As an engineer (electrical) myself (and not a developer) I also tend to look for people I think would make good engineers, which is to say, people who can solve problems. Which is different to the "we want a code monkey of type Foo with skills x, y and z".</div><div><br></div><div>However this all gets skewed quite easily.</div><div><br></div><div>One problem occurs is that it's hard to find developers, because there's no central place developers all are. Which means you either have to do a lot of cross posting or go via recruiters. Or mainly go via recruiters, since sometimes thats the only way to find developers. </div><div><br></div><div>And recruiters skew the market further because it's an intermediary. That's not saying some aren't good (I've worked with some who really are, and make a difference) but I also field 10 calls a week from recruiters who all give exactly the same pitch. I feel their market is contracting and many care competing or chasing the same candidates, which skewed things further. Because many recruiters aren't as technical as the candidates the easiest way for recruiters to manage this is by a shopping list of skills. Which I feel doesn't get anywhere.</div><div><br></div><div>The advice below is good. If you're looking for a role, find companies you like and look at their jobs page. Even if they're not looking, contact them directly, and ask them to consider you next time they are. You'd be surprised how many companies are looking but haven't posted a role yet. And even if not, if a good candidate comes your way, sometimes you'll consider hiring, the candidate even if there is no immediate need (depends on the business and finances of course).</div><div><br></div><div>Also remember going directly to a company you come with no fees. If you're head to head with a similar candidate, the fact you don't cost 15-30% more in recruiters fees makes you more attractive and this can translate into higher salary or being offered the job.</div><div><br></div><div>Please not I'm note trying to bash recruiters here. I've used them with successes as well, and the good ones, are good. But sometimes it seems there are more recruiters than candidates in the market. </div><div><br></div><div>Adrian</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><div><div>On 22 Mar 2012, at 08:41, <a href="mailto:chat-request@lists.lrug.org">chat-request@lists.lrug.org</a> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; ">Message: 5<br>Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:41:37 +0000<br>From: Jim Myhrberg <<a href="mailto:contact@jimeh.me">contact@jimeh.me</a>><br>To: London Ruby Users Group <<a href="mailto:chat@lists.lrug.org">chat@lists.lrug.org</a>><br>Subject: Re: [LRUG] What do people want to do with their career?<br>Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:820803F5-7E8F-4C9C-A4B6-4986FCD5893F@jimeh.me">820803F5-7E8F-4C9C-A4B6-4986FCD5893F@jimeh.me</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"<br><br>Personally at least I tend to only care about job postings by the hiring company directly, enabling me to find out a lot about the role that might not be evident from the job posting itself. And for the most part I'll tend to simply dig up interesting companies by myself and contact them directly regardless of what the jobs/career page might or might not have on their site.<br><br>Also I tend to mostly ignore the "we want x,y,z" part, and only focus on the "to do a,b,c" part. Partly because x,y,z is meant to filter out the less fitting candidates, and partly cause x,y,z often includes some type of educational degree which I don't have as I was home-schooled from the age of 10. Thankfully I've found that most companies (within our field of work at least) really don't care about if you fit x,y,z as long as you're good at doing a,b,c.<br><br>My point really is that if you know you're good at a,b,c then ignore x,y,z. Unless x,y,z itself shoots off warning signals in your mind about the company :)<br><br><br>-jim<br></span></blockquote></div><br><div apple-content-edited="true">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Gill Sans'; font-size: 18px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#D7D7D7">_____________________________</font></span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px; ">Adrian Sevitz </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Gill Sans'" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px; "><a href="http://vzaar.com"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent; ">vzaar.com</span></font></a>, CTO</span></font></div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco"> </font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco">email:</font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#008000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco"><a href="mailto:adrian@vzaar.com">adrian@vzaar.com</a></font></font></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco"> </font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco">phone:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco"> </font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#008000"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco">+44.20.7820.6282</font></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#008000" face="Monaco"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco"> </font></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco">twitter:</font></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Monaco"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></font></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; "><a href="http://twitter.com/vzaar"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#008007" face="Monaco"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent; ">twitter.com/vzaar</span></font></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#008007" face="Monaco"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: transparent; 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