51–60 of 83 posts
Plus being in California, you are in the best place on the planet for your skill set.
My advice: go hard! Send out your resume. Leaving my cushy job for the unknown has reinvigorated every part of my life: financial, spiritual, marital, parental. It has been easy but it's been very rewarding.
Networking is a bit time-consuming, but it will serve you well in the rest of your career.
The other thing I would say (as one who has gone through this more than one time. The actual number of times is a trade secret) is don't delay the start of the search. For example, if they parted company with you on Friday, start working on it on Monday. And it sounds like you have a jump on it already.
The other thing to keep in mind is to not spend more than say 30 hours a week on a job search. Despite your relatively positive outlook, it will be quite stressful and it is important to break away from the search activity regularly.
Edit: typos
> I've built banner ads for advertisers, booked online campaigns in various platforms Google DFP, Yahoo APT I don't want to make you feel like shit, but the demand for your skillset (media oriented programming) is declining. The main focuses these days are on JavaScript replacing Flash and mobile development, but apart from that any company in the space is only making money if it is overworking and underpaying its em…
while it's true that media in general is in decline and has a poor wage situation, that's mostly felt on the editorial side. Programmers still seem to be paid quite well, at least in New York. I've never received an offer to work at a media company for less than $100k and have had a few at double that.
Disclaimer: Twice your age and just getting warmed up. So I'm being let go Congratulations. Being let go can sometimes be a badge of honor. Anyone who has never been let go has never pushed the envelope enough. After 10 years at my local newspaper Wow, that's way too long for anyone, anywhere. Be glad that this is working out that way for you. It's not the 10 years at one place that's the problem, it's all the other…
>> I'm a jack of all trades master of none. >> I've always taken that as an insult rather than a compliment.
"Specialization is for insects", Heinlein.
You need to focus on the excited, adventurous emotions and the confidence it brings, which in turn, will help find you a new job.
If you are not confident (eg. believing jack-of-all-trades is a negative, seeing not having a degree as a barrier, thinking a new grad is a better hire than you) then you might not apply to the jobs you have a chance of getting. The nervousness and lack of confidence will come through in the interviews you do get. Others here have provided tips to help: list at the skills you have, put them in a positive light, practice delivering the message in interview and conversational settings. (We all know how much confidence matters when meeting women, same thing.)
A lot of things you mentioned don't matter: no degree, being 30 (you mentioned that 3 times), recently married, same company 10 years, being a jack-of-all-trades. They don't matter because you can't change these things in the short-term. They nervousness and pressure they provide just are distractions. None of those impact the actions you have to take going forward.
Write. A. Book. That has been my backup plan for a decade if all else fails, but ya know what? I really should just shut up and write the book now, while I'm young and healthy. Do it man. Write a book. Throw it up on Amazon. Even if it only your grandmother and mom buys it, you'll still feel great for accomplishing something most people only dream of.
The company who hired me were impressed at my skills list (after they'd questioned me on some of it to make sure I wasn't exagerating). They were also very happy to see a lot of very recent work on Github (parsemail.org). They ended up hiring me for a JavaScript role, even though that was far from the strongest thing on my CV, because they believed I could be effective.
So my recommendation is: Be pro-active. Build and learn stuff over the coming months. It will give you more confidence and stuff to talk about in interviews, and it will make you look good.
The one thing I always tell anyone on the job hunt, which few ever seem to take me up on: Informational Interviews. These are informal "can I take you out to coffee?" talks with people in your industry to see what they are working on, what is happening with them, what is going on in the industry. Every job I have ever gotten is through informal meetings with people I have met through my network (whether its the curre…
(I've had really good luck with LinkedIn.)